Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Helicopters6 Comments on CAL FIRE receives another FIRE HAWK helicopterIt will be deployed at Bieber in Lassen County.
The tenth of twelve new Sikorsky S70i FIRE HAWKs arrived at the CAL FIRE Aviation Management Unit last week at McClellan Park in Sacramento.
It will be deployed in northeast California at Bieber in Lassen County.
CAL FIRE is replacing their 12 Vietnam War-era Huey helicopters with Firehawks. Two more are still being built by Sikorsky or are being outfitted for firefighting by a company in Colorado.
The government of Portugal will give their six Kamov Ka-32A helicopters to Ukraine to be used in Russia’s war, said Helena Carreiras, Portugal’s Minister of National Defence.
In 2006 the government spent €348 million to buy six Kamov Ka-32A helicopters which could transport personnel and drop water, but over the last 10 years have had difficulty keeping them airworthy. In January none of the six were operational. The Helicopter Investor reported that in April the Portuguese government expelled a team of Russian mechanics working on three of the Kamovs, and shut down the hangar in Ponte de Sor where the maintenance crew was working.
The sanctions imposed on Russia have made it impossible for Portugal to maintain the helicopters. At this time none of them hold airworthiness certificates, and one is inoperable due to a crash.
Carreiras said: “At the request of Ukraine and in conjunction with the Ministry of Internal Affairs, we will make available to Ukraine our fleet of Kamov helicopters which, due to the current scenario, the sanctions imposed on Russia, we are no longer able to operate.”
The condition of the helicopters is already known by the Ukrainians, and they will be “transferred as they are … as soon as possible”, said Carreiras.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Fixed wing14 Comments on Photos show retardant was dropped in Sespe Creek during Howard Fire
A lawsuit filed Tuesday alleged that the US Forest Service has polluted waterways by firefighting air tankers inadvertently dropping fire retardant in or near waterways in violation of the Clean Water Act and a policy adopted by the Forest Service and other federal agencies in 2011. The policy requires that retardant not be dropped within 300 feet of a waterway on federal land.
Fire Aviation has acquired photos and a video that reportedly show signs of retardant being dropped into Sespe Creek on the Los Padres National Forest 8 miles northeast of Ojai, California October 8, 2022. The photos were shot by Pete Deneen on October 12, 2022 at the 85-acre Howard Fire. The creek is designated a “wild and scenic river” and is in a wilderness area.
The photos show retardant on rocks and other objects very close to water in Sespe Creek.
Some organisms, including aquatic threatened and endangered species or their habitats, can be adversely affected by retardants. In addition, retardant in water is a pollutant.
According to US Forest Service data, between 2012 and 2019, the Forest Service discharged retardant on at least 376 occasions totaling 761,282 gallons from aircraft directly into national forest waterways.
In the video below Mr. Deneen explains that there were two locations where retardant was dropped very close to the creek. In one case the aircraft may have turned as it was dropping to follow the creek for several hundred yards, or a second drop accounted for the retardant in the waterway.
The lawsuit was filed Oct. 11 by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics, FSEEE. In the group’s complaint they are seeking:
More about FSEEE’s history of protesting retardant, and the federal government’s policy of retardant avoidance areas established in 2011.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Fixed wing, Helicopters12 Comments on Lawsuit filed against US Forest Service over use of fire retardant
This article was first published at Wildfire Today.
An environmental group filed a lawsuit in a Montana federal court Tuesday alleging that the US Forest Service has polluted waterways by inadvertently dropping fire retardant in or near waterways. The retardant was dropped by aircraft under contract with the Forest Service while assisting wildland firefighters on the ground.
The suit says government data released earlier this year showed more than 760,000 gallons of fire retardant was dropped into waterways between 2012 and 2019. The lawsuit alleges the continued use of retardant from aircraft violates the Clean Water Act and requests a judge to declare the pollution illegal.
The Forest Service has established retardant avoidance areas along waterways where the liquid is not supposed to be applied. This puts buffer zones around waterways and habitat for some threatened, endangered, and sensitive species in order to avoid applying retardant in those areas. When they were first established in 2011 it resulted in approximately 30 percent of USFS lands being off limits for retardant while fighting fire. There is an exception if human life or public safety is threatened. The policy was the result of an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) that studied the use of retardant and how it affects water resources and certain plant and wildlife species. The EIS was written in response to a July, 2010 decision by U. S. District Court Judge Donald Molloy in a lawsuit filed in 2008 by the Forest Service Employees for Environmental Ethics.
