How Aerial Firefighter Pilots Are Trained | What It Takes

after we've gotten back from flying we save someone's house or save someone's crop because you know that's their livelihood and that's how they make their living that's well worth the risk that we take when wildfires spread they can be too powerful for firefighters on the ground stand ready for the water that's where aerial firefighters come in power set on right there feel that there it is [Music] scooper 282 is inbound loaded for the drop and two one drop [Music] it's a way these are the pilots who operate specially built aircraft to target a fire with more than 1 000 gallons of water working with agencies like the u.s forest service and state governments we're seeing a massive wildfire threat worldwide and it's straining the infrastructure of the system that was designed for the two to three month fire season and to a persistent year-round threat our people are trained and tailored to ensure that we're providing the absolute best support on time on target because after all the fires are won and lost on the ground in january we spent three days with bridger aerospace in mesa arizona to see its pilots train and re-certify ahead of what's expected to be a very busy fire season ceo tim shee is a former navy seal and he's also getting his annual retraining to pilot the super scooper himself during wildfire season this is the weapon these pilots use to fight fires the 30 million dollar cl 415 eaf more commonly known as the super scooper they are the only aircraft that's purpose-built to fight fires that's all they do and they do it well this aircraft skims across the surface of the water picks up 1400 gallons of water and carry that water to a fire drop that water on the fire to assist wildland firefighters who are on the ground a few months goes by after not doing a lot of flying it's good to get back in the seat get some reps on the water some scoops pilots in training practice handling the aircraft in a variety of scenarios scooper pilots you've got to be a master of all things you're often dealing with multiple aircraft in an area you have to be able to fly up in the altitudes you also have to be able to fly low level down and dirty in the smoke in the mountains where there's low visibility and high terrain at 30 000 pounds the scooper is 30 feet tall and has a 93 foot wingspan nimble may not be the first word that comes to mind we're flying into extremely narrow canyons very low altitude banking high g turns at a high rate of turn flying an aircraft this big that low and that dangerous of an environment is very rare it's going to be you know max power we're already at flaps 10 so my name is barrett farrell and i am a first officer on the scooper here at bridge aerospace in 1990 i was four years old there was a forest fire on the mountain just south of where i grew up i was able to watch a b-17 tanker dropping retardant and after experiencing that when i was about 12 years old i always knew i i wanted to be involved in aerial firefighting you have control i have control clear takeoff ready to go training pilots react in simulated emergency scenarios like an engine failure okay simulated right-hand engine failure where they practice feathering or adjusting the pitch of a failed propeller to reduce drag and fly safely to a landing spot confirm right hand alternate feather firm feathering down has it feathered positive positive feather an engine failure we never know when that's going to happen and so we want to train to make sure when we have that engine failure the muscle memory is already there for what we have to do pilots also practice making an emergency descent okay 172 12 o'clock right in front of us 4 000. okay we avoided the traffic training is focused on failures and being ready for those failures so that when they happen we can respond quickly with certainty and with assurance that what we're doing is the best outcome for what that failure has done but the most important part of training is practicing the aircraft's main function performing the scoop and the drop one of the things that's unique about aero firefighting of course is you're not flying at 30 000 feet you're not flying at 10 000 feet that aircraft will come in and it'll be dropping 100 feet 50 feet get ready for the water so see how you kept that speed up keep that nose coming down right there get ready that's power now [Music] before making contact with the water the aircraft slows down to 90 knots once we actually decide we're coming in for to pick up a load of water the flying pilot will fall for flaps on speed collapse on speed we come in we touch down we're on the water for approximately 12 seconds with the probes down i'll call probes up strokes are up and now the aircraft will begin to accelerate so we can come up out of the water with a load of water the most challenging part is definitely making sure you get the load of water where the ground firefighters want it there's a lot going on with it when we're coming in to make that drop versus our air speed what the wind's doing and the topography of the terrain it can be very challenging to make sure we get that right where they want it since it's already on your side how about you take a good look for me here jim okay and then we'll make a left down one we're contacting the air attack who's our communication between the ground firefighters and us so we'll tell him hey we're inbound with the load air attack 262 inbound for the drop now once we're getting set up for the drop captain will say okay i'm lined up scooper 282 is inbound loaded for the drop and will reassure him that you're armed and ready for the drop you're armed ready for the drop and once we get there we'll actually press the water drop button and one drop [Music] and returning back to our water source to go pick up another lower water mainly the main feeling is is like man i want to make sure i'm helping that guy on the ground because he's the one who really needs this and so that's the pressures i have training really never stops you're always constantly studying you're always constantly having to review your manuals and procedures and systems on the aircraft when you have other people from the community come out and tell you thanks for the help or thanks for being here guys you know you saved my house it lets you realize the big picture of what we're doing here you

Channel: Business Insider

Views: 605,228

Keywords: Business Insider, Business News, aerial, firefighters, wildfires

Id: 9TUX_KS85r4

Length: 7min 34sec (454 seconds)

Published: Tue Feb 09 2021