Miranda Fire (part 3 of 3): retardant drops

Larry described the initial response to the Miranda Fire, which burned on Federal lands:

The fire started within 600 feet of state protected land and the initial ground response was by the Oregon Department of Forestry. Tanker 62 was used initially because of a lack of immediately available Federal resources. T62 was released under the current joint use policy when additional Federal resources were on the way. For example, T17 eventually arrived from Moses Lake.

Jim Hansen, Klamath Falls Air Attack, took a series of aerial photos of the Miranda Fire, including tanker operations. These photographs are used here with his permission. Larry added some annotations to these photos that to go along his commentary of the fire. I found that these photos along with Larry's commentary and annotations provided me with an excellent up close and personal look of air tanker operations.

Referring to the photo above, Larry begins by setting the stage:

I had to start the drop a bit early because we had a strong tailwind and they wanted to be sure to tie into the road with retardant to make an anchor point.

He added some annotations so that you can follow along:

Red Arrow: This is the road that I was instructed to be sure to tie into to act as an anchor point.

Greenish Arrow: This is a second road. This drop carried almost to the road with the tailwind.Tanker 17 was to extend this drop and try to start around the head in a right turn. It isn't readily apparent in these pictures,but the terrain rose in the direction of the drops,so a right turn was used for the exit. This picture shows Tanker 62 closely following the leadplane.

Moving on to the second photo, Larry continues:

Red Arrow: This points to the anchor point road from first picture.

Green Arrow: This is the second road that figures in the Tanker 17 drop pictures.

Yellow Circle: This is the leadplane starting his right turn to avoid the rising terrain.

Looking at the third picture, Larry goes on to explain:

Red Arrow: This points to the anchor point road at the beginning of T62's first drop.

Yellow Line: This line shows T62's first drop on the Left Flank of the fire.

Green Line: This line shows T62's retardant line from the second load which anchored to the same road as the first load,but on the Right Flank of the fire.

We end with the fourth and last picture of the series. Tanker 62 had been released from the fire by the time Tanker 17 arrived. Larry says that

This picture shows Tanker 17's second load. This was after I'd been released from the fire, so I can only give an educated guess, which follows:

T17's first load extended T62's first load and this picture shows T17 extending his first load (which had extended T62's first load).

Red Arrow: This is the second road from the first and second pictures. Tanker 62's first drop ended just short of this road.

Yellow Line: This retardant is from T17's first load.There was also a SEAT working on the fire (T845), so any stray retardant that runs at odd angles to the main line is likely from his attempts to fill in or strengthen weak spots in the line.The wind made exact tie-ins difficult.

Green Circle: This is Tanker 17.

Orange Circle: This is the Leadplane.

He wraps by saying that "the parts involving Tanker 62 should be completely accurate. Those on Tanker 17 are probably 95% accurate."

There is not much else I can add to Jim's photos and Larry's wonderful commentary and annotations. He has given us an up close and personal look at tanker operations on the Miranda Fire. I don't know about you, but I found that these pictures and commentary have made tanker operations at a wildfire come alive. Thank-you Larry and Jim!

Miranda Fire: Flying to the fire (part 2 of 3)

When Larry and I were discussing the Miranda he had this to say about the route he took:

Just for reference,when we get a fire to the east of Medford, the terrain usually climbs faster than we can. So,we take the scenic tour until we can get to about 6,000-6,500 ft, which will get us past Mt. McLoughlin on the Four Mile Lake side (just to the north of the mountain) or on the Lake of the Woods side (just to the south). We took the Lake of the Woods path to Miranda as it's a couple of hundred feet lower than going over Four Mile Lake.

I have spent some time thinking about the best graphic to show to go with Larry’s description about the route he took. I settled on this excerpt from an aeronautical chart (Klamath Falls Sectional Chart) covering the Oregon area. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) makes digital raster file versions of Sectional Charts put out by the Federal Aviation Administration, National Aeronautical Charting Office freely available charts on this webpage. These files, probably meant for GPS devices are rather large in size, much too large to reproduce here. However, I was able to use my pdf viewer, to extract the relevant portion of the Klamath  Falls Sectional showing the location of the Miranda Fire.

