The blinding white light on the nose of a fast-approaching air tanker means salvation is on the way for wildland firefighters feeling the hellish heat on the ground.
With a capacity for 800 gallons of water, fire retardant or repellent, the sleek Air Tanker 802 is a critical tool for battling forest fires.
Guided in by firefighters with radios, the pilot drops to 60 feet off the deck, unloads the cargo on its fiery target, then acrobatically swoops away to reload.
This fire season, the San Juan National Forest, Bureau of Land Management, National Park Service and local counties will have access to the planes – dubbed SEAT, for “single-engine air tanker.” Two will be dedicated to Colorado, one stationed in the east and one in the west.
The Cortez Municipal and Durango-La Plata County airports are equipped with an Interagency SEAT Reload Base to fill the plane with water or fire-control fluids during a fire.
And while it has a profile of a crop duster, the single prop AT-802 packs a punch because of its maneuverability, high-tech avionics and powerful 1,400 horsepower engine that can handle flying in mountainous country. It has a price tag of $1.5 million.
Air tankers can douse a fire if it is small, but mostly they help to slow larger ones down, giving firefighters time to clear fire lines and save structures. The view from above is a valuable asset as well, said SEAT pilot Parker Lucas, who has 14 years of flying experience – five with air tankers – and has advanced degrees in avionics.
“If he misses, tell him he missed,” shouts a trainer identified as Boomer. “The pilot needs feedback to be more accurate on the drops.”
Depending on need, the pilot can stretch out a drop 800 feet or more, or can divide a load three times and lay down a triangle of retardant around a fire.
“It is an intense situation,” Lucas said of his missions. “When the load is dropped at low elevation, pilots have to push the nose down to counteract the upward rebound.”
Pilots train on a BLM air-tanker simulator to get the knack for pushing the stick forward at that moment, a counter-intuitive move when flying at high speeds in mountain terrain 60 feet from the ground.
The maneuverability of the AT-802 means it does not require a lead plane to guide it into a fire drop zone – a requirement for the larger C-130 tankers. Recent crashes of the larger tankers triggered a preference for smaller planes.
