I Work in Aerial Firefighting. Ask Me Stuff!

[KABQ]

@KABQ many thanks to you and all your colleagues who are working around the clock to help others. Hats off to you sir!

Thanks for the kind words!

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[Johnny Rebel]

The crop dusting operation by me, actually went into firefighting with 9 air-tractors speced for scoop and drop. Seems like every year or two we hear of a cropdusting death in the state.

Equipped with floats? Only seen pics of those, but I love them!

When I see a pic like this, it raises my pucker factor! Can't imagine flying something that big through the hills at low altitude!

 

[Johnny Rebel]

Some companies fly a mix of airframes, but we just fly the big birds.

I don't really have much experience around crop dusters, but my impression is that those guys are nuts.

When I saw the pic posted above in my news feed, I actually wondered if it was you, but I see the tail numbers are different. As many others have said, much respect to you and your crew!

I love the crop dusters, but they are definitely nuts! I've never been around any firefighters, so was just curious if the dangers were similar. I guess there's a lot of difference between 15' and 300' AGL, but your bird is WAY bigger.

What's your airspeed during a drop?

Stay safe!

 

[Fly]

How do you get the drop location? Forest service send coordinates? Is there a common frequency you are on with other aerial firefighters? Since there is a lot of low level stuff I assume you’re not talking to regular ATC most of the time but need to maintain separation from others.

Thanks for all you do!

 

[KABQ]

When I saw the pic posted above in my news feed, I actually wondered if it was you, but I see the tail numbers are different. As many others have said, much respect to you and your crew!

I love the crop dusters, but they are definitely nuts! I've never been around any firefighters, so was just curious if the dangers were similar. I guess there's a lot of difference between 15' and 300' AGL, but your bird is WAY bigger.

What's your airspeed during a drop?

Stay safe!

Yeah that's us. We have 4 tankers.

Ideally for a perfect drop we're at 150 KIAS and 250' AGL.

 

[KABQ]

How do you get the drop location? Forest service send coordinates? Is there a common frequency you are on with other aerial firefighters? Since there is a lot of low level stuff I assume you’re not talking to regular ATC most of the time but need to maintain separation from others.

Thanks for all you do!

Yep, USFS tells us where they want us and we go there. Once on the fire we're talking to Air Attack, an airplane that basically provides overwatch and controls the airspace.

If you want to kind of see how everything works, just find a fire on Flightradar 24. Air Attack will usually be an Aero Commander (AC90 on Flightradar) and they'll be flying circles above everyone. Below them will be one or two lead planes, usually King Airs (BE20 or BE30), also flying a lot of circles. Their job is to pick up the tankers and lead them through the drop, popping smoke where they want the drop to start. If there are a lot of tankers on one fire, they'll hang out in a holding area out of the way until the lead planes are ready for them. Then there will be helicopters, scoopers, and SEATs (single engine air tankers, basically crop dusters) popping in and out and doing their thing.

 

[HighVelocity]

Can I go for a ride?

 

[Fly]

Yep, USFS tells us where they want us and we go there. Once on the fire we're talking to Air Attack, an airplane that basically provides overwatch and controls the airspace.

If you want to kind of see how everything works, just find a fire on Flightradar 24. Air Attack will usually be an Aero Commander (AC90 on Flightradar) and they'll be flying circles above everyone. Below them will be one or two lead planes, usually King Airs (BE20 or BE30), also flying a lot of circles. Their job is to pick up the tankers and lead them through the drop, popping smoke where they want the drop to start. If there are a lot of tankers on one fire, they'll hang out in a holding area out of the way until the lead planes are ready for them. Then there will be helicopters, scoopers, and SEATs (single engine air tankers, basically crop dusters) popping in and out and doing their thing.

Sounds worse than LGA approach during morning rush hour

 

[C6ZZGT]

As the title states, I work in aerial firefighting. We've been in the news a lot lately, so if anyone has anything they want to know feel free to ask!

This is limited to AERIAL firefighting only. While I have knowledge and insight into other aspects of wildland firefighting, I'm going to avoid any questions about land management, etc.

Picture to keep it relevant to Broncos:

I`ve got a buddy that works for Neptune Aviation.

 

[KABQ]

I`ve got a buddy that works for Neptune Aviation.

We fly with them all the time. Cool guys. Their lavatory is a bunch of empty Gatorade bottles stuck in a stringer

 

[IwannaGOfast]

The DC10s you guys fly are they retired commercial aircrafts?

 

[KABQ]

The DC10s you guys fly are they retired commercial aircrafts?

Yep. They've actually been retired multiple times, first from major airlines like Northwest and Continental then from a charter airline that carried both people and freight. It's a really robust and long-lived airframe.

 

[IwannaGOfast]

We were doing a job (probably 10 years ago) at NBC studios in Burbank and we had to crane 16 package units onto the roof. We ended up doing a Helicopter lift for the job. The helicopter we used was a 1962 Sikorsky S-58, originally owned by the USMC. This particular helicopter was later used in the 80's for a show call "Riptide". I don't remember ever seeing the show, but I was told it was similar to the A team except they had an iconic helicopter instead of a van.

Helicopter rigs aren't very common for us to use. In this case the building was so long and the units were so spread out that a standard crane would have had to disassemble, relocate and reassemble so many times it would have taken forever and cost too much. The helicopter rig ended up being cheaper and much faster. We picked up and landed all 16 units in a little over an hour.

I read that it is still in operation, but owned by a company in Texas now.

 

[North7]

Yep. They've actually been retired multiple times, first from major airlines like Northwest and Continental then from a charter airline that carried both people and freight. It's a really robust and long-lived airframe.

How many years do you expect the airframes to last, another 20 years or so? Not being pressured all the time should help extend the life.

I love the crop dusters, but they are definitely nuts!

Lots of respect to the 10 Tanker crews, that looks nuts to me, but thankful for your mission.

 

[KABQ]

How many years do you expect the airframes to last, another 20 years or so? Not being pressured all the time should help extend the life.


Lots of respect to the 10 Tanker crews, that looks nuts to me, but thankful for your mission.

You're correct that we don't pressurize while loaded. To oversimplify it a bit, as long as we can keep getting parts we can keep them in the air.

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