One of the areas depicted on the chart are different kinds of airspace, e.g. the thick solid purple line around the airport, which I labeled as Medford. Go here to read what I hope is a freely available booklet describing the different kinds of airspace in the U.S. The airport that I labeled Medford, Rouge Valley International Airport, is where Larry’s tanker, tanker 62 is based while on contract with the Oregon Department of Forestry. In flying out of Medford on his way to the Miranda Fire, he had to avoid Mt. McLoughlin (9,495 ft.), that I labeled with the letter A. If you look at the mountain on the chart, you will notice that as the elevation increases, the brown shading darkens. Look around Medford and you will green shading, indicating a lower altitude.

The key here is that Larry has to avoid the higher terrain until he is able to climb to a high enough altitude. Remember that he is flying heavy with a full load of retardant! He did this by flying south of Mt. McLoughlin by Lake of the Woods (“B”). I’m not sure of the exact route he took to the MIranda Fire, labeled on the map. I’m sure that his choice of the route depends on the terrain. But I’m fairly certain that he crossed Upper Klamath Lake, perhaps flying over the area called Modoc Point (see the little purple flag on the east side of the Lake). Modoc Point is a distinctive feature, see the google earth image and you will what seems to be fields at Modoc Point and forested areas to the south of Modoc Point. Pilots flying under visual flight rules often rely on distinctive visual “waypoints” and other features (railroads, powerlines, and roads) noted on the charts.

In closing, I want to acknowledge that aeronautical charts take some getting used to. I spent many hours before, during, and after attending ground school learning my way around aeronautical charts. There were several questions on the FAA written private pilot exam on using aeronautical charts. Passing this written exam, while giving my some confidence, has given me an appreciation for the complexity of flying. I am not going to even try to offer a crash course in using these charts. The AOPA has what I think is a freely available document  here that provides a description of some of the symbols on the chart, with a focus on airspace.

Next up: retardant drops.

Miranda Fire part 1 of 3

Larry Kraus, pilot of Butler’s DC-7 T-62, has been on contract with the Oregon Department of Forestry since early July. Some of you will recall that I have written a couple of series of articles on T62: articles about DC-7 tankers and articles about T62 in action. Larry and I have been in touch since he went on contract. He gave me some information about one of the fires that T62 flew. This was the Miranda Fire, first reported on Thursday July 22. It was located about 10 miles east of Chiloquin, Oregon. It eventually burned about 50 acres before the fire was fully lined later that evening, go here and here for more information on that fire.

I am going to start with the location of the fire, before discussing the approximate route that Larry took to get to the fire in part 2. Part 3 focuses on retardant drops on the Miranda Fire.

Larry gave me the latitude and longitude of the fire which I used to plot the fire in google earth.

Next up, flying to the fire.

Note: As a point of reference, the Miranda Fire is located at 42 degrees 37.4757 minutes north and 121 degrees 40.3301 minutes west.

DC-7 Tankers in Action: part 5b (Mud Mountain Fire)

This post finishes up the DC-7 tankers in action series, at least for now.

Continuing with these stills captured by Larry Kraus from video shot by Bruce Smith from the back of the ASM. Here is Larry,

This is the last two doors left over from the drop in the previous post. We tried to tie into the beginning of that drop to back it up the hill a little.

 

 

DC-7 Tankers in Action: part 5a (Mud Mountain Fire)

Here are some more stills stills, captured by Larry Kraus from video shot by Bruce Smith from the back of the ASM. These stills and the ones in part 5b, are a fire identified as the Mud Mountain Fire. Larry says,

As you can see, we had to drop going down the fireline and downhill with rising terrain after the drop requiring a left turn to flatter terrain in this case.

 

  

  

  

  

  

 

DC-Tankers in Action (part 4)

Continuing with the Dixie Gulch Fire, these stills are captured by Larry Kraus from video shot by Bruce Smith (Air Attack) from the back of the ASM assigned to the fire.  According to Larry, the drop shown in this series of stills is the same drop as shown in the you tube video that I posted on March 4 and again on March 5.

With this article, I finish with the Dixie Gulch Fire. I will be finish this series on DC-7 Tankers in Action with my next post.

 

  

  

  

 

DC-7 Tankers in Action (part 3C)

I conclude this set of three posts of tanker 66 at Dixie Gulch with two stills taken after the drop in the previous article (part 3B). Recall that these stills were captured by Larry Kraus from video shot by Bruce Smith.

Larry wanted you to see these because they show the little airport's (Springbrook) location in relation to the fire. Larry sent along the image from Google Earth where he circled the location of the Dixie Gulch fire shown in the you tube video that I posted on March 5.

