Skies Magazine has devoted about 10 pages to the two large airtankers that just finished their contracts in Australia. Conair’s RJ-85 and Coulson’s C-130Q arrived in Victoria in early December, and by mid-February had made a total of 81 retardant drops.
The aircraft are covered on pages 36-48 and 60-61 in the magazine.
In this video Conair’s RJ-85 and Coulson’s C-130Q air tankers are seen dropping retardant on a bushfire near Moyston, Victoria in Australia, January 2, 2015. The C-130Q is first, followed two minutes later by the RJ-85. These aircraft are known as “bombers” or “water bombers” in Australia and were on contract for the Australian summer in 2014/2015. As of March 12, 2015, the C-130Q has completed its contract and is over the Pacific en route back to North America. The RJ-85 is also done with their contract, but before they can depart they have to install some fuel bladders, due to the limited fuel range of the aircraft.
The two large air tankers from North America that are under contract to the Victorian government during Australia’s 2014/2015 bushfire season have been relocated to Western Australia where two large fires are burning. One fire is about 150 kilometers (93 miles) south of Perth and the other is about 300 kilometers (186 miles) south of the city. The two aircraft, Coulson’s C-130Q and Aero-Flite’s RJ-85, are working out of RAAF Base Pearce (YPEA) northeast of Perth (map).
Thursday evening, MST time, the two air tankers filed flight plans to depart and land at YPEA, scheduled to land four hours after taking off.
Two Sikorsky S64E Air-Crane helicopters are also being moved to Western Australia.
Wildfire Today has more information about the fires.
Now that we have summarized the evolution of the federal large air tanker fleet over the course of 2014, it’s time to look at what is in store for 2015. There could be between 14 and 21 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts this year. Jennifer Jones, a Public Affairs Specialist with the U. S. Forest Service in Boise, told us that the list should include these aircraft:
In 2014 a DC-10 and three more BAe-146s were brought into service as “additional equipment” on a 1-year temporary basis under exclusive use contracts awarded in 2013. Due to a change in Department of the Interior procurement policies, this will not be done again in 2015.
The USFS expects to award another “next generation” contract for up to 7 more air tankers in 2015. We will be watching to see how long it takes the agency to advertise and award the contracts. Last time it took 555 days.
The USFS will also have one CL-415 water scooping air tanker on contract this year. And, eight military C-130s equipped with Modular Airborne Fire Fighting Systems (MAFFS) are expected to be available if needed.
Last year the Department of the Interior funded 33 exclusive use Single Engine Air Tankers (SEATs) as national shared resources. Randall Eardley, a spokesperson for the Bureau of Land Management, said their contracts are not firmed up yet for 2015, but they expect to have about the same number of SEATs as last year.
The video shows Aero-Flite’s RJ-85 dropping over the Moyston fire in Victoria, Australia, January, 2015.
The Conair and Field Air folks that are running the RJ-85 air tanker in Australia during their summer down under, posted this map on a Facebook page dedicated to the aircraft’s assignment in Victoria. It is based at the Avalon airport southwest of Melbourne.
The triangles represent retardant drops. Frequently the RJ-85 and the C-130Q are dispatched to the same fires in Victoria and South Australia. The two aircraft dropped on their first fire in the country on December 16, 2014.
The Australian Defence Force produced this film of the ADF providing logistic support to South Australia’s Country Fire Service’s fire fighting aircraft at RAAF Base Edinburgh following the outbreak of devastating bushfires near Adelaide. The fire fighting aircraft included a C-130Q Hercules – Air Tanker, an Avro RJ-85 – Air Tanker and a Gulfstream Aero Commander AC690 – Air Attack aircraft. The task, which commenced on Sunday, January 4th 2015, followed a formal request facilitated by Emergency Management Australia (EMA), which manages and coordinates national support provided to the States and Territories.
Since they started on contract a couple of weeks ago, the two large air tankers currently working in Victoria, Australia are being used on a regular basis to help firefighters on the ground knock down bushfires . The two aircraft are an RJ-85, known as Bomber 391 (Tanker 161), and a C-130Q, called Bomber 390 (Tanker 131). These first two photos show the C-130Q.
The next two photos, we are told, are examples of how the retardant dropped by the planes slowed down, or stopped in some places, fires spreading through grass. These last two photos were taken by Lee Gleeson, Air Attack Supervisor with the DEPI in Victoria.
The two large air tankers that are on contract in Victoria, Australia made their first down under retardant drops on a fire December 16. Conair’s RJ-85 and Coulson’s C-130Q each made one drop on a wildfire near the town of Wodonga in northeast Victoria, with both of them putting about an hour and a quarter on their hours meter. These photos were taken by Micheal Austin as the retardant-stained aircraft were returning and landing at Avalon.
The photo of the RJ-85 above shows a retardant stain coming from what appears to be a small orifice high up on the rear section of the bolt-on tank, which could be some sort of overflow function. (Click on the photos to see larger versions.)
The Border Mail has some fascinating photos of the fire, including many shots with lightning in the background.
As we reported earlier, at 10 a.m. local time on Tuesday the two air tankers and seven other firefighting aircraft were formally introduced to the Australian media. Both the RJ-85 and the C-130 made demonstration drops with water. A few hours later in the early afternoon they were dispatched to the fire near Wodonga.
Below is an excerpt from ABC, reporting on the introduction of the large air tankers:
…Two Canadian water bombing aircraft doing a practice run for the media at Avalon Airport were called in to help fight the blaze.
The Hercules and RJ tankers can hold more than 12,000 litres of water or fire retardant, which is almost double the capacity of the largest water bombers used last year.
Emergency Services Commissioner Craig Lapsley said the two tankers would be crucial to firefighting this summer because they can fly longer distances.
“They’ll be based at Avalon but they can reach either ends of the state,” he said.
“[They can go] over to Mallacoota or across into the far south-west in around 30 minutes, so their flying time is quite significant.”
Conair is in partnership with the Australian company Field Air in making the RJ-85 aircraft available in Australia. They have launched a Facebook page dedicated to the RJ-85 in Australia, and posted a video that details the development of the air tanker.