News and opinion about wildland fire
In addition to the two new Smokey Bear fire prevention videos, the Ad Council has created three new print ads featuring artwork made of the ashes of wildfires.
You can download higher resolution versions here.
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In pursuit of the Perseid Meteor Shower
Above: A small meteor, part of the Perseid Meteor Shower, streaks through the sky over the Black Hills very early Friday morning.
I had been hearing about the Perseid Meteor Shower for weeks. Usually this annual event produces a pretty good show, around 80 meteors an hour as the Earth passes through the streams of debris left behind by Comet Swift-Tuttle. But this was forecast to be special, due to something about the gravity of Jupiter bending the stream of dust just enough to nudge it about 930,000 miles closer to Earth. Scientists said there could be as many as 150 to 200 meteors an hour.
I had attempted to photograph a meteor shower once before — and had zero luck. With this rare opportunity presenting itself, I decided to try again. And to me, this was a momentous decision, because these showers are never scheduled in prime time. They occur in the wee hours of the morning, like 1 a.m or 3 a.m.
So I made my preparations. I reviewed and rehearsed all of the settings on my camera, a Sony A7II full-frame mirrorless camera body, because you can’t simply use the automatic mode to shoot pictures of the night sky. I updated the camera’s firmware, made sure I had three extra charged batteries, dug out a couple of flashlights, checked to see if my 28mm wide angle lens needed a firmware update (it didn’t), and practiced using the Sony app on my iPhone to control the camera. With the app I can trigger the shutter (eliminating camera shake as it is depressed) and change the shutter speed, ISO, and aperture. I can also view the photos on the iPhone just after they are taken, making it possible to adjust the exposure or the framing as needed. I also grabbed a compact external battery for the iPhone, thinking that constantly using the phone to control the camera for an hour or two might suck the phone’s battery dry (it didn’t).
My research found that the area of the sky from which the meteors would come, the constellation Perseus, would appear above the horizon shortly after sunset. But, the moon would keep the sky too bright to easily see meteors until it set at 12:48 a.m. at my location in the southern Black Hills of South Dakota.
I went to bed at 11 p.m. Thursday night after setting the alarm for 12:40 a.m. My plan was to arrive in Wind Cave National Park after all the residual moonlight had disappeared, making the sky as dark as possible at that location 10 air miles from the small town of Hot Springs.
As I drove into the park, the speed limit reduced from 65 to 45 mph. It’s low in the park in part because at that speed it’s easier to avoid hitting one of the hundreds of buffalo that call it home. On a moonless night, a black buffalo is difficult to see against an asphalt road. A few get hit every year, and a 1,600-pound buffalo can ruin your night.
I slowed down to 40 as I drove the last five miles through the park to my destination on Highway 87. I have been a little jumpy lately about damaging my truck after hitting a deer a month ago (my first deer strike) near Devils Tower. I replaced the front bumper two weeks ago ($470) and as luck would have it, a few days ago I walked out of ShopKo and saw that while I was inside some butthole had hit that brand new bumper with their car. No note, of course. It’s scratched and not dented, thankfully, but that repair will cost me another $100.
So I scanned back and forth like radar looking for anything on the road. Then I saw something large and brown off the road near the edge of the light from my headlamps. Then another, and then there were 20 of them — elk — surrounded me on both sides of the road. They were not IN the road, so avoiding them was not a problem. But I was glad I was only going 40 mph as I slowed to about 10 moving through the herd. There were probably dozens more that I could not see on that moonless night.
Arriving safely at the turnout on Highway 87 south of the Beaver Creek bridge, I got out and scouted around for a good location for my tripod. I wanted something interesting in the foreground of the photos, not just a plain horizon. What I hope for in landscape photos is interesting stuff in three zones: the near ground, middle ground, and in the distance. At night, though, filling all three orders is not usually possible.
I took my flashlight and walked up a small hill checking out the possibilities, hesitant to use the flashlight because I didn’t want to destroy my night vision. It’s difficult to see stars if you’ve been blinded by a bright light. I wanted to get some trees at the bottom of my photos. The nearest ones were about 150 feet away. As I walked through the prairie grasses and small shrubs, mostly without the flashlight, I was hoping not to step on something I’d later regret, like a snake or a fresh buffalo chip. Every now and then I turned on the flashlight and looked in all directions; I didn’t want to invade the space of a dozing buffalo. Suddenly about 10 feet away there was the sound of a medium-sized bird taking off from the ground. A grouse, I assumed, but I never saw it.