DC-7 Tankers in Action (part 3B)

I continue with three stills, again captured by Larry Kraus from video shot by Bruce Smith, of Tanker 66 making drops on the Dixie Gulch Fire. Larry thinks that these three stills are from the drop in the you tube video I posted on March 4 and again on March 5.

 

  

 

DC-7 Tankers in Action (part 3A)

I continue with these articles on DC-7 tankers in action, focusing on the youtube video (from the Dixie Gulch Fire) that I posted on March 4 and again on March 5. I continue today with three posts (part 3A, part 3B, and part 3C) with some stills captured by Larry Kraus from video shot by Bruce Smith (Air Attack) from the back of the ASM assigned to the fire.

Larry says that these two pictures show

tanker 66 dropping a couple of doors as the second run with his first load on the Dixie Gulch Fire.

Note what appears to be the small airport in the second photo.

 

 

DC-7 Tankers in Action (part 2)

Larry found his logs from the day of the fire in the video that I will share with you in a moment. But first, a word on (DC-7) T-66. The pilot-in command of T-66 is Brian Lash. Now it was Brian's day off on the day of the Dixie Gulch Fire, so the pilot of T-66 that day was Gene Teske flying with Rick Langstrom (Brian's co-pilot).

Here are the pertinent entries from Larry's log for Sunday the 13th:

Took 2 loads to the Dixie Gulch Fire-Near the fire from yesterday-Coverage 8 full load twice-Went well with ASM A4- T66 came in from Redmond for 2 loads (Gene Tesko/Rick Langstrom)-Later T10 (Chris Holm) and T05 (Skip) loaded at Medford for fires by Klamath Falls-First T66 had to move out of loading pit-Later T62 had to move (with Medford Air's tug to Ericson ramp))-Fly T62 for 45 minutes total-

Larry provides some more specific information about how he was flying T-62 during the drop shown in the video. But first, I went to pause and spend a little time with some terminology that Larry will be using. Flaps are on the wings of most aircraft, we'll get to them in a little more detail in a minute. BMEP refers to power settings of the engines. In this case, the tachometers on the DC-7 indicate engine rpm. Larry spent a little time the other day providing some more details on these terms as applies to his DC-7, T-62:

As to BMEP, about the best explanation that I can give is that it gives a real-time accurate indication in the cockpit of the horsepower being developed by the engines.

On the DC-7 the tachometers actually indicate the engine rpm. The reduction gears in the engine nosecase reduce the propeller rpm by a factor of 16:9, so the prop turns at a bit over half of the engine RPM. This is partially because the prop tips become supersonic above these reduced speeds and drastically lose efficiency. If my math works, the prop speed on take-off is 1631 rpm with the engine rpm of 2900. This is still a rather impressive 27 revolutions per second for the prop and 48 for the engine.

Wing flaps allow the wing area and camber (curvature) to be altered to make it more efficient for either high or low speed flight. For take-off, the DC-7 uses 20 degrees of flap. The wing flaps extend aft increasing the wing area and deflect downward at a 20 degree angle to increase the camber of the wing.Once the landing gear has been retracted and the airplane has gained enough altitude to safely allow for any settling resulting from the loss of lift, the flaps are fully retracted to allow an increase in speed.

Larry sent along two pictures of T-62, one with the flaps extended and the other with the flaps retracted.

Larry goes on:

With the flaps retracted (to zero degrees) there is slightly less wing area and the wing has less camber which allow for higher speed mainly due to less drag. For landing or the final part of the drop pattern we end up with the flaps fully extended to 50 degrees. This is a high drag position that helps to control the airplane's speed. With the flaps on the DC-7, the first 20 degrees is all lift, 30 degrees is slightly more lift, but with some additional drag. Above 30 degrees any increases in flap angle are mostly drag.

For those of you who are interested in some more specifics on the flaps of the the DC-7, Larry says that

the flaps on the DC-7 are double slotted flaps, but the upper slots on the DC-7 are just airfoil shaped deflectors that are the full span of the flaps, but only have a chord of about a foot. In the picture of a double slotted flap from how stuff works, the slots are larger than the rest of the flap.
Here are two links that Larry sent me to share for those of you who want more information about how flaps work, one is from Wikipedia and the second is from How Stuff Works.

With this as background, Larry continues with how he is flying T-62 during the drop in the video:

I had full flaps (50 degrees) out during the part of the drop pattern that is in the video. At least I have full flaps until the retardant starts coming out at which time we normally retract the flaps to 20 degrees (the take-off setting) and go to climb power which is 175 BMEP and 2400 RPM for the recovery and climb out.

