The air tanker fleet at the Station fire

The LA Times has the scoop on the fleet of air tankers being used in southern California:

“Despite state and local budget cuts, crews have the air support they need to handle the Station fire, officials said.

The state budget that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger signed last month canceled the contract for California’s largest firefighting tool, a DC-10 jet, to save taxpayers about $7 million. It was replaced with a contract for two DC-10s on a pay-as-you-go basis, but at a higher hourly rate. But after several fires hit Northern California earlier this month, authorities reversed that decision and signed a 90-day contract for the plane, which costs taxpayers an average of $43,404 a day.

“The determination was made that it would cost more to have it on an as-needed basis than on an exclusive-use contract,” said Cal Fire aviation chief Bill Payne.

DC-10 drops on the Station fire near Acton, California, August 30, 2009. Photo: Irfan Khan

For many Southern California residents whose homes were threatened by the Station fire, the appearance of the DC-10 Saturday at the Station fire’s northern and southern flanks came as a welcome relief. The plane could be seen making drops of its bright red flame retardant on the hills of the Angeles National Forest, then making sharp banks as it turned around for additional passes.

Before the arrival of the DC-10, officials had been relying on helicopters and some smaller fixed-wing aircraft to drop water and fire retardant on the Station fire.

The U.S. Forest Service contracts a Martin Mars air tanker, sometimes called a “Super Scooper,” which carries a flame retardant foam concentrate. But that plane has had mechanical problems and has not been used to fight the Station fire. In addition, Los Angeles County has a contract for two additional air tankers, which it leases from the government of Quebec. But those planes — which are CL-415s — are not available until Tuesday, said Payne.

Initially, officials thought the county’s planes would not arrive in the area until Thursday. But at a press conference today, officials said the CL-415s would be available starting Monday and that a second DC-10 also had been requested.

The state will have to pay for that second DC-10 on a pay-as-you-go basis. According to its agreement with the contractor, Victorville-based 10 Tanker Air Carrier, Cal Fire guarantees to pay the company a minimum of $66,060 a day for a minimum of five days, Payne said. That amounts to about $330,000.”

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The above article from the LA Times refers to the Martin Mars as a “Super Scooper”, but as we were reminded by Kelly Andersson, that term is usually reserved for the Bombardier (formerly Canadair) CL-415 or CL-215. We also corrected the name of the CL-415 in the article, incorrectly referred to as “CL-14”.

Kelly documented some of the history of the SuperScoopers in a 1998 article that appeared in Wildland Firefighter magazine.

Thanks Kelly.

By the way, the difference between the CL-215 and the 415 is that the 415 has turboprop engines, and has an updated cockpit, aerodynamics enhancements and changes to the water-release system as well.

Russian-made air tanker in the U.S.

A Be-200 makes a demonstration drop, using the colors of the Russian (and U.S.) flag

A purpose-built, amphibious, Russian-made air tanker will be at Santa Maria, California on September 26 looking for work. Well, not looking for work right away exactly, since the Be-200 has not been approved by the FAA or the Interagency Air Tanker Board, both of which could be large hurdles to overcome. It is expected that the aircraft will do some demonstrations while it is at Santa Maria.

David Baskett, a Santa Maria businessman and founder of the now defunct Pacific Skyway airline, has been working with the Russian government to bring the plane to the U.S. Mr. Baskett envisions the air tanker, also known as Altair, replacing the aging air tankers presently being used that have an average age of 50.

A Be-200 air tanker, if I did the conversions correctly, can carry up to 3,000 gallons of water or retardant. It also can carry foam concentrate which can be mixed with the water in the tank. The amphibious plane has scoops on the bottom much like the amphibious CL-415 making it possible to skim across a body of water to refill its tank. The Be-200 can also land on a runway and refill with retardant.

The aircraft was designed specifically in the 1990s as an air tanker, one of the few large air tankers that can make that claim. It made its first flight in 2003.

Here is a 17-second video of the aircraft making a drop in Athens, Greece. The video was uploaded to YouTube in 2007.

(THE VIDEOS ARE NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

The 6.5-minute video below appears to be a promotional video about the plane. I want one.

Air tanker crashes in Greece, killing pilot

From Reuters:

A Greek fire-fighting plane crashed while battling a blaze on the Ionian Sea island of Kefalonia on Thursday, killing the pilot, authorities said.

