60 Vol. 10 / No. 4 / April 2018 Global Aviator
C
AL FIRE’s fleet of 22 S-2T air
tankers, with their 1,200-gallon
tanks, are the agency’s largest
aerial firefighter. Therefore it relies on
contracting a fleet of bigger aircraft to
put the larger fires out. Like the ones
that dominated the southern Californian
skyline during October and December.
When big fires were getting a deadly
grip in the wine-rich Napa Valley in
California during the autumn, CAL FIRE
Spokesman Bryce Bennet told FOX 40TV Channel "If the fires go on longer
and becomes a much larger incident,
sometimes our aircraft aren't the right
tool for the fight, and that's when we use
the larger air tankers."Two types of contracts
Generally, there are two methods of
meeting CAL FIRE’s aerial firefighting
requirements if it’s looking for an
alternative to its S-2Ts. They areExclusive Use or Call When Needed
(CWN) contracts. Both CAL FIRE and
the US Forestry Service (USFS) tend to
stick with the latter, although the air
tanker companies are not so keen.
Dan Snyder, Chief Operating Officer
(COO) of Montana-based Neptune
Aviation Services, which owns nine
firefighting BAe 146s, told the author
how the contracting system works.
“Historically, CAL FIRE operates its
own aircraft so they generally issue CallA Neptune Aero Services BAe 146 classed as a Large Air Tanker swoops
down to drop retardant on the Sherpa Fire during June 2016. The
3,000 gallon air tanker is one of nine operated by the Montana based
company, which enjoyed an exclusive use contract with CAL FIRE during
2017, that expired on December 31.
Neptune/Mike Eliason, Santa Barbara County Fire Dept