In the final part of the pattern we usually have 2400 RPM set and are throttled back to as low as 100 BMEP, which is the minimum that we can set without driving the engine with the prop instead of the other way around. Normally, in the drop pattern, we start out with 20 flaps and 2400 RPM and 130-140 BMEP in order to stabilize at around 140 kts. On downwind for the drop we'll go to 30 flaps and 130 BMEP and maintain between 130-140 kts.Somewhere around base for the drop we'll go to full flaps and whatever power is required to maintain 130 kts.

When I start dropping the retardant I'll call for Climb Power and Flaps 20. This allows the airplane to accelerate without losing lift too quickly. If I need to make an immediate turn or clear a ridge or both, we'll go to climb power and leave full flaps until we can afford to have the airplane settle a bit with flap retraction. It all depends on the situation at the time.

DC-7 tankers in action (part 1)

This is a video that I found on youtube a few weeks ago, I sent Larry Kraus the link and we have been chatting about this video over e-mail. This is the first of three or four articles where, with Larry's help, I spend a little time on what is going in this video.

Before I go any further, as you watch the video you will see a drop by T-66 (also a Butler DC-7 tanker), followed by a drop by Larry in T-62, then a drop by T-66, and finally another drop by T-62. I watched the video a few times and thought that the T-62 footage might be the same drop, so I asked him about this. He says,

I came to the same conclusion on the video showing a single drop for each airplane taken from slightly different camera positions.

Larry spent a little time going through his data and logbooks to identify the fire shown in the video. He sent me the following graphic of a TFR (temporary flight restriction) for a group of fires known as the Queen's Branch Complex, saying"

I attached the TFR map for the Queen's Branch Complex of small lightning caused fires near Medford, Oregon. This might be where the video was shot. The only thing that's confusing to me is that there's no sign in the video of the Alaska ASM that was acting as leadplane, but I suppose that it might have been edited out. If it was edited, that's a shame as it would be even more interesting with the lead.

I will go into some more detail in a later post about how Larry identified that the fire in the video is the Dixie Gulch Fire. For now, take a close look at the TFR graphic, you will see a small airport -- Springbrook -- within the TFR. The Dixie Gulch Fire was located not far from the Springbrook Airport. The key, as Larry told me, is the word

"complex" which indicates several fires being included within the confines of the TFR. The Queen's Branch Fire was the first fire responded to and it's name was used for the TFR.

Larry talks about maneuvering T-62 while making a retardant drop:

As to maneuvering the DC-7 around during drop patterns, there are a few things that must be done. The first is that I have to keep glancing at the airspeed indicator every couple of seconds and my co-pilot (Ron Carpinella in the video) knows to tell me if we get down to 120 kts indicated airspeed if I haven't told him that I was purposely slowing the airplane. Also, the DC-7 has an excellent aerodynamic stall warning in the form of a buffeting that starts in the control yoke at about 5 kts above the stall. If you don't release back pressure or reduce the bank angle when this "nibbling" starts, the whole airplane shakes violently enough to about shake your teeth loose prior to the wing actually stalling.

In the video, I think that you will notice that I keep the nose down during the turns and I'm still about 15 kts above stall speed even after tightening the turn. Part of tanker flying includes leaving yourself an escape route to lower terrain if something starts to go wrong. I try to brief my co-pilot on where that escape route is before we start a run. Of course, it isn't always possible to find good routes to lower terrain, so I keep the best available escape path in mind on all drop runs.

The B-17 was a good trainer for that as you couldn't climb out of most situations and had to plan an escape route that was sometimes a couple of miles long. It also gave me a built in awareness of which way was eventually downhill. For several years in the 1970's, I drove a 1964 VW van with a 40 hp engine. I semi-joked that the VW van and the B-17 were very similar as with either one, you always knew which way was uphill and which way the wind was blowing.

One other item on the video is that the camera angle makes T62 look lower in relation to the terrain that it actually is. That said, we do get low and slow (think 130 kts and 150 ft while loaded) and have to maneuver in tight places close to the ground in areas where the visibility can go to zero for several seconds at a time in smoke. As I've mentioned before,the tanker business is complicated and nothing is ever easy.

