Pilot's handbook

How to play

Everything you need to fly your first fire: the controls, the four-step loop, and the tricks that win three stars.

The loop: find, fill, drop, stop it

Find the fire. Follow the smoke columns, the red rings on the minimap (bottom right), the red marks on the compass (top), or the arrows at the screen edge.
Fill up. Fly to the nearest lake, pond or creek and take on water. How depends on the aircraft (below).
Drop. Fly over the fire 100–300 ft above the ground and hold F or the left mouse button. Water keeps your forward speed, so release before the target.
Stop the spread. Hit the edge heading for buildings. A fire with no dry fuel left at its edge is contained and burns itself out.

New to the game? Start with the Training Fire: it walks you through every step in about two minutes.

A Chinook drops water; the ring on the ground shows where the water will land — With water aboard, a dashed line runs to a ring on the ground: where your drop will land.

Controls

Keyboard and mouse. Your left hand stays on WASD, with Space and Shift under the thumb and pinky.

Helicopters

W / S	Fly forward / back. Let go and it slows to a hover; S while moving forward brakes to a stop.
A / D	Turn left / right
Q / E	Slide sideways
Space / Shift	Climb / descend. Over water, Shift settles you at filling height.
F or left mouse	Drop (hold). Tap for a partial load.
T	Raise or lower the snorkel by hand (it is automatic)

Planes

Space / Shift or mouse wheel	Throttle up / down
S / W	Nose up / nose down (like a flight stick: S pulls back)
A / D	Turn
F or left mouse	Drop (hold). Tap for a partial load.

Planes start on the runway at the airtanker base. Throttle up, and lift off by holding S once you reach lift-off speed.

Everything else

C	Chase camera ↔ belly view (look straight down to aim)
Right mouse + drag	Look around; mouse wheel zooms (helicopters)
Tab (hold)	Scoreboard
M	Minimap on / off
H	Help
Esc or P	Pause menu
N	Sound on / off
G	Graphics low / high

Four ways to fill

Fill times are shortened from real life to keep the game moving, but each method works the way it does on a real fire.

Hover snorkel

Tanks: Chinook, Skycrane, Firehawk

Come in slow and low over water: the snorkel lowers by itself. Let go of W to slow to a hover and hold Shift; the descent eases off and stops just above the surface. Stay under 10 kt and the tank fills in about 4–6 seconds.

Bucket

Bambi bucket on a long line

Slow right down with the bucket hanging under you and hold Shift until it is dunked: FILLING. Hold higher with only the bottom in the water and it POWER FILLs, slower. Stay under 15 kt or it skips out. It swings when you speed up or turn; let it settle before you drop.

Scoop

Scooper planes and the Skycrane

Line up along a long lake, throttle back and let down gently onto the water. Hold your speed in the band while SCOOPING shows, then full throttle and climb away from high ground. The Skycrane's sea snorkel scoops while skimming at 30–45 kt.

Reload pit

Airtankers: C-130 (and scoopers)

Land at the airtanker base, taxi onto the reload pit by the red truck (look for the light beam and REFILL HERE) and stop. At idle the brakes hold you while the truck refills the tank.

How real helicopters fill: snorkel vs. bucket →

Dropping like a pro

Height: 100–300 ft is the sweet spot. The height chip under the tank turns yellow when you're high and red when the water will mostly blow away as mist (above about 800 ft).
Speed: a slow drop puts a lot of water in one spot; a fast drop paints a long, thin line.
Lead the target: water keeps your forward speed. Watch the ring on the ground: when it covers fire it turns solid and DROP NOW lights up.
Belly view: press C to look straight down and aim with the crosshair.
Wind: the arrow (top left) shows where it blows. Fire runs fast downwind, and falling water drifts with it; the ring already allows for that.
Firebreaks: wet ground won't burn for about five minutes. Lay a line ahead of the fire, then work on the rest.
Uphill: fire races up slopes. Hit the upper edge first.

Why drop height matters →

A CL-415 Super Scooper on the lake with the TANK gauge showing 42 percent and the SCOOPING status lit — The HUD: tank gauge and status chips (left), compass (top), flight data (top right), throttle (right), minimap.

Flying a plane back to the airtanker base, where a light beam and REFILL HERE sign mark the reload pit

Reading the HUD

Left: the tank gauge in gallons and percent, then status chips: snorkel or bucket state (FILLING, TOO HIGH, TOO FAST…), doors, and the drop-height cue.
Top: the compass ribbon, with tags for fires (with distance), the heli base (H), the airtanker base (AT) and town.
Top right: altitude (ALT), height above the ground (AGL), climb rate (V/S) and status.
Right: speed, or the throttle for planes.
Bottom right: the minimap and a line with fires, acres burned and houses lost and saved.

Modes and progress

Fires

Five handmade fires, unlocked in order, each flown in a set aircraft. ★ for containing it, ★★ for also losing no houses and keeping the acres down, ★★★ for doing it fast.

Daily Fire

A new fire every day, the same for every player, with a twist. Try as often as you like; your best counts. Copy your result to share it.

Free Play

Pick any aircraft and fight endless fires: a new one starts every few minutes. Turn wind on or off from the menu. No grade, just flying.

Hangar

Stars raise your rank (Trainee, Copilot, Pilot, Captain, Lead Pilot, Chief Pilot) and unlock paint schemes for your fleet. Your logbook tracks flight time, drops, gallons and houses saved.

If the game runs slowly

Set Graphics: Low in the menu, or press G.
Make sure hardware acceleration is on in your browser's settings, and close other heavy tabs.
On a laptop, plug in: some laptops slow the graphics on battery.
Progress lives in your browser. Before clearing site data, copy a backup code from Save & backup.

Still stuck? See support.

Play now