Originally Posted by
Dak in back
Would love to fly for a firefighting outfit, but I really want to learn the operation first. Seems to me the best way would by to train as a spotter or bird-dog. A lot of these outfits fly King Airs. I have around 1100 pic in the king air family. Does anyone know who operates the spotter planes and if I'm even close to being competitive time wise?
Bird Dogs are canadian fire platforms, and are found rarely in the USA.
Spotter aircraft are generally single engine, and perform occasional fire patrols of a given fire district or forest. They're typically charter aircraft flown by a pilot carded for point to point, sometimes referred to as fire patrol.
The position to which you're referring is Air Attack; the majority of air attack platforms are Twin Commanders and TurboCommanders, and a few King Air's, Cessna 340's, etc.
The two biggest air attack operators presently are Spur Aviation and Ponderosa Aviation; formerly the same company, now split, located in Safford, AZ, and Twin Falls, ID. They fly all Twin and Turbo Commanders. They're Part 135 outfits, and in order to be hired, you'll need to meet basic ATP and 135 minimums, as well as have mountain experience, etc.
Firefighting is seasonal, and makes it more difficult to get hired elsewhere when done with the season, especially if you're planning to go back to fire the next season. It's definitely not a time building job.
Your application window will be approximately November through February, when most of the hiring will be done. Hiring can be done up until the start of the season, but only to fill sudden vacancies; most of the time all hiring and training is done a few months in advance.