Aerial Firefighting Careers

An ominously dark mushroom cloud towers some 30,000 feet overhead, dwarfing the aircraft heading directly toward its base. There, a wildland fire of several square miles is raging, fueled by dry trees of the mountain forests and fresh oxygen brought by the wind. Heat and smoke rush skyward to form the electrical storm which is now sending daggers of lightning ahead to spark new fires. Close to the fire, the aircraft will encounter severe turbulence and a heat so intense that firewhirls carry burning embers and even pieces of logs aloft. This firestorm reminiscent of a hydrogen bomb explosion would strike fear into the heart of most people. 

“What am I doing here?!” Wanda Nagel asked herself as she flew towards her first fire storm.

But she thought back to the incident several years previous when she had to stand aside helplessly, watching airtankers fight the fire that threatened her home in the foothills. Now a seasoned pilot of firefighting operations, Nagel knows that all the people on the ground – firefighters as well as ordinary citizens – are counting on her for support. And so without hesitation, Nagel presses on through the smoky debris-filled air of the firestorm, joining the aerial fire brigade. 

When the Fire Alarm Rings...

A scant 16 years after the first airplane flew at Kitty Hawk, airplanes were used for fire spotting by the U.S. Forest Service. Today, a wide variety of aircraft types are pressed into service worldwide for detecting fires, dropping water and fire retardants, carrying parachuting firefighters, providing an “eye in the sky” over fires, making aerial photographs of hot spots, and transporting supplies. Although fires are actually extinguished by ground firefighting crews, it is a team effort in which the value of aerial support for the firefighters is incalculable. 

A centralized dispatch service for wildland fires, similar to a 911 service, determines what type of response to make to a fire depending on location, size, and available resources. An engine crew with a water pump might be dispatched to drive in and handle a fire spotted near a campground or in an area with easy road access. In remote areas, however, an aircraft is usually the first firefighting tool to arrive at the scene of a fire. Pilots, aircraft, and specialized firefighting crews are positioned in strategic locations near areas with a high fire risk and are on stand-by duty during daylight hours. When the fire alarm rings, the pilots and firefighters jump into their protective gear and run to the aircraft in order to launch within minutes, like an airborne fire truck. 

Helicopter Initial Attack

There are vast roadless wildlands in the United States, but if a fire is reported in an area where a helicopter can find a landing spot, the helicopter initial attack or Helitack crew is called out first. The helicopter pilot flies the crew of four to eight specially trained firefighters to a safe site near the fire. Then the crew hooks a bucket on the belly of the helicopter, and the pilot searches for a nearby water source, such as a pond or lake. As the ground firefighters work to “scratch a line” by pulling vegetation away from the earth to control the spread of the fire, the helicopter supports them with water, 100 to 400 gallons at a time. The release mechanism on the bucket is pilot-controlled, so the helicopter can approach the fire with speed to trail the water a long way, or hover over the fire and pound water on it. 

“The people on the ground rely on you,” explains Bonnie Wilkins, a Helitack contract pilot on the Bell Jet Ranger and 212 helicopters. “Often the flames are too hot, and the firefighters need the water to cool it down so that they can scratch the line.”

Sometimes the Helitack crew goes into an area with no landing pad, in which case the crew can rappel down. 

“They once had to create a helipad for me by cutting down trees with chain saws in order to fight a big fire way up a mountain,” reports Ruth Ann Page, contract pilot on the Bell Long Ranger. After the fire is out, the Helitack crew returns to the helicopter. 

“We are absolutely a team,” Wilkins agrees. “We stay together, communicate by radio, and go home as a unit.”

Dropping Smoke Jumpers

Experimentation with parachuting firefighters – smoke jumpers – started in the 1930s. Today, this elite self-sufficient corps specializes in fighting fires when they first appear, and about three-fourths of all wilderness fires are contained at this stage when they are no larger than your kitchen. 

“If there are no roads and no space for a helicopter to land, the smoke jumpers are sent in,” says Mary LaMoy, a former pilot and Helitack firefighter for the U.S. Forest Service. “They are a special resource, and well worth their delivery cost.” 

