SEAT crash on Hoyt Fire in NV

It saddens me to write of the crash of an Air Tractor AT-802A in the mountains in Churchill County Nevada while fighting the Hoyt Fire. The pilot was airlifted to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. See this article for more information.

The aircraft was owned by Minuteman aviation

I offer my condolences to the family, friends, colleagues, and those at Minuteman Aviation for your loss.

May you fly in favorable winds and be at peace.

Forest History Society Archives and Mann Gulch

I was in the land of no internet access on August 5, the 60th anniversary of the Mann Gulch Fire where 13 firefighters died, 12 of whom were smokejumpers. Some of you may recall that my introduction to wildland fire books was Norman Maclean’s “Young Men and Fire”, where he tells the story of the Mann Gulch fire, and his own investigations over the course of 40 years.

As fate would have it, Carl A. made a comment on my entry on smokejumper history dated August 5. In his comment, that some of you may have read, he said:

Great post! You should also check out some of the Smokejumping history resources at the Forest History Society. A recent post on their blog about Mann Gulch links to some of their online sources on the: August 5, 1949: Mann Gulch Tragedy .

I was intrigued by the Forest History Society, so I followed Carl’s lead and have spent a little time checking out some of the resources available. I have to say that the forty-five minutes or so that I spent on this website does not do it justice.

Martin Mars working the La Brea Fire in CA

The Martin Mars is (or was over the weekend) working the La Brea Fire that is burning in California. It is based at Lake Cachuma. For more information go here and here.

La Brea fire

If you want to see some awesome photos of the La Brea fire that is still burning in California, including some shots of tankers working the fire, check out Wildfire Today News on August 13 to August 15. Bill has posted some good pictures, including some screen shots from live video feed.

Martin Mars training runs in So CA

I was looking around to see if there were any recent youtube videos of the Martin Mars. I found this video, thanks to Bill Gabbert of Wildland Today News who made apost last weekof this video of the Martin Mars doing training runs and re-currency runs in Southern California. According to Bill some of this video was shot in infrared. It is an amazing video.

great photo of an AirCrane

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today News posted this great photo of an AirCrane. Check it out!

Evergreen 747 tanker: free demo drops

I saw a report on the Associated Airtanker Pilots message board last month (from a Spanish newspaper article translated into English) that Evergreen's 747 supertanker, currently under a call when needed contract (CWN) in California traveled to Spain last month to make a demonstration drop on Poyatos fire that was burning in a mountainous area of Spain. The 747 super tanker then traveled to Alaska where she made a second free demonstration drop on the Railbelt Fire.

Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today reported on the 747 supertanker's drops on the Railbelt fire here.

Updated on August 3, 2015: According to Bill Gabbert's May 2nd (2014) article on Fire Aviation it seems that Evergreen has declared bankruptcy. Assoicated Airtanker Pilots is now called Associated Aerial Firefighters, the message board that I had linked to in this article is no longer available.

I'm back

I returned from the land of no easy internet access a couple of days ago. I have a couple of more posts to make on the topic of what wildland fire crews do, both are about books that I have read or am reading. I have a backlog of aerial wildland fire news to catch up on.

I'll be writing a post about Stephen J. Pyne's book, Fire on the Rim: A Firefighter's Season at the Grand Canyon in a couple of hours. I wrote it out in long hand. I don't know about I sometimes still find it comforting to write in long hand. So, I'll be posting again later today

wildland fire crews: fire shelters

From the youtube summary for this video:

Fire shelter deployment from October 22, 2007 by Orange County Fire Authority engine crews. Photos by Karen Tapia Andersen of the Los Angeles Times. A presentation quality video (30 mb) can be downloaded from the Wildland Fire Lessons Learned website at this location (but only if you have quicktime pro).

I’ll tell you how the video ends, all fire firefighters in this fire shelter deployment incident survived. The video may be difficult to watch, but it is important. The fire spotted downslop from the twelve firefighters, and took a run up the hill. The fire fighters could not escape to safety (for example to a “black” or already burned area), so as a last resort, they deployed (crawled under) their shelters.

What are fire shelters? Fire shelters, designed to protect the occupant from being burned by flames, are just large enough for a person to crawl under. The firefighter lies face down on the ground, holding the shelter close to the ground, to protect their lungs from the heat of the flames and the smoke.

fire shelter: An aluminized tent offering protection by means of reflecting radiant heat and providing a volume of breathable air in a fire entrapment situation. Fire shelters should only be used in life threatening situations, as a last resort.

fire shelter deployment: The removing of a fire shelter from its case and using it as protection against fire.

[from National Wildfire Coordinating Group Incident Operations Standards Working Team (PMS 205), 2007. Glossary of Wildland Fire Terminology.

Here are some resources on fire shelters:

History of the Development of the Fire Shelter

US Forest Service Fire and Aviation Management, fire shelter information. This is a brief page with a couple of photos.

National Interagency Fire Center on fire shelters. There is a lot of information on this site, including, but not limited to the two documents below.

National Interagency Fire Center on fire shelters (as of 12/12/12)

The New Generation Fire Shelter. This is the publication that describes the new generation fire shelter. As I understand all wildland fire crews will be using the new generation fire shelter on or before January 1, 2010 and will be familiar with this document.

Tech Tip: What’s New in the New Generation Fire Shelter

I’d like to thank Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today News for his help in reviewing this article and being a second pair of eyes. Thanks Bill!

wildland fire crews: hotshots

Edited on October 24, 2017

I originally posted a short documentary from the Lone Peak hotshot crew on what it takes to be a member of a hotshot crew. Unfortunately when I was looking at this blog entry on October 24, 2017, I saw that the video that I originally posted is no longer available. Sorry about that, happens sometimes.

I plan to finish up this series on wildland fire crews on Monday with a post on fire shelters. If there are any loose ends to tie up in regards to this series of articles, I will do so after Aug. 10.

Wildland fire crews: on the job

Here is a video showing images of wildland fire crews on the job. Note the air attack (helicopters and air tankers) in support of the wildland fire crews.

wildland fire crews: dozers

From the NWCG Glossary of Wildland Fire Terms:

Fireline: The part of a containment or control line that is scraped or dug to mineral soil.

As you may know by now, wildland firefighting crews digfirelines, also known as hand lines by hand. They use tools such as the pulaski, mcleod and shovels. Dozers (large tractors) also dig fireline, known as dozer lines, with the blade on the front. I understand that the big dozers, such as the one in the video may come equipped with climate control and the operator wears a respirator.

The video shows LA County dozer teams working the Ranch and Santiago Fires during the Oct. 2007 fires. Enjoy!

wildland fire crews: a tribute

Enjoy, this video is a tribute to wildland firefighters everywhere.

Wildland fire crews: what they may be up against

This is a video called, Firestorm 2007 (California wildfires). I want to thank TL Stein for sending me this link. Please go here to read comments by some who were on ground crews fighting these fires and words of those who lived where these fires raged.

