Aero Flite Tanker 160 Working Wildfires in California

Direct link to October 1st King's Aviation video on YouTube</a>

I do know about AeroFlite and the good work that their aerial firefighting tankers do working wildfires in the United States and globally. I am glad to be able to share this video with you of Aero Flite Tanker 160 working a wildfire in California in late September 2026

Small Airtanker Used in Arizona During 2025 Wildfire Season

Direct link to May 2025 video from KGUN9 on YouTube

I saw the video that I am sharing here about how Arizona used small airtankers during their 2025 wildfire season. I enjoyed the video because it gave me an upclose look at the airtanker while hearing the pilot being interviewed.

Inside Three Airtankers

Direct link to April 15, 2026 video by "The Lookout and blancolirio" on YouTube

I always enjoy watching videos about different kinds of airtankers. I enjoyed this video by "The Lookout and blancolirio" and I hope that you do as well.

Six Airtankers used for Wildland Firefighting Explained

Direct link to May 29th 2026 video from https://www.youtube.com/@FireFighterExplains on YouTube

I do enjoy learing about the different types of aircraft used for wildland firefighting. I was interested in the above video that discusses 6 types of firefighting aircraft. I am posting it here because I thought that some of you might be interested in watching this seven and a half minute video.

2026 Wildfire Season: Airtankers at Work

 

Conair at work in the above video assisting wildland firefighters on the ground, if you are unable to see the post that I embedded, go here to see Conair's post on Facebook

Two superscoopers doing good work helping wildland firefighters on the ground in Clay County, Florida, if you are unable to see the post that I embedded go here to see the post by AeroFlite on Facebook.

Friday Fun: AeroFlite Images from Spring Aerial Firefighting Training

 It is spring and that means that the spring aerial firefighting training for new and current pilots continues. Here are some nice images from shared by AeroFlite Aerial Firefighting on their Facebook account on March 5th with some nice photos by Eric Kiehn

Friday Fun: A Review of Helicopters and Air Tankers Battling Wildfires

For today's Friday Fun post I am posting a short video on some of air tankers and helicopters that help wildland firefighters on the ground fight wildfires. This video focuses on aircraft used in California.

Direct link to January 2026 from the National Wildfire Tracking Team on YouTube

Airtankers Starting to be Deployed for 2025 Wildfire Season

 The 2025 wildfire season has been underway for a few weeks now. As airtanker and helicopter companies finish annual maintenance on their aircraft they are beginning to deploy their aircraft as specified by their contracts (sorry I have no information on the 2025 tanker and helo contracts, see note 1 for more information). I rely on social media to learn what some contractors are doing and am aware that there is information about what individual contractors are doing that I don't have access to. I applaud the work that all contractors flying aircraft to support wildland firefighters on the ground during this wildfire season.

I have information about Neptune Aviation and 10 Tanker Air Carrier. 

According to a recent Facebook post by Neptune Aviation one of their tankers, Tanker 10, was deployed to a tanker base in Colorado Springs yesterday.

10 Tanker Air Carrier's, Tanker 914, has already been flying wildfires. The most recent wildfire T914 worked is the Apron Fire, here is a direct link to their Facebook post which I share below.

T 914 also worked wildfires in North and South Carolina a few weeks ago. (direct link)

Note 1: Thanks to Bill Gabbert's August 14, 2023 post on Fire Aviation (Bill died over a year ago) and his follow-up post on August 17, 2023 on the Forest Services 2023 one-year contract with an option for nine more years. Five companies were awarded a contract for a minimum of 10,000 each year: 10 Tanker Air Carrier LLC,  Aero Air LLC, Aero Flite Inc, Coulson Aviation USA, Inc, and Neptune Aviation, Inc. I do not know the status of the 2025 contracts, perhaps it is too early in the year to know the status of the 2025 contracts. Thanks to Bill linking to Govconwire and searching on "Forest Service", I found information on the following Forest Service Contracts, all are for a potential of ten years: Type1 helicopters in October 2024 to 38 vendors, Type2 helicopters in August 2023 to 44 companies, and Type 3 helicopters in April 2023 to 41 companies. 

