2025 Wildfire Season: Madre Wildfire (CA) Final Update

 

Direct link to July 5th post by Neptune Aviation on Facebook

All things being equal, this is my final post on the Madre Fire that has burned 80,779 in and near the County of San Luis Obispo north of Los Angeles California. As I write this post, the wildfire is at 97 percent containment, wildland firefighting crews remain on scene to monitor the containment lines and put out any hotspots. I will continue to keep on eye on the Madre Fire on Inciweb for any significant changes in the status of this wildfire and if there are any such changes I will make another post. 

Here is a nice video from KSBY News on or about July 11th  on the role of airtankers and helicopters that took off from the Santa Marie Airtanker Base to fight the Madre Fire. I am sorry that I am not able to embed this video as embedding is disabled. I hope you take a couple of minutes to watch this video.

Here are links to my earlier articles on the Madre Fire: July 4th and July 9th

2025 Wildfire Season: Large Airtankers Worked Recent Wildfires in North and South Carolina

Airtankers and helicopters on federal contracts are a national resource. While most of these firefighting aircraft and lead aircraft work in the western United States, any State Forest Service can request the help of these firefighting aircraft. I try to pay attention to when any airtankers are working wildfires on the east coast. I wrote about Super Scoopers from Bridger Aerospace helping out in North Carolina on March 31  Today I am focusing on large airtankers that helped fight these wildfires. I am grateful to see that both Neptune Aviation Services and !0 Tanker Air Carrier recently worked wildfires that burned in North and South Carolina. While I have read that there were numerous helicopters with buckets working these fires and helicopters can do a lot of good in helping the wildland firefighters on the ground, it is always helpful to have the help of larger airtankers such as those from 10 Tanker Air Carrier and Neptune Aviation. I am glad that both companies had large airtankers available to help out both states. Neptune Aviation’s Bae-146 can drop up to 3,000 gallons of retardant and 10 Tankers DC-10’s can drop up to 9,400 gallons of retardant.

Note: I embedded two images from Facebook below this paragraph, one from the North Carolina Forest Service showing a BAe0-146 airtanker from Neptune Aviation's working a wildfire and the other from 10 Tanker. If you can not see these images, either because you are using a cellphone or for other reasons,  Neptune Aviation’s post may be found here, and 10 Tanker’s post may be found on this page. 

2024 Wildfire Season: Neptune Aviation Deploying Air Tankers

 I am always interested in when Air Tankers and Helicopters on Contract with the US Forest Service and other Federal and State agencies are deployed to bases for part or all of a fire season. Unfortunately, I have not yet been able to find a listing of Air Tankers on Contract with the US Forest Service for the 2024 wildfire season nor do I have access to helicopters and SEATs on contract with Federal or State Agencies.. This only means that I have no access to such a list, this happens and I do my best to keep my eyes open for such a list and if I find such a list I will post it on my blog. 

In the meantime, thanks to following some Aviation companies who fly fires on Facebook such as Neptune Aviation, I can follow their activities. Neptune Aviation recently posted about two of their tankers that were deployed within the United States, one to Florida (T12) and another to Colorado (T10).

Neptune Aviation T10 to Colorado for the summer

Neptune Aviation T12 to Florida

2024 Wildfire Season: Air Tanker Maintenace Continues

As April began, Coulson Aviation and Neptune Aviation and continued spring maintenance of their air tankers as the following embedded (posts with photos) from their Facebook page show. I expect that other air tanker and helicopter operators who fly wildfires are also conducting spring maintenance that are not mentioned here.

Neptune Aviation Services

Coulson Aviation

2024 Wildfire Season: Air Tanker Spring maintenance

When I was first learning about general aviation 13 years ago, and going on scenic rides, one of my key takeways was the importance of regular maintenance of aircraft. As I recall, the maintenance of the small planes that I was familiar was guided and mandated by FAA requirements with different maintenance and inspections being done at regular intervals  (hours flown) and signed of by an Airframe and PowerTrain Mechanic. More complicated and thorough inspections and maintenance were called for at longer intervals. But things like oil changes and the like were done at shorted intervals. But I am not writing about maintenance of general aviation airplanes and if I were, I would have to brush up on the requirements.

