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M38A1
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Out and about today, I spied three aircraft at the Fredericksberg airport that all looked the same from the highway. My curiosity somewhat peaked, I swung in to take a closer look. Upon arrival, I saw a fellow walking the line of aircraft. Not one to step over the rudimentary barrier fence, I waited until he approached me where I introduced myself. He smiled, said he was Bill Davis and returned a firm handshake.
I started asking him questions about the aircraft as my initial thought was crop dusters. Well, until I saw no apparatus below them for spraying and they each had FIRE in big black letters on a red and white tail.
As it turns out, these three aircraft are assigned to the Fredericksberg airport to cover a 160mi radius from that facility for fire suppression activities. The conversations were informative. I told him I was a photographer and tried to shoot one good shot a day, and asked if he'd escort me to the flight-line where I could take a closer shot. "Come on" he said. The following are a few grabs and commentary from this afternoon.
These three aircraft are assigned here. The next closest assignment is Abilene, so roughly 160 miles radius from Abilene is their territory and 160 miles radius of Fredericksberg is this home base radius. They are 'national assets' as well, in that if a fire in Colorado breaks out, Abilene aircraft would go to Colorado and Fredericksberg aircraft would go back to Abilene to cover the area.
Here's the front end of one of the three aircraft on the tarmac. Best I can recall, they are AIR TRACTOR INC AT-802A fire suppression aircraft. Each is a one seater, capable of delivering a 650-700 gallon load of fire retardant on target.
They are powered by a single turbocharged gas turbine engine delivering 1650 shaft horsepower.
This is the filling nozzle to the aircraft's holding tank. They can move an entire load from a tank to the aircraft in three minutes, or some 200gallons per minute.
One of the cockpit doors was open and a sunshade present.
This is about 8-10" in diameter for the turbine exhaust. It was huge on the side of the aircraft. Also, just to the right of image at the top of the fuselage is a handle. That's the beginning of the slurry tank which runs from the top of the aircraft to the bottom. It's basically a 700 gallon tank situated behind the engine and ahead of the cockpit bulkhead/firewall. The turbine air intake was huge on the nose as well. I asked if they have any concerns about flying over hot spots and since the air is less dense, do they have lift or engine issues. Nope, doesn't affect these aircraft.
Here is a better view of the slurry tank. You can see the two 'doors' on the top. That's all storage tank beneath those two doors. And the tank discharge on the bottom is computer controlled. The 8 on the tail designates this is a 'new upgrade' with the computer controlled discharge system. They can dial in any fraction of time to dump their load, thus depending on the type of suppression they want to do, (be it high level heavy, high level light, low level heavy or low level light, all the way down to a spray) they have control over how it's dispensed. Of note is the fact that the slurry weighs 12.5lbs per gallon so when they do a full dump, the pilot experiences a very rapid ascent as the plane has now lost approximately 8215lbs of weight.
This is the refuel and replenish area. The aircraft would taxi into this little 90 degree corner diagonally where they would be refueled and restocked. The pumps would fill the plane with the slurry retardant mix in three minutes. Fuel could also be done in three minutes for a total of about six minutes turn time. The props angle of pitch can also be changed thus allowing the pilot to back the aircraft out from that corner under it's own power. The two big tanks on the right trailer are each 1000 gallon capacity. They keep four tanks full and ready at 650 gallons. The big white tank on the left is the LC-95A slurry retardant mix. That tank holds 7000 gallons, or about 10 flights worth of material.
A closer shot of the replenish trailer
This UH130 has been refurbished and now provides air duty for operations in both a forward control type role as well as a 'bucket brigade' role. The airframe is mid-1960 to mid-1970 best Mr. Davis could recall. The helo is dispatched if there is a close water source to the fire, hovers with the bucket and it's capacity of 200 gallons, then takes off to drop the contents on the fire. Both short and long cables are utilized so the helo can hover/replenish close to the water if clearance is available, or it can drop the bucket 100' if water is available but a tree canopy is present.
Here's the bucket (still in the storage bag) and their equipment trailer
This is the Haz-Mat placard for the retardant. I asked what was in it if it was basically 'safe' according the the label. He said it's simply clay based material with red coloring to make it easy to see it drop and where it hit. They mix approximately 100 gallons of raw product to 550 gallons of water to get their payload of 650 gallons. This ratio provides a 16.2 something or other on their scale. The scale measures "snot level" as he called it, but it's like viscosity for this type of material. The material does not smother a flame or reduce oxygen content to burn. Rather, the material lays down a non-flammable barrier reducing the possible fuel to burn (ie: grass/trees etc)
Here's the three of them lined up as the clouds rolled overhead.
After the tour I thanked him. I learned some new stuff today which was fun.