I asked TL Stein, how do you fight that thing. He said very carefully.

Remember that air attack does what they do to support the crews on the ground.

wildland fire crews: safety, equipment and types of crews

The most important thing is safety, and to that end there is an acronym, LCES, that every wildland firefighter is familiar with:

Lookouts
Communications
Escape routes
Safety zone

In addition, every wildland firefighter knows the 10 standard order and the 18 situations that cry watchout. I wrote about this here.

As for the equipment that they carry and the protective clothing that they wear, go to this webpage from what I think was an episode on Nova (PBS in America) called the Fire Wars. Here you will see a picture and a description of each piece of clothing, protective equipment, and some of the equipment that wildland firefighters carry in their packs.

The U.S. government hires men and women to fill different kinds of firejobs. A list of these firejobs, along with a brief description of each may be found here (seasonal), and for information on permanent jobs go here. For more on hand crews including a brief discussion on the five different levels of hand crews, see this webpage. Information about hotshots, also known as type 1 IHC crews may be found here.

Finally, if you are interested in a brief discussion of what is involved in applying for federal and/or state/local wildland fire crews, see this webpage from the National Wildfire Coordinatiing Group . For example, the Idaho Department of Lands, Fire Management Division has a nice webpage that can be found here with a link to a job page, CAL FIRE's career page is here with links to other related pages, and last but by no means least, for information about wildland firefighting jobs with the NJ Forest Fire Service go here.

wildland fire (ground) crews: upcoming

I have finished, at least for the time being, writing about what I call the intersection of aviation resources and ground crews: helitack and smokejumpers. I considered this part 1, and am now ready to move to part 2 where I will be posting on what ground crews do. As was the case in part 1, I consider this upcoming series of posts on what ground crews to be a brief overview at best where I will be relying heavily on resources available on the internet. My overview probably will not cover all aspects of what ground crews do when they fight wildland fires, but I hope that I will provide you with a basic idea of what is involved.

You may recall my recent post on what air attack does where I wrote:

aerial fire fighting resources and the people who fly them as well as those who provide support operations do what they do to support the crews on the ground who work to contain, control, and mop-up wildland fires. Or to put it another way, air attack (air tankers and helicopters) supplements ground crews and slows the fire until the ground crews can get to it. In what is known as extended attack on a fire, you will have both ground crews and air attack working a fire.

RIP Thomas "TJ" Marovich

Thomas "TJ" Marovich, 20, from Hayward CA died on July 21in a routine heli-rappell training exercise while he was assigned to the Backbone Fire.

For more information go here and here.

TJ was an employee of the Modoc National Forest, they issued a press release, which may be found here.

My condolences go out to TJ's family, crew, friends, and the rest of the wildland fire fighting community.

upcoming posts

I will only have intermittent, if any, access to the internet over the next couple of weeks. But I have already written articles on wildland (ground) fire crews scheduled to post approximately every other day or so. So stay tuned.

A day in the life of a smokejumper

This video, Jump This, shows the day in the life of McCall smokejumper, starting with loading parachutes to jumping out of the aircraft to fighting the fire.

With this video, I end the series on smokejumping.

Stay tuned for a series on wildland fire (ground) crews starting tomorrow.

helitack and rappellers redux

My last post on smokejumpers will post tomorrow. In the meantime, I ran across two articles today that I want to pass on to you.

The first an article reporting the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Black Hills Interagency Helitack (South Dakota).

The second article, on rappelling may be found here. The author discusses the history and some details on training and the like. Check it out!

Erickson Air-Crane Elvis going to EAA airventure

Just heard from Kenny Chapman that an Erickson AirCrane is going to the EAA airventure airshow in Wisconsin from July 27 through Aug. 2. So I checked the Erickson website, and found a link to this article reporting that the AirCrane known as Elvis will be at the show. I was also interested in the article for the short history of Elvis. Take a couple of minutes to read the article to learn a little more about Elvis

Sounds like a lot of fun, and if I was going to be any where near the vicinity I would go. But I will be no where near Wisconsin. Darn.

But airventure will have a presence on the web, so those of you who are so inclined may want to go here. Alas, I will be away from reliable internet access next week and the week after, so I will probably not be able to post any updates about Elvis' presence at airventure here.

But I do have articles scheduled to post while I am in the blackhole so stay tuned.

Smokejumpers: history

I don’t know about you, but history fascinates me. I have come across some resources on the web relating to the history of smokejumping, and I am passing these links on to you. The embedded video above is from the National Archives DVD, Smoke Jumper Training for Airborne Fire Fighting in Missoula, Montana in 1949.

The National Smokejumper Association has an excellent website with a variety of wondeful information about smokejumping. Check it out.

If you are interested in the history behind some of the individual smokejumper bases, check out these sites:

• Grangeville
• McCall
• Missoula where the Missoula history page includes a link where you can go for more information about the 1949 Mann Gulch Fire.
• Redmond.

Old, outdate links removed (8/2/15), sorry. I'll work on an updated article on the history of smokejumpers with (hopefully) more current information and links.

About smokejumping: part 2 of 2

This is good short news piece (about 2 minutes) on the Redmond smokejumpers. If you want to know more about the Redmond smokejumpers go here.

For more information about what the life of a smokejumper is like, see this four minute video by Scott Wickland of the North Cascades Smokejumper base in Wintrop,WA.

Finally, a short profile, written in 2004, of two smokejumpers -- a thirty year veteran and a women with 15 years experience may be found here.

About smokejumping: part 1 of 2

I want to move on from the introduction to smokejumping to the first of two posts about smokejumping. The focus of these two posts are two videos that I found on youtube. In this video, Missoula Smokejumper 2005, you will hear smokejumper Skodt Jones talk about what smokejumpers do, the aircraft used to transport smokejumpers, and the equipment that they carry, and additional cargo carried by the jump aircraft.

More information on the Missoula Smokejumpers may be found here.

In my next post on July 20, I will embed another video, a short news piece about the smokejumpers in Redmond Oregon. On July 22, I will post an article with some information about the history of smokejumping. I will end this series on smokejumping with a final post, content to be determined, on July 24.

Smokejumpers: Intro

Smokejumpers parachute into remote regions that are often not easily accessible by ground or helicopter access to provide initial attack on wildland fires. Once all the jumpers have parachuted near the fire, the equipment and tools along with food and water are dropped by parachute. If necessary, the jumpers can be completely self-sufficient for the two days on the fire. See this webpage for more information.

Some 270 smokejumpers are based at seven US Forest Service bases and two Bureau of Land Management bases around the country. They are known as national resources, meaning that they are available to fight fires around the country, including Alaska. Since 1981 when the first women smokejumper completed her training in Boise Idaho, the smoke jumping corp is made up of both men and women. The nine bases (with links for more information) are:

US Forest Service
McCall, Idaho
Grangeville, Idaho
Redding, California
West Yellowstone, Montana
Missoula, Montana
Winthrop, Washington
Redmond, Oregon

Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
Boise, Idaho
Fairbanks, Alaska [note smoke jumpers in Alaska are a branch of the Alaska Fire Service and the BLM]

Information about some of the smokejumper aircraft may be found here.

