Air Tanker 910, the DC-10 that arrived in Australia October 30, responded to a wildfire that was within sight of where it is based at the Royal Australian Air Force Base in Richmond (map), 40 miles west of Sydney, Australia. It is working on a contract with New South Wales during their summer bushfire season.
10 Tanker Air Carrier published the above photo on their Facebook page, with the caption:
This is a picture of our first fire in Australia this year. We were asked to fly two missions on the fire, taking a total of less than 30 minutes of flight time. We hear about fires right off the end of the runway all the time….but they don’t get much closer than this.
Below is a slow-motion video of T-910 dropping, posted on the Facebook page of the Wallacia Rural Fire Brigade November 4, 2016 (U.S. time).
In moving a retired P2V aircraft from the boneyard area at the Greybull, Wyoming airport to the nearby air tanker museum, it got stuck in the soft ground last weekend. Their plans are to let it sit there until either the soil dries out or the ground freezes.
“The UAS program will provide us with a valuable tool in many situations to increase situational awareness and decrease risk on search and rescue events and park projects.” Interagency Aviation Officer, Justin Jager
National Park Service drone pilots in training. NPS photo by B. Stone.
The first National Park Service (NPS) Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) pilots passed “flight school” in late September 2016 and were certified by the Department of the Interior (DOI).
The nine men and women from Grand Canyon National Park and the NPS’ Alaska Region will fly the UAS’s, also known as drones, in support of search and rescue activities, wildland fire and resource monitoring in the national park system.
The new government owned and operated NPS fleet UAS programs at the Grand Canyon and in Alaska are authorized as a three-year operational test and evaluation program. According to Interagency Aviation Officer, Justin Jager, “The UAS program will provide us with a valuable tool in many situations to increase situational awareness and decrease risk on search and rescue events and park projects.”
The NPS pilots will be working closely together and with other DOI bureaus such as the US Geological Survey and the Bureau of Land Management to integrate UAS flights into NPS operations. The ultimate goal is to reduce risks to personnel, resources and visitors, and shrink costs to the agency for missions normally accomplished with manned aircraft while accomplishing the mandates of the National Park Service.
Launching, landing or operating a commercial or hobby UAS in the National Park System is prohibited unless approved by the National Park Service under a special use permit. The NPS staff pilots operate UAS under an approval process in DOI and NPS policy. The Grand Canyon National Park and Alaska regional programs have been subject to review and approval by the NPS Associate Director of Visitor and Resource Protection.
The DC-10 will be down under for the New South Wales bushfire season.
Above: Air Tanker 910 just after landing at RAAF Richmond in New South Wales, Australia, October 30, 2016 (U.S. time). Photo by Bernie Proctor.
Tanker 910, one of the three DC-10s operated by 10 Tanker Air Carrier, landed in Richmond, New South Wales, Australia (map) on Sunday (U.S. time) to begin a contract during their summer bushfire season. During this second year of its contract, the 11,600-gallon aircraft will again be based at the Royal Australian Air Force Base in Richmond, 40 miles west of Sydney.
Sunday was the last day of Tanker 911’s contract with the U.S. Forest Service. It had been on standby in San Bernardino for the last two weeks. Tanker 912 continues with its CAL FIRE contract based at McClellan Air Field in Sacramento.
The aircraft would be manufactured in Santa Maria, California.
A businessman in Santa Maria, California, who has long been interested in the Russian-made Be-200 scooping air tanker, is pursuing still another avenue to use the aircraft in the United States.
David Baskett is the director of Santa Maria’s airport, president of TTE International, and is associated with International Emergency Services (IES). Campaigning for years to import the 3,000-gallon Be-200 air tanker, in 2010 he arranged for one of the aircraft to visit the United States. It was on display at Santa Maria, California and made a demonstration water drop. Mr. Baskett said then that his plan was to purchase 10 of the aircraft and lease them to air tanker operators in the United States.
A Be-200ES rolls out for the public while another makes a demonstration water drop. May 30, 2016 at the Beriev factory in Taganrog, Russia.
Now he says he is working with the Beriev Aircraft Company (that makes the aircraft), Global Seaplanes, and Airbus to manufacture the aircraft in Santa Maria. He hopes that the air tanker will receive FAA certification.
Several years ago some U.S. Forest Service employees traveled to Taganrog, Russia the home base of the Beriev company, to conduct tests to determine if the Be-200 could be approved by the Interagency AirTanker Board (IAB). At the time, we heard unofficial reports that it met the criteria for water-scooping air tankers, but tests were not completed for dropping fire retardant.
This is not the first announcement that the Be-200 would be manufactured in the United States. In 2014 USA Firefighting Air Corps (USAFAC) said they signed a collaboration agreement with IES to produce the Be-200 in Colorado. USAFAC co-founder Chris Olson told the Colorado Wildfire Matters Review Committee that the company was in discussions with international financiers to back the initiative’s $500 million proposition.
We understand that a person in Big Lake, Alaska forwarded this photo, via John T. Johnson. The helicopter was working on the Moose Creek Fire.
(Updated at 1:43 p.m. MDT October 21, 2016)
Firefighters are confident that the 303-acre Moose Creek fire north of Palmer, Alaska will be fully contained after this weekend.
We had a report that said it started last weekend when there were sustained 65 mph winds with temperatures as low as 15 degrees F.
Though the wind has abated, the cold conditions continue to pose problems for crews. Firefighters have had to winterize pumps and engines to keep the plumbing from freezing in the sub-freezing temperatures and any hose lines left out overnight are frozen in the morning. In addition, the cold temperatures have made conditions miserable for firefighters trying to stay warm. Firefighters are going through considerable amounts of coffee and hot chocolate to combat the cold temperatures.
I talked with Bob Hawkins yesterday about the Museum of Flight and Aerial Firefighting which is located at Greybull, Wyoming. It turns out that he is a director of the museum.
He said this P2V-7 at one time belonged to Hawkins and Powers but was auctioned off when the company went out of business. It was given to the museum by Richard Camp who is the head of the “Save a Neptune” organization. This aircraft was never converted into an air tanker, but Bob hopes to get one someday that actually was an air tanker.
(I was thinking that Neptune Aviation or Minden might have something sitting around.)
Some of you may know Bob. He was the “Hawkins” in “Hawkins and Powers” that operated air tankers out of the Greybull Airport. Now he’s flying helicopters for Sky Aviation in Worland, Wyoming.
