MESA, Ariz. (KGUN) — When big wildfires flare, ground crews do the grunt work where they’re often too deep in the back country to see, but we usually can see fire tankers and their air drops.
It takes careful coordination to make the drops where they help block the fire’s progress. That can mean steering the plane into tight spots.
We had a chance to talk to tanker pilot Adam Dimich. He was on standby at an airport in Mesa, waiting to answer a call to fly against a fire.
He’s not working the Cody Fire near Oracle because he flies a CL-415 Super Scooper for Aeroflite. The Super Scooper picks up water as it skims across big lakes—and there are no big lakes close enough to Oracle.
Dimich says making the drops calls for precision work while he flies through smoke and turbulence from the wind feeding the fire.
“Usually there's aerial supervision overhead that's taking care of some of the coordination with air traffic. Also, you know, we work for the boots on the ground, the guys and girls out there cutting line on the on the fire's edge. So we're totally there to support them, but they also need to be clear, clear of the line that we're going to drop on when we go in to make the drop.”
He says flying tankers is a full time job now that fires are happening year round, and when he’s not dropping on fires, he is training.