I will be writing more articles about smokejumpers, so stay tuned.

heli-rappelling

Direct link to video

Some helitack crews do what is known as heli-rappelling. Heli-rappelling, according to the Interagency Helicopter Rappel Guide (IHRG) is

the deployment of personnel from a hovering helicopter by means of an approved rope, descent device and supplementary equipment. Rappelling is comprised of a smooth, controlled expeditious descent to the ground.

Among other things, the IHRG, discusses required qualifications and training, equipment, rappel operations, and cargo letdown operations. There is also a section with definitions. I spent a little time this morning skimming this document to get an idea of federal helicopter rappel operations.

May 16, 2016. The video that I originally embedded here is no longer available on youtube, so I have replaced it with a video of the Salmon River Helirapplers 2009 season

Martin Mars landed at Lake Elsinore

Just checking the Press_Enterprise, the Martin Mars has landed at Lake Elsinore. See this article.

Martin Mars set to arrive at Lake Elsinore

The Martin Mars is due to arrive at Lake Elsinore, CA around 4 or 5 PM PDT after an eight hour flight from British Columbia. It will be based at Lake Elsinore where it will be available to the US Forest Service to drop up to 7,200 gallons of a water/gel mixture on fires. See this Press-Enterprise article for more details.

This is an excellent short "documentary" by the Nevada (State) Division of Forestry's Air Operations based in Minden, Nevada. Here you will hear personnel such as the air operations supervisor, the helicopter manager and others talk about the role of helitack in initial attack. They also talk about their helicopters. Sit back and enjoy the show.

Update: Evergreen 747 and Martin Mars

I am interrupting my series on helitack with an update on the status of the Evergreen 747 super tanker and the Martin Mars.

When I wrote about the Evergreen 747 super tanker here, this very large air tanker had received interim certification from the Interagency Air Tanker Board, but was not yet under contract with a public fire fighting agency.

According to a July 9 article in the Press-Enterprise CAL FIRE signed a contract with Evergreen International Aviation for use in fighting wildfires. Recall that the Evergreen 747 carries up to 20,000 gallons of water or retardant. This is almost seven times the capacity of the Lockheed P-3 tankers capable of carrying up to 3,000 gallons of retardand. For a point of comparison, the DC-10 tankers carry 12,000 gallons of retardant while the Martin Mars can carry 7,200 gallons of water/foam.

Speaking of the Martin Mars, according to the Press-Enterprise, there is no word on if or when the Martin Mars will arrive at Lake Elsinore where the plan would be based under the agreement between Coulson Tankers, owners of the two Martin Mars tankers, and the US Forest Service. The Press_Enterprise article on the Martin Mars may be found here, and my earlier articles, including this one, on the Martin Mars can be found here.

Updated on August 3, 2015: Links to Press Enterprise articles left in article, but they no longer work. I did access these articles at the time I wrote this article in July, 2009. According to Bill Gabbert's May 2nd (2014) article on Fire Aviation it seems that  has Evergreen declared bankruptcy.

CAL FIRE helitack

CAL FIRE has helitack operations around the State. This is a short video highlighting Ramona helitack's 2007 wildfire season. Ramona helitack is based in southern California in the San Diego area. Enjoy the video.

Ryan helitack (based at Ryan Air Attack Base in Riverside County, CA) has a very good webpage, with links, describing their helitack operations. Remember that CAL FIRE helitack is all risk, meaning they do nonfire activities, such as rescues. You might wabt to spend some time exploring this webpage.

No PSOB for contract pilots and crew

Up until fairly recently, I only had a vague notion that the families of police officers, fireman, and other public safety officers who died in the line of duty received death benefits. Further after receiving the lump sum death benefits under the Public Safety Officers’ Benefits Program (PSOB) (current benefit is $303,064), spouses and children are eligible for educational assistance under the Public Safety Officers’ Educational Assistance Program. Finally public safety officers’ who receive injuries in the line of duty that result in permanent and total disability are eligible for disability benefits under the PSOB program.

The PSOB program and its benefits, as described in this document, can not take away the pain that comes with the death of a loved one in the line of duty. It can not take away the physical and emotional pain that comes with a permanent disability. But these monetary benefits can take away some of the sting. With these benefits comes acknowledgement as well as financial benefits.

But there is a catch, one group of firefighters who do not receive PSOB benefits: those who work under contract to public firefighting agencies and are not employees of federal, state, or local (public) agencies involved with wildland fire management and suppression. As I understand it, the Bureau of Justice Assistance within the U.S. Department of Justice, the agency that administers the PSOB program, has ruled that air tanker pilots and crew are not eligible for benefits under the PSOB program because they are contractors and are not direct employees of federal, state, and local (public) wildland fire fighting agencies.

In 2007 two U.S. Senators, Enzi (R-WYO) and Feinstein (D-CA) introduced the Aerial Firefighter Relief Act of 2007 that would of provided benefits under the PSOB program to aerial firefighters (pilots and crew) working under contract for public agencies and suffer death or disability. Similar legislation was introduced at the same time in the House of Representatives. For more information on this attempted legislation see this newspaper article and Sen. Feinstein’s press release about the legislation. To the best of my knowledge, this legislation was not passed.

For years, organizations involved with aerial firefighters, including but not limited to the California Fire Pilots Association and the Associated Airtanker Pilots have been trying to get PSOB Program benefits for aerial firefighters. To date their efforts have not been successful.

To the best of my knowledge, no aerial fire fighters dying in the line of duty have received Public Safety Officer Benefits. Aerial firefighters and other contract public safety officers deserve the same benefits as policeman, firefighters, and other public safety officers. All I can say is that I think it is wholly unacceptable that aerial fire fighters and other contract public safety officers are not eligible for PSOB Program benefits. As I say this, my words feel wholly inadequate.

What these aerial firefighters, male and female, do is very dangerous, and many have died. To read about the stories of the experiences of the families of a couple of air tanker pilots who died in the line of duty, read this 2002 msnbc report. I point you to this report so that you may read about the experiences of these affected families. The experiences of the families are still relevant, but the various State level politics that msnbc reports on may be dated. See also this 2004 testimony of an air tanker pilot widow before Congress.

I hope that this changes and there may be hope on the horizon. You may recall that I wrote here about the tanker 09 crash killing the pilot and crew. Tanker 09 was flying a CAL FIRE fire when they crashed. The Chief of CAL FIRE, Del Waters, has signed the PSOB applications of the tanker 09 families. Good for him. See this thread on the Associated Airtanker Pilots website for more information. There is hope that this will mean that the Dept. of Justice will approve the tanker 09 PSOB applications. Time will tell. We can only hope.

Nor have I forgotten about the families of tanker 42 that crashed in late April of this year while on a firefighting mission resulting in the death of the pilot and crew. They too deserve PSOB Program benefits.

more helitack posts to come

I have three more posts that I plan to make on helitack.

