On call

The two CV580s (no. 52, C-FKFA and no. 42, C-GYXC) have come to Australia for trials coordinated by the SAU at Avalon Airport, under a lease managed by Ballarat based Field Air, and with funding from the National Aerial Firefighting Centre (NAFC).

The federal government currently provides NAFC with $14 million annually for aircraft procurement, with the states and territories also contributing. This helps to offset the significant costs of getting specialised firebombers out to Australia from overseas.

“The Convair trial is an Australian first and the retardant drops will help demonstrate the aircraft’s capabilities, and ultimately help determine if they meet Victoria’s firefighting needs long term,” said Victorian fire services commissioner Craig Lapsley.

“These aircraft have typically been used in North America for first-attack and for laying retardant lines in forest and grass fires. ” General manager of NAFC, Richard Alder, has overseen the procurement and trialling of the aircraft.

“I guess where we go from here depends on the outcome of the trials with the 580 this year, and of course, they’ll be looked at alongside the DC-10 results and the board will make some decisions about where to go to from there,” Alder explained.

“Of course, that’ll depend to some degree on what funding’s available and whether any of the other states are prepared to put extra funding into trials. ” With the DC-10’s 40 tonne drop load considered unsuitable for Victorian conditions due to its potential to cause property damage, other options were considered.

“The trial last year [with the DC-10] demonstrated that there’s no issue in operationally using that category of aircraft, a very large air tanker [VLAT], it’s certainly able to be integrated with other aircraft,” Alder noted.

“But the desire was to maybe come down a level in size to what’s now known as a type 1 or type 2 multi-engine air tanker, to see whether that might be more flexible, and perhaps a little bit more responsive in terms of ability to deliver reasonable quantities of, in particular, fire retardant flurry to multiple locations in a short space of time. ” “It’s a matter of looking for opportunities to do that, and in the last two years, the Victorian government stepped up to the plate with additional funding to get the trials done. ” The trial is essentially split into two parts, Alder explained. First, if there is a fire, the 580s will be sent out from Avalon to do a drop, and its capability will then be assessed by the Victorian government and the SAU. “As far as is practical in a real fire situation, data [would be] collected, the aircraft would be monitored in that situation, photographed, videoed. . . and that all forms part of the input to the trial about just how effective the aircraft is. ” “Ultimately, I guess that’s what we’re really interested in, is does it put the fire out?” Secondly, if there are no suitable fires, a series of drop tests are to be conducted, set up over a designated field using a ‘grid’.

This comprises a series of buckets or plastic containers set out in a specific grid-like pattern, with particular spacings. The aircraft will then fly over them at different speeds, heights and wind conditions, dropping a number of different fire suppressant liquids, such as foam, retardant or more recently, a super-absorbent polymer referred to in the field as ‘gel’.

“Again, all of that would be filmed, analysed,” Alder said.

“We’re particularly interested in how the drop pattern works with the particular vegetation types we have in Australia . . . the leafy, eucalyptus type canopy has different characteristics to what you . . . see in North America.

“So the trials would include some. . .

planned trial drops on different eucalypt canopies, different eucalypt types. ” Conditions permitting, evaluation teams may also light controlled fires to test the 580’s effectiveness, or play it safe and take advantage of the prescribed burning season which starts towards the end of the bushfire season.

While the physical trials are being completed, work is also done to look at the 580’s operational integration with other firefighting aircraft around Australia, coupled with a standard economic evaluation done after the trial process.

Analysis of the $4 million trial is being undertaken by researchers from the Bushfire CRC (Cooperative Research Centre).

One of the subjects of the trial is no stranger to Australian skies, as C-GYXC Convair 42 was last operated by Pionair Australia in Australia as VH-PDV before being acquired by Conair in 2009.

Converting a tried and true airframe design into a firebomber requires a few significant changes, as Conair project manager and chief pilot Dennis Graham noted when he discussed the differences between a standard 580 and Conair’s variant, specially modified by Kelowna Flightcraft.

