Expand<\/a><\/p>\nThe Super Scoopers were deployed during the Palisades and Eaton fires, which burned during one of the most \u201cmemorable\u201d fire seasons in the history of the partnership, with fall and winter fires in 2024 and 2025 creating challenging environments where pilots faced \u201chazardous flying conditions,\u201d and had to battle \u201cextraordinary\u201d winds as well as heat, smoke and flames, noted Anna-Catherine Briand-Fortin, Acting Delegate of Quebec in Los Angeles.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe intensity of the maneuvers required rigorous daily maintenance to ensure the optimal performance of the aircraft,\u201d Briand-Fortin said. \u201cMore than 40 pilots and technicians were deployed on a rotating basis for a mission that lasted nearly six months.\u201d<\/p>\n
Duclos, the chief pilot from Quebec, said he looks forward to flying in Los Angeles. There are key differences between flying in Canada versus California, where there are more aircraft to coordinate with, terrain is different and the pilots work with Los Angeles County on many aspects, from coordinating water drops to getting clearance to fly.<\/p>\n
The annual deployment of the Super Scoopers to Los Angeles is important in ensuring Los Angeles County has sufficient aerial firefighting resources, Los Angeles County Fire Department Chief Anthony Marrone said. As the fall season begins, the county has not seen significant rainfall across the past year, which can contribute to fire risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result, live fuel moisture has dropped to critical levels, making the vegetation throughout Los Angeles County potent for wildfires,\u201d Marrone said. \u201cThis is why we must remain vigilant and educate everyone on the importance of being prepared for the Santa Ana winds that will arrive in the fall because they have the potential to fuel fast-moving wildfires.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alongside the Super Scoopers, the department displayed other aircraft in its fleet on the Van Nuys tarmac, including a S-70 Firehawk helicopter, Coulson CU-47 Chinook helitanker and Bell 412HP helicopter. These aircraft are kept at other locations, including in Pacoima and at the department\u2019s Camp 8 in Malibu.<\/p>\n
In aerial firefighting, situations are very dynamic and forward thinking and trust between members of crews is important, said Benjamin Berman, recently appointed chief pilot of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a constantly changing environment, it\u2019s constantly dynamic and we have to be three or four steps ahead of the aircraft,\u201d Berman said. \u201cWe always have to have an exit plan, meaning if I\u2019m going to go into this maneuver and I\u2019m going to do an uphill drop or I\u2019m going to go into the slot canyon, I\u2019ve got to be able to approach it and be able to attack it with, worst case scenario, I lose an engine or I have some type of emergency, I have a way out. And so we\u2019re constantly looking at how to do it, how to do it safely and what\u2019s our exit plan in case things go wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
Berman, an experienced pilot who previously worked with Cal Fire and the Coast Guard, emphasized the importance of communication, as these aircrafts serve different missions, from rescuing a person with the hoisting capabilities, to dropping water or dropping off crews to work directly on a fire.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to get to know each other, know each other\u2019s verbal communication cues, our the tone of voice. All of those things are extremely important because when we\u2019re flying, I don\u2019t get to see your visual communication mannerisms. I can only hear you and I can hear your tone of voice and by getting to know you, I know, hey, that\u2019s important or that\u2019s something that we need to deal with right now,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"They are more than 65 feet long, with a wingspan of roughly 93 feet; inside, only a pilot…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":203986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,5295,2961,224,5337,50,5292,39410,5609],"class_list":{"0":"post-203985","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-crime-and-public-safety","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-los-angeles","13":"tag-losangeles","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-public-safety","16":"tag-san-fernando-valley","17":"tag-wildfires"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115155280006381455","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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