A variety of jump planes are used: the Douglas DC-3 retrofitted with turbine engines, DeHavilland Twin Otter, Shorts Brothers C-23A, and Beechcraft 99 and 200. The pilot flies over the fire while the spotter, a foreman equivalent to a jumpmaster, surveys the terrain to find the best place to drop. A streamer of weighted crepe paper is released to judge the wind speed and direction -- sometimes the wind can change dramatically near a fire, with relatively calm winds aloft and a strong wind along the surface. The injury rate is quite low, considering the smoke jumpers drop all through the fire season into forested areas and sometimes into terrain with a very steep slope. The smoke jumpers, heavy with fire-resistant clothes and Kevlar jumpsuits, are dropped at 1500 or 3000 feet above the ground, depending on the type of parachute. Then the pilot must circle back to drop the gear: sleeping bags, food and water, chain saws, and other firefighting tools packaged with special cargo chutes. Precision flying is critical because the smoke jumpers and their gear are being dropped out in the middle of the wilderness by themselves. 

“If you miss, then you’ve made their life miserable,” says LaMoy. “It’s important to get it right for them, or they might have to hike straight up a mountain to retrieve their gear from a hundred-foot tree.”

After extinguishing or containing the fire, the smoke jumpers pack their gear and hike out to a road or a helicopter landing spot for pick-up.

Airtankers

The large multi-engine airtankers are called in to attack a fire which is raging out of control. Flying low over the fire, the airtanker drops slurry, a mixture of water and fire retardant which helps cool the fire for the ground crews. The orange-red additive gives the water bulk to prevent dissipation and evaporation, and also acts as a fertilizer to aid in regrowth of vegetation after the fire is out. 

In addition to the water-based slurry which cools a large fire, single-engine airtankers can also drop a fire-suppressing foam, which acts much like a home fire extinguisher in smothering a small fire. Many types of large aircraft, mostly from military surplus, are stripped of armaments and “extras” such as pressurization and navigation systems to be converted for special use as airtankers. Among these are the B-26, P2V, PB4Y, DC-4, DC-6, DC-7, C-130, and KC-97, which have external tanks to hold up to 4500 gallons of slurry weighing over 20 tons. 

In addition, single-engine agricultural aircraft such as the Turbo Thrush, Dromader, Ag-Cat, and Beaver are used as airtankers to drop 100 to 500 gallons of slurry or foam. While large airtankers are the backbone of aerial firefighting efforts, the single-engine airtankers are a useful tool due to their quick response time and comparatively low cost. 

When a call comes in to the airtanker base, the captain gets the briefing while the co-pilot prepares the aircraft for takeoff. They are airborne within 15 minutes, dressed in protective gear of Nomex flight suits, gloves, and helmets. Experienced captains who are carded, or approved by the Forest Service, can perform the initial attack on a fire if arriving early on the scene. Or, if the situation warrants, they wait for another plane to lead the way. Crew coordination is important as the captain flies over the fire and operates the tank doors to make the drop while the co-pilot handles the power. 

“Making a pass is very exciting!” reports MegAnn Streeter, a veteran of six fire seasons as airtanker contract pilot on the DC-6 and DC-7 and now a captain for a major cargo airline. “You feel like you’re getting literally beat to death because the air is extremely rough from the heat of the fire and the hot summer day.”

At only 150 to 200 feet above the fire, altitude and delivery are critical for the slurry to be effective in cooling the fire. “If you drop the slurry too high, it dissipates from the lifting action of the fire’s heat,” says Streeter. “And if you drop it too low, the retardant goes down one side of a tree and the fire just runs up the backside and then jumps to the next tree.”