“If you’re standing and looking at the outside of the airplane, the first thing you’ll notice is the big tank on the belly, where it’s been converted,” he explained.

That belly tank is the central and only weapon in the CV580’s arsenal. Comprising a single reservoir and two full-length doors, the 580’s ‘constant flow retardant delivery system’ (CFRDS) tank is capable of carrying up to 8000 litres of water, foam or fire retardant, with release managed by the computer controlled ‘continuous flow system’.

Before a drop, the pilot (captain) will select either a manual or one of five preset retardant volume releases (divided into one-eighth, one-sixth, one-quarter, onehalf or a full load drop), while the copilot (first officer) concentrates on flying the aircraft and managing its systems. Conair says the CFRDS allows uniform, clean and gap-free retardant line coverage of the target area.

Instead of being dropped directly onto a fire, the retardant is dropped onto a target area ahead of a firefront, with the aim of containing the fire and allowing enough time for firefighters on the ground to move in and suppress the blaze.

Aside from the CFRDS, Conair’s 580 externally looks the same as a standard 580, with the exception of a shorter nose, as the weather radar has been removed.

Internally however, the 580 is stripped out of all unnecessary interior kit, such as seats, flooring and any other passenger comforts in order to reduce weight and increase fuel and fire retardant capacity.

Despite its size, the large external tank has only a small effect on aircraft performance, mainly slightly reduced airspeed.

“If you want to be scientific about it, when it comes to long range cruise speed, the aircraft’s speed is reduced by about seven-and-a-half per cent,” Graham noted.

“The original Convair 580 without the tank on it, the wing flaps came under the belly. . . so these airplanes here have got 30 inches or a metre cut off each flap, so there’s two metres less wing flap than there would be on a regular 580. ” This enables the 580 to stall at a lower airspeed. Graham revealed that the secret comes from the close proximity between the tank and flaps.

“When you lower the flap, the air cannot spill off the end of the flaps, it provides a cushion, and it stalls slower, about two or three knots slower than it used to. ” On the flightdeck TCAS is used to aid in monitoring air traffic given the 580s low level operations. A complete communications suite comprising two VHF radios, a forestry FM radio and satphone ensures the pilots are kept up-to-date on the situation, and how to coordinate their attack.

Speed, range and capacity are the Convairs’ advantages over the single engine modified aerial ag aircraft widely used in Australia for aerial firefighting.

“These airplanes will go to and from the fire in the order of 270kt. I think most of the single engine airplanes are in the 150 to 160kt range. So you’ve got almost twice the capacity, almost twice the speed and so you can get to the fire quicker and when you do get there, you’ve got much more load to surround that fire with.

“Technically, you would need less medium tankers than you would single engine air tankers, because if you need to draw a line on a fire [front] . . . you would do it with one airplane, whereas with a single engine air tanker, you might need three of them, and it would take them longer to get there physically. ”Still, Graham was careful not to discount the contribution of single engine tankers.

“They’re all tools. Single engine air tankers have their place and they’re a tool to use against fire. [Aircranes] Elvis and Elsie are a tool against fire. These [CV580s] are a tool against fire and [it’s about] managing those tools effectively to fight the bushfires of Australia. ” And while many Australians have witnessed the awesome firebombing capabilities of heavylift S-64 Aircrane helicopters such as Elvis on their television screens, where the 580 “will shine”, according to Graham, “is where there’s a need for fire retardant to contain the fire as opposed to putting it out”.

“Elvis and Elsie, that’s what they do, they put out fire, the helicopters, they drop right on the fire.

“Those aircraft can go very close in a pond or something and pick water up and put 8000 litres of water on the fire every three or four minutes, whereas these airplanes would have to go back, have the water pumped in, minimum 30 minutes to do that [including flight time], so it’s not a particularly effective way to fight a fire.