I found a spot with a good view of the north and east horizons. The Perseus constellation would be in the northeast. I went back to the truck, again mostly without the flashlight, and retrieved my tripod and camera bag. Returning, I got everything set up and pointed the camera to the east with the trees at the bottom of the frame. I took a few single shots and made adjustments, settling on aperture of f2.0 (the largest opening in the lens possible, letting in the most light), shutter speed of 20 seconds (longer would leave star trails as they moved), and ISO of 2,000. Focusing manually was difficult because I could not see the stars in the viewfinder. I focused on a red light on a communications tower on Battle Mountain, 10 miles away, and tried to make sure that I didn’t accidently bump the focus dial after that, screwing up the focus.
Then, using the iPhone app, I set the shutter to take continuous shots, one after the other automatically. The strategy in getting photos of meteors is to take many, many shots, hoping that you’ll get lucky and a meteor will pass in front of your camera while the shutter is open.
As the camera was happily shooting away, I would occasionally point it in a different direction, since there was about a 50 percent cloud cover that I had to shoot around. I also experimented with light, using a fairly powerful flashlight to illuminate various objects. Wearing all black, hoping the camera would not see me, I lit up some trees, just to see how it would turn out. And, with my back to the camera, I illuminated the ground and trees in front of me, hoping my silhouette would show up (it did).
After about an hour, and hoping I had something worthwhile in the camera, I packed up my gear and drove home, arriving at 3:30 a.m. I went back to bed, then a few hours later, got up and transferred the images from the memory card to my computer.
With my naked eye, I had seen about a dozen meteors in various parts of the sky and shot over 100 photos. One of them, ONE, included a meteor.
But I call that a success.
Above: A Google Earth 3-D map of the Portuguese Island of Madeira, looking northwest.
(UPDATED at 7:25 a.m. MDT August 13, 2016)
The satellite image below from Friday August 12, shows fewer heat sources on Madeira and less smoke from the wildfires.
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(Originally published at 4:42 MDT August 2, 2016)
Wildfires on the Portuguese archipelago of Madeira have taken the lives of three civilians and destroyed over 150 homes while firefighters on the mainland are battling nearly 200 blazes. The fire has reached Madeira’s largest city, Funchal, which has a population of 110,000.
Madeira has no firefighting aircraft. They sometimes borrow CL-215’s, CL-415’s, (both are water-scooping air tankers) and Polish SOKOL helicopters from the Canary Islands 280 miles to the south.
Italy and Morocco have sent a total of three firefighting aircraft across the ocean to help control the fires. Russia has dispatched two Be-200 water-scooping air tankers, which last operated in Portugal in 2006.
Madeira is in the north Atlantic, 530 miles southwest of Portugal. The terrain on the popular tourist island is very steep which no doubt presents a challenging environment for firefighters.
Below is an excerpt from an article in the New York Times:
…The fire caused chaos, panic and despair around Funchal. Portuguese television showed elderly people, many of them barefoot or in wheelchairs, being escorted to safety in the middle of the night by emergency services or neighbors. Residents watched in tears as their homes burned down, and some were seen running around helplessly, trying to cover their faces to minimize smoke inhalation…
The four images in the tweet below are very impressive.
El incendio de #Madeira #Portugal, en cuatro imágenes del día, vía @el_pais #madeirafire #fotoperiodismo pic.twitter.com/EEqjaozaxH
— Miguel García (@miguelgar5) August 10, 2016
This video, uploaded today, was shot from a cable car as it travelled over areas affected by the fire. It’s a little long at 18 minutes, but if you skip around it gives an overview of some of the effects of the fire.
