Please do not fly your plane or your drone in fire zones anywhere in the US and globally. If you fly the wildland firefighters can not fly.
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| Obtained on April 24th from from https://www.facebook.com/FLForestService/posts/pfbid02xRGCguBrw9ccEjHWTDCXWEYyEh1HcJCwJaHAGqWNet5UyQ9eFssKhyxLpPp76R6Gl |
I have been doing this blog long enough to know that both spring maintenance and annual pilot training are done by companies with aircraft that fly fires do each year. I write this post as an acknowledgement of how important each are to safety and efficiency.
This is the time of year when companies with aircraft that fly fires in the United States perform what is sometimes known as spring maintenance on their aircraft to get them ready for the fire season. While I don't know how much time is involved nor do I know the particulars of what each company with aircraft the flies fires does, I believe the spring maintenance on each aircraft may go on for several days depending on what needs to be done. In addition, maintenance is done through the fire season as required to keep the aircraft performing in peak efficiency. All companies do this those with air tankers, lead planes, and helicopters. The examples that I know of are for air tankers only, please take them as an example that will apply to all aircraft flying fires. Neptune Aviation has a few pictures of their spring maintenance on their air tankers that they shared on their Facebook account which is found at this link. Coulson shared the following on X, formerly twitter:
A well-cared-for tanker is a ready tanker! Tanker 138 is back from Western Australia and is now in for spring maintenance, ensuring it stays in top shape for the North American season. Behind every mission is a crew dedicated to keeping our fleet fire-ready. #coulsonaviation pic.twitter.com/eWZDUGjmvY
— Coulson Aviation (@CoulsonAviation) March 10, 2025
As many of you know, getting ready for the wildfire season is more than spring maintenance of aircraft flying fires. The pilots go through annual training to keep current. Again, the examples I know of are from companies flying air tankers but this applies to any pilot flying aircraft on wildfires. Dauntless Air flys the AT-802F Fireboss, and they shared about their annual pilot training on their Facebook Page which you may find here. In addition 10 Tanker referenced their annual pilot training on their Facebook account in a short video that you may see here.
Regular maintenance checks are important for the safety of all aircraft including but not limited to air tankers, firefighting helicopters, and support aircraft. Some shorter maintenance checks are done during the firefighting season that may only take an airtanker out of service for a night. Other maintenance checks take longer, such as the fall maintenance checks that Coulson is currently doing on their aircraft in advance of the fire season in Australia.
NSW Rural Fire Service's Bomber 210, a Coulson air tanker, did good service in California during their summer fire season and is back in Australia for their fire season.
I have nothing against drones as long as they flown safely and legally. There are a number of good uses for zones including but not limited to reconnaissance by the National Weather Service in storm surveys, footage for real estate transactions, traffic surveys, agricultural operations and news operations. Flying unauthorized drones in or near a fire zone is not a valid and safe use because drones interfere with aerial operations over a wildfire. Most fire fighting agencies including the the New Jersey Forest Fire Service will shut down air operations over a wildfire if an unauthorized drone is spotted in or near the fire zone. Shutting down air operations means that the wildland firefighters on the ground lose the support of air tankers, helicopters and observation aircraft.
“While drone owners may not realize the potential danger, the presence of these types of equipment during forest fires hampers our overall ability to protect life and property in our wooded areas,” said State Fire Warden Bill Edwards. “A wide variety of aircraft, such as water-dropping helicopters, tanker aircraft and spotter aircraft, often operate above our actions on the ground. Use of drones in areas with aviation traffic is not permissible.
In short, if you fly a drone near a wildfire, we can’t fly and put out fires.” “Every owner of these devices must follow the laws and policies regarding use of drones and help us fight wildfires by keeping clear of these areas while we combat the fire from above and on the ground,” Edwards added. “Anyone who sees a drone over the area of a wildfire should call our emergency number at 1-877-WARN-DEP (1-877-927-6337), or call your local police or fire department.”Here two media articles referring to the press release from the New Jersey Forest Fire Service:
We're not sure anyone's listening, but the reckless behavior of a few drone operators should have made lawmakers and the FAA shake a leg by now.
But until the guys with their tech toys are brought under control, we can expect more close calls and near misses. Until Washington acts, the technology is outpacing the rules that should govern its use.
In general, drone misadventures are happening in a regulatory vacuum. The FAA has banned most commercial drone flights until it can finalize new safety rules — a step that will take at least another year.