“These airplanes are meant to put a guard around the fire to stop it from spreading and then you go in with the helicopters and attack it and put it out. . . that’s the whole idea. ” The Convairs’ size and required supporting infrastructure is the flip side to their greater capacity, speed and range, restricting their operations to larger regional airports in Victoria, unlike for single engine tankers, such as the Air Tractor 802, let alone helicopters.

“We are scheduled to operate from probably half a dozen airports here in Victoria. ” “Ballarat’s really too small for us to carry a load from. The runway’s too short for us, although we have had the airplanes in there, but you can’t carry a load out of there, that’s the issue. So we’ll operate from here [Avalon], from East Sale, Mildura, Albury . . . you could operate from Essendon and . . . Moorabbin on the other side, you could operate from all those airports.\

“That’s not necessarily a huge disadvantage because they [580s] are nearly twice as fast as the other airplanes, so they could in fact turn around nearly as quickly, just they have to go a little further, that’s all. ” As a two crew aircraft with the pilots coordinating an 8000 litre retardant drop in the midst of a hectic bushfire, communication is key.

“It’s a captain/first officer, pilot/copilot relationship as it would be in an airliner or anything else,” said Graham.

“The captain or pilot of the airplane, his major concentration is to fight the fire and put the retardant where the forest folks want it put.

“And then the copilot works inside the airplane if you like, to manage the aircraft and make sure that the engines are doing what they’re doing, and pulling flaps and the landing gear and all of that stuff. ” “The copilot spends a lot of time managing the airplane around the fire, while the pilot’s spending a bit more time outside putting the retardant where it needs to be, because it’s a costly business to fight fire with an airplane. ” Though he currently flies only as a relief pilot for either of the 580s, Graham also acts as a commander of the forward air control Turbo Commander 690, which has accompanied the Convairs to Australia for the trials. Known in the field as a ‘bird dog’, the Turbo Commander coordinates the planned course of attack for the 580s, taking note of any air traffic in the area.

“He has the SAU guy in there and that team goes together in front of us to the fire and the air tankers fall behind. ” From here, the ‘bird dog’ will “observe the fire and talks to whoever’s on the ground or the helicopters or whoever it is, and they determine as a team what they’re going to do with the fire retardant once the airtankers get there. ” “The bird dog airplane’s probably going to be about 500ft above ground, 500 to 1000ft above ground. So the first air tanker would come in above that airplane at 1500ft above ground and then the next one 500ft above that.

“And so the bird dog airplane determines where the fire needs to fought, shows the airtanker this is how we’re going to fight the fire, we’re going to put retardant here, here, here and here, and identifies any hazards that are on the ground, and then the air tankers would come down and do their drop and either, they might do one drop here and one drop here, at right angles or something like that.

“The idea is to surround the fire with something big, contain it, so that the helicopters and the ground people can get in there and beat it to death. ” Here, the Turbo Commander’s forestry FM radio is used to talk with firefighters on the ground to determine where and when the 580s can make their drop.

“For the air tanker role and the crew, that air traffic control job over the fire, for the most part in our world, is done by the bird dog airplane,” Graham said.

“He’ll know where all the helicopters are and he’ll know where all the other airplanes are and he tells you ok, watch for this guy or watch for that guy.

“But there’s also . . . an air attack airplane over most of the fires too, and that’s their role as well, to coordinate press airplanes or press helicopters, helicopters fighting the fire and the air tankers, like there might be single engine air tankers working with us and all that stuff, so the air attack person is up quite a bit higher than us, directs all of that as well, and the fire activity. ” Operating and maintaining an aircraft like the 580 is a team effort, from the quick 10 minute turnaround time between landing, reloading and taking off again, to the pilot/copilot relationship that is vital to delivering a successful drop. As one of Conair’s aircraft engineers for the 580, John Devalk’s responsibilities lie primarily with ensuring that the aircraft runs safely and efficiently for a successful mission. A 25 year veteran, Devalk has been with Conair his entire career, and has worked with CV580s since they were first introduced to the company almost 12 years ago.