Madiera before after: https://t.co/bF6pOGQJb8 #madeirafire #GIS #Landsat #Portugal #POR pic.twitter.com/NI9FRUtwP2
— Justin Elliot Meyers (@MapMakinMeyers) August 12, 2016
This is a photo my sister took 2h ago. #Arouca pic.twitter.com/IjbHdnHPnD
— (¬‿¬)/(‿‿) Ass Stare (@BangAQUA) August 11, 2016
#madeirafire pic.twitter.com/kdVyf86MDC
— Thea (@mx_thea) August 12, 2016
This article was first published on FireAviation.com August 11, 2016.
Ten additional air tankers brought on temporarily
In the last few weeks the U.S. Forest Service has brought on ten additional air tankers on a temporary basis. This includes CL-415 water-scoopers, CV-580’s, and Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS) C-130’s. Two of the aircraft were acquired through Call When Needed (CWN) agreements; four via agreements with Alaska and Canada; two MAFFS through an agreement with the Department of Defense; and two water scoopers through other contracts.
HC-130H’s
The U.S. Forest Service expects to have two HC-130H aircraft at McClellan Air Field in September. These are part of the seven aircraft fleet of HC-130H’s that the agency is receiving from the Coast Guard.
Last year one of the HC-130H’s worked out of McClellan using a MAFFS, a slip-in 3,000-gallon pressurized retardant system that pumps the liquid out the left side troop door. That was aircraft #1721 designated as Tanker 118, still painted in military colors. T-118 is now undergoing scheduled depot-level maintenance and should be replaced in September of this year by #1708 designated as Tanker 116. It will also use a slip-in MAFFS unit, one of the eight owned by the USFS, but should be sporting a new USFS air tanker paint job. After T-118 left, another former Coast Guard aircraft took its place, #1706. It is being used for training the contracted pilots and will not serve as an air tanker.
Early in 2015 the plan was to have two HC-130H’s at McClellan. One would be used as an air tanker, and the second would be used as a training platform. Below is a portion of that early 2015 plan which we covered February 9, 2015.
Eventually the USFS hopes to have all seven converted to air tankers with removable retardant tanks. A contract for the installation of the retardant delivery systems was awarded to the Coulson Group in May. There is also much other work that has to be completed on the aircraft including programmed depot maintenance, painting, and wing box replacement on most of them. The work is being done or coordinated by the U.S. Air Force. They were directed by Congressional legislation to use their own funds, up to $130 million, so it is no surprise that the schedule keeps slipping as delays continue to occur in awarding contracts and scheduling the maintenance.
In 2014 Tom Tidwell, Chief of the USFS, said all seven aircraft would be completely converted by 2018. In early 2015 the USFS changed that to 2019. Now, a year and a half later, it’s anybody’s guess when or if this project that started in December of 2013 will be finished.
CL-415’s
The USFS has two water-scooping CL-415 air tankers on exclusive use contract. As noted above they recently temporarily brought on two more on a call when needed basis. All four are operated by AeroFlite and as seen in the photo above were together at Cody last week.
Air Spray
There was some discussion in the comment section of another article on Fire Aviation about the status of the BAe-146 aircraft being converted to air tankers by Air Spray. The company has five of the 146’s; two are out of the country and the other three are at the company’s Chico, California facility. Ravi Saip, their Director of Maintenance/General Manager, told Fire Aviation that they expect to begin flight testing one of them in air tanker mode around the first of the year. After they receive a supplemental type certificate from the FAA, work on the second one would shift into high gear. Then conversion of the other three would begin.
Air Spray also has eight Air Tractor 802 single engine air tankers that they have purchased since 2014. Five of them have received the amphibious conversion by adding floats, and the other three are stock, restricted to wheels.
Air Spray’s Tanker 498, an L-188 Electra, is currently in Sacramento being inspected and carded by CAL FIRE so that it can be used in a Call When Needed capacity.
747 SuperTanker
Jim Wheeler, President and CEO of Global SuperTanker Services, told us that the FAA has awarded a supplemental type certificate for their reborn 747 SuperTanker — a major and sometimes very difficult barrier to overcome. Within the next two weeks they expect to receive the airworthiness certificate.
Beginning next week representatives from the USFS will observe some additional static tests and then there will be an airborne descent test, a new test added in 2013, releasing retardant in a downhill drop. That test was not required when Version 1.0 of the 747 was certified. It may have been added after it was discovered that the first BAe-146’s that were converted and issued contracts still retained hundreds of gallons of retardant after downhill runs.