The same organization, FSEEE, filed the new case yesterday. An attorney in Missoula, MT who specializes in environmental law, Tim Bechtold, will be representing FSEEE. Presiding over the case will be District Court Judge Dana Christensen. He joined the court in 2011 after a nomination from President Barack Obama. Before, he was a partner in the firm of Christensen, Moore, Cockrell, Cummings, and Axelberg, in Kalispell, Montana. One of the 15 practice areas the firm deals with today is environment and natural resources.
In 2012 FSEEE issued a statement criticizing the use of air tankers on fires, claiming it is “immoral”. The group argued that aerial firefighting is too dangerous and ineffective and that “retardant doesn’t save homes; proper construction and landscaping save homes.”
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Contracting, Fixed wing, Helicopters3 Comments on In Europe, balancing firefighting and war fightingThis article was first published at Wildfire Today
Climate change, increasing wildfires, and Russia’s war in Ukraine are combining to put unusual stresses on governments, especially in Europe. When wildfires become numerous or very large, threatening large numbers of residents, many countries will mobilize military units. They may use helicopters to drop water or transport firefighters or trucks to assist with logistics. The United States has eight Modular Airborne FireFighting Systems (MAFFS) that can be quickly loaded into military C-130s to drop retardant on fires. Soldiers on the ground can be transformed from warfighters to firefighters.
This year was the hottest summer on record in Europe. It followed what what is now the second hottest summer on the continent. During the worst drought in centuries wildfires burned about 50 percent more acres than the previous record set in 2017.
The Washington Post has an article about how the war is affecting countries in Europe, in this case Slovenia, that need to both fight wildfires as the climate changes and bolster the military as international tensions mount.
“There will be these disasters of fires or floods. It will be more and more common,” Defense Minister Marjan Šarec said in an interview. “We must spend our money for everything that is needed. Because safety has no price.”
“It’s not a dilemma of cannons or butter,” said Šarec, who has also been a volunteer firefighter. “As a serious country we must do both.”
But military leaders say the dual-headed challenge can sometimes be significant, and even contradictory.
“Our training is going on in a military way. Exercises. How to use military equipment, how to fight, how to protect. How to defend,” said Glavaš, the head of Slovenia’s military command. “When you stop this training and you go to civilian tasks you need to focus your mind from fighting to something else. It’s very hard sometimes.”
He said that fighting fires “definitely” had an impact on combat readiness.
Currently the European Union coordinates and funds the deployment of 12 fixed wing firefighting airplanes and one helicopter pooled by EU countries. Fire Aviation reported in July that the EU plans to purchase additional air tankers.
The European Commission issued a press release on Oct. 5, 2022 confirming they are proposing to spend €170 million from the EU budget to reinforce its rescEU ground and aerial assets in the summer of 2023. The rescEU transitional fleet would then have a total of 22 planes, 4 helicopters as well as more pre-positioned ground teams. Beginning in 2025, the fleet would be further reinforced through an accelerated procurement of airplanes and helicopters.
The Washington Post reported that Slovenian defense leaders decided this month to cancel a $343 million purchase of armored troop carriers as they contemplate buying more aircraft that could be used to fight fires.
Gérald Moussa Darmanin, France’s Minister of the Interior, said recently, “We want to increase the number of Canadair [water scooping air tankers] in our own fleet from twelve to sixteen. But the problem is not to buy them, it is to produce them. Today there are no longer any factories that do so.”
The CL-415 water scooping air tanker has been out of production for years, but De Havilland, which now owns the rights to the aircraft, announced on September 21 the planned construction of a huge aircraft manufacturing facility east of Calgary, Alberta. They expect to employ 1,500 workers to produce at least three lines of aircraft — DHC-515 (a modernized variant of the CL-415), DHC-6 Twin Otter, and Dash 8-400 (Q400).
An announcement from De Havilland said, “European customers have signed letters of intent to purchase the first 22 aircraft pending the positive outcome of government-to-government negotiations through the Government of Canada’s contracting agency, the Canadian Commercial Corporation. De Havilland Canada expects first deliveries of the DHC-515 [water scooping air tanker] by the middle of the decade, with deliveries of additional aircraft to begin at the end of the decade, providing other customers the opportunity to renew existing fleets or proceed with new acquisition opportunities at that time.”