I am writing about spring maintenance done by contractors on contract with the US Forest Service, or at least two contractors, Coulson and Neptune. I am not privy to what is done in a spring maintenance, nor am I privy to the more routine maintenance that is done through the period when the tanker is on contract. Also, I am not ignoring helicopters on contract with various agencies that fly fires but I have no information on maintenance by helicopter contractors. I am certain that the contractors maintain their helicopters and may also engage in spring maintenance.

I did recently note on Facebook, two companies with US Forest Service Contracts making a post about spring maintenance. What is important is that spring maintenance occurs and while I don't know specific maintenance and inspection procedures, I want to share these two posts about taking time for winter/spring maintenance before individual tankers go on contract.

Coulson Aviation

Neptune Aviation

2024 Wildfire Season: Neptune Aviation Training for Upcoming Wildfire Season

Over the last several days Neptune Aviation Services tanker pilots and their fleet of BAe 146 aircraft and lead planes have been undergoing training in preparation for the upcoming wildfire season. I do not know when the first of Neptunes BAe 146 air tankers goes on contract, probably soon.

Enjoy these short posts from Neptunes Facebook Page

Revisiting Neptune Aviation and their BAe-146 air tankers

Sometime around 2010 I first learned about the BAe-146 where one BAe-146 airplane was being developed by Tronos and later delivered to Neptune Aviation. Bill Gabbert of WildfireToday reported on September 23, 2011 that the BAe-146 received interim approval from the Interagency Air Tanker Board, he also provides some basic information about the BAe-146 and some links. I believe but am not certain that by 2015 Neptune Aviation may have had at least one BAe-146 air tanker under contract with the US Forest Service. I have no specific information on Neptune's contracts with the US Forest Service and other agencies from 2015 to 2020, but to the best of my knowledge Neptune Aviation has had contracts (exclusive use and call when needed) with the US Forest Service since then. I have no specific information about 2022 contracts, but according to Neptune Aviation's Neptune Today page (accessed on August 24, 2022) 

In 2021 Neptune Aviation provided four airtankers on Exclusive Use Contracts with the USFS, three airtankers on Call When Needed Contracts with the USFS, one airtanker on Exclusive Use Contract with CalFire, and one airtanker on Exclusive Use Contract with the Colorado Division of Fire Prevention & Control. Neptune Aviation also had Call When Needed Contracts in Australia and Chile.

For specifications on Neptunes BAe-146 see Neptune's fact sheet on the BAe-146  (accessed August 24, 2022). Briefly, according to the fact sheet, the Bae-146 can carry up to 3,000 gallons of retardant, with a cruising speed of 400 knots, and a range of 1,100 nautical miles. For those of you who are interested, I shared a cockpit tour of the BAe-146 by Blancolirio on October 6, 2021, I learned of this video on Neptune's Facebook page.  I am embedding it below for your convenience.

Neptune Aviation has a very nice webpage with good information that you may want to spend time exploring, Neptune has a Facebook page that I believe is freely available without a Facebook account. Bill does a great job of reporting on Neptune Aviation in Fire Aviation and Wildfire Today, his Fire Aviation articles tagged BAe-146 may be found here and on the main page of either Wildfire Today or Fire Aviation you will see that he has a search function with filters that I myself have used and found it very useful, for example when I want to easily review the history of certain air tankersI myself have written some articles about the BAe-146 that I have tagged but Bill has far more articles than I do. 

Memories of air tankers in 2009 (part 2 of 2)

Direct link to video by Bob Webb on YouTube

Among the air tankers that I watched on either news streaming or YouTube in the early days of my blog in 2009 into 2010 was the Lockheed P2-V air tankers that were then under contract with Neptune Aviation. By 2017 Neptune had retired the last of their P2-V air tankers from active service, most are now in museum's around the United States. Neptune Aviation has always had a nice website chock full of information, the have a webpage about their history and a list of museums that have one or two of Neptune's historic P2-V I hope to see one of these historic air tankers in person one day. 