The accident happened three days after fire fighters managed to bring under control a wildfire that destroyed 150 homes and thousands of hectares of forest and farmland near Athens.

“The death of airforce colonel Stergios Kotoulas has shattered us,” Greek President Karolos Papoulias said. “He fell at the frontline doing his duty, battling the fire.”

The 1983, Polish-made PZL plane crashed nine minutes after taking off from the Kefalonia airport to fight a forest fire, officials said. Nobody else was on board.

The 55-year-old father of two had thousands of hours of flight experience on several types of aircraft.

Our sincere condolences to the family and co-workers of colonel Kotoulas.

 

 

Air tanker crash in Nevada kills pilot

An air tanker crashed while working on the Hoyt fire in Nevada on Thursday, killing the pilot. Our sincere condolences to the family and co-workers.

From the Missoulian:

A Missoula-area pilot died Thursday when his single-engine air tanker plane crashed while dropping retardant on a forest fire 125 miles northeast of Reno, Nev.

The pilot’s name was Dave Jamsa, and he’d worked at Minuteman Aerial Applications Inc. for four years. The company is a sister corporation of Minuteman Aviation Inc., based at Missoula International Airport. Jamsa had a wife and four children in Missoula.

“He was trying to make his drop when he crashed,” Minuteman director of operations Forrest Gue said Friday morning. “We’re doing everything we can to find out why it happened.”

Jamsa’s plane was one of six SEAT planes working on the Hoyt Fire on Thursday, according to Bureau of Land Management spokesman Mark Struble. The 2,000-acre fire is burning in pinon-juniper trees, sagebrush and grass, and is about 5 percent contained.

AirTractor_802
The aircraft that crashed was similar to this one. Photo: Minuteman Aerial Application

“SEATs are used quite a bit by BLM in this country,” Struble said on Friday. “They carry a load that seems to work really well with our kind of fires. They can get into much tighter country, and lower, than the multi-engine bombers.”

The crash happened about 3:30 p.m. Thursday. Jamsa was airlifted from the crash site to medical facilities in Locklock, Nev., where he was pronounced dead. No one else was injured in the crash. The aircraft that crashed was similar to this one. Photo: Minuteman Aerial Application

The plane was an Air Tractor AT-802A, one of four Minuteman Aerial Applications operates out of Missoula. It is a modified crop-duster carrying 800 gallons of retardant and a single pilot. Minuteman has used the planes for firefighting since 1999.

The National Transportation Safety Board is sending investigators to study the crash. No other Minuteman or affiliated aircraft are affected by the review, according to Minuteman Aerial Applications president Mark Mamuzich.

“We’re mostly initial attack,” Mamuzich said on Friday. “We get out there and try to knock things down before they get too big. They’re a very effective tool. The SEATs have really proved themselves over the years. Unfortunately we had this mishap.”

Plans for a memorial service for Jamsa had not been finalized Friday.

Martin Mars video

Here is a video of the 7,200-gallon Martin Mars air tanker doing some training and pilot re-currency in southern California. Some of the video was shot in infrared, probably from the lead helicopter that works with the aircraft. The audio has been disabled.

(THE VIDEO IS NO LONGER AVAILABLE)

The Martin Mars is currently working on the La Brea fire in southern California.

Santa Maria air tanker base gets heavy use again

The air tanker base that was down-graded earlier this year from a full-time base to a call when needed base is again seeing very heavy use as air tankers reload there while working on the La Brea fire 24 miles east of the base. In May during the Jesusita fire the Santa Maria air tanker base set a new national record for the most fire retardant pumped in a single day–158,000 gallons, according to an article in the Santa Barbara Independent by Nick Welsh.

On Saturday, the first day of the La Brea fire, eight air tankers worked the fire. For Tuesday, ten air tankers have been requested, including four heavies, four S-2s, and one single engine air tanker. And, the 7,200-gallon Martin Mars will arrive in the area at noon today to work the fire and will be refilling its tanks by scooping water from Cachuma reservoir which is 24 miles south of the fire.

Five type 1 helicopters (three Aircranes, one S-61, and one Vertol 107) and at least four type 2 helicopters (all Bell 212s) are expected to be working the fire today.

HERE is a link to a video at KSBY about the air tanker base and the La Brea fire.