Tankers and Helos Getting Ready for 2025 Wildfire Season

The 2025 Wildfire Season is here and companies that fly airtankers, helicopters, and lead planes continue to get ready for the fire season. Of importances is annual spring training as demonstrated in the video below from Neptune Aviation on Facebook, go here for the direct link. To the best of my knowledge all companies flying tankers and helicopters for wildland firefighting conduct annual spring training, spring training may be a part of their contract. 

Below are some images of spring training from Coulson Aviation's Facebook page, here is a direct link

Coulson Aviation's Tanker 132, a C-130, is finished her duties in Australia where she was helping the Australian's fight fires in their summer season. Tanker 132 is on her way back to Coulson's base in Thermal California where she will undergo maintenance in preparation for the 2025 Wildfire Season in the United States here. Unfortunately, I am unable to embed the video because it contains content owned by someone else. I hope you go directly to Facebook where you can watch this short video of Tanker 132's flight back to the United States. However, I did find a six-year old video on Coulson's YouTube channel about spring training that I am embedding below.

Direct link to Video from Coulson Aviation on YouTube

Note: to the best of my knowledge you should be able to see the embedded content from Facebook on all of your devices unless you have browser settings that do not allow this content.

Getting Air Tankers and Helos Ready for 2025 Wildfire Season in U.S.

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.

Inside look at Coulson's Tankers and Lead Planes

 I just found a great 13 minute video showcasing Coulson's Tankers and Lead Planes from Downie Live that I want to share with you. The videographer was in the cockpit of a Coulson Tanker on a training day, you will also see how the tanker is loaded with retardant and what the inside of the tanker looks along with footage of some drops. You may see some paid promotions in the video. 

Direct link to video from DownieLive on YouTube

US Forest Service Awards New Airtanker Contract

I am sure that some of you already know that the US Forest Service awarded five companies a potential of a 10 year contract worth $7.2 billion, especially those of you who follow Fire Aviation as I do. Specifically. Kelly Andersson has written two articles about these contracts, the first was on August 14th announcing the five companies that got the awards, I'll get to that in a minute and a second article on August 17th  where he followed up with some questions that he and his readers had and the answers from  public affairs specialists that NIFC referred him to. I hope that you will read this coverage, especially the Q&A post on August 17th. I am going to summarize to the best of my ability.

Five companies were awarded contracts with a guaranteed minimum of $10,000 (not $10 million) over the ten years of the contract:

• 10 Tanker Air Carrier, LLC
• Aero Air, LLC
• Aero Flite Inc
• Coulson Aviation USA Inc
• Neptune Aviation

As I understand the $7.2 billion figure will give them flexibility in having the necessary number of airtankers in this year and subsequent years to meet the demand for airtankers. At the time that Kelly wrote the August 17th article the Forest Service had contracted with 25 airtankers, a number that is likely to change as time goes on. Finally, there is no limit to the number of airtankers that can be contracted for each year, the only limit is the total amount of the contract, $7.2 billion.

Kudos to Kelly Andersson of Fire Aviation for providing us with this information and for his efforts in contacting a public affairs specialist who answered his questions.

2022 Wildfire Season: Air Tanker Activity over a WildFire near Pocatello Idaho (Aug 10)

 On dreary winter day in western NJ I wanted to see some air tankers working wildfires, so I went to airailimages on YouTube and found a nice 11 minute video of air tankers working the Fort Hall Ross Fork fire near Pocatello, Idaho on August 10, 2022. According to the information in the video that I will share in a moment, the fire had burned over 6,300 acres on the Shoshone-Bannock Fort Hall Indian Reservation near Pocatello, Idaho. I have no other information on this fire asides from what is noted on YouTube (see link below. What is important to me is to see a couple of different air tankers (an Erickson MD87, an RJ85, some Single Engine Air Tankers) and at least one helicopter (with a bucket) working this fire along with some beautiful photography. 

