When a wildfire starts, helicopters are often among the first aircraft on scene. They can take off from a small helibase, fill from almost any pond or river, and put water exactly where the crews on the ground need it. Here is how the job works, and how Dip & Drop turns it into a game.
Light, medium and heavy
In the United States, firefighting helicopters are grouped by how much they can carry:
- Type 3 (light): at least about 100 gallons. Quick and nimble; good for small fires, spot fires and supporting crews. A Huey-sized helicopter sits at the top of this range or into the next.
- Type 2 (medium): at least about 300 gallons. The Black Hawk is a familiar example.
- Type 1 (heavy): at least about 700 gallons, and the biggest carry well over 2,000. Chinooks and Skycranes are heavy helicopters.
More water per trip is not always better. A light helicopter with a short round trip to a nearby pond can put more water on a fire per hour than a heavy one flying a long way to a big lake. In Dip & Drop you feel the same trade-off: the Huey carries 324 gallons and the Chinook 2,500, but the Huey can use creeks the big helicopters can’t hover over.
Two ways to carry water
Helicopters carry water either under them on a long line or inside a tank.
A bucket is a collapsible, open-topped container on a cable, often 100 to 150 feet long. The long line keeps the helicopter’s rotor wash away from the fire and lets the pilot dip into small, tree-lined water sources. A valve in the bottom opens to release the load.
A tank is fixed to the helicopter’s belly or built in, like the Skycrane’s. Tanks fill through a snorkel: a hose with a pump on the end that the pilot lowers into the water while hovering just above the surface. Tanks can release their load in sections, and many can mix in foam.
Read more in snorkel vs. bucket.
Where the water goes
Helicopters are mostly used for direct attack: dropping right on the flames or the edge of the fire to cool it and knock it down, especially where ground crews are working. They’re also used to:
- Hit the head of the fire, the fast-moving front, before it builds.
- Catch spot fires started by embers landing ahead of the main fire.
- Wet a line of unburned fuel ahead of the fire, slowing it so crews or retardant can catch it.
- Protect structures, cooling the fire’s edge as it nears homes.
Pilots aim for the edge that matters most, usually the one heading toward people, homes or steep slopes where fire will run fast uphill.
How Dip & Drop models it
The game keeps the decisions that matter and shortens the waiting. Filling a 2,500-gallon tank takes about 5 seconds instead of closer to a minute, but you still have to come in low and slow, hold the hover over the water, and judge your height and speed for the drop. Fire spreads faster uphill and downwind, wet ground acts as a firebreak for a few minutes, and water dropped too high turns to mist.
Try the Training Fire to fly your first drop in about two minutes.