In the near term it does not seem likely that European countries are going to be able to find and purchase dozens of purpose-built air tankers to meet their needs.
Before this year many of the firefighting aircraft typically used in Western Europe and the Middle East during the summer were contracted from Russia. With the war and sanctions that source has virtually dried up.
The Helicopter Investor reported that in April the Portuguese government expelled a team of Russian mechanics working on three of their Russian made Kamov helicopters, and shut down the hangar in Ponte de Sor where the maintenance crew was working. In 2006 the government spent €348 million to buy six Kamov Ka-32A helicopters which could transport personnel and drop water, but over the last 10 years have had difficulty keeping them airworthy. In January none of the six were operational.
The Portuguese Air Force has signed an agreement to purchase six Blackhawk helicopters outfitted for fighting wildfires. The aircraft will be supplied by Arista Aviation Services, a US-based firm which specializes in modernizing surplus US Army UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. Delivery of the first two is scheduled for the first quarter of 2023.
For a number of years Erickson Inc. has contracted their firefighting Air-Crane helicopters to European governments. In 2021 Columbia Helicopters had Columbia Model 234 Chinook’s on contract in Turkey. Single engine air tankers regularly make the migration between South America and Europe as the fire season switches hemispheres.
🇺🇸#ColumbiaHelicopters “Columbia Model 234 #Chinook” #AerialFirefighting 🚁s has become operational in 🇹🇷#Turkey via partnership with #CMCSavunma to strength General Directorate of Forestry aerial firefighting capabilities. #IstanbulAirport @gazetesozcu #Turkish pic.twitter.com/tKuRDZ990L
— DefenceGEO (@DefenceGeo) July 18, 2021
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Fixed wing3 Comments on Coast Guard C-130 1706 spotted at McClellan
Mike McKeig took photos of Coast Guard aircraft 1706 arriving at Sacramento McClellan Airport yesterday, one of seven HC-130Hs being transferred to CAL FIRE to become, one day, air tankers. Its next stop might be in Kingman, AZ, or another facility, to get new livery.
The 1706 aircraft had its center wing box replaced before the legislation was passed in December of 2013 to transfer seven Coast Guard HC-130Hs to the Forest Service, and later to CAL FIRE. All of them will need to have depot level maintenance completed and retardant systems installed before the final transfer is complete.
Author Bill GabbertPosted on Categories Drone/UAV/UAS, Fixed wing4 Comments on NASA holds design challenge for firefighting air tankerWinners announced
Another student competition for designing an air tanker has concluded. It was only last week when we had an article about the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Foundation’s Team Aircraft Design Competition.
A similar event concluded several months ago titled “Extending Aviation’s Public Benefit” sponsored by NASA. Their concept for the competition was based on the assumption that Urban Air Mobility (UAM) and Regional Air Mobility (RAM) aircraft offer the potential to create large production runs of small airframes for moving cargo and people, but derivatives or modifications of these aircraft could serve other public purposes. These vehicles are being designed to have very short or vertical takeoff and landings, low community noise, high utilization rates, and rapid deployment.
Here is an excerpt from the design requirements:
Teams are requested to design a suite of vehicles that can collectively deliver 3000 gallons of water to a fire location in a single pass. The number of vehicles and payload per vehicle is up to the team and should be part of the initial concept of operations.
The vehicles must be able to gather water from local water sources (lakes, rivers, oceans). Many water sources are small and require Very Short Takeoff and Landing (VSTOL) operations. Currently, helicopters are used to reach these small water sources and this vehicle should be able to access similarly small or tree-enclosed bodies of water. Vehicles will be scored such that the combined balanced takeoff and landing distance should be minimized. For reference, the water source and fire are located at an altitude of 3500 ft (MSL). Temperatures are hot, standard day +10 °C. Teams should consider how the vehicles collect the water, i.e. via scoop during a pass over the water; landing on the water to pump water into a collection tank; or some other method the teams devise.
Each vehicle must be able to be operated either remotely or by a single pilot. The vehicles must be able to takeoff, land, and refill at night and in low visibility operations. Accuracy is essential in dropping water; therefore, the vehicle must autocorrect for current wind conditions.
The aircraft would have an entry into service date in 2030.
Winners were announced for first, second, and third places, plus honorable mention.
First Place: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VA Tech), Blacksburg, VA
Their concept for delivering 3,000 gallons of water was to have a fleet of four water-scooping, singly-piloted, turbo-electric hybrid aircraft each carrying up to 750 gallons.