1. CAL FIRE helitack
2. helitack, State of Nevada
3. heli-rappelling

I plan to continue with these helitack posts tomorrow so stay tuned.

From a 2007 Zion helitack crew member

Women are helitack crew members too!

Helitack crew member training

Wildland firefighting, including helitack, requires a high (or arduous) level of physical fitness. So, prior to the start of crew assignments for the upcoming fire season helitack crew, like other ground fire fighting crew members, have to pass what is known as a pack test (also known as a work capacity test). The specific work capacity test depends on what level of physical conditioning is required for the specific fire fighting job and must be passed annually. The helitack requires an arduous level of physical fitness with the associated required work capacity test being a three mile hike on level ground carrying a 45 pound pack in 45 minutes or less. For more information on the pack test and other work capacity tests see this document.

Physical fitness training does not stop with the pack test, but continues throughout the season as does related firefighting skills training. One example of ongoing firefighting skills and physical fitness training may be found on this webpage of the Coeur d’Alene Helitack Crew (Idaho Department of Lands). Another example of skills training is shown in the above embedded video. Finally, the Zion helitack crew maintains an “unofficial” blog . They write about the two week training period that takes place at the beginning of their season in these blog entries:

May 13, 2009: Week 1 train-up
May 16, 2009: Week 1 photos
May 24, 2009: Week 2 photos

To my friends in America, happy fourth of july!

update on De Luz fire (CA-RRU-De Luz)

The folk at wildlandfire have a new thread with more updates, including a link to a video report on the fire from this morning.

For your convenience, this is the link to the video.

helicopters working fire in CA

This is a link to a short video of a fixed tank helicopter and a helicopter and bucket working a fire (CA-RRU-De Luz)in the De Luz area in Temecula, California.

This fire was first reported on July 2. See this link from the wildlandfire initial attack hotlist forum. And for more recent posts about the fire, here is a post to this same thread, in its entirety.

About helitack

I spent a couple of hours the other day watching a wide assortment of videos about helitack operations, mostly on youtube. I learned a lot about what helitack means through these videos. I will be including some of these videos in this post as well as my upcoming posts.

In composing my upcoming posts on helitack I will rely less on the written word and more on videos, pictures, and other internet resources.

I don't know about you, but I think that one picture or video is worth a thousand words. Enjoy this video, "Craigmont helitack 2007".

Intro to helitack

What is helitack? I looked at a couple of sources, the Interagency Standards for Fire and Aviation Operations Guide aka Red Book (chapter 16 on aviation), the Interagency Helicopter Operations Guide (glossary), to name a couple, to see how helitack was defined. The result is this definition:

Helitack: helicopter attack. The use of helicopters to transport crews, equipment, and fire retardants or suppressants (class A foam) to the fireline during initial attack. The term also refers to the crew that performs helicopter management and attack activities. Helitack crews may also be used in “all risk” activities such as search and rescue, law enforcement and medical transportation.

I have already written about the role helicopters play in initial attack with foam/water drops, either by fixed tank helicopters or helicopters with bambi buckets. The Erickson AirCrane is an example of the role of retardant carrying helitankers in extended attack. I want to spend a little time talking about the role helicopters play in transporting crews (aka helitack crews) and equipment to fires.

Where federal agencies are concerned, helitack crew size varies by agency. The National Park Service and the US Forest Services sets their crew size regionally while the minimum Bureau of Land Management (BLM) crew size for exclusive use contracts is seven (supervisor, assistant, squad leader, and four temporaries).

As for State agencies, I believe that California has nine helitack crews at various locations through out the State -- including one based at Ryan-Hemet Air Attack base -- with ten crew members each (not including the pilot). See this CAL FIRE document for more information. Idaho (Idaho Department of Lands) has a helitack crew with 7 to 9 crew members based in Coeur D’ Alene Air Terminal in Hayden, Idaho.

I am still working out the other posts that I will be making in this series on helitack. But, please stay tuned for more.

Regarding the video that I embedded, it is a two minute highlight reel of the Fort Howes 2005 helitack season. I went searching for Fort Howes helitack on the internet. According to this post, the equipment and crew of this helitack base may have moved to Miles City, MT in 2007.

Note: At the time of this posting, the links that I provided for the Red Book and the Interagency Helicopter Operations Guide, both at nifc.gov, were down. But they did work earlier today.

References:

Redbook (2009) Chapter 16: Aviation Operations, accessed on June 30, 2009 from http://www.nifc.gov/policies/red_book.htm
Interagency Helicopter Operations Guide (2006), Glossary, accessed on June 30 2009 from http://www.nifc.gov/ihog/

What Air Attack does

For the last few months I have been writing different types of air tankers and helicopters in the arsenal of air attack fire fighting resources (aka air attack) used by State and Federal agencies here in America. I have talked about retardants and class A foams used by these air tankers and helicopters to retard or suppress flames. But what is it exactly that air tankers and helicopters do? Yes, they drop retardants and suppressants (water/foam mix). But they do more, aerial fire fighting resources and the people who fly them as well as those who provide support operations do what they do to support the crews on the ground who work to contain, control, and mop-up wildland fires. Or to put it another way, air attack (air tankers and helicopters) supplements ground crews and slows the fire until the ground crews can get to it. In what is known as extended attack on a fire, you will have both ground crews and air attack working a fire.

Tl Stein offers these observations:

In an ideal situation, both entities (air attack and ground crews) work as a team to bring a fire under control. 97% of the fires that aircraft are used on, ARE put out by the crews on the ground.  We just give assistance, that's all.  That is our purpose, that is our focus and that is our goal.  Initial attack is the key to keeping potentially huge fires small, therefore, the quicker we can get retardant in front of the fire, the quicker and more efficient the crews on the ground can do their job.

The other 3% fall into those fires that are most likely lightening caused, 20 miles from the nearest road, inaccessible terrain and no chance of dropping a helitack crew....much less smoke jumpers.  The theory being, surround the active fire with retardant and/or drop massive amounts of water via helitanker, then sit and watch it for a day or two.  One or two more drops of water to kill any rekindle after that.

I am going to write a series of articles in two broad parts. Part 1, if you will, focuses on two aspects of what I call the intersection of aviation resources and ground crews: helitack aka helicopter attack and the smoke jumper program. One aspect of helitack is using helicopters to deliver specially trained fire fighters, often working with other ground crews, to work a wildfire. As their name implies, smoke jumpers parachute in with equipment to help contain a fire.

In part 2, I will write a little about what ground crews do, relying heavily on various resources from the internet.

So stay tuned. In my next article, I will write an introduction to helitack.

header image and other photos

I'd like to thank J. Laval for granting me permission to use his photo in my blog header. The CAL FIRE Pilot's Association has a gallery page with links to a photo gallery, video gallery, as well as specifications for the S2-T air tanker and the OV-10 Bronco air attack/lead (observation) plane.

