It was just two days ago that we wrote an article about air tankers, covering CAL FIRE’s new policy of restricting the use of their S-2s on federal fires and the deteriorated state of the federal air tanker fleet. But yesterday, August 27, there were two significant developments related to air tankers.
CL-215s at San Bernardino
On August 26 late in the afternoon three CL-215s showed up at the San Bernardino airport. They are operated by Aero-Flite, Inc. out of Kingman, Arizona and are working on a federal contract. The company owns operates five CL-215s that have been used in Alaska, Minnesota, and by the Bureau of Land Management. They have already been used on two fires on the San Bernardino National Forest, the Mile and Oasis Fires, refilling at Big Bear Lake.
These CL-215s can scoop up to 1,400 gallons of water from from approved lakes and have the capability of mixing foam concentrate with the water while in flight, making it possible to drop Class A foam on the fire. The aircraft can also be filled with water while parked at an airport.
The primary differences between a CL-215 and CL-415 is that the latter has turbine engines, can hold about 200 more gallons, and has aerodynamic additions to the wings and empennage, or tail assembly.
DC-10 activated by the U. S. Forest Service
Almost two months after awarding a Call When Needed contract to 10 Tanker Air Carrier for their DC-10 air tankers, the USFS activated one of the Very Large Air Tankers yesterday. Tanker 910 arrived at McClellan Airport near Sacramento, California at 8:00 a.m. on Saturday and was dispatched to a fire near the Utah/Arizona border at 10:30 am. It made two trips and nine drops. Today it is being used on the Motor fire just outside the El Portal entrance to Yosemite National Park.
Television show about CL-215s
Has anyone else seen the show on the National Geographic Channel called Ice Pilots? It is a reality show about a company in northwest Canada that operates mostly vintage aircraft, including two CL-215s, a Lockheed L-188 Electra, a DC-3, a C-46, and a DC-4. There was a series of shows in which the company had sold the two CL-215s to the Turkish government and were attempting to deliver them to the buyer, flying them across Canada, the north Atlantic, and Europe.
One complicating factor was the lack of any deicing equipment on the air tankers, something they don’t usually need while working on wildfires. Another was having enough fuel to make it across the Atlantic, so the company was carrying flexible fuel bladders inside the aircraft to increase their range.
During the last episode I saw a few months ago the two CL-215s had made it to the east coast of Canada and were waiting for warm weather over the north Atlantic to begin the ocean crossing.