I asked him about dropping the nose during his turns, he explains:

As far as keeping the nose down in turns in the DC-7. All of the Douglas 4 (piston) engine transports tend to slow quickly if you let the nose come up with a lot of flap deployed. The approach angle for landing is decidedly nose down in these airplanes and a pilot's natural tendency is to let the nose come back up toward the horizon. You have to learn to fight that tendency when flying these airplanes in either the landing or drop configuration.You are also correct in assuming that keeping the nose down in the turns gives an added buffer against a stall.

We will hear from Larry tomorrow on his drop at this fire. Stay tuned!

Other articles in this series (March 5 to March 12, 2010)

DC-7 Tanker in Action (part 2)
DC-7 Tanker in Action (part 3A)
DC-7 Tanker in Action (part 3B)
DC-7 Tanker in Action (part 3C)
DC-7 Tanker in Action (part 4)
DC-7 Tanker in Action (part 5A), Mud Mountain Fire
DC-7 Tanker in Action (part 5B), Mud Mountain Fire

DC-7 air tanker (T-62): working with leadplane/air attack

Larry Kraus, pilot of T-62, and I spent some time chatting over e-mail about how he works with lead planes when flying fires. The situation that we are talking about is when he flies with an ASM (a PC-7) that often functions as a lead plane. When the ASM is functioning as a lead plane, the ASM flies at low altitudes (under 500 ft above ground level) with the goal of scoping out where the tanker can make a safe and effective drop. When the lead plane crew have determined where the drop should be made, that information is communicated to the tanker (in this case T-62). The tanker follows the lead plane in, following their route and makes the drop where indicated by the lead plane.

But the ASM can have a second function, that of air attack. As I understand it, the primary function (but not necessarily the only function), of air attack is to coordinate aircraft over the incident fire. This would include communications with the incident commander on the ground and communication with aircraft working the fire.

I'll let Larry explain the ASM function in a little more detail:

The ASM can function as an Air Attack if there is no other Air Attack available over the fire. When that's the case,the ASM will orbit the fire at 1000 ft or higher between tankers to allow the Air Attack to get a good view of the fire in order to plan and co-ordinate the attack on the fire by all resources. The Air Attack will normally be in radio contact with the Incident Commander (Fire Boss),with Dispatch and the air resources.

It's not unusual for the ASM to go to a fire as an initial attack resource and decide that tankers are not needed and then remain over the fire as Air Attack, even if there are no other air resources (helicopters,for instance) are assigned. In that case, the Air Attack will be talking to the firefighters on the ground and with dispatch.

When a tanker arrives,the ASM functions as a leadplane.It then reverts to Air Attack when the tanker leaves. If there is a full time Air Attack available over the fire, the ASM can still take over and act as Air Attack if the normal Air Attack needs to go in for fuel or relief.

Up close and personal with DC-7 tankers: in action (2 of 2)

When I first wrote this entry in December 2009, there was a very nice 20 minute video on Patrick's Aviation from Bob Webb shot from the cockpit of a DC-7.  The Patrick's Aviation website has since been taken down. So I am embedding a couple of Bob Webb's You Tube videos shot from a DC-7 tanker.

I will never get a chance to ride in the cockpit of an air tanker, but thanks to Bob's videos, I can say that I have experienced what it is like to ride in the cockpit of an airtanker. Enjoy.

I will be posting my own reflections based on my experience writing this series on DC-7 tankers in a few days after the original date of the post (December 23, 2009).

Edited on November 8, 2016

Shot during the 2005 fire season, DC-7 Tanker. pilots are Webb/Rowe. 

Direct link to video by Bob Webb

Shot during the 2005 fire season southwest of Cedar City Utah, DC-7 Tanker. From Bob's description of the video: "flying down into a deep hole to get to the fire, not once but twice!"

Direct link to video by Bob Webb

Up close and personal with DC-7 tankers: in action (1 of 2)

Now for the fun stuff. Here is a sequence of photos (below) of Brian Lash and Rick Langstrom in Butler's tanker 66 on the Deer Ridge Fire near the Medford OR airport on or about September 22, 2009. Mike Bitney took these photos and sent them to Larry. It is a great sequence of photos. For those of you who are interested, here is a link to Warbird Information Exchange (WIX) where Larry posted these and other photos of tanker 66 and tanker 62 in action. There are some other nice action shots on this same WIX thread of tanker 62 in action in 2008 here.

I expect to make two more posts in this series of articles on DC-7 tankers, one more on DC-7 tankers fighting fires and a final post where I offer my own reflections. So, stay tuned. In the meantime, enjoy these photos.

So as not to confuse, the video is taken at Fox Field in Lancaster, CA (probably in 2007).