AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2023 - 70

elaboration, only an accepting nod, when you
marvel at their remarkable skill and courage.
Dauntless Air manages this cadre carefully.
Stringent experience requirements are only the
start: 1,500 hours minimum, 200 in mountain
areas, 100 in seaplanes, and 200 low-level flight
hours, 100 of which must be in Part 137 agricultural
operations. No one has just the minimum.
The most junior pilot I met, Scott Palmer from
Idaho, had more than 2,200 hours. Pilots must
also be willing to deploy during wildfire season
on short notice throughout the Continental
United States and Alaska for weeks at a time
and fly steadily with only two days off every 14
days. Skill, availability, and durability aren't all.
The more difficult hurdle for Dauntless Air is
to match the cultural dynamic. Fire Boss pilots
are part of a complex and integrated wildfire
fighting ecosystem. Understanding the mission,
managing risk appropriately, blending in with
the cadre of pilots, maintainers, and other wildfire
response professionals is critical to mission
and business success.
Simply flying the Fire Boss, outside of the
mission arena, is surprisingly-well-easy. It
looks huge and clunky on giant amphibious
floats, but it's a stick-and-rudder airplane and
responds honestly. It needs some active rudder
early in a turn to stay coordinated, and without
flaps the nose tracks slowly in a turn, but add
flaps and the turn rate picks up impressively. In
the hands of a master, like Dauntless Director
of Operations and Chief Pilot Jesse Weaver,
the Fire Boss even feels agile. Weaver uses all
the tricks to eke performance and smoothness:
unloaded accelerations, slips, aggressive
banks and G-moderation to get exactly where he
wants at the speed he needs. It's a joy to watch
any pilot in the airplane they've mastered, and
Weaver is there.
On the water, the Fire Boss is just a big
floatplane. Approach speed with lift flaps is
100 knots. At about 50 feet, last glance at the
airspeed indicator reveals about 80 knots, then
eyes entirely outside, while steadily increasing
pitch, use peripheral vision and feel the touchdown
at about 65 knots, then power up and
push stick slightly forward for the step taxi.
Accelerate, roll a float up like any other floatplane,
and the Fire Boss jumps off the water
when the hopper is empty.
Flying the Fire Boss in the mission profile for
which it's designed is-well-not easy. Deploying
70
AOPA PILOT / August 2023
probes to " scoop " water changes drag on the
floats, and balancing the airplane during a massive
weight and balance change requires a deft
feel and constant stick adjustment. Fifteen seconds
feels like a long time, especially jostling atop
choppy waves. Weaver, with thousands of scoops,
makes it look and feel easy.
" Your turn, " Weaver commands, and gives
me the airplane. After settling on the water
and deploying the probes I worry too much
about cooking the PT6 engine and don't add
enough power, a pilot-induced oscillation
begins as we rapidly upload water that sloshes
back and forth in the hopper. I attempt to
dampen the pilot-induced oscillation by steady
backstick but continue bringing the stick too
far aft. We begin to bog down and Weaver has
had enough.
" Dump and power up. Let's go, " he says.
I power up while pushing the dump switch,
which releases the water from the hopper,
retracts the probes, and the Fire Boss jumps
off the water like a captive lunging for freedom.
Weaver soothes my ego by telling me, " Typical
first attempt. It takes 10 hours to teach a seasoned
seaplane pilot to scoop safely, and dozens
more for them to learn to scoop smoothly. "
After gaining competence in single-pilot
scooping, pilots move to the complexities of
Wipaire Wipline 10000 amphibious
floats, a 1,600-horsepower Pratt
and Whitney PT6A-67F turbine
engine, and additional control
surface modifications transform an
Air Tractor 802 into the Fire Boss.
Forward-looking infrared and a
head-up display help Dauntless Air
firefighting pilots target hot spots
through the smoke. A water scoop
remains tucked inside a Wipline
float until deployment. Pilots are
trained to be wary of asymmetric
scoop deployment, which is rare
but can quickly skew an aircraft
on the water. The mesh seat helps
pilots stay comfortable during
dozens of scoops and drops in a
typical 3.5-hour fuel cycle.
AOPA Pilot Magazine - August 2023

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