The slurry is usually dropped over several passes, and the tanks are sub-divided with as many as 16 release doors. When dropping slurry, particularly in large amounts, the loss of weight is substantial and can cause quite a pitch change to the aircraft. Maintaining control is key “and there’s not a lot of room for mistakes,” adds Streeter. There is on-going research and development of tanks, including automatic sequencing of doors and continuous-flow systems, to reduce these negative tendencies and improve the delivery of slurry. After all the slurry has been dropped, the airtanker returns to its base for servicing. While the Forest Service workers load the slurry, each of the pilots adds fuel to the wing fuel tanks, and on alternating runs, adds oil to one of the engines. Within 15 minutes, the airtanker is serviced and once again airborne. “This might go on all day – up to 14 hours – so you have to be energetic and in good shape to do this job,” Streeter says. 

Leading the Way

The lone pilot of a twin-engine pressurized Beechcraft Baron or OV-10 turboprop aircraft might be the first to arrive at the scene of a fire. Since the ground firefighting crews have not yet arrived, the lead plane pilot assesses the situation to determine the best plan of action, and then coordinates the aerial firefighting effort until the fire is extinguished or more help arrives. As the fire progresses, the ground firefighting crews coordinate the plan of attack, so the lead plane pilot finds out what their fire objective is. When the people on the ground are clear, the lead plane flies a run to check for hazards and plan escape routes for the airtankers. 

“With the lead plane, the mission is safety,” explains Mary Verry, U.S. Forest Service lead plane pilot on the Beechcraft Baron. “We are there for the safety of the air tanker, which is heavy and not very maneuverable until the load is dropped. So the lead plane flies ahead to look for ‘gotchas’ – rough air, visibility problems, terrain, power lines, and other hazards.” Then the lead plane flies the run with the airtanker following closely behind. Formation flight is not allowed and so the aircraft fly in very close proximity, as close as a quarter-mile to each other. For particularly tricky situations, such as fire in a box canyon or in steep terrain, the lead plane pilot is faced with a difficult decision. 

“Sometimes you evaluate a run and you have to say: ‘I’m sorry, we can’t put a tanker in there’,” Verry explains. “It might be too dangerous, or too smoky, or it would be ineffective.” With very large fires, airtankers might succumb to “mop syndrome,” heading for the biggest column of smoke, not realizing that the ground firefighting crews are intentionally burning out an area ahead of the main fire. The lead plane is in communication with the ground crews, and ensures airtanker drops the slurry exactly where it is needed. 

Project Fires

As a fire rages out of control, every resource available is gathered to the area. More and more firefighters are called in, creating a mini-city of up to 2000 people. Fire trucks arrive, portable showers and restaurants are set up, and a helicopter base is constructed. Helicopters are pressed into service for transporting food and supplies to this temporary city out in the wilderness. 

Soon many aircraft converge on this “project fire,” an intense, out-of-control fire of perhaps only a few square miles. At treetop level, a handful of helicopters ranging in size from the nimble Jet Ranger to the lumbering twin-engine Chinook are dropping water and slurry on the main fire, and perhaps dripping balls of flammable liquid out ahead of the fire to lay down a controllable fire line or backfire. Within 500 hundred feet of the ground, up to a dozen assorted lead planes and airtankers are busy dropping slurry along the head and flanks of the main fire. Just above those aircraft, several jump planes are dropping smoke jumpers and their gear into areas where hot spots are cropping up. 

Coordinating these many disparate aircraft operations is Air Attack, a sort of air traffic controller aboard an OV-10 twin-engine turboprop or Cessna O2 twin-engine piston airplane. This experienced fire ranger acts as an airborne command center for the ground-based Incident Coordinator in charge of the overall firefighting effort. Air Attack can direct ground crews to the fire by telling them which roads to use, chooses the best airborne resources for the effort, and directs the work of the airtankers. Circling a thousand feet overhead, the Air Attack pilot must fly safely over the area the fire ranger is concentrating on. 

“If he is overloaded, he might not even be able to communicate this to you verbally,” says Wanda Nagel, Air Attack contract pilot and instructor on the OV-10. “He is just too busy, so you must watch him to see where he’s focusing his attention.”

