Firefighting

From there, patrol and firefighting flights are conducted to detect fires and mount rapid drops on incipient blazes. During firefighting flights, the following are performed: isolating drops made ahead of and alongside the fire front to impede its spread; direct drops onto the fire; mopping-up drops to prevent secondary ignitions. Drops are made from a flight parallel to the fire line at an altitude of 15–20 m. Runs are usually made by a group of at least 3 aircraft one after another. For the drops, water with additions of foam and wetting agents is used as fire retardant. The pilot can adjust the proportions of additives during flight according to need. The following types of drops are used: water bombs – characterised by high impact force, used for direct drops.

The water covers an area of approximately 50×15 m; trailing – used for creating isolation strips 10–15 m wide on open terrain; foam drops – characterised by a longer settling time, used mainly for creating isolation strips on tree canopies or soil cover. Aircraft tanks are filled with water at the airstrip from ground tanks. Large firefighting flying boats can fill their tanks during a scoop run on large open water bodies. Unlike aeroplanes, helicopters perform better when extinguishing incipient fires and during operations over limited areas where high drop precision is required. They can also transport firefighting teams, particularly in difficult-to-access terrain. Helicopters use a water bucket suspended on a cable