The agency says the aircraft has an avionics problem
Continue readingDynamic Aviation’s Cessna Citation lead planes
When the folks at Dynamic Aviation saw a photo I took of one of their Cessna Citation lead planes last year, they sent me “a more recent picture” (above). They were too polite to say so, but I’m thinking the marketing department may have been uncomfortable with the photo that showed laundry hanging out of the forward luggage compartment. 🙂
Currently Dynamic Aviation, based in Bridgewater, Virginia, has the following aircraft under contract with the USFS and/or the BLM, according to Katie Dillon their Communications Manager:
- Two Cessna Citations (lead plane)
- One King Air 90 (lead plane)
- One King Air 90 (USFS Aerial Firefighting Use and Effectiveness study)
Infrared aircraft N149Z down for a week due to maintenance
One of the two infrared line-scanning, fire-mapping fixed wing aircraft operated by the U.S. Forest Service has been out of action for the last seven days. Forest Service spokesperson Mike Ferris said this was due to expected maintenance, an “intricate Phase inspection” required on the Super King Air 200, N149Z. The work is being done by three USFS mechanics at Ogden, Utah. Mr. Ferris expects the aircraft to be back in service for mapping fires tonight, August 10.
During the last seven days the workload increased for the other infrared aircraft, the N144Z Cessna Citation. During some missions their pilots maxed out their duty day and mapping requests from fires were UTF’ed, Unable to be Filled.
In September of 2014 N149Z was down for an extended period of time for a serious problem with an engine mount.
USFS awards contracts for two air attack planes
In March the U.S. Forest Service issued two contracts for air attack planes — one aircraft per contract. Avcenter out of Pocatello, Idaho received one for a Rockwell Turbo Commander 690B. The other was awarded to Dynamic Aviation Group in Bridgewater, Virginia for a Beechcraft King Air E90.
Both contracts began with the planes in the Southwest Geographic Area (Arizona and New Mexico) in April, and then in early July they relocated to the Northwest Geographic Area (Washington and Oregon).
One interesting thing about the solicitation was the description of the aircraft in the synopsis:
…air tactical type I, light high-fixed-wing aircraft…
The requirement for a high-wing aircraft conflicts with the specifications in the full request for quotations where the block for “High Wing” was not checked, meaning it was not required. It is possible that some potential bidders who had low wing aircraft available, like the King Air B90, saw the high wing requirement in the synopsis and assumed, logically, that their aircraft was not qualified. Dynamic Aviation, which has contracted for many aircraft with the federal government, obviously read beyond the synopsis and determined that their King Air met the specifications.
There was a big difference in the costs of the contracts. Avcenter’s Commander 690B will receive $1,290 for daily availability and $1,505 for each flight hour. Dynamic’s King Air E90 will get $879 for daily availability and $1,210 per flight hour. In availability alone, the difference is over $56,000. The flight hour costs will add tens of thousands of additional dollars to the difference in the two aircraft. If the Forest Service could be completely satisfied with the less expensive King Air and contracted for two instead of one, an accurate synopsis possibly could have saved the taxpayers a lot of money by attracting more bidders.
Another example of sloppiness in the solicitation, but a much more minor one, is the title:
“Ligth Fixed Wing Air Attack Platforms”
The Forest Service has had a great deal of difficulty contracting for firefighting aircraft. In the last few years many contract awards have been protested, delaying the process by at least 100 days each time. This “high wing” screw-up could be grounds for another protest unless the time limit for protests has passed.