Tag: Aero Union

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.

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 “Aero Union is appealing the cancellation of their air tanker contract”

ChicoER.com is reporting that one of the three primary suppliers of air tankers has closed their doors, telling their employees they no longer have jobs, and to pick up their last checks this week. Aero Union, which earlier this year had eight large P-3 air tankers on exclusive use contracts with the U.S. Forest Service for wildland fire suppression, had their contracts for the last six P-3’s cancelled at the end of July due to their failure to participate in a continued airworthiness program.

The demise of Aero Union left 11 large air tankers, P2V’s supplied by Neptune and Minden, on exclusive use contracts with the USFS, compared to 44 in 2002. After the agency cancelled the Aero Union contract a few weeks ago, saying “we possess the aircraft support needed for this year’s fire season”, they brought on three Convair 580 air tankers to attempt to fill the void, bringing the total up to 14.

Eight of the nineteen heavy air tankers in the United States have been grounded indefinitely from the national fleet. A memo sent by the Southwest Coordination Center on April 14 stated that all P-3 Orions are grounded due to “issues found during aircraft inspection on one of the P-3s last week”.

This leaves 11 heavy air tankers, nine P2Vs operated by Neptune Aviation out of Missoula, MT and two P2Vs operated by Minden Air, Inc. out of Minden, NV.

One might assume, then, that the MAFFS and the very large air tankers, the 2 DC-10s and the 747, might see more use this year, if we have at least an average fire season.

We expect to have more on this story as the details emerge.

 

Thanks Ken

 

UPDATE 11:00 p.m. PT, April 15, 2011

A story in the Lubbock Avalance-Journal says all of the P-3s belonged to Aero Union who voluntarily grounded the planes due to a disagreement or misunderstanding between their company and the U. S. Forest Service and the FAA over inspections of the aircraft. The article said the company hopes to resolve the issue at a meeting on Tuesday of next week.

UPDATE at 3:32 p.m., April 21, 2011:

The disagreement about the P-3 air tankers has been resolved.

The Helicopter Association International web site has posted a statement written by the American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association concerning the long-term availability of large air tankers. Here is the statement:

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Large Airtankers Available for 2011 Fire Season

Numerous reports, blogs, and press releases continue to perpetuate the rumor that the current fleet of large airtankers used to fight wildland fires are going to be unavailable after 2012. These rumors are extremely misleading and totally false, and AHSAFA would like to set the record straight.

The privately operated large airtankers continue to be a viable component of wildland firefighting. Since 2005, the US Forest Service (USFS) has required all large airtanker operators to institute a comprehensive Continuous Airworthiness Program (CAP) in addition to the normal, routine maintenance requirements. Under the program, the operator must spell out an extensive inspection, and parts replacement plan, which must be verifiable with appropriate data and documentation. Additionally, all inspections under the CAP must be completed on schedule. This is why, contrary to current rumor, no law or regulation has mandated a phase out of the large tankers starting in 2012–or any other date– and why the industry believes the fleet is expected to remain airworthy for at least another 10-12 years of service.

Aero Union Corporation of Sacramento, California, and Neptune Aviation of Missoula, Montana are the major operators of the large airtankers under contract to the USFS. To assure the continued airworthiness of the Lockheed P-2V and P-3 airtankers, an extensive fatigue and damage tolerance assessment was carried out on the aircraft between April 2004 and August 2007 by an FAA-qualified, independent consulting firm, under a USFS contract.

For Aero Union’s eight P-3 aircraft, the average airframe hours are 17,040, with one as low as 13,900. In comparison, the current U.S. Navy P-3 aircraft averages over 20,000 hours.

The nine Neptune P-2 airtankers have a fleet average of just 9,500 flight hours on their airframes, with some aircraft, as little as 3,000 hours. New FAA requirements for continued airworthiness have even extended the service life of the aircraft.

The chart below shows the numbers of aircraft by type and the life expectancy of the majority of the existing large airtanker fleet. The chart is based on airtanker data from Aero Union and Neptune Aviation. Note the first major reduction of available aircraft doesn’t occur until 2019.

In spite of the rigorous maintenance oversight to insure the continued airworthiness of the airtankers, the industry agrees these aircraft will eventually reach the end of their service life and no longer be economical to operate. The current efforts by the USFS and the private sector are producing positive and specific solutions to the large airtanker challenge without any intervention and expansion of the role of any Federal agencies. The USFS and this association are actively addressing immediate and future large airtanker needs and together there has been significant progress in federal contracting strategies that provide the private sector with financial strategies that will position the private sector to be responsive to the need for modernized aerial firefighting assets. One of the important changes in contracting strategies requires Congress to provide the USFS with authority to contract for longer periods of time than the existing five year options. Ten year contracts would allow the private sector numerous financial options when procuring new large airtanker aircraft.

The public should rest assured the current large airtanker operators are mission-ready for deployment to any wildland fire at a moment’s notice and are currently under contract to the US Forest Service to fly on wildfires anywhere in the United States.

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UPDATE by Wildfire Today @ 7:50 p.m. MT, February 17

More information:

List of federally contracted large air tankers in 2010 revised March 30, 2010

Notice of Heavy Airtanker Forum Meeting, Boise, ID, November 16, 2010

Interagency Airtanker Board