firefighting B747-400 Cleared to Fly!!
 

Saw this Aircraft doing a test drop the other day driving down I-10 what a sight.

Not yet. It still needs Air Tanker Board approval.

Then someone to pay the bills.

Wouldn't smaller tankers offer more flexibility at a lower cost? Is aerial fire suppression more like strategic bombing or close air support? :confused:

I think a little of both, Tom.

Smaller planes, such as the Canadair CL-145 have advantages in their quick reload time: dip into a lake, scoop, and back you go to the fight. Works well in Canada, with more lakes than the western US.

Planes such as Hercs, Neptunes, and Trackers have limited loads, and long transit/reload times.

The idea with a Supertanker is either one big drop for strategic fires, or lots of tactical drops (since capacity is huge, and loiter time significant).

The drop-aiming system is supposed to be a force-multiplier, too.

I watched Evergreen's Tanker program with interest, as a former Evergreener. Boeing was involved as they saw a huge worldwide market for older 747 conversions. The story was.....they (Evergreen) didn't have the right connections. For some reason, whether political, or if Delbert Smith was charging too much money, they were rarely invited to play, even when there were big fires (Colorado in 2013 comes to mind), where there "...weren't enough tankers available..."

It only played in a few big fires. It performed very well, but was never utilized to its full capacity.

And that is a shame.

I watched Evergreen's program as both a 747 guy and an aerial firefighter. Their problem, aside from not having an airworthy aircraft most of the time, was the expense. Tankers work on a daily availability rate, which is charged for each 14 hour workday of availability in any given 24 hour period, and also per flight hour. Evergreen's airplane was exceptionally expensive on both counts. Ultimately, the USFS didn't bite, and only Calfornia took it, and it ended up without a contract on a call when needed basis.

In the end, Evergreen represented it as available CWN, when it had no engines.

As far as the VLAT (Very Large Air Tanker), the phrase most often used is "different tools in the tool box." Presently the only VLAT is the DC-10.

The most common tanker in the national fleet is the Air Tractor 802 Single Engine Air Tanker (SEAT), an 800 gallon turbine airplane. More SEATs are operational and available than all the large air tankers combined. There's really no "strategic" vs. "tactical" wildland firefighting. Just firefighting. All the aircraft in the fleet work on fires that range from a single tree to tens of thousands of acres, desert grass to forest timber. It's not uncommon at all to have multiple aircraft types working the same fire, including the SEATs on the same drop line, fire flank, or target as the VLAT.

John:

Thanks; interesting stuff I had not heard.

As a non-firebomber: what is CWN?

Call When Needed. Think of it like being on short call reserve.

The term changes back and forth but OC and CWN are On Call and Call When Needed, which designate a type of contract. All tankers operate under a contract with the federal government or a state; the open contract is CWN, and federal CWN aircraft are available for use or release at any given time. A CWN aircraft has no guarantee of use; it's entirely up to the government when it starts, when it's released, and there's no way for the crew to now when they'll be called out or when they'll go home.

The other kind of contract is EU or Exclusive Use; these are contracts with designated start and end dates, and guarantee a certain amount of time to the government. Typical exclusive use contracts are anywhere from 90 to 120 days or more. The aircraft may have a particular designated base to start, but the if the contract is federal, the aircraft is classified as a "national asset" and can (and does) go anywhere in the country on a moment's notice.

Exclusive Use contracts have a known period of guaranteed availability and pay, but are also always available for pre-season and post-season use, which makes them more like CWN aircraft.

Aircraft and crews are paid for daily availability, or a daily rate for being available up to 14 hours a day. Depending on the aircraft and contract, typically hours over 9 are also paid a small additional override, up to 14 hours. Some contracts pay an hourly flight rate, while others have a monthly salary paid to the crews, and no hourly rate (designed to eliminate the incentive to fly, in the interest of making safe go/no-go decisions). The aircraft earns daily and hourly rates, regardless of what the crew is paid. Some contracts include per diem, others don't, though most all operators pay their personnel per diem whether the government pays the contractor, or not.