Neptune Aviation and Minden Air Corp have been asked by the U.S. Forest Service to have their air tankers available three to four weeks earlier than last year. We first reported on this here and here.

Below is an excerpt from a news release about how it affects Neptune.

==================================================

Neptune Aviation Accelerates Air Tanker Readiness For Predicted Early 2012 Wildland Fire Season

Neptune Aviation, the largest US private operator of fixed wing aerial tankers, is gearing up for the 2012 fire season through an accelerated maintenance and training program, given predictions of earlier than normal wildland fire out-breaks–particularly in portions of the US Southwest.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 26, 2012

“The US Forest Service approached us last fall, and asked that we have our aircraft available early,” said Dan Snyder, President of the Missoula-based company. “To meet our customer’s requirement, we commenced our fleet maintenance about a month early in preparation for the fire season. To do that, we leased additional hangar space at Missoula International Airport, and increased our contract maintenance staff to 30–up from the 10-15 we have employed in prior years. The contract staff supplements the 70 mechanics we employ full-time.”

Snyder noted that in a typical year, the contract maintenance staff, which includes airframe mechanics, electricians and sheet metal technicians, is on site from November through March, with the total cadre in place by January. “But, this year, we ramped up to a full staff of 30 in October, and we expect that they will be here through April, so we’re taking on more people for a longer time period,” he said.

The contract maintenance staff will focus exclusively on the company’s nine active P2V Neptune tankers. As Snyder explained, Neptune Aviation is also deploying a single BAE 146 regional jet, modified for aerial tanker duty. The aircraft has operated since October 2011, under Interagency Airtanker Board interim approval. Given the capacity constraints generated by the accelerated preparation schedule, maintenance on the BAE 146 has being outsourced to Tronos, the company which partnered with Neptune on the tanker modification.

Pilot recurrent training has also been moved up by a month, starting January 1st. Neptune currently has 25 pilots, of which five are qualified on the BAE 146.

The earlier resumption of maintenance activity, and pilot training, reported Snyder, will enable Neptune Aviation to make the first aircraft mission-ready by February 26, with the last ones available no later than May 25.

“In 2011, availability of the first aircraft, by contract with the Forest Service, was March 18, with the last one ready for dispatch by June 25,” he pointed out, adding that the longer availability time-frame will mean more time in the field for pilots, mechanics, and support vehicle drivers. Because of this, the company plans to hire additional staff in order to assure those on the line their regular periods of time off.

“Neptune Aviation was well-prepared to meet the Forest Service’s request for early aircraft availability because of changes made in our operations over the past three years,” Snyder said. “We were positioned to respond to our customers’ requests in a timely fashion, and we are on track to do that.”
Thanks go out to Dick

An artist's conception of Conair's British Aerospace Avro RJ85 air tanker. Image from Conair.

A Canadian air tanker company, Conair, has announced that they have purchased a jet-powered airliner and will be converting it into a Type 1 3,000-gallon air tanker. The aircraft is an Avro RJ85, which is a variant of a British Aerospace BAe-146. The difference is that the RJ85 has a longer fuselage and more efficient engines. The RJ85 seats up to 112 passengers as an airliner. Neptune leased a converted BAe-146 from Tronos and obtained “interim” approval from the Interagency Air Tanker Board in late 2011. In November and December it saw some limited use in Texas and California.

Judging from the artist’s conception of the planned air tanker conversion, it will have an internal tank, rather than a bolt-on external tank. Conair will be doing the actual conversion at their base at Abbotsford in British Columbia, Canada, but they have not announced if it will have a conventional constant-flow gravity tank or a pressurized tank. They expect to have the new 3,000-gallon air tanker ready for the 2013 fire season.

The RJ85 that Conair purchased in December is serial number E2270. It was previously operated by Lufthansa and was delivered in December, 1995. Here is a link to photos of the aircraft when it was flying for Lufthansa.

Below is an excerpt from a Conair news release:

We have undertaken a detailed evaluation of both the BAe 146 and Avro RJ85 including simulator and flight testing of the aircraft in the demanding low-level profile required in fire-fighting missions. It is important to note that we are working closely with BAE Systems as the Original Equipment Manufacturer. As a later variant of the BAe 146, the Avro RJ85 is a younger aircraft which will give longer life, and with its higher design weights and better ‘hot and high’ performance it will be a more suitable aircraft for these demanding missions.

With the improved performance of the RJ85 coupled with what we believe to be a game-changing tank design, the RJ85 Airtanker will offer a significant improved mission capability compared to existing, new and proposed aircraft including the BAe 146-200.

Conair operates a boatload of air tankers, including 10 CV580s and 17 single engine air tankers. Several of their CV580 air tankers saw service in the United States during the last part of the 2011 fire season after the U.S. Forest Service cancelled Aero Union’s contract for their eight P3 air tankers over a dispute about inspections.

Conair's fleet of CV580 air tankers

The number of air tankers vs. unfilled orders for air tankers. Data from NIFC.

The number of unfilled orders for large air tankers increased to 29.8 percent in 2011, while the number of air tankers that were available on contract fell. In 2010 there were 19 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts and the unable to fill (UTF) rate was 15 percent.

In 2011 the number of air tankers decreased to 11 in July after the U.S. Forest Service cancelled their contract with Aero Union saying certain aircraft inspections were not completed. Aero Union, now in the process of selling their assets, is appealing the USFS allegations. Neptune brought on one additional air tanker, a leased BAe-146, in November on an “interim” approval basis.

