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:
The video below shows Modular Airborne FireFighting System (MAFFS) C-130J aircraft from the California Air National Guard’s 146th Airlift Wing conducting training drops with lead planes. The video was uploaded to YouTube July 14, 2015, but it appears that the training occurred in April in the Angeles National Forest and in Kern County, California.
The image you see before the video begins had to have been taken years ago, since it shows the original version of the MAFFS which pumped retardant out the rear ramp. In the MAFFS2 that is used today water or retardant exits the aircraft out the left side troop door.
On July 13 N10R flew from Boise to Fort Wainwright, Alaska at 28,000 feet and 350 knots (403 mph). Flying for about 5.7 hours in three hops, it got there considerably more quickly than the Type 3 BLM helicopter on contract, N173BH, that spent four days in June flying from Rifle, Colorado to Fairbanks.
The Bureau of Land Management has awarded a contract for the first jet-powered lead plane in the United States. Lead planes fly ahead of the much larger air tankers that drop retardant on fires. They identify the targets and evaluate the fire and wind conditions. Dynamic Aviation, with headquarters in Bridgewater, Virginia, will be supplying a Cessna Citation CJ to serve as a lead plane and Air Supervision Module (ASM) this fire season. With the jet-powered air tankers now in use, including DC-10s, BAe-146s, and MD-87s, there is a need for a lead plane that can keep up with the “next-generation” air tankers.
The Dynamic Aviation aircraft is not the first jet-powered lead plane. British Columbia currently operates two Citations as Bird Dogs, according to information we received from a spokesperson for the U.S. Forest Service.
In January the Citation was for sale at Controller.com with an asking price of $1.1 million. During the off season it will be at their headquarters, where they operate a heavy maintenance and modification center, engine shop, and a privately owned airport. The company employs over 550 people and in September of last year began construction on their fifth hangar, named Hangar E. In addition to the new (to them) Citation, they have Beechcraft King Airs and Bombardier Dash 8-100s.
Caleb T. Stitely, an account manager at Dynamic Aviation, told us that the company has a contract with the BLM to supply two additional Cessna Citations beginning in 2015.
Randall Eardley, a spokesperson for the BLM said this year the agency will have three lead plane/ASMs on exclusive use contracts (the Citation and two King Air E-90s) and a fourth one on call when needed status (a King Air E-90). All four will be supplied by Dynamic Aviation. In addition, the Department of the Interior owns a King Air BE-200 that the BLM will use for Lead/ASM operations this coming fire season.
The U.S. Forest Service owns a Cessna Citation Bravo II equipped with a system for mapping fires using infrared imaging technology. It can download the imagery in near real time once each night to infrared interpreters on the ground who use it to make maps showing the location of fires.
The BLM will also have nine Air Tactical Group Supervisor (ATGS) platforms on contract this year. Three are on contract now and the other six are still out for bid. Spur Aviation will operate an Aero Commander AC690B, and Ponderosa Aviation will also have an Aero Commander AC690B and one Aero Commander AC680T.
We are working on collecting information about the U.S. Forest Service’s fleet of lead planes and Air Tactical platforms and hope to write about that in a day or so.