The image that I am using in my blog header may also be found in the photo gallery page referenced above.

There are some awesome pictures and videos in this gallery, take a few moments to check them out.

Changes to blog layout and other things

Yes, I have made some changes to the appearance of my blog, including changing the title, blog description, my profile, and revisions to the links section to reflect the focus on aerial wildland firefighting.

Last night I spent time teaching myself how to place photos at the top of my blog and in the process of doing so, you may have seen a photo. All photos, including one that was accidently up for a few hours, have been taken down. I am working on getting a photo that I will then put at the top of page (with appropriate attribution). So, while I am working out the details, there will not a photo at the top of my blog.

Thank-you for your patience.

Spartan C-27J

The Spartan C-27 (shown above flying in a 2007 airshow) was on display at the recent Paris Air Show (June 2009), see this video to see what this aircraft can do, with narration (that includes some technical details) in both English and French.

For more information on this aircraft you might want to read this short article.

This aircraft has generated some interest for its great possibilities in aerial firefighting. However, any uses in aerial firefighting probably won't happen anytime soon. As I understand it, the aircraft is currently being produced for military use only.

The military use of these planes may preclude their use for aerial fire fighting. Moreover, the current MAFFS units are designed only for the C-130 so modifications to either the MAFFS unit and/or the airframe would be required for the C-27.

Even if the C-27 was available for non-military use, the price tag of a new plane is too costly for aerial fire fighting budgets. Obviously, I am not in the position to know specifics, but using a 2007 Dept. of Defense contract as a guide, the cost comes in at about $25 million each. I used figures referenced of $2 billion over 5 years for 78 planes referenced here.

Nonetheless, the C-27 puts in an awesome performance in the video from the 2009 Paris Air Show, it is worth looking at.

Erickson AirCrane: retardant and water/faom drops

Fixed-tank helicopters such as the AirCrane use Phos-Check 259F retardant, requiring that a mobile retardant base be set up near the incident. This happens on a regular basis with large fires. The video that I have embedded here shows an AirCrane using a dip tank to fill its fixed tank with retardant.

Being that the AirCrane can be used for retardant drops as well as water/foam drops, I asked Kenny Chapman when AirCrane is used for retardant drops in the U.S.:


Once the Crane is hauling retardant it is utilized the same as an airtanker. (Building retardant line ahead of the fire.) It can also switch back and forth between retardant, water and foam as needed. Retardant is not used in the initial attack role unless the helicopter is sent to a new fire directly from an existing incident that has a retardant plant set up already.

I asked him if there was ever a situation where a mobile retardant base was established where an AirCrane was working an existing fire and a “new” fire popped up near the mobile retardant plant. With a mobile retardant plant already set up near a “new” fire, was the AirCrane used to haul retardant in “initial attack.” He said:

I remember one that I did on a fire out of Santa Ynez around 2003 or so. Someone was smoking in fire camp and started a fire at the camp at exactly the time I was picking up a load. I was able to contain the new start with one load.

AirCranes carrying water/foam are frequently used in initial attack. The AirCrane has a separate foam tank, so after the pilot has filled the main tank with water he can decide whether or not to inject foam into the tank (already filled with water) based on the wants/needs/requirements of the incident commander.

Because the tank on the AirCrane does not have to be rinsed or otherwise cleaned out between retardant and water/foam drops, the AirCrane can go from flying initial attack with water/foam to flying extended attack with retardant once a mobile retardant base is set up near the incident.

How to fly a helicopter

I have what I believe will be one more post to make in my series of posts about the Erickson AirCrane. Today got a little complicated and I am trying to do some fact checking before making that last post. So, stay tuned, it will come, I promise. In the meantime. . .

As a part of my background reading and research on helicopters, I was checking around on the internet for materials on how to fly helicopters. Now, I also happen to now someone who is a helicopter pilot, George. George does not fly firefighting helicopters, and he is a wonderful teacher and mentor. He knows his stuff.

Anyway, George has been helping me learn about helicopter flight performance. In the course of my e-mails with George, I sent him some of the materials that I found on the internet about flying helicopters. I asked him which one was the best of the group of four or five that I sent him. He said that the best is the youtube video that I have embedded below.

Thank-you George!

Erickson AirCrane: firefighting module

If you go to Erickson’s firefighting page, you will notice a “quick specs” link at the top where you will find this information on the AirCrane’s firefighting module:

Our patented ram scoop hydrofoil allows the Helitanker to refill from fresh water and sea water sources in less than 45 seconds.

A flexible hose snorkel features a high pressure impeller and can draw water from any water source 18 inches (45 cm) or deeper as fast as 45 seconds.

The 2,650 gallon (~10,000 litre) tank drops water, retardant, or foam mix. Microprocessor controlled tank doors offer eight individual coverage level options.

accessed on June 17, 2009

The coverage levels referred to above may be selected by the AirCrane pilot. They are:

1 = 1 gallon per 100 square feet
2 = 2 gallons per 100 square feet
3 = 3 gallons per 100 square feet
4 = 4 gallons per 100 square feet
5 = 5 gallons per 100 square feet
6 = 6 gallons per 100 square feet
7 = 7 gallons per 100 square feet
8 = 8 gallons per 100 square feet

Erickson AirCrane: A versitile helicopter

Before writing a little more about the AirCrane's fire fighting abilities in my next post, I thought that this video clip will serve as a nice follow-up to Kenny Chapman's interview. You will some nice footage about some of the other things the AirCrane can do such as construction, rescue, a spray nozzle, etc.


This same video, embedded from YouTube, may also be accessed from Erickson's firefighting webpage through the video link (1st video on the left).

Erickson AirCrane: Kenny Chapman interview with Aero News

This is an interview by Aero News network with Kenny Chapman, Sr. firefighting pilot with Erickson AirCrane. He has been with Erickson since 1979. The best way to learn about the firefighting abilities of the AirCrane is to listen to what Kenny has to say in this 9 minute video. And while you are at it go to the youtube page and read all the commentary (click more info) in the grey box at the top right hand side of the screen.

I need to add that I have been in touch with Kenny Chapman over e-mail. I have learned a lot from Kenny about the AirCrane. Thank-you Kenny!

Stay tuned for more on the AirCrane in my next post.

Erickson Aircrane: intro, history and specs

When I started writing about aerial resources used to fight wildland fires six months ago, it did take me long before I saw pictures and videos of the Erickson Aircrane. The Erickson Aircrane is a type 1 helicopter (gross weight of more than 12,500 pounds, capable of carrying 11 to 16 passengers). The gross weight of the Erickson Air-Crane model S64-E is 42,000 pounds.

To provide a frame of reference, the Super Hueys that I wrote about recently are type 2 helicopters (gross weight up to 12,500 pounds, and/or carrying 8 to 10 passengers). The gross weight of H-301, one of CAL FIRE's super huey's is 10,500 pounds.