These steps should take less than two weeks, Mr. Wheeler said, after which they will submit the results to the Interagency AirTanker Board.
Jennifer Jones, a spokesperson for the USFS, told Fire Aviation that the company was offered an opportunity to submit a proposal for a call when needed contract solicitation in 2015, along with numerous other companies, but declined to do so. Their next opportunity to obtain a contract will be when another general solicitation is issued in 2017, or perhaps sooner, Ms. Jones said. The agency issued a Request for Information a few weeks ago, which is usually followed some months later with an actual solicitation.
Judging from the list of CWN air tankers with contracts, apparently it is possible to submit a proposal and receive a USFS CWN contract even if the aircraft exists mostly on paper and could be years away from being FAA and Interagency AirTanker Board certified.
In the meantime Mr. Wheeler realizes that the USFS is not the only organization that hires air tankers and has been talking with a number of other agencies in various states and countries as well as companies involved in marine firefighting.
Global SuperTanker is in the process of finishing repairs on the 747 in Arizona after some of the composite flight control surfaces (flaps, spoilers, elevators) and engine cowlings were damaged by golf ball sized hail at Colorado Springs several weeks ago. There was no windscreen or fuselage damage.
Mr. Wheeler said that was the first severe hailstorm within the last seven years at the Colorado Springs airport. But, after the aircraft left to be repaired in Arizona a second hailstorm struck the airport that some have said was a 100-year event and did much more damage than the first one.
Permanent base for the HC-130H air tankers
On September 2, 2015 the USFS formally requested information from facilities that could support the seven-aircraft HC-130H fleet (Solicitation Number SN-2015-16), with responses due September 16. The agency was only asking for information from interested parties, and will not award a contract based on the Request for Information. A few politicians fell all over themselves arguing that the aircraft should be based in their state.
Since then no decisions have been made. Ms. Jones told Fire Aviation:
The U.S. Forest Service continues to cooperate with the Department of Defense to identify potential federal facilities, which must be considered first.
It is unlikely that more than one or two of the seven HC-130H’s would be at the new base at at any one time, except during the winter when they would not have to be dispersed around the country to be available for firefighting. While the base might not be a huge expansion of the aerial firefighting capabilities in an area, the stationing of the flight crews, maintenance, and administrative personnel would be a boost to the economy of a small or medium-sized city.
The Ad Council has produced two new Smokey Bear public service announcements.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Uncategorized1 Comment on Fire activity increases in Wyoming Above: Fawn Fire in Yellowstone National Park, August 6, 2016. NPS photo.
Originally published at 5:23 p.m. MDT August 11, 2016.
There are five wildfires currently active in northwest Wyoming.
The Babaganoush Fire has been renamed the Twin Lakes Fire, we assume because no one could pronounce or spell the name. It was reported on August 8 but has been very active over the last 24 hours growing to about 1,400 acres 35 miles southwest of Meeteetse. A Type 2 incident management team has been ordered.
The Hunter Peak Fire was reported on August 9 about 16 miles southeast of the northeast entrance of Yellowstone National Park, three miles south of the intersection of US Highway 212 and the Chief Joseph Highway. It has burned about 1,700 acres and required some evacuations; 95 structures are threatened. Todd Pechota’s Type 1 Incident Management Team assumed command of the fire at 6 a.m. Thursday.
The Whit Fire 13 miles west of Cody been burning for nine days and did not increase in size on Wednesday. It has blackened over 12,000 acres and still has quite a bit of heat in the southwest portion. (Our previous article about the Whit Fire.)
There are two fires in Yellowstone National Park. The Fawn Fire is in the backcountry in the northwest section of the park 10 miles west of Mammoth and the north entrance. This 930-acre fire is being monitored from the air and was quite active Wednesday.
The other fire in the park is the Maple Fire which has burned about 100 acres 8 miles northeast of the community of West Yellowstone. It also was active Wednesday evening in a large expanse of the scar left by the 1988 North Fork Fire. It will be managed under a monitoring and point-protection strategy providing fire managers a unique opportunity to study current fire behavior in the 1988 fire scar.