As the fire ranger gets preoccupied with one area, the Air Attack pilot can take over some of his other duties: “I can be looking for spot fires, watching for ground crews in danger of being trapped, bringing in other aircraft, and assigning them altitudes and instructions, like an airborne approach,” Nagel reports. The long-range Air Attack plane can stay airborne for up to six hours, but is usually relieved by another crew after about four hours of flying in smoky, 100-degree air and turbulence. 

On project fires, which can occur several times each season, fatigue and stress affect all the pilots as the hours and days stretch on. “It is so hot, you are trying to maintain your hydration and electrolyte levels just like a firefighter on the line,” says Nagel. As the sun sets and most aerial firefighters land for the day, another firefighting tool is just launching into the air. Using Sabreliner jets as well as Beechcraft KingAir B200 and E90 turboprop aircraft, U.S. Forest Service pilots fly over fires and other high-risk areas as technicians operate infrared scanning equipment to detect hot spots through smoke and haze. In the middle of the night, they land at a remote strip to deliver the film to the fire crew. Then the fire incident team spends the night analyzing the data and plotting fires and hot spots on maps for use in planning the next day’s firefighting strategy. 

Interagency Coordination

Fires spread across wildlands according to the laws of nature, disregarding the fence lines of private land and the political boundaries of city, county, state, and federal lands. 

“You can pick up a map with all these different colored squares showing who has responsibility for which piece of real estate," says Charlotte Larson, who works at the U.S. Forest Service National Interagency Fire Center in Boise. “Once a wildfire breaks out, it doesn’t take long for agencies representing all those colors to be out there working on the fire. No agency can stand alone in the wildland firefighting effort.” 

The U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management maintain fleets of firefighting aircraft. These federal agencies and some state agencies utilize their own aircraft and pilots for certain operations, and contract with private firefighting operators as well. There is also a national emergency cache of firefighting resources and accessories, and “once we get repeated requests for resources like airtankers and we can’t fill them due to other priorities, we can place an order with the Pentagon to call up National Guard units that are trained in firefighting,” Larson explains. 

Job Qualifications

For entry-level pilot positions in aerial firefighting, the general requirements are the Commercial-Instrument pilot certificate with some flying experience. Most people interviewed for this article were hired into their pilot positions with the Airline Transport Pilot certificate, over 1500 hours, and previous commercial flying or instructing experience. Contract airtanker co-pilots may be hired with low time, but it takes at least one season of flying and making drops to become qualified as captain. 

“You’re gonna have to pay your dues somewhere,” says Pat Goldhahn, pilot with the U.S. Forest Service. “Do something that shows you are serious about trying to make a flying career, and establish yourself as a professional pilot.” 

MegAnn Streeter had a background in charter flying when she landed a job as co-pilot flying large airtankers, earning enough money each season to pay her way through college. “You have to show you are serious about the job, and you can’t be afraid of hard work,” she says. 

Many firefighting pilots have a background in natural resource or agricultural flying. Both Bonnie Wilkins and Ruth Ann Page have extensive agricultural spray experience with helicopters. Mary Verry flew for cloud-seeding projects with the University of North Dakota, and Pat Goldhahn flew two seasons as a fixed-wing agricultural spray pilot in Montana. Low-level and mountain flying experience made them well-suited for the aerial firefighting mission. 

Jobs with pipeline patrol, fish and wildlife-spotting, and other natural resource flying also provide valuable experience. Pilot Mary LaMoy’s first job with the U.S. Forest Service was on a trail crew. She became a firefighter, and eventually joined a Helitack crew before learning to fly. 

While a firefighting background is not required, it is a good summer job for college students looking at an aerial firefighting career. “Several of our pilots came through the smoke jumper ranks, and they are extremely successful because of their knowledge of fire behavior,” reports Charlotte Larson of the U.S. Forest Service. 

Basic pay for pilots employed by the U.S. Forest Service is about is $50,000 to $60,000 annually, more for fully qualified pilots who fly up to three aircraft types. For pilots at contract operators of airtankers, air attack, and helicopters, pay is typically by the hour or by the day, and earnings can vary dramatically depending on aircraft type, position, as well as experience. 