Two turboshaft engines drive electric generators mounted towards the top-rear of the fuselage, providing improved airflow during scoop maneuvers. This powertrain drives the ten distributed electric propulsion motors and two cruise motors. The generators charge a set of high-discharge batteries for use during VSTOL operations. When the ten smaller motors are inactive their props would fold.
The team estimates the selling price of one aircraft would be $5.8 million; the total number manufactured needed to get that price was not specified in the two page executive summary (above).
Instead of a 750-gallon tank, another version of the aircraft could carry up to eight passengers.
2nd Place: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VA Tech), Blacksburg, VA.
The Iris, getting second place, consists of one remotely piloted lead plane and eight air tankers. It presumably carries up to 375 gallons each to meet the design criteria of 3,000 gallons, but that was not clear in the two-page abstract. It has a turboelectric propulsion system while “allowing for future electrification as battery technology advances past the entry into service date in 2030.”
Iris two-page abstract.
3rd Place: Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (VA Tech), Blacksburg, VA
The Fire Fighting Gobbler team designed the Flock, a system of six remotely piloted eVSTOL aircraft which could conduct several sorties before returning to base to swap batteries. It would be capable of taking off and landing on small lakes in 360 ft and 440 ft respectively.
Firefighting Gobbler two page abstract
Honorable Mention: University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Few details are in the University of Minnesota’s short abstract, but it would be unmanned “pending future developments in the realm of unmanned aerial vehicles.”
University of Minnesota two page abstract
Thanks and a tip of the hat go out to Gerald.
In September it burned 5,280 acres north of Los Angeles between Interstate 5 and Castaic Lake
A report produced by the managers of Southern California’s Quick Reaction Force (QRF) of four helicopters concludes that the aggressive aerial attack working with the units on the ground likely limited the final size and cost of the Route Fire. The fire started at about noon on August 31, 2022 and ultimately burned 5,280 acres north of Los Angeles between Interstate 5 and Castaic Lake. (Download the 3.2 Mb report)
This is a different incident from the Route Fire that burned 454 acres a few miles away along Interstate 5 September 11, 2021. You may remember that fire as the one where 13 firefighters who were becoming rapidly entrapped were crammed into two US Forest Service engines and rescued with only moments to spare. There were 23 bodies in the two engines, with seating designed for five each. Another 11 firefighters not quite as close to the flames were rescued by Los Angeles County engines.
The four QRF helicopters are all staffed for 24-hour coverage and equipped for night flying. With most of their base funding supplied by Southern California Edison they are located in Orange, Los Angeles, and Ventura Counties. Two of the helicopters are CH-47 Chinooks, one is an S-61, and the fourth is an S-76 used for aerial supervision. The helicopters are dispatched as a unit along with a mobile fire retardant base and can drop water until the base is established. The fact that they can drop retardant 24 hours a day, when fixed wing aircraft can’t work the fire at night, can be a game changer. During the Route Fire the mobile retardant base did not have to travel, it was set up at its base about 10 miles from the fire.
The assignment given to the QRF by Los Angeles County Fire Department on the Route fire was for it to stop the spread to the north. The S-61 was tasked to hold a particular location on the fire, using water from the adjacent Castaic Lake. It averaged of 696 gallons per drop.
The two Chinooks dropped averages of 2,434 gallons of water per drop and 1,896 gallons of retardant per drop. The three suppression helicopters flew an average of 9 hours each that afternoon and into the night, dropping 223,000 gallons of water and 55,000 gallons of retardant. The S-76 was used for 17 hours. The total cost of the retardant and flight time for the four ships was $403,950.
The report compares the Route Fire to the 1996 Marple Fire which started in about the same location at the same time of the day and time of year in similar weather conditions. By midnight the Marple Fire had exceeded 10,000 acres and continued spreading for two or three days until it was stopped at 19,860 acres.
In contrast, the spread of the Route Fire was stopped at 8 a.m. on Day 2. The three helicopters dropped water and retardant much of the night to hold it at a ridge on the north side, allowing hand crews and dozers to complete fire line.
It is very difficult to compare the suppression costs of two fires that occurred 26 years apart, but the authors of the QRF report estimated that the cost of the Marple Fire in today’s dollars would be somewhere between $70 million and $140 million. The cost of the Route Fire was $7 million to $8 million.