Updated on January 28, 2022. I am slightly embarrassed that I did not immediately recall that this is not the first time I have seen this beautiful video by airailimages. I quick search of Fire Aviation on January 27 led me to Bill Gabbert's August 17th post of the video. So many of you have probably already seen this video and to those of you who have not, I hope you enjoy the video.

direct link to video by airailimages on YouTube

Highlights of air tankers and Helicopters working wildfires (2021-2022)

I am taking the opportunity on this Friday in early August to share three short videos with you of helicopters and  air tankers working wildfires.

First up is a video shot in August 2021 of four helicopters dipping in support of wildland firefighters in South Africa.

Direct link to video by Jonathan Endersby on Youtube

Next is a short video from April 2022 of aerial firefighting in Greece.

Direct link to video by Endless Aviation on Youtube

Finally from Montana where the Elmo Fire has burned 21,182 acres at the time I write this post, you will see an August 3rd report from KPAX TV on the Elmo Fire highlighting some of the air tankers used in support of the wildland firefighters on the ground.

Direct link to video from KPAX TV on YouTube

BAe-146 retardant drop (Billings MT)

I sometimes like to post aviation videos on Friday. Today I wanted to share a video of an air tanker drop, one that I had not shared previously. I found this video of a BAe-146 airtanker working with a lead plane on a wildfire north of Billings, Montana. I am not sure the date of this drop, that does not matter. Enjoy this video uploaded by TC's Aviation Studio.

Direct link to video on YouTube uploaded by TC's Aviation Studio.

2020 wildfire seasons: air tankers in action (Aug 14th) over Grizzly Creek Fire CO

 I found a nice video to share with you uploaded on August 14, 2020 to Youtube of airtankers in action over the Grizzly Creek Fire in the White Mountain National Forest near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. The video is just under five minutes. I should warn you that there is one instance of colorful language near the beginning of the video, if that bothers you you may want to mute the sound. I hope that I have correctly identified the tankers that ou will will see in the video: MD-87s from Aero Air, a P-3 on exclusive use contract with Colorado, an RJ85 from Aero Flite, a DC-10 tanker from 10 Tanker, and a BAe-146 from Neptune Aviation and a couple of Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs). Enjoy.

Direct link to video on Youtube

Air tankers circa 2010

Recently I have been writing some reflection pieces with embedded videos of some tankers and helicopters that I learned of over ten years ago when I decided to devote this blog to aerial wildland firefighting and related concerns. My latest post in this series was on December 16th when I wrote the first of what I hope to be at least a couple of posts on CAL FIRE's S2-T tanker. I hope to return to writing about the S2-T tanker either the end of this week or early next week.

Today I am sharing a video I first learned about nine years ago by Alan Simmons. Alan shoots videos of structure fires,wildland fires, EMS, tankers, etc. You may find his videos for sale on FirestormvideosHD. I learned of Alan's videos nine years ago when I came upon highlights from his longer 80 minute 2010 video on Firefighting Air Tankers. I do have this DVD, but due to technical issues I have not been able to watch it recently. As I have recently been writing about some of the tankers that Alan showcases in his eight minute highlight video from (2010) Firefighting Air Tankers, I thought that I would share this with you.

Enjoy.



Direct link to Alan Simmon's eight minute video, Firefighting Air Tankers

A closer look at Cal Fire's aviation program

I am a non-pilot member of the AOPA. Actually the AOPA makes no distinction between pilots and non-pilot's in their fee structure but for purposes of this blog it is important that I be clear that I am a non-pilot aviation enthusiast. The AOPA puts out a weekly video called AOPA Live, an interesting video about 25 to 30 minutes long with weekly aviation news. They do not only focus on general aviation as is evident by The AOPA Live episode on May 23, 2019. In that week's episode that had a report on CAL Fire's aviation program. Because the video was about 27 minutes long, I did not share it here. I recently found the clip devoted to Cal Fire's aviation program so I am sharing it here, a direct link to the clip from AOPA Live may be found here. AOPA Live has a youtube channel where I also found the video, and I am embedding that video below.

I like this video because you will hear from a S2-T pilot, Jimmy Ferreira about what is like to fly fires in an S2T. You will also learn about the Cal Fire program. While there are going to be differences between Cal Fire's S2T's and other tankers, Jimmy does give me an idea of what it is like to fly fires. Enjoy!

Thank-you Jimmy and stay safe.