But people who fly drones for fun aren’t regulated. Under a law passed in 2012 that was designed in part to protect model-airplane enthusiasts, the FAA cannot impose new restrictions on recreational drone owners. As a result, they are not required to obtain licenses, register their aircraft or undergo training. . . .
To protect regular air traffic, the FAA has issued guidelines requiring that consumer drones stay at least five miles away from airports and below an altitude of 400 feet.
Those standards are widely flouted, however; in the past month alone, airline pilots have reported close calls with drones near airports in New York, Charlotte, Minneapolis and Phoenix.
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| downloaded from http://www.fs.fed.us/science-technology/fire/unmanned-aircraft-systems on June 24, 2015 |
An Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS or drone) halted tanker operations for about 25 minutes on Friday afternoon (June 17th), but operations soon resumed.
Hobby drones, or (UAS) unmanned aircraft systems, pose a major safety threat to firefighting pilots and firefighters. When a hobby drone is flown into a fire area, incident commanders have no choice but to suspend air operations and ground aircraft until the drone is removed from the area.
As hobby drones have grown in popularity, we have seen an increase in these drones interfering with firefighting operations.A collision could easily result in major damage to our aircraft, injuries to the pilot and crew on board as well as firefighters below, and worse, a midair collision.
When drones interfere with firefighting efforts, a wildfire has the potential to grow larger and cause more damage. On most wildfires, an FAA Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is put into effect and any private aircraft or drone that violates the TFR could face serious criminal charges.
Even without a TFR, anyone who hampers firefighting efforts could face charges as well. (Inciweb on North Fire (July 20th about 12:30 PM)
Tonight a hobby drone grounded firefighting aircraft by flying over the Lake Fire in San Bernardino County. When you fly...we CAN'T! Puts our pilots and firefighters lives at risk. Drones near wildfires are not safe.As I understand it, the drone (UAS) was spotted around 5:30 PM local time on June 24th flying between two aircraft, an Air Tactical Group Supervisor and a lead plane. All aircraft (including air tankers) who had been working the Lake Fire that evening were grounded. See this article from KTLA 5 in Los Angeles for more information (including the video reporting on this incident which I hope is embedded below) on this incident. I understand from the KTLA 5 reporting that drone was flying at about 800 to 900 feet over the fire. Air operations over the Lake Fire resumed yesterday morning sometime after the video report was made.
Drones temporarily halted tanker operations, but operations soon resumed. One drone was interfering with fire operations and has not been located. A second drone was reported by a concerned citizen and it was located. After reviewing the footage it was determined that it was not interfering with fire operations.Updated on August 1, 2018 deleting dead links.
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| downloaded from http://www.fs.fed.us/science-technology/fire/unmanned-aircraft-systems on June 24, 2015 |
Use of a checklist in any airplane is essential. Even if your personal checklist is just a mnemonic like "CIGAR" (controls, instruments, gas, attitude, run-up) or whatever, it is absolutely foolish to not use your checklist. Accident statistics are full to the brim with guys who were too cool to use a checklist.
In large, complex, multi-engine aircraft, the written checklist is the bible. You read it religiously. In a multi-crew cockpit, the checklist is always a call and response type exercise, unless it's a checklist that the non-flying pilot can accomplish without distracting the flying pilot from flying, eg: the pre-drop check performed by the non-flying pilot before a retardant drop. My co-pilots would always have to say something like, "Pre-drop check complete, standing by the jets". I would always acknowledge the check list complete announcement with something like: "Pre-drop check complete, thank you, light 'em up", which was a call to start the jets before the drop.
It's the same in the taxi check. When the co-pilot was finished with the taxi check, he would say, "Taxi check complete" and I would always acknowledge with a "Taxi check complete, thank you" to let him know I had heard him. Sometimes, you are listening to a radio transmission and you don't hear the checklist call. The guy running the checklist should always demand a response if one is necessary.
Missing even one item on almost any flight checklist can kill you. It is not a student pilot exercise, it is a matter of safe flight. Flying is absolutely unforgiving of sloppiness and tanker flying is more unforgiving of any carelessness or "Mr Cool" attitude. Miss one switch, and you become the latest accident statistic.
The emergency dumps I made were all done through the normal drop switch
on the pilot's yoke. If you use the normal system, the load goes out at a more even rate. It's a controllable, predictable pitch-up. At a coverage level four, that only takes about 3 seconds, so it is over in a heartbeat and the airplane climbs like it is homesick for the sky.