Neptune is now flying BAe-146 air tankers on contract with the US Forest Fire Service, other state agencies and internationally, go here for more information. I will write more about Neptune's BAe-146 air tankers sometime this week.

I close with a tribute to the P2-Vs upon the retirement of the last of Neptunes active P2-V's in 2017. This video is by Scorched Sky Productions, I shared this video and the video from Bob Webb in previous posts on my blog.

Direct link to video by Scorched Sky Productions on YouTube

Airtankers: A tour of Neptune BAe-146 tanker 01

 Enjoy this nice video, about three minutes, from August Complex Fire 2020 of a tour of Neptune Aviation's BAe-146 tanker 01. I enjoyed this video, released in September 2020. I do not think that I have shared this video here, and if I have, it is definitely worth seeing again. To learn more about Neptune Aviation, you might want to spend some time on their website, which may be found here.

Direct link to video on YouTube from August Complex Fire 2020

Neptune Aviation's BAe-146 Tanker: a cockpit tour

I am always interested in tanker and helo videos that take me up close and personal into their operations on a wildfire. I found a nice YouTube by Blancolirio video courtesy of Neptune Aviation's Facebook Page (they have great photos). From time to time I have seen some of Blancolirios videos and Youtube and have enjoyed them. So when I saw that Neptune Aviation had shared his video of a cockpit tour of their BAe-146, I knew that I had to check it out and share it with you. Allow a little less than eight minutes to watch the video.

Direct link to video on YouTube by Blancolirio

Reflections on Neptune Aviation's BAe-146 Air Tanker

Direct link to video on Youtube

I wrote a reflection piece the other day (April 1st) on the Lockheed P2-V air tanker, where I wrote that Neptune Aviation was the last contractor in the United States to have the P2-V on national contract. It seems appropriate to transition from Neptune Aviation's older fleet of P2-V's to their new fleet of BAe-146 air tankers. Neptune Aviation first flew a BAe-136, T-40, on a wildfire in Texas in November of 2011 and T-40 first went on a national contract here in the United States in 2012, see my January 2012 article, note Minden no longer has a BAe-146 program, (see Bill Gabbert's Bill Gabbert's December 2018 Fire Aviation article article on Fire Aviation).

Over the past eight years, I have seen a few videos and read of the fine work that Neptune's BAe-146 tankers have done flying wildfires. Neptune now was nine BAe-146 tankers. four of whom will be on an exclusive use contract in 2020. Neptune had four BAe-146 tankers on exclusive use contracts and four on a call when needed contract (see December 11, 2019 and March 26th articles on Fire Aviation for more information on the 2019 and 2020 tanker contracts). Neptune's BAe-146 tankers carry 3,000 gallons of retardant. Neptune has a nice photo gallery from the 2018 fire season that may be found here.

Here is a video from the AOPA where you may learn a little more about Neptune's VAe-146 tankers.


Direct link to AOPA video on Youtube

A look inside an Airtanker courtesy of a Tanker Captain

I was checking out yesterday's (August 2nd) Wildfire News of the Day from Mike Archer when I came upon an article with a video on Inside an Airtanker from KDRV Newswatch 12 out of Medford Oregon. In this video you will Captain Ron Minter of Neptune Aviation talk about the demands of being a Tanker pilot. Captain Minter and his co-pilot have had a long season, flying since February 28, 2017. They get one day off a week, at where ever their current base is.

Captain Minter and his co-pilot were flying the Modoc July Complex (just south of the Oregon-California border at the time of the KDRV report, based at Medford (OR) Airtanker Base. Medford was very busy at the time of this report. You might recall that a NWS Incident Meteorologist (IMET) Trainee was deployed to the Modoc July Complex on July 31st. As I write this, the Modoc July Complex has burned 73,735 acres and is at 35% containment. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today has written about the Modoc July Complex, go to his August 2nd article with links to his earlier articles for more information. You might also be interested in KDRV's August 2nd article on the Modoc July Complex (with a couple of photos).

I could not get the embed code that KDRV supplied with the video to work, I am sorry. That happens sometimes. Here is a direct link to the two-minute video from KDRV, I encourage you to take a couple of minutes to watch the video.