The Aircrane, when fitted with a fixed tank, is a helitanker. The Interagency Airtanker Board (IAB) establishes procedures and criteria for air tankers, helitankers, and tanks. According to section V (helitanker requirements)

helitankers shall be a Type 1 helicopter capable of lifting 1000 gallons of water at sea level (STP). Buckets will not be considered.

Erickson Aircrane has a very good web page chock full of information. The you tube video that I embedded above may also be found by clicking on the video link on their firefighting webpage (2nd video from the left).

This is the first of four or five posts that I will make about the Aircrane. Today I focus on history and specifications. In my next post, you will hear an Aero News TV interview with Kenny Chapman of Erickson. Among other things, Kenny describes the development of the Aircrane's fixed tank system and the Aircrane's firefighting capabilities.

Erickson has a web page where they write about the history of the Aircrane, here.

Specifications are shown in the image below for the two Aircrane models (accessed on June 8, 2009 from http://www.ericksonaircrane.com/index.php, design weights and performance page)

underneath H-301

Thanks to TL Stein and a friend from Ryan AAB, I have the following description of what is underneath H-301:

We start at the top of the image. On either side, you can see the floor windows and the observation mirrors that look back at the tank and snorkel, and the PA - Siren speakers.  On the far left, just below the step, is the filler coupling where the tank is refilled on the ground using either a fire truck or a hydrant should there be no water sources to snorkle from.  On the outsides of the tank, just inside the skid supports, are the hydraulic actuators that open and close the tank doors.  Inside the triangle looking fixtures, are where the pivot arms attach to both the actuators and tank door gear box. You'll notice that one tank door is open, this is to keep the inside of the tank dry when not in use.  In the center of the tank, you can see the fittings and snorkel hose as it's folded back under the helicopter. The two smaller black hoses are the hydraulic lines that power the pump on the end of the snorkel. The hydraulic power is provided by a small unit that is mounted inside the crew area, behind the pilot and co-pilot.  The item hanging down (painted red) that looks like it has a golf ball on the end of it, is part of the WSPS (Wire Strike Protection System).  There is a WSPS installed on the top as well.  It's purpose is to cut any power line or cable that the aircraft may accidentally fly into.  Also, you can see a small cable that exits the aircraft and angles down to the tank (starts at the top of the "3".  This is the manual emergency release for the tank, in the event of a hydraulic failure.  All the pilot needs to do in this event, is pull a T-handle on the floor of the cockpit and it open both doors, dropping all the contents of the tank.  Usually, in the event of a failure, the doors can only be closed on the ground so in typical operation, the tank would be removed and a bucket will be used.

For more information about the WSPS go here. This page includes information about the WSPS along with other flight performace issues of helicopters. You will need to do some scrolling to get to the section on the WSPS.

Thanks to my friend at Ryan, I have some clarification on if H-301 can be used for bucket operations. The answer is that if the fixed tank is not operational for some reason, the fixed tank can be removed and a 324 gallon bambi bucket can then be used.

Correction: H-301 tank size

I have a minor correction. The fixed tank on H-301 is 360 gallons, not 325 gallons. I believe that the buckets on CALFIRE helicopters have a capacity of around 325 gallons. I have updateded yesterdays post to reflect the correct fixed tank size on H-301.

Thanks to my friend at Ryan for pointing this out.

CAL FIRE's helitack

I'd like to thank TL Stein for a photo of one of CAL FIRE's helitack helicopters, H-301, based at Hemet-Ryan Helitack Base. CAL FIRE has a fleet of nine helicopters positioned around the state, in addition, I think that they also have a couple that are maintained as emergency aircraft.

I believe that two CAL FIRE helicopters have belly tanks. One of the copters with a belly tank is H-301 and the other is based at Bear Valley. My friend at Ryan tells me that H-301 has a 360 gallon fixed tank on its belly. I don't know if the copter at Bear Valley has a 360 gallon tank. I am pretty certain that both H-301 and the copter at Bear Valley have foam tanks for class A foam.

Go here for a pictorial overview of Ryan's helitack operations, take time to check out the links! I will be writing in some more detail about helitack operations in a couple of weeks.

Note: I revised and corrected this post. I had misidentified H-301 as a helitanker. It is not a helitanker. Helitankers are heavy, large helicopters such as the Erickson Aircrane that I will be writing about next week.

San Diego County CA Copter 12

A while back, I found the above video on youtube, shot from the cockpit of San Diego County's Copter 12. It is an awesome video, with some great fire shots. hwyted posted the video and he has several others posted on youtube. If you are interested in shots from firefighting helicopters, check out his other videos. For some more information on copter 12, a Bell Huey 205 A1++, go this webpage where there is brief description of all aircraft used by the San Diego County Sheriff's Department.

These aircraft are ASTREA (Aerial Support to Regional Enforcement Agencies) aircraft. ASTREA has a nice photo gallery with photos of copter 12 and other helicopters. Copter 12 can be identified by the "12" on its front end.

Another photo gallery of ASTREA helicopters may be found here, on the webpage of the Aerial Law Enforcement Association.

Copter 12 and it's sister, copter 10 have 375 gallon fixed tanks on their bellies and are also known as helitankers. Helitankers fill up their belly tanks by hovering over a body water, using a long tube, called a snorkle that takes water into the tank. If you watch the video above, you will see some footage of another helitanker refilling its tanks. Look at the pictures on the photo galleries and you will see some pictures of copter 12 flying with its snorkle tube hanging from its belly.

If you are so inclined, you may find aircraft certification for copter 12 (N107BZ) here.

helicopters with buckets

I have a great deal of respect for the work that helicopters with bambi buckets do in working wildland fires, initial and extended attack. Many state fire agencies, including my own state, have helos with buckets that are used in wildland fire fighting. For all of you firefighting helicopter pilots, thank-you for all you do.



I like the video (embedded above) because you can see the operations of a helicopter with a bucket, as could be used for firefighting operations, up close and personal, so to speak. I believe that this is a military helicopter, and that the video is showing bucket training operations.

I found this youtube video a few days ago, shot during the 2008 Humboldt fire near Chico CA. There is some awesome footage of a helicopter and bucket working the fire as well as a shot of tanker 910 (DC-10).

Here is a link to some of my earlier posts on helicopters.

Air Attack: California 2008

Take six minutes, go here and watch this six minute video. You will see a variety of air tankers, helicopters, and a helitack team working one of the California wildfires. Note that this is you tube video where embedding is turned off, so I had to post the link for you.

Raw footage of CA-SCU Mustang - Wildland Fire - Henry Coe Park

A couple of weeks ago I was reading the initial attack hotlist forums on wildlandfire.com where I found a link to some raw footage from ktvu of a wildland fire that was then burning near Santa Clara, CA. This is about four minutes of footage, probably shot from a news helicopter. About one or two minutes into the video, you will see a tanker making a retardant drop. I am not sure, but I wonder if it is a CAL FIRE S-2T.

