(This article first appeared on Fire Aviation)
The list of large and very large air tankers has changed since 2018. The number on the very coveted exclusive use (EU) contracts is the same, 13, but there are three fewer on call when needed contracts (CWN), 8. This could change later in the year but today there are a total of 21 air tankers on both types of contracts, down from 24 last year.
Aero Flite, Aero Air, and Neptune all swapped out some EU aircraft but each still has the same number of allocated slots.
On the CWN list, Aero Flite went from four to one aircraft and Coulson dropped their L-382G and substituted a B-737 which began working in North America for the first time last week. Neptune swapped some of their BAe-146s but 10 tanker did not make any changes on either list.
Today when we asked Kaari Carpenter, a Public Affairs Specialist for the Forest Service, when the agency was going to offer air tanker contracts based on the call when needed solicitation issued May 30, 2018, she said, “We expect an award on this contract very soon.”
The 2019 wildfire season has been much slower than average so far this year, which is fortunate considering the small number of air tankers available on Forest Service contracts — from 44 in 2002 on EU contracts down to 13.
So far this year a total of 3.6M acres have burned in the U.S., compared with 4.6M for the average to date. It has been far busier than usual in Alaska accounting for 2.4M acres, two-thirds of the U.S. total. Only 1.2M acres have burned in the other 49 states — which I estimate is approximately one-third of the average.
We believe this to be Air Tanker 137, a Boeing 737 operated by Coulson — seen on one of its first drops on a fire in North America after completing its contract in Australia. https://t.co/dAhV7GeNSu
— Wildfire Today ? (@wildfiretoday) August 12, 2019
How does a person get one of those crystal balls that the Feds use to determine air tanker availability? Lots of people hanging around (CWN) waiting for work, like the parking lot of Home Depot. Is that any way to support air tanker companies that have tens of millions of dollars invested, waiting? CWN, defined, close the gate after the horse has left the area. What every happened to I.A. on OUR national forest.
There is no crystal ball, just the politics of money and Natural Resources management.
I know the state of Alaska has tankers on contract, and California has there own tankers, are there any other states that have CWN/EU contracts? What would be the total nationwide for inter-agency?