Page 10 - Volume 11 Number 4

SMOKEJUMPERS ARE A NATIONAL RESOURCE
AU.S. Forest Service forester first proposed smoke- jumping in 1934 as a means to quickly provide initial attack on forest fires. By parachuting in, self- sufficient firefighters could arrive fresh and ready for the strenuous work of fighting fires in rugged terrain. The smokejumper program began in 1939 as an experiment in the Pacific Northwest and the first fire jump was made in 1940 on Idaho’s Nez Perce National Forest. In 1981, the first woman smokejumper in the nation successfully completed the training program at the McCall Smokejumper Base in Idaho.
Today, Smokejumpers are a national resource. Jumpers travel all over the country to provide highly-trained, experienced firefighters and leadership for quick initial attack on wildland fires in remote areas. Fire fighting
tools, food and water are dropped by parachute to the firefighters after they land near the fire, making them self-sufficient for the first 48 hours. Smokejumpers work from about June 1 through October. Over 270 smokejumpers are working from seven Forest Service smokejumper bases located in California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington. There are also two Bureau of Land Management smokejumper bases: one in Boise, Idaho, and the other in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Aircraft commonly used in smokejumper operations include DeHavilland DH-6 300 series Twin Otter, Shorts Sherpa C-23A, Dornier 228 and CASA 212. For safety, there is always a spotter on board communicating essential information about the wind, fire activity and terrain to the pilot and the jumpers.
and Puerto Rico. Their Fire and Aviation Management division owns and contracts aircraft primarily for wildfires, but also responds to incidents including floods, hurricanes and other disasters.
The King Air is the only platform the USFS uses for its lead plane missions, and it contracts 15 aircraft for those purposes through Greenwood Group, headquartered in Ponca City, Oklahoma. Each year agency pilots fly these 15 contracted aircraft 3,500 hours. The Forest Service uses several platforms for air attack missions, including a King Air 200 they own and base in Atlanta. They own a second model 200 based in Ogden, Utah, that conducts infrared missions to map incidents.
Until this year, the Forest Service had been using King Air 90s for its lead planes.
“We are beginning to transition to the King Air 200 platform for our lead planes,” said Jason Baldwin, the USFS’s national aerial supervision program manager. “This is a phased in approach, and by July we should have eight B200s operational along with seven 90s.”
Greenwood Group is purchasing existing available B200 aircraft and modifying them to meet the USFS contract specifications. The larger aircraft will give USFS the speed, payload and performance they need for their missions, which typically last four to four-and-a- half hours for either firefighting role. Like the BLM, the
The U.S. Forest Service said it uses King Airs for wildland firefighting because Textron Aviation and Beechcraft support the King Air in the lead plane mission, which requires flying low in mountainous terrain and therefore presents different stressors on the aircraft.
8 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
Forest Service is starting to combine the missions on one aircraft, with an air tactical supervisor and an agency pilot on board.
“There isn’t a purpose-built lead plane available on the market,” Baldwin said. “We’ve used King Airs now for more than 10 years, and ultimately it’s because Textron Aviation and Beechcraft support the King Air in the lead plane mission. Flying low in this role, there’s different stressors that have to be supported by the manufacturer.”
The aircraft are based in eight cities but move frequently because they are national shared resources.
“We could end up with five or six lead planes based in southern California like we did last year,” Baldwin said. “We move them based on national incident need and priority, and when we’re busy they can move daily.” KA
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