US Forest Service is hiring pilots
12-16-2009, 10:29 AM
#11
Gets Weekends Off
Joined APC: Apr 2008
Position: Sleeping in the black swan’s nest.
Posts: 5,709
Originally Posted by Badgeman
Thanks Airhoss. Were they Forestry Service pilot who perished, or H&P pilots. I've looked all over, in fact did a short report on this, and never found who it was that was signing their paychecks.
Those were H&P guys, as far as I know there aren't any USFS guys flying tankers each and every one of them is contracted out by private vendors. The only government guys flying tankers that I know of are some state guys.
The Captain's name was Steve I'd met him a time or two.
12-22-2009, 07:44 PM
#13
New Hire
Joined APC: Nov 2009
Posts: 1
The plane was an old a or b model that was retired from the air force. It had a ton of time on the airframe and had known wing box issues. A good friend of mine flew that plane the season prior to that accident. He quit after he saw the condition of the plane.
There are 4 Air National Guard units in the country that fly MAFFS (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System). Wyoming flying the H-3, Channel Islands flying the J, Colorado Springs flying the H-3, and Charlotte NC flying the H-3. All of these planes are maintained to the highest level and the Forrest service pays for the plane and the crew while they fly these missions. The positions the Forrest service is hiring for is "lead plane" pilots. They fly the lead planes that we (C-130s) follow into the fire areas. They show us where to drop the retardant as the herc crews aren't fire fighters and we don't possess the expertise for retardant placement to effectively contain the fires.
As far as the employment with the Forrest service as a pilot goes, I spoke to one of the contacts listed and they told me they want 90 days of "frontline experience putting dirt on fires". They aren't too thrilled as this requirement is new and put in place by non-pilot supervisors. The thought is that this requirement will go away as there aren't enough pilots with this experience to maintain the numbers of mission ready crews.
There are 4 Air National Guard units in the country that fly MAFFS (Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System). Wyoming flying the H-3, Channel Islands flying the J, Colorado Springs flying the H-3, and Charlotte NC flying the H-3. All of these planes are maintained to the highest level and the Forrest service pays for the plane and the crew while they fly these missions. The positions the Forrest service is hiring for is "lead plane" pilots. They fly the lead planes that we (C-130s) follow into the fire areas. They show us where to drop the retardant as the herc crews aren't fire fighters and we don't possess the expertise for retardant placement to effectively contain the fires.
As far as the employment with the Forrest service as a pilot goes, I spoke to one of the contacts listed and they told me they want 90 days of "frontline experience putting dirt on fires". They aren't too thrilled as this requirement is new and put in place by non-pilot supervisors. The thought is that this requirement will go away as there aren't enough pilots with this experience to maintain the numbers of mission ready crews.
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