“It’s far easier in some ways than our other aircraft we used to have,” Devalknoted when he spoke about the 580’s serviceability.

“It’s actually not too bad, I would say it’s not heavy on maintenance.

“We used to have lots of older style airplanes with reciprocating [radial] engines . . . and you’d have to work a lot more on the engine.

“Now that our work focus has changed more towards the avionics style stuff, you have more electrical problems than you used to. ” “We have a lot of spare parts, if major things went wrong, we have them in Ballarat, but as for the day-to-day operations, all that stuff, we have it contained here. ” Ease of maintenance doesn’t necessarily translate into compatibility, as Devalk knows all to well from working on the aircraft in Australia.

“We had to carry fuel and carry oxygen systems, and our bottles are different than the bottles in Australia, so then you have to come up with an adapter to recharge our bottles, we got all that done now, but . . . certain things sometimes give you a bit of a headache when you go to a different country. ” Nor does the fire retardant tank worry Devalk, as it only requires an inspection every 100 hours during operations.

“I’m not saying it’s never given us any trouble, but generally, it’s very reliable. ” While working in an Australian environment has been a new experience for both Graham and Devalk, there are similarities between operating 580s in Victoria and back home in Canada.

“Our primary area of operation is western Canada, northern Canada and Alaska,” said Graham.

“On average they [Convair 580s] fly about 200 to 250 hours per fire season.

They would . . . literally have fought hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of fires, I couldn’t guess how many fires. ” “In 2003, we had a really bad fire season where there was a lot of homes burned and hundreds of thousands of hectares of forest burned up in British Columbia and Alberta where we work. ” “So they’ve operated in virtually every kind of terrain that you could imagine.

British Columbia’s very mountainous, the entire province has got some fairly significant mountains.

“There’s not a lot of huge, high mountains here in Australia but there are very mountainous areas, and we’ve certainly done lots of work in mountainous areas with these airplanes, a lot. ” Devalk agreed, and noted that despite the Australian heat, there are no obstacles to operating the 580 out of Avalon.

“There’s . . . nothing extra here as there would be at home.

“I mean it can get hotter here, but not a whole lot, like some parts in the interior of BC [British Columbia] you get over 40 degrees as well, so it’s really the same operational-wise. ” But where there are similarities in fighting fires in Australia, one big “difference” remains the landscape. Graham highlighted the open Victorian bushland with its wide, spread apart gum trees, as opposed to the more “cavernous forests” found in British Columbia and elsewhere in North America.

Aside from the obvious challenges of operating in a new environment, Australian hospitality still shines through when you ask either Devalk or Graham about their experience working with Aussies.

“We’ve been treated like kings around this place, top guns, yeah,” Graham quipped.

“There is a lot of similarity between what we do at home and what the folks in Australia do, it’s very similar stuff. So it’s not that terribly tough to adapt, and even the rules of the air here, you know, flying toward Melbourne or whatever . . . airspace control and that sort of thing, it’s all very similar to what it is in Canada.

“It’s all been fantastic, they have treated us very well. The SAU, DSE, CFA, they’re all very keen, they’ve been fantastic helping us to get settled in, getting organised and getting to our job. ” At the end of their trial in Victoria, Conair will load up their CV580s and begin the long journey home to Abbotsford, British Columbia, with the crew hoping that in some way they’ve proved the potential their aircraft have to offer.

First though, it will be a stop in Ballarat with Field Air. A fuel ferry system will be reinstalled on both 580s, which about doubles the aircraft’s fuel capacity, ready for a smooth trip home, with a few stopovers along the way.

So whether they’re flying into the midst of a raging bushfire, or waiting patiently at Avalon for that fateful call, Conair, Dennis Graham and his CV580 crews remain ready and willing to lend a hand, even when what has so far been a quiet fire season leads the veteran pilot to make one final tongue-in-cheek remark.

“The fires are scared of us,” he joked.

With 8000 litre tank ready to drop a full load of retardant, you can see why.