Edited on November 26, 2021: I just today noticed that the KDRV report with video on "Inside an Airtanker (Neptune Aviation BAe-146) is no longer available. I have noted that often media outlets remove their reports after a certain amount of time has passed. I apologize for not mentioning this in my original post.

Neptune's BAe 146 Tankers

It is one of those rare perfect summer days in northwest New Jersey, temps in the low 80s with low dew points. So I took a little play time today. Hope that those of you who are able are taking some time off during the summer.

Anyway, I don't know about you, but I love hanging out and watching airplanes landing and taking off. One of the great things about the internet is that I can partake in watching tankers landing and taking off courtesy of many fine videos on Youtube. Today, I am sharing a video of Neptunes BAe-146 Tankers 1 & 2 working out of Boise, Idaho on August 26, 2015, uploaded by airailimages. Enjoy!

About Neptune Aviation in 2015

Neptune Aviation has submitted a bid for the current round of Next Generation large firefighting aircraft. They expect to have six BAe-146 tankers ready to fly fires by June. It is anticipated that awards under this contract will be awarded in early May witht the expectation that tankers under this contract will be ready to fly in the first day of the mandatory availability period. Please this April 2nd article from The Missouian for more information.

Neptune Aviation has six P2-V Neptunes and one BAe-146 tanker on contract under a Legacy Contract with the US Forest Service (Fire Aviation on March 25, 2015 and November 23, 2014

Here are two videos from Neptune Aviation that I thought you might enjoy looking at.

I shared this 2014 video from Neptune Aviation in a video of the week post sometime last year. I don't know about you, but I like reruns. Great airplanes with a nice soundtrack.


direct link to Neptune Aviation video on Youtube

And here is the 2015 video from Neptune Aviation, just published April 6, 2015


direct link to Neptune Aviation video on Youtube

Neptune Aviation Sole Source Contract under protest

I wrote about the the sole source contract that was awarded to Neptune Aviation on Dec. 12, 2013, on Monday, January 6. What I did not learn until today is that a four companies have protested this award. On December 23, protests were filed by Coulson Aviation USA, Minden Air, AeroAir, and 10 Tanker Air Carrier with the General Accountability Office. According to Fire Aviation the four companies

are protesting the non-competitive contract that the U.S. Forest Service gave to Neptune Aviation for two BAe-146 air tankers on December 12.

According to an article published about the protest in today's today's Missoulian (written by Ron Chaney) a decision by the GAO is due by March 28, 2014.

Neptune Aviation and Next Gen Contract

I admit that I am rather late in writing that on December 12, 2013 Neptune Aviation was awarded a sole-source to provide two 3,000 gallon BAe-146  jet tankers effective 2014. It is a four year contract with the option for five one-year extensions. My understanding is that the tank systems on the jets under this contract are not the same tank systems used by T-40 and T-41 in 2013. These "new" jets have reconfigured tanks. For more information see a Dec. 13, 2103 article in the Missouian and this Dec. 12. 2103 article on Fire Aviation.

For details and more documentation on the contract go to this page on the General Services Administration website.

Updated on January 8, 2014. I just found out that Neptune Aviation's contract is under protest, I wrote about it here. 

Neptune Aviation looking for international contracts

In today's Firebomber Publications article, Mike Archer lead off with a press release from the American Helicopter Services & Aerial Firefighting Association announcing that Neptune Aviation is pursuing international contracts for their BAe-146 tankers.

The press release says in part:

According to Ronald Hooper, Chief Executive Officer of the Missoula, Montana-based company, Neptune Aviation Services submitted a formal bid last January to provide one BAe 146 to the Australian National Fire Agency. If the bid is successful, the tanker would be deployed to Australia to assist in firefighting activity, along with a pilot, copilot, two mechanics, and a corporate liaison who would function as the interface between the company and the fire agency. The contract, said Hooper, would coincide with the length of Australia’s fire season, which runs from November through January. 'We expect to find out in August or September, if our bid is successful,' he noted.

Hooper also reported that over the past few months, the company has fielded inquiries from the national firefighting agencies of Spain and Brazil.