Fire Fighting Aircraft

[ColoradoRedlands]

Hi everyone,

Regarding the twin-props and twin-turbine aircraft, what is the difference between a "lead" and an "air attack" as far as a call sign? I have both types flying out of the Grand Junction Air Center.

BTW - Does anyone have a current list of the home-bases used by the heavy air tankers and SEATs? As far as home-bases, I mean where they are based during the fire season when theorectically no fires are going on.

Chris

 

[FLANO]

Hi everyone,

Regarding the twin-props and twin-turbine aircraft, what is the difference between a "lead" and an "air attack" as far as a call sign? I have both types flying out of the Grand Junction Air Center.

BTW - Does anyone have a current list of the home-bases used by the heavy air tankers and SEATs? As far as home-bases, I mean where they are based during the fire season when theorectically no fires are going on.

Chris

Chris,

The Air Attack is the overall controller for air traffic over the fire scene. He/She will coordinate with the Fire Fighters on the ground, the other aircraft over the area including, the Lead, Tankers, Helicopters, and News aircraft. The Air Attack also works with other command elements related to the fire fighting effort.

The Lead is responsible for guiding in the Tankers over the fire, providing specific routing, by "leading" the aircraft over the fire. The Lead aircraft constantly flies the route that the Tankers will/would take, ensuring that it is safe for them to fly over the fire and perform the mission. Like you, we've got a lot of mountain terrain out here, so flying low over the mountains, down into the valley, can be treacherous. It's the Lead's job to ensure the safety of the tankers, as well as, guiding them when and where to drop retardent. Prior to the Tankers arrival on the scene, you will typically hear the Air Attack and Lead discussing features of the fire and where to lead the Tankers for their drops.

As far as tanker locations, there is an excellent Yahoo group that provides up to date, or close to up to date information about Tanker locations. It is: http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/TankerLocations

Hope this helps,

 

[ColoradoRedlands]

Thanks John, that was very enlightening. I think the problem I was having is that some of the comms I was hearing involved incidents with either a lead or an air attack, but not both, so it seemed like they were doing the same job.

Thanks for the point out to the Yahoo group.

Chris