Other links:
Cal Fire home page
Cal Fire Air Program
S2-T Air Tanker (pdf)
California Pilot's Association
California Pilot's Association Newsletters

USFS one-year air tanker contracts

Regular readers know that I follow Bill Gabbert's Wildfire Today  and Fire Aviation websites. I am sure that many of you follow Bill's websites. Those of you who are interested in staying current on the news affecting wildland fire fighting and fire aviation will want to follow his websites.  No doubt that some of you are already familiar with Bill's December 6th Fire Aviation article, "Forest Service moving to one-year contracts for air tankers." I hope that those of you who have not read Bill's article on the upcoming one-years contracts for air tankers will do so now, it is well worth the read and perhaps you will want to bookmark the article as I have done. I decided to make this post referencing this article that Bill wrote because I think the news of the upcoming one-year contracts for air tankers is important. I don't really have anything original to add, but I do want to reference a couple of points that he makes.

Those of you who are so inclined, may be interested in looking at the RFP solicitation that Bill linked to in his article. For your convenience, I am providing a link to this RFP solicitation found on the FBO website here. The RFP calls for a one-year contract for air tankers with options for four additional one-year contracts. I believe that the solicitation is calling for up to five large air tankers. Contracts will commence with the 2019 calendar year.

After reminding us about the overall decrease in air tankers from 44 in 2002 to 14 in 2018, Bill points to the difficulties this type of contract could pose to contractors seeking to add new air tankers to their fleet of air tankers:

Air tankers are very expensive to purchase and retrofit. Most of the jet-powered tankers being used today before being converted were retired from their original mission and are decades old  . . .  Most air tanker operators in the United States prefer to buy retired airliners like the BAe-146,  DC-10, or variants of the C-130 and convert them to carry and dispense retardant. Retrofitting alone runs into the millions. Few if any vendors can simply write a check to purchase and convert an air tanker, so they have to convince a lender to give them large sums of money usually even before they have a contract with the USFS. With this new one-year contract policy, obtaining those funds could be even more difficult. (Bill Gabbert, Forest Service moving to one-year contracts for air tankers)

You will want to read Bill's article for more information and analyses.

I remain concerned about the smaller number of large air tankers on exclusive-use contracts. I am very cautiously hopeful that, if awarded, this solicitation could result in up five additional large air tankers on contract in 2019. However, as Bill points out, the USFS has the option of not exercising its option to contract for these large air tankers in years two through five.

I am sure that Bill will do his usual good job in following the status of this solicitation and any resulting awards. I will be following Bill's Fire Aviation website for developments and hope that you do as well

Reflections on learning about aerial firefighting almost 10 years ago

After  i wrote about P-2 Neptune tankers the other day, I spent some time reflecting on first learning about the business of aerial firefighting nine and ten years ago. I am eternally grateful to some now good friends who helped me learn about the business. I spent a lot of time watching live stream coverage of some of the larger wildfires that were burning in southern California in mid to late 2009. A couple of times, I was watching the live stream as I was exchanging e-mails with one of my former tanker pilot friends. He would share a little about what was going on. I enjoyed seeing the tankers and helos in action, working to help the wildland firefighters on the ground. As they say, one picture is worth a thousand words. The video that I am sharing below is from Alan Simmons of Firestorm HD Production. He uploaded the video to Youtube in April 2010. I believe that at least some of the fire footage is from 2009, perhaps there is footage of some of the wildfires that I was following in 2009. Alan’s footage is a highlight video from a longer DVD that he put out, go here for more information on the video that is available for purchase only. 

I love watching videos like Alan’s of tankers working a wildfire. Elegance in action. What they do is very dangerous. Please remember that if it is very windy or the smoke is very bad tankers and helicopters may not be flying the fire because it is not safe to do so.

The video from Alan Simmons that I have embedded below has about eight minutes of highlights from his 80 minute video. In the first half, you will see footage of the S-2T, P-2 Neptunes, P-3 Orion, Canadair 215/415, and the DC-10. The final three or four minutes includes footage from 1999 of now historic tankers including some footage of T-123 which crashed in 2002.

Direct link to video from Alan Simmons on Youtube