Tanker and helicopter wildfire footage (late November 2018 edition)

I started this blog to focus on aerial wildland firefighting. As regular readers know, I delve into related issues. But today I want to get back to tankers and helicopters working wildfires. To that end I have a few videos that I want to embed here to share with you. Before I do, I want to acknowledge that I need to rewrite my airtankers 101 page, something that I will work on over the next several weeks. Please be patient as I revise that page.

Now to the videos. In this first video, you will see a few different types of airtankers working wildfires. I believe that among the airtankers you will see in this video are: Neptune Aviation BAe-146, Global Supertanker 747, Aero Air MD-87, Canadair CL-415 Scooper, and 10 Tanker DC-10.


Direct link to video

In this video you will see the Contra Costa County Sheriff's STARR1 helicopter working a wildfire.


Direct link to video

Los Angeles County Fire Department Helicopter, Copter 14, working a brush fire in Los Angeles County California area on or about October 14, 2018.


Direct link to video

USFS announces next gen 2.0 airtanker contract awards

No doubt some of you reading this are already aware that the U.S Forest Service announced yesterday that they have awarded exclusive use contracts to Aero Flite, Neptune Aviation Services, and 10 Tanker Air Carrier starting later this year for seven Next Generation Large Airtankers. This is a five-year exclusive use contract with single-year options for five additional years bringing the total to ten years. According to the U.S. Forest Service Press Release,

The new Exclusive Use contracts for Next Generation Airtankers will go to:

• Aero-Flite, Inc., Spokane, Washington – 2 Avro RJ85s

• Neptune Aviation Services, Inc., Missoula, Montana – 4 BAe-146s

• 10 Tanker Air Carrier, LLC, Albuquerque, New Mexico – 1 DC-10

This will bring the total number of Next Generation Airtankers currently under Exclusive Use contract with the Forest Service to 14. 

An article from the Montana based Missoulian annoucing the award may be found here.

As usual, Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation provided excellent coverage of this award in an article he posted on October, 1, 2015. I thought that he made an excellent point about past protests of these types of contracts, wondering if this award might be protested, Gabbert says:

Most of the contracts the U.S. Forest Service has attempted to issue in recent years for large and very large air tankers have been protested, which suspends the activation of the contract until the Government Accountability Office adjudicates the dispute. This contract has already been protested by Coulson Aviation and Erickson Aero Tanker even before the closing date of the solicitation. However, the GAO decided in July to deny the protests. But that does not mean that there will not be additional protests now that the contracts have been awarded.

Time will tell.

Airtankers working bushfires in Australia (January 2015)

I’d like to share some videos of large air tankers working bushfires in Australia. You will see Coulson’s C-130Q and Aero Flite’s Avro RJ-85.

Thanks to Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation who first shared this video of large air tankers (C-130Q and an Avro RJ-85) at RAAF Base Edinburgh along with a Gulfstream Aero Commander (Air Attack). These aircraft worked bushfires that burned near Adelaide in early January of 2015 (see this January 7th article from the New Daily for a summary of this 12,500 hectares and destroyed about 32 residences before being contained. See Bill’s article of January 8th where he shared and described the video that I embed below:


direct link to video

Here is another video that I found of the C-130Q, also at RAAF Base Edinburgh:


direct link to video

Finally, here is a video of the Avro RJ-85 dropping on a fire in Victoria Australia, thanks to Fire Aviation (2/4/15) where I first saw this video.


direct link to video

Coulson Aviation USA- C-130Q

direct link to video (end of 2013 season highlights)

Coulson's C-130Q next generation tanker, T-131 (tank capacity of 3,500 gallons), began flying fires in September 2013, see this article from the Times Alberni Valley (9/18/13). 

In preparing this article, I found a couple of sources of information about Coulson's C-130Q tanker. The first is an interview with Wayne Coulson (of Coulson Aviation USA) by Tony Morris on Associated Aerial Firefighters (8/21/13) including a discussion of the tank system and specifications of the C-130Q (Tanker 131). According to Coulson, 

the desired drop speed is 124 to 130 kts. … The desired drop height is approximately 200 ft.

The second document is a presentation Wayne Coulson made on October 22, 2013 at the 2013 Hercules Operators Council, the presentation is chock full of all kinds of information about the C-130Q tanker and is found here (pdf file for download).

