Fixed-wing aircraft can’t hover, so they have to get water or retardant aboard in other ways. There are two main kinds of firefighting plane: scoopers, which refill from lakes without landing, and airtankers, which land at a base to reload.
Scoopers: filling on the run
A scooper is an amphibious aircraft built to touch down on a lake, skim across it and take off again with a full load. The best known is the Canadair CL-415 “Super Scooper”, a twin-turboprop flying boat.
Here is a scooping run:
- The pilot lines up along a long stretch of open water, into the wind if possible.
- The plane settles onto the surface and planes across it at roughly 70 knots.
- Two small probes drop from the hull into the water. Speed pushes water up through them into the tanks: around 1,600 gallons in about 12 seconds.
- The pilot adds power and lifts off, climbing away over open ground.
Because it never stops, a scooper working a fire near a good lake can make a drop every few minutes, many times an hour. The catch is the lake: it needs enough length for the approach, the run and the climb-out, and no obstacles at the ends.
Smaller single-engine air tankers can also scoop when fitted with amphibious floats. The Air Tractor AT-802F on floats is called the “Fire Boss” and scoops around 800 gallons.
Airtankers: reload at the base
Large airtankers, such as converted transports and airliners, carry thousands of gallons but can’t scoop. After each drop they fly back to an airtanker base, where ground crews pump in a new load from a reload pit beside the ramp, often in 10 to 15 minutes.
Airtankers mostly drop retardant: a mix of water and fire-retardant chemicals, colored red so pilots can see where it landed. Retardant is laid in long lines ahead of the fire to coat the fuel it is about to reach, slowing or stopping it so crews can work. That is called indirect attack.
In Dip & Drop
- The CL-415 Super Scooper and Fire Boss land on the lakes and scoop at speed. Touch down too fast and you ditch.
- The C-130H Hercules starts loaded and reloads on the pit at the airtanker base, marked with a light beam and a REFILL HERE sign.
- Long releases let the planes lay a line of water ahead of the fire. Wet ground won’t burn for about five minutes, the game’s version of a retardant line.
Fire Two Starts puts you in the Super Scooper with two fires to split your loads between.