Firefighting plane tested at Graham Airport

With much of the state suffering extreme drought conditions, Young County residents may be unnerved to see a firefighting airplane taking to the skies, but the flights are tests aimed at improving the design of its water-scooping amphibious floats.

Engineers will be testing the floats attached to the red-and-white Air Tractor plane for the next month at the Graham Airport, scooping water out of local lakes and discharging it on land, said test pilot Mike Rhodes.

The big-footed aircraft is “an improvement to an existing concept,” Rhodes said. The engineers from Momentum Aeronautics of St. Paul, Minnesota, will test their new design in scoops at local waterways such as Graham Lake and Possum Kingdom Lake, Rhodes said.

“A scooping amphibious airplane is a wonderful firefighting tool when the fire is located in close proximity to lakes, and that’s one of the reasons they are here because we have lots of lakes.”

The test plane was supplied by Coastal Air Strike of Roe, Arkansas, which owns 15 Air Tractor-built agricultural and firefighting planes, Rhodes said.

Air Tractor has built more than 200 firefighting aircraft that are in service around the world, including at least 12 in service with Texas. Three are stationed at Brownwood and three at Mineral Wells to tackle area fires, Rhodes said.

The 16,000-pound airplane can operate for three hours without refueling and carries up to 800 gallons of water or retardant for firefighting. It travels at speeds of 150 mph and needs at least 1 mile of the lake to scoop water.

Aircraft have played a big part in suppressing fires this year, dropping 263,000 gallons of water and retardant last month.

The state uses 35 aircraft to fight fires, including three large air tankers, 15 single-engine tankers and nine helicopters.

Rhodes, a test pilot for Air Tractor, has joined the state’s full-time firefighting pilots who fly the Air Tractor planes during fire season.

The scooper planes fight fires in two ways: by laying retardant lines that fire burns up to and die, and by dumping water directly on the flames, Rhodes said. The Forest Service forecast shows

The Forest Service forecast shows that 40 percent of Texas counties, including all of West and Central Texas, face “high” to “extreme” danger of wildfires.

In March, a higher-than-normal number of wildfires prompted the Forest Service to increase the State Preparedness Level to Level 4 out of 5, meaning that the state has committed more resources to fighting fires.

“The decision to move to a Preparedness Level 4 indicates that the complexity of wildfires across Texas is increasing. They require more time, personnel and equipment to contain,” Texas A&M Forest Service Fire Chief Wes Moorehead said March 31.

In the last week of March, state, federal and local firefighters battled 192 wildfires that burned 179,559 acres, Moorehead said.

The Forest Service has positioned more than 500 Texas firefighters around the state and has called on personnel from 28 states as part of its elevated Preparedness Level, Moorehead said.

“We want to ensure that the state has adequate resources to protect Texas’ citizens and natural resources from wildfire,” he said.