Still image from video of Tanker 914, a DC-10, dropping on the Matt Staff RD Fire. Montana DNRC.The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation posted an excellent video of air tanker 914, a DC-10, dropping retardant on the Matt Staff Rd Fire.
DNRC’s County Assist Team has assumed command of the Matt Staff RD fire. Great progress was made thanks to the efforts of firefighters, aircraft, and calmer weather conditions. Here’s a video of an airtanker working with crews to slow fire progress. #mtfire #fireyear2022 pic.twitter.com/YpiIrgZQY1
— MT DNRC FIRE (@MTDNRCFIRE) August 6, 2022
The fire has burned 1,538 acres 13 miles east of Helena, Montana between Canyon Ferry Lake and US Highway 287.
All evacuations on the fire were lifted at 8 p.m. Friday, August 5th. Matt Staff Road is still closed to the public. Montana’s County Assist Team assumed command of the fire at 12 p.m. on August 5th. The cooler temperatures and brief rain Saturday morning were beneficial to firefighting efforts.
The drop
The terrain seen in the video is not extreme, but appears to be outside the parameters NASA expected for a very large air tanker such as a DC-10.
Here is an excerpt from the NASA report issued March 2, 2009, titled “USFS Very Large Air Tanker Operational Test and Evaluation.”
The analysis suggests that for level or gently rolling terrain where level to slight descents (< 6-7%) are required, VLAT-class aircraft could probably be employed with few restrictions as long as they remained above 300’ AGL during the delivery.
Check out the video below posted by Kevin Osborne showing a DC-10 making a downhill drop in 2012 on the Goff Fire on the Klamath National Forest in Northern California.
Names of fires
On a related subject, here is my plea for initial attack and dispatcher personnel to keep the names of fires simple. One word is preferred, but certainly no more than two. Think about how many times the name will have to written, spoken, and typed into forms. Will spelling be easy, or will it be misleading, such as “Camp Fire”, or Road vs Rd?
5 Comments
Nice!
The video of the drop on the Klamath is quite impressive.
Does anyone know; are the DC-10’s wired up to monitor stress loads and G’s on the airframe on drops? Just curious.
Heartily agree, Bill, on fire naming practices. Matt Staff Rd Fire is a dog.
My favorite came from a guy I worked with on a fire in Montana. He’d been around for a few years, but had never been first to show up and name a fire, and he was still waiting for his chance. He said he would name his fire the Cake Fire. Why? Well, he wanted to radio in to dispatch and announce that he was the IC on the Cake.
“the Forest Service has no previous experience with those new fangle contraptions (VLAT). Obviously no one at NASA has been on a wildland fire, old news. I have written many times on this site that a drop is no more than an approach, with a go around. With many operators now flying large, tanked helicopters, the era of VLAT air tankers has arrived. CDF saw that twenty years ago. Martin Mars, DC10 and most recently 747. A pilot of a CDF S2, retired DC 10 airline captain and most other airplanes with wings was never consulted by the Forest Service or NASA.. No one to my knowledge who flew ag or fire was ever asked, “will it work”? The ANSWER to the report was already in place, only on flat terrain or rolling hills
could the VLAT aircraft be used. Now let us write the report.
Yount, seriously, what ARE you smokin’ there?
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