At the federal and state agencies, opportunities exist for progression to other positions, such safety supervisor or management, with a commensurate increase in pay. Charlotte Larson began at the U.S. Forest Service as pilot and moved up the ranks to her position as National Fixed-Wing Specialist, where she works with the lead plane and airtanker programs and supervises contractors. 

“Pilots should never narrow themselves to one career goal,” cautions Mary Verry, who is now a pilot for a major cargo airline. “Aviation is very dynamic, and its worthwhile to develop management skills, safety officer skills, or have some other area of expertise to fall back on.” 

Federal and state forestry or conservation departments have their own hiring programs. Each individual contractor with firefighting operations must be contacted for information about their seasonal job openings.

Lifestyle

The fire season for each geographic area varies, dependent not only on vegetation type and season of the year, but also on climactic variations. Many resources, including firefighting crews and aircraft, are moved throughout the year to regions with high fire activity or risk. 

“You’re a national resource, and subject to being called out at any time,” says Charlotte Larson. “When it’s your time to go, you live out of the airplane and out of a suitcase.” 

Duty and flight time requirements vary, but pilots can expect to work up to 12 days before getting a one- or two-day break. This lifestyle can affect family life, but that suits some pilots. “Being gone from home a lot doesn’t bother me,” says Pat Goldhahn. “I figure I have a very nicely decorated storage unit.” 

Pilots employed by federal or state agencies spend the off-season in the office or in the classroom, studying fire behavior, learning about new firefighting equipment, or getting checked out in new aircraft or a new aerial firefighting role. Pilots working for contractor operators might need to spend the off-season working at other jobs to pay the bills. The uncertainty of seasonal contract work can be a drawback, particularly for those with families to support. Without the security of a government job, contract pilots may not have such benefits as medical coverage, retirement savings, and have extreme difficulty obtaining life insurance. 

Firefighting is a demanding, high-risk occupation. “This is not a job where you can take chances,” says helicopter pilot Bonnie Wilkins. “I’m very aware of what the aircraft is capable of doing, and also of what I am comfortable with.” Larson cautions prospective firefighting pilots with these words: “As a student airplane pilot, you learn to have lots of altitude and airspeed. But everything we do is slow and low-level, and if you’re not comfortable flying close to the ground and don’t have good situational awareness, this is not the job for you.”

Some pilots report a fascination with fire, and many point to a love of nature. “It might sound corny, but I really do love trees and nature,” Larson explains. “Most of the folks I work with are the same way: we feel good about protecting the environment.” Mary LaMoy adds: “Being based at a remote place in Idaho, covering a large area of roadless back country forest, provides some of the most beautiful flying there is.” 

The independence appeals to Pat Goldhahn: “This type of flying suits me more than anything because I don’t work well in a structured environment,” she says. “Here, you’re given a mission, an airplane, and it’s just you. You simply have to go and do it.” Like soldiers at war, some firefighters get hooked on the adrenaline rush. Others enjoy the esprit de corps of working towards a common goal and fighting a readily identifiable target. “The camaraderie and teamwork are wonderful,” says Wanda Nagel. “When you can pull that off under high-stress situations, it is very satisfying.” 

There is also instantaneous feedback of success or failure: “You know right now if you did a good job sizing up the fire, if the retardant hit where you wanted it to, and if your tactics are working,” says Larson. 

Helicopter pilot Ruth Ann Page speaks for many when she says: “When you can help save a life, or save a house or property from destruction, you feel like you’ve accomplished something very, very worthwhile.”

May your dreams take flight!

© 1996-2024 Jenny Beatty. All Rights Reserved.

Photo: A Coulson C-130 sprays fire retardant ahead of the leading edge of the Thomas Fire, California, December 13, 2017.

Photo credit: U.S. Air Force photo/Master Sgt. Brian Ferguson.

This article was updated on October 28, 2024. An earlier version of this article was published in Women in Aviation: The Publication in Spring 1996.