Always Ready To Challenge The Dragon’s Fire

Sep 24, 2020 - 4 years ago

Fighting fires on the West Coast and beyond with Conair Group
Article by Ronald G. Mullins

Canada has experienced a consecutive number of years of extreme wildfire behaviour. This has resulted in a 10-year average of approximately 5,600 fires destroying almost 3 million hectares of forest as well as urban lands and structures, costing governments multimillions of dollars in suppression efforts. However, 2020 has been one of the quietest wildfire years in decades. Regrettably, this has not been the case for our neighbours to the south as the states of Washington, Oregon and California have experienced record setting wildfire behaviour resulting in the charring of millions of acres, destroying several communities and the loss of more than 30 lives.

Fighting wildfires on the West Coast and beyond with the Conair Group.

Here, the national wildfire preparedness level remained at Level 1 for most of the year with only a very brief period of Level 2 preparedness due to significant wildfire activity in one province and/or territory. The Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre establishes these levels and defines Level 1 as indicating fire management agencies had adequate resources to respond to local fire events without assistance from other jurisdictions. Unfortunately, the western United States remained at Level 5, the highest level, for the 2020 wildfire season. Fortunately, Canadian provincial and private fire management groups and their facilities were able to assist their American neighbours. (Source: Canada National Wildfire Situation Report)

In Canada we are fortunate to have provincial and national wildfire suppression management and resources that are respected and coveted by countries the world over. When a wildfire ignites, either from natural or man-made causes, it is attacked aggressively from the ground by professional men and women utilizing the very latest in firefighting technology and equipment. These ground crews are supported from the air using purpose-engineered aircraft flown by a group of specially trained pilots supported by seemingly tireless teams of dedicated ground crews.

This is the story of two of these pilots and the world-class Canadian company that designs, modifies and maintains the aircraft they fly.

Years of Experience

Don Fair has been an aerial firefighting pilot with Abbotsford, British Columbia based Conair Group Inc. (previously: Conair Aviation Ltd.) for over 35 years. He has seen a lot of wildfires from the air and countless changes in both aircraft and aerial firefighting techniques. This year alone has seen him working fires in British Columbia, Alberta, Alaska and Washington, all from the left hand seat of a Conair Convair CV-580 air tanker.

Pilots and co-pilots fight swirling winds, smoke and uneven terrain as they approach the fire line.

We caught up with Don at the air tanker base in Moses Lake, Washington.

When asked about changes within the aerial wildfire suppression group Don Fair was very direct. “Over the years the equipment has changed and gotten better, but the strategy and terminology province to province or state to state remains pretty much unchanged. We have seen a lot of buildings and towns burn down in the last decade or so… now as aerial firefighters our ultimate priority is that of structural protection.

That was not the case 35 years ago… right in our flight ops (operation) manual it stated that we will never ‘bomb’ (drop retardant) improvements… meaning houses, outbuildings, roads, sawmills… anything man-made. You didn’t lay retardant on people’s front yards or backyard pools. But that has changed. More recently, I’d say in the last fifteen years for sure, one-quarter to one-third of our trips have to do with structure protection. We know that this fire is going to go through that line of houses in the next 20 minutes and we can dither on the decision or we can not do it, but just know that in 20 minutes it won’t matter because those houses will be gone. Make a decision and get on with it.

Mercifully, this is not my decision, but rather one that is made by the crew of a birddog aircraft or lead aircraft or transmitted from forestry headquarters… someone says… go ahead. Is there a hazard to that… is there a danger in that…yes there is. If you drop the retardant a little low or too fast, you’ll push the walls in on the house or pick a car up and throw it through the house. It’s a judgement call. We are estimating our altitude visually. So should we all walk away and let it all burn down…or should we try? And the general vote in the last 15 years or so is that yes, we should try and save what we can.”

The Perfect Drop

Retardant tanker aircraft pilots are always striving for the ‘perfect’ drop. If the retardant is dropped too low and/or too fast it will knock down the row of trees in front of it and it will not expand to its full width and potential. The fire will then roll right through the retardant line even quicker than if it was dropped properly. The perfect drop is one that is done at the correct speed and altitude for that particular aircraft. In the case of the Convair CV-580 that speed is 120 knots (138 mph) and approximately 100 feet above the forest canopy. This allows the retardant to expand with enough forward motion and ‘hang’ in the forest canopy providing maximum protection.

The perfect retardant drop is one completed at the right speed and from the right altitude for the specific aircraft.

The Fire Retardant

There has from time to time been some controversy regarding the use of liquid fire retardants of the type dropped from air tankers. Fire retardants are designed to reduce the flammability of combustibles, reduce the wildfire’s intensity, slow it down and stop its spread.

These retardants are made by mixing water and chemicals into a thick slurry using specialized equipment. The primary ingredients in longterm retardants are fertilizer salts of ammonia and phosphorus, and clay. The orange or red colour comes from a small amount of iron oxide (rust) of which its sole purpose is to colour the slurry to make it easier for the pilots to see where retardant has been previously applied.