Here's a link to the Texas A&M Incident Management Team's website for the activity of this fire group. They stay active for sure. I asked when they would be 'done' and he said "when it rains for a week or about October 15th like last year". Link: http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/CurrentSituation/
I started asking him questions about the aircraft as my initial thought was crop dusters. Well, until I saw no apparatus below them for spraying and they each had FIRE in big black letters on a red and white tail.
As it turns out, these three aircraft are assigned to the Fredericksberg airport to cover a 160mi radius from that facility for fire suppression activities. The conversations were informative. I told him I was a photographer and tried to shoot one good shot a day, and asked if he'd escort me to the flight-line where I could take a closer shot. "Come on" he said. The following are a few grabs and commentary from this afternoon.
These three aircraft are assigned here. The next closest assignment is Abilene, so roughly 160 miles radius from Abilene is their territory and 160 miles radius of Fredericksberg is this home base radius. They are 'national assets' as well, in that if a fire in Colorado breaks out, Abilene aircraft would go to Colorado and Fredericksberg aircraft would go back to Abilene to cover the area.
Here's the front end of one of the three aircraft on the tarmac. Best I can recall, they are AIR TRACTOR INC AT-802A fire suppression aircraft. Each is a one seater, capable of delivering a 650-700 gallon load of fire retardant on target.
They are powered by a single turbocharged gas turbine engine delivering 1650 shaft horsepower.
This is the filling nozzle to the aircraft's holding tank. They can move an entire load from a tank to the aircraft in three minutes, or some 200gallons per minute.
One of the cockpit doors was open and a sunshade present.
This is about 8-10" in diameter for the turbine exhaust. It was huge on the side of the aircraft. Also, just to the right of image at the top of the fuselage is a handle. That's the beginning of the slurry tank which runs from the top of the aircraft to the bottom. It's basically a 700 gallon tank situated behind the engine and ahead of the cockpit bulkhead/firewall. The turbine air intake was huge on the nose as well. I asked if they have any concerns about flying over hot spots and since the air is less dense, do they have lift or engine issues. Nope, doesn't affect these aircraft.
Here is a better view of the slurry tank. You can see the two 'doors' on the top. That's all storage tank beneath those two doors. And the tank discharge on the bottom is computer controlled. The 8 on the tail designates this is a 'new upgrade' with the computer controlled discharge system. They can dial in any fraction of time to dump their load, thus depending on the type of suppression they want to do, (be it high level heavy, high level light, low level heavy or low level light, all the way down to a spray) they have control over how it's dispensed. Of note is the fact that the slurry weighs 12.5lbs per gallon so when they do a full dump, the pilot experiences a very rapid ascent as the plane has now lost approximately 8215lbs of weight.
This is the refuel and replenish area. The aircraft would taxi into this little 90 degree corner diagonally where they would be refueled and restocked. The pumps would fill the plane with the slurry retardant mix in three minutes. Fuel could also be done in three minutes for a total of about six minutes turn time. The props angle of pitch can also be changed thus allowing the pilot to back the aircraft out from that corner under it's own power. The two big tanks on the right trailer are each 1000 gallon capacity. They keep four tanks full and ready at 650 gallons. The big white tank on the left is the LC-95A slurry retardant mix. That tank holds 7000 gallons, or about 10 flights worth of material.
A closer shot of the replenish trailer
This UH130 has been refurbished and now provides air duty for operations in both a forward control type role as well as a 'bucket brigade' role. The airframe is mid-1960 to mid-1970 best Mr. Davis could recall. The helo is dispatched if there is a close water source to the fire, hovers with the bucket and it's capacity of 200 gallons, then takes off to drop the contents on the fire. Both short and long cables are utilized so the helo can hover/replenish close to the water if clearance is available, or it can drop the bucket 100' if water is available but a tree canopy is present.
Here's the bucket (still in the storage bag) and their equipment trailer
This is the Haz-Mat placard for the retardant. I asked what was in it if it was basically 'safe' according the the label. He said it's simply clay based material with red coloring to make it easy to see it drop and where it hit. They mix approximately 100 gallons of raw product to 550 gallons of water to get their payload of 650 gallons. This ratio provides a 16.2 something or other on their scale. The scale measures "snot level" as he called it, but it's like viscosity for this type of material. The material does not smother a flame or reduce oxygen content to burn. Rather, the material lays down a non-flammable barrier reducing the possible fuel to burn (ie: grass/trees etc)
Here's the three of them lined up as the clouds rolled overhead.
After the tour I thanked him. I learned some new stuff today which was fun.
Here's a link to the Texas A&M Incident Management Team's website for the activity of this fire group. They stay active for sure. I asked when they would be 'done' and he said "when it rains for a week or about October 15th like last year". Link: http://texasforestservice.tamu.edu/CurrentSituation/
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