The higher UTF rate is at least partially due to a busy fire season in the southwest, compared to the slower years of 2009 and 2010. The number of acres burned in the lower 49 states in 2011, which excludes Alaska, was 8.4 million, exceeding the average of 5.1 million between 2000 and 2011.

Acres burned in wildfires in lower 49 states, US 2000-2011. Data from NIFC.

While the data about UTF rates is difficult to interpret, perhaps we can be safe in saying that if more than 4,000,000 acres burn in the lower 49 states, having 21 or fewer large air tankers tends to result in 25-30% of the air tanker orders being UTF, which is about triple the UTF rate when fewer acres burn. In 2000 with 40 air tankers on contract, 6,600,000 acres burned, and the UTF rate was 7%.

You have to wonder how often incident commanders do not place orders for needed air tankers if they already know that none are available.

UPDATE at 9:00 p.m. MT, January 25, 2012:

We received an email from Scott and we asked him if we could post what he wrote. Here it is:

You wrote “You have to wonder how often incident commanders do not place orders for needed air tankers if they already know that none are available.” This statement is hauntingly similiar to those found in John McLean’s “Fire on the Mountain”, where the author reported airtankers were not ordered during early phase of South Canyon Fire because of assumption “none were available”. The Lesson Learned was don’t assume. Place the orders, justify the need, and push for priority. Still may not get AT, but you tried. Obviously, the reduction in total number AT is ominous for the future. Thanks for keeping it on the front burner.

Here is a video that I ran across on AerialFirefighting.com’s Facebook page. It features CL-215/415s fighting fire from the air. I’m guessing it was shot in Spain or Portugal. The crews on those scoopers seem to enjoy their jobs!

The description on YouTube:

Video del 43 grupo “hecho a mano”. Demuestran lo divertidos que son cuando hace falta.

The description in English, according to Google Translate:

Video of 43 group “handmade”. They show how funny they are when needed.

Don’t be thrown off by the first 55 seconds. It really is about aerial firefighting.

A P-3 Orion drops on a fire near Cedar City, Utah in 2006. From zionhelitack.blogspot.com

The CEO of Aero Union, Britt Gourley,said the company has appealed through the judicial process the U.S. Forest Service’s cancellation of their contract for Aero Union’s eight P-3 Orion air tankers. The USFS terminated the contract July 29, 2011, saying safety inspections were not being completed, and shortly after that the company laid off 60 of their employees. At that time, six of the eight P-3s were active on contracts. This left only 11 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts with the USFS.

Mr. Gourley told Wildfire Today on Monday that after their contract was cancelled halfway through the fire season, and now with the aircraft sitting for almost six months, their financial situation has forced them to sell their assets. As we reported on January 1, Aero Union has put their aircraft up for auction, which will culminate in the opening of sealed bids on February 28 at McClellan, California.

Mr. Gourley said his company complied with all of the requirements in the USFS contract and claims the P-3s have “always been meticulously maintained and continuosly airworthy”. He hopes the aircraft will be flying over fires again this summer, if not in the United States, then in another country.

Mr. Gourley feels the USFS has a strong predisposition toward the C-130J as an air tanker platform and is unwilling to give serious consideration to other aircraft. He said another option for an air tanker would be to acquire military surplus P-3s and “re-wing” them with current technology and kits developed by Lockheed which cost about $18 million each.

It would be surprising if a private company could work out the finances for the procurement and then the USFS contracting arrangements to purchase and operate new C-130Js with a purchase price of about $90 million each. But if the USFS adopts a different air tanker paradigm, in which the aircraft are government-owned and contractor operated, then it’s a whole new ball game. It is hard to imagine the U.S. Government coming up with the money to buy a fleet of new air tankers. A more realistic variation on this is to acquire some gently-used C-130Js that have been thrown away by the military.

It is hard to understand how the US Government can come up with trillions of dollars for military aircraft, ships, and equipment, but the USFS has to contract for air tanker platforms that have been deemed no longer worthy of being used by the military.

MAFFS II, built by Aero Union and sold to the USFS. Photo by Aero Union

In addition to the eight Aero Union P-3s that are up for auction, the company is selling intellectual property consisting of patents, jigs, drawings, and tooling for their MAFFS II 3,000-gallon slide-in retardant tank system for C-130J. The USFS has already purchased eight of these second generation units which are used by Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve units on wildfires if all of the privately owned air tankers are already working on fires. If a new company purchases the MAFFS II intellectual property and manufactures more, you could have one of your own for approximately $5.2 million.

The reason Mr. Gourley of Aero Union contacted us was so that he could ask for our email address in order to reply in writing to our January 1 article about the demise of their company and the current auction. Below is his letter:

Continue reading →

A screen grab from a Marc Mullis video of a single engine air tanker drop near Junction, Texas

I ran across some very interesting videos shot by Marc Mullis, a single engine air tanker pilot. He uses a Contour video camera and has posted on the Contour site about half a dozen videos of him making drops on wildfires. The videos I saw, shot from the cockpit, had audio of the radio conversations and at least one of them which was recorded on a fire near Junction, Texas has a display showing the GPS track. Pretty high-tech stuff. An excellent way to spend a few minutes on a winter weekend.