I am posting this because I found the footage interesting, for the shots of the smoke and flames, and the shot of the tanker retardant drop. Finally, if you look at the top of the ridges in the video, especially after the shot of the retardant drop, you can see the "red" retardant line on the top of the ridge.

There is some information on this fire in this thread on wildlandfire.com's initial attack hotlist forum.

In addition, you might want to go here where the blogger reports on the Mustang Fire (dated May 13) and includes some shots from the ktvu footage and a map of the fire area. For a larger view of this map, go here. The blog I referred you to, among other things, reports on fires in CA and is not affiliated with any government agency.

And Speaking of SEATs

Take four minutes and go and check out this awesome video on Patrick's Aviation on SEATs working fires in France. Some of this is taken from the cockpit of a SEAT. You will see some footage of an AgCat shot from the SEAT cockpit. TL Stein tells me that the single-winged aircraft are an Ayers S-2R and confirmed that the bi-wing planes are AgCat G-164A's.

For a refresher on AgCats, see this earlier entry to my blog on AgCats. I wrote about the Ayer's Thrush aircraft here.

Reflections, S-2T's, SEATs and initial attack

I love the light tankers (S-2T’s and single-engine air tankers) in a special way. Perhaps it is because I live in NJ, and I have grown to appreciate and the role that single-engine air tankers (SEATs) have in initial attack (and extended attack). And it is not only NJ that uses SEATs, many states contract for SEATs. In the case of NJ, I am aware that the majority of our wildland fires are small in size. I also know that during our spring season that the NJ Forest Fire service deployed SEATs and helicopters to fires that were only a couple of acres in size. I am aware of this because of a couple of websites that I have followed, not because of the media.

Some of you know that I got interested in wildland fire fighting last July because I have a couple of friends who lived in or near the area burned by the Basin Complex Fires. And I have written about a couple of other larger California fires. I have written about CAL FIRE’s S-2T’s. Up until now, I have neglected to write about the very important role the S-2T’s, a light tanker, play in initial attack. Until now when I want to focus on initial attack.

California has an impressive number of large fires that make national news. I don’t know the numbers, but most of California’s fires are small in size, being 2, 5, or 10 acres. I have recently engaged in an e-mail exchange with an experienced air tanker pilot who will be flying S-2T’s this year. He was telling me about the importance of initial attack in keeping fires small and manageable until ground crews can get in:

Regarding the use of tankers, the best tactic is initial attack. In initial attack, S-2T tankers and helicopters are deployed to the wildfire as soon as possible in order to stop the spread and hold until ground troops have access and put it out. The goal is to keep the fire small: 2, 5, 10 acres maximum so it is ‘easy’ to manage. Roughly ninety-seven percent of fires in California are put out this way. The public may not hear about it. But...if you're not aggressive enough you get behind the power curve and then get complicated fast (wind, fuel, terrain...).

I understand that things can get complicated, especially with the drought, sundowners and the Santa Ana winds. And the terrain. I get that. Sometimes initial attack is not going to keep the fire small. But most of the times it does. How many houses have been saved, lives saved? You light tanker pilots -- the workhorses of CAL FIRE, other State fire fighting agencies, and the national fleet -- what you do is special. I want you to know that.

From a former air tanker pilot in memory of Mike Flynn

This story was sent to me by Gordon, a former air tanker pilot. I post this here with his permission.

In 2003, flying on a fire near McCall, ID, we experienced a malfunction of the computerized drop system in our Lockheed P2V. Without warning, the system suddenly jettisoned 2450 gallons of fire retardant. We were no where near the fire at the time and since we had plenty of altitude, we were not in any danger.

The resulting steep pitch-up of the aircraft's nose when that eleven tons of retardant suddenly left the plane was a little disconcerting, but with full forward stick and a bit of swearing, we were under control.

We knew we would be in trouble with the Forest Service for wasting an expensive load of retardant and when we returned to base, we were told the load had landed on a house and the owner was hopping mad. The base manager told us to expect a phone call from the director of heavy airtanker operations and that we'd have to fill out a bunch of paperwork. We were prepared to take our medicine when the base manager's phone rang. He listened and nodded a few times, said he understood and hung up.

It seems that the telephone over at dispatch had been ringing off the hook with "thank you" calls from grateful neighbors of the fellow whose house we had painted with retardant. Apparently, all summer long he'd had an illegal burn barrel going in his yard.
Repeated complaints to the various authorities, especially the Forest Service, went unheeded and the callers were just phoning in to express their thanks. Our retardant load had squashed his burn barrel and the neighbors all thought it was a deliberate act of law enforcement.

I send this to you in honor of my co-pilot that day, Mike Flynn, killed this past April 25th in the crash of a P2 airtanker near Stockton, UT. Mike was a wonderful man, a consummate pilot and a true gentleman.

Associated Airtanker Pilots

I have had the pleasure of spending time on the Associated Airtanker Pilots (AAP) website. There is a lot of good info on this site, including a good photogallery. I was lurking on their message board one day, and it got me thinking that it would be good for you to hear some of their stories. To make a long story short, I reached out to one of the AAP members who liked my idea and gave me permission to post a message to their message board (it is a closed board) to share my idea and ask for their help. So, the idea is that from time to time, I hope to get stories from air tanker pilots, the idea being to give you an idea of what it is like to fly air tankers. In addition, I may also share my own reflections based on my correspondence with air tanker pilots.

I have the first air tanker pilot story, which I will post tomorrow. I will follow that up with my first reflection post. Actually there will be two reflections in two posts, the second is a video that I found. So stay tuned.

At this point, I only have one story and one reflection to post. I am hoping to get more, and I am being patient. As I do get more, I will post them here.

Evergreen 747

Evergreen International Aviation announced on March 24, 2009 (link no longer works) that its B747 supertanker received interim certification from the Interagency Air Tanker Board (IATB). IATB certification is required before an air tanker can be under federal contract. Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today reported on the 747 receiving IATB approval here.

Capable of flying at 600 mph, the 747(tail number 979) can drop more than 20,000 gallons of retardant.

The 747 recently completed what is known as a drop test. Briefly, in a drop test an air tanker (or helitanker or helicopter with bucket) flys over a cup-and-grid matrix to test the coverage level for each type of drop.

Evergreen produced a seven minute video on the 747 supertanker:





Updated on August 3, 2015: I had to delete some old and outdated links from Evergreen Aviation that no longer work. At the time I wrote this article, they had a photogallery of the 747 and a page describing her capabilities. According to Bill Gabbert's May 2nd (2014) article on Fire Aviation it seems that Evergreen has declared bankruptcy.

DC-10 tanker: videos

For another good video, see this youtube video, and be sure to read the explanation of the video.

DC-10 Tankers: Tanker 910 history and specs

The first of the Very Large Airtankers (VLAT) put in service is tanker 910, first seeing service on a call when needed (CWN) contract with CAL FIRE in 2006 where it flew retardant drop missions on fires in southern California and one fire in Washington State. Tanker 910 is one of the DC-10 family of passenger jets. The first DC-10, designed and built by the Douglas Aircraft Company of Long Beach, CA, now the Long Beach Division of Boeing Commercial Airlines.

Starting in 2007, tanker 910 is under an exclusive use contract with CAL FIRE from June 15 through October 15.

Tanker 910 was modified and tested over four years by 10 Tanker Air Carrier with mostly private investment capital. Three external retardant tanks are mounted along the bottom center of the aircraft, capable of holding 12,000 gallons of retardant (50 tons!) capable of dropping a line of retardant in about eight seconds. Typical drop height is 500 ft. above ground level at about 170 mph. A crew of three -- pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer -- flies the plane working with a lead plane when drops are made. They are not as maneuverable as CAL FIRE’s S-2T working on ridge tops or flat lands. But as they carry 12,000 gallons of retardant to the S-2T’s 1,200 gallons, one of the advantages of the DC-10 is that they can save the S-2T’s for initial attack.

See this page for more specs and technical information on the aircraft. CAL FIRE’s DC-10 tanker fact sheet (requires a pdf viewer) may be found here. Wikipedia’s article on tanker 910 may be found here.

10 Tanker Air Carrier now has a second DC-10 tanker, tanker 911 that was available earlier this year for fire fighting duty. It saw service in the recent Jesusita fire.

My next post: more pictures and video of the DC-10 tankers.

Very Large Airtankers

The last group of air tankers that I am writing about are known as the very large airtankers (VLAT). These are DC-10’s and 747’s. There are two DC-10’s (tanker 910 and tanker 911) and one 747 (tanker 947). All three saw service as commercial passenger jets before being modified for service as very large airtankers. The two DC-10 tankers can drop 12,000 gallons of retardant and tanker 947 can drop 20,500 gallons of retardant. I will be making one or two posts on each, starting with the DC-10 tankers.

copyright 2009 K. Tyler Miller

Martin Mars: US Forest Service contract and video tour

The Hawaii Mars will be under a new contract with the U.S. Forest Service this year, based at Lake Elsinore, California from June 1 through November 15, 2009. A Sikorski helicopter equipped with thermal imaging equipment will work with the Hawaii Mars filling the role of a “lead.” See this article by Bill Gabbert for more information. Bill also has a link to articles he wrote about the Martin Mars last summer when one of their tankers was based in northern California.

The Westcoaster, a newspaper based in Port Alberni, British Columbia has an article announcing the U.S. Forest Service Contract that may be found here.

For a 10 minute ride around the outside of the aircraft and a tour inside take a look at this video:

Martin Mars (part 1 of 2): history and specs

The Martin Mars, capable of landing on water, was developed for the U.S. Navy towards the end of the second World War as a transport aircraft. A total of six were built two were lost by 1950. The remaining four were retired by the U.S. Navy in 1959 and purchased by a Canadian Company known as Flying Tankers Inc. One crashed in 1961 and another was destroyed the next year in a typhoon. The remaining two, Hawaii Mars and Philippine Mars were converted for fire fighting in 1963 and are currently operated by the Coulson Group, based at Sproat Lake near Port Alberni, British Columbia.

A wikipedia article on the Martin Mars may be found here.

Each tanker is capable of carrying 7,200 gallons of water and has a 600 gallon foam tank. Finally are capable of delivering thermo-gel. Thermo-gel, also known as a water enhancer, does what its name implies. It enhances water’s suppression capabilities and is better able to coat fuels. If you are interested in reading more about water enhancers, see Fire Management Today, volume 67, issue 2. Starting on page 24, you will find a short article called: “The Latest on the evolution of chemical fire supression – water enhancers eyed for the future.” The authors include a text box with a brief description of foam, water enhancers, and retardants. The current issue of FMT along with archives of most back issues may be accessed on this USDA Forest Service webpage.

Refilling the water tanks involves “skimming” the water surface while maintaining a speed of 70 to 80 mph. Through the use of a scooping system water is injected into the tanks. It takes approximately 25 seconds to fill the water tanks. The video below shows this process:



For more information on the two Martin Mars aircraft, see this Coulson Group webpage. This page also includes a link to a specifications page.



A pilot, co-pilot and two flight engineers make up the crew of the Martin Mars.

Specifications:
Overall Length: 120 ft.
Height: 48 ft.
Wing Span: 200 ft. (61 m)
Gross Weight: 162,000 lbs. (73,483 kg)
Cruising Speed to Fire: 190 mph
Drop Speed: 138 mph
Landing Approach Speed: 115 mph
Touchdown Speed: 92 mph
Fuel Consumption (Cruise): 420 US gal
Fuel Consumption (Operations): 780 US gal
Operations Duration (normal): 5 1/2 hours
Area Covered, single drop: 3 to 4 acres
Drop Height: 150 to 200 ft.

Stay tuned for part 2 on the Martin Mars coming in a couple of days.

S-2T: end of season retardant tank maintenance

At the end of the season, or when maintenance on the retardant drop system is required during the season, the retardant tank is washed out. When this happens, the flapper valve and the tank doors at the bottom of the aircraft are in the open position. In addition the hotload cap is off. This allows any standing water to be vented from the system.

Here is a video of what this operation looks like:

Jesusita Fire, Santa Barbara CA

For those of you who are interested in reading reports of the Jesusita Fire that has burned around 8,700 hundred acres as of early this morning (Saturday. May 9, 2009), a couple of firefighting blogs that I follow are reporting on this fire:

1. wildfire today by Bill Gabbert
2. Firefighter blog by Cap't Mike.

This fire is also listed on the inciweb national incident reporting system. I understand that this site may be prone to being down or busy.

The Santa Barbara County has a fire information page that may be found here.

The LA Times has a google map of the fire with informational links.

Finally, I was able to watch live feed shot from a news helicopter of T-911, one of the DC-10 air tankers making a drop on the fire. A Santa Barbara television station, kety, has a report on the drop with a video here. The site where I saw the live feed may be found here. This site has six feeds from southern California media. I believe that live feed was shot by the kcbs helicopter. I think. It may take a while to load, and I had to do some fussing to turn off the audio and video of the feeds that I was not interested in.

The DC-10 tanker was one of 14 (I think) air tankers along with numerous helicopters that were providing aerial firefighting support yesterday.

S-2T: in action (2 of 2)

If you have nine minutes and want to see a good video of a few S-2T's in action along at a helicopter with a bucket working fires in California, take a look at this video. SCU refers to Santa Clara Unit.

S-2T: in action (1 of 2)

Here are a couple of very short videos of S-2T's in action. In the first video, the S-2T is working with a lead plane in the 2007 Zaca Fire in Los Padres National Forest. The first plane you see is the lead plane showing the S-2T where to make the drop. A few seconds later, the S-2T tanker flies through to make the drop.



In the second video, the S-2T tanker seems to be working with out a lead plane. At least a lead plane is not shown in the video. The last few letters in the name of this video is cut off, it is "CDF Air Tanker 78 Drops on Felter Fire/Santa Clara Unit"

martin mars