Finally, here are a couple of more links on the C-130Q tanker that I referenced in my Airtankers 101 page that you might want to check out:

• Photos of Coulson's C-130Q support truck on Fire Aviation (7/15/13)
• Canadian Skies on Coulsons C-130Q (September 2013).

DC-10 Tankers -- Two on contract and a third coming later in 2014

direct link to video

direct link to video

direct link to video

In case you are wondering about the status of  10 Tanker Air Carrier's third DC-10 that the will have on contract later this year, 10 Tanker Air Carrier has an update on their homepage (as of June 18, 2014) where they report that their third DC-10 is currently under construction and is 75% complete. 10 Tanker has an information page on the DC-10 tanker (capable of carrying up to 11,600 gallons of retardant.

According to 10 Tanker's Facebook Page the Shirley Fire is but one of the many 2014 wildfires that one or both of the two DC-10 Tankers on contract (T-910 and T-911) have worked this year. The DC-10 Tankers with their range and their ability to carry up to 11,600 gallons of retardant are an important part of the airtanker fleet. I look forward to having a third DC-10 on contract later this year.

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. 

Next Generation Air Tankers: Coulson's C-130Q and Aero Flite's RJ85

Two short videos of US Forest Service Next Generation Air Tankers. The first video shows Coulson's C-130Q (N130FF) dropping on the. Wheeler Fire

. Thanks to my friends at the NJ Forest Fire Service Section B10 for posting the video on their video of the week page (new videos every weekend).

direct link to video (with some info on the tanker).

I was looking at Bill Gabbert's Fire Aviation Site when I noticed that he had written an article last October embedding a short video of Aero Flite's RJ85 making what appears to be a test drop (go here for Bill's article. Thanks for all your good work Bill!

direct link to video.

Aero Flite T-160

direct link to video

Conair is converting two BAe Avro RJ85 passenger jets into air tankers for Aero Flite. Recall that Aero Flite has a Next Generation contract with the US Forest Service for two RJ85's. The RJ85 is a later model in the BAe-146 series of mid-sized jet airliners with improved engines. BAe Systems has an article summarizing North American companies that are using the BAe-146 jets as air tankers.

Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation reported in an article he wrote last summer that Conair is flight testing one RJ85 tanker designated as T-160. A friend of mine sent me a link to the short video that I embedded here showing T-160 making a test drop because he thought that you might be interested in seeing her make a test drop.

MInden's Next Generation "Fireliner" BAe-146

link to video

It's been awhile since I wrote about the status of the Next Generation Tankers. I know that Coulson's C-130Q made her first drop on a fire on Sept. 20, 2013 (article from Fire Aviation). Recall that a DC-10 tanker has been flying under the Next Generation Tanker Contract since early summer. See my hopefully up to date status of the Next Generation Tankers on my Airtankers 101 page for more information on the Next Generation Tanker Contracts.

I don't think that the tankers from Minden, Aero Air, and Aero Flite are flying on contract yet. However, I recently came upon this video of Minden's Next Generation Tanker taking off on a flight test (also linked to on my Airtankers 101 page). The flight test shown on the video was done in early June 2013. Minden has dubbed this BAe-146 tanker the Fireliner, and you may go the Fireliner page on Minden's site to find out more about her including information on her specifications and performance.

Next Generation Tankers: Coulson, Minden, and Erickson Aero Air

Because of some work being done on my house, I was sitting in the dark for much of the afternoon while the Electrician did some work on our electric service. Power now restored. Then had to take care of some other business relating to this same construction project before the end of the day. I've been meaning to post something about a couple of the Next Generation Tankers, so this seemed like a good time to do it.

Coulson

Coulson recently released this video of their C-130 Next Generation Tanker doing a partial drop


direct link to video

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today and Fire Aviation has posted a few articles with some great pictures of Coulson's C-130 Next Generation Tanker, go here to read his articles about Coulson's C-130

Minden

Minden Air has also released a video of their BAe-146 Next Generation Tanker, which they have dubbed the Fireliner.


direct link to Minden's article with this video.

Minden has redesigned their webpage, and they have a webpage for their Fireliner that includes specifications. Bill Gabbert wrote about Minden's Fireliner here.

Erickson Aero Air Tanker MD-87


direct link to video

Finally, Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation wrote an update on the Next Generation Tankers on July 10.
Those of you who have not already read Bill's update might want to take a few minutes to check it out.