When wet, the retardant cools the fire but after the water evaporates the retardant is still effective. When flames reach a treated tree, the heat bonds the retardant with the wood cellulose and blocks oxygen from interacting with the fuel. Treated trees are very slow to ignite.

The fire retardant products being used on Canadian wildfires are among the most environmentally friendly available and are considered non-toxic to the environment and of mild toxicity to water sources. Although not always possible, pilots will make every effort to avoid dropping retardant on ponds and streams.

Aircraft Changes

Don Fair started flying in 1970 with the Canadian Military and flew the Canadair CF-5 (CF-116 Freedom Fighter) as well as the Grumman CS2F-2 Tracker and lastly the Sikorsky CH-124 Sea King helicopter. He began his aerial firefighting career in 1985 flying a Conair converted Douglas A-26 Invader. The Invader was a twin engine, American light bomber built during World War II and converted for firefighting ops by Conair. He then transitioned to the Douglas DC-6, a piston powered, four engine aircraft that started its life as a passenger airliner. Again, the DC-6 was converted by Conair. “The DC-6 was, and still is, my favourite airplane,” stated Don, “and I flew it for 25 years.” He has now transitioned, yet again, to the Conair converted Convair CV-580. The Convair is a twin engine, four blade, turbo-prop that started its life as a pressurized passenger and/or cargo aircraft.

Don went on, “I’ve enjoyed my career thus far as a pilot. Yes, there has been a couple of close calls but as an aerial firefighting pilot we get paid to fly low and do things with an aircraft that would get other pilots in big trouble.”

Conair’s Convair CV-580 offers forestry services a very effective medium sized air tanker, with quick start and superior speed, and the pilots with excellent maneuverability and exceptional performance in mountainous terrain. It has a maximum retardant tank capacity of 7,950 litres (2,100 US gallons) and a loaded cruise speed of 270 knots (310 mph).

The Next Generation

Chris Bingham represents the next generation of aerial firefighters. He began his career with the Convair Group as a pilot of the company’s corporate aircraft and then spent several wildfire seasons as the captain of one of the company’s birddog aircraft. The crew of each birddog consists of a pilot or captain and an air attack officer. They work together to direct the actions of both the air tankers and the amphibious Air Tractors ‘Skimmers’ and/or the Canadair CL215T ‘Super Scoopers’, should all aircraft be working the same fire. This past season, Chris was checked out and became qualified as a Captain on the Convair CV-580.

“An aircraft tanker group, usually consists of one or more air tankers and a birddog aircraft. Transport Canada mandates that we can be on call for 12 hours in any 24 hour period, but are only allowed to fly or be in the air for 8 of those hours. Our day usually starts the late afternoon or early evening the day before. That is when we will receive information about the local weather and the expected fire behaviour along with our flight schedule.” Chris Bingham went on, “As flight crew our schedule is colour coded. Green is a day off. Blue, we must be available to have the aircraft ready and rolling within 1 hour of getting our emergency callout message. Yellow dictates that the aircraft be rolling within 30 minutes and Red demands that we be rolling with wheels up as soon as possible. On a Blue flight schedule we are free to stay in the local area but we must always be within cell phone range. For Yellow and Red schedules, most air crews will spend their day at the tanker base. Our life can be sort of…hurry up…and wait.”

There are any number of things that can impact the flight schedules of aerial firefighting crews including, but not limited to, aircraft maintenance, weather, wind and smoke. But all that aside, aerial firefighting crews and their maintenance teams make every effort to always be ready to challenge the dragon’s fire.

Due to his extensive experience as the Captain in Charge of a birddog aircraft here in Canada, Chris was recruited as a birddog pilot to go and assist during the severe Australian bushfire season of 2019-20. This was a particularly difficult time for our ‘friends down under’ when over 18 million hectares were scorched resulting in the destruction of 9,352 buildings including 3,500 homes and 34 deaths.

Proudly Canadian

The Conair Group Inc. (formerly Conair Aviation Ltd.) is based at British Columbia’s Abbotsford International Airport (CYXX) and is the world leader in specialty aircraft operations, delivering a comprehensive range of purpose-engineered, aerial firefighting, multi-role aircraft and services worldwide.

Conair is the world’s most experienced aerial firefighting operator and owns and maintains a fleet of specialty aircraft including Cessna Caravan C208B, Rockwell Turbo Commander TC-690A, Canadair CL215T, Air Tractor AT802 Amphib, Air Tractor 802, Convair CV-580, Bombardier Q400MR and Q400AT and their latest addition the Avro RJ85 AT.

Additionally, the company maintains and supports a state of the art flight simulator training facility at their Abbotsford base.

Conair is a proud Canadian private company established in 1969 that employs over 330 skilled people. The company safely flies 8,000 to 12,000 aerial firefighting flight hours with over 70 aircraft each year and has operations in Canada, USA, France, and Australia. Conair France has supported France’s Sécurité Civile for over 30 years, providing aerial firefighting and emergency response aircraft to the people of France.

Ronald Mullins is a Kelowna, B.C. based writer/photographer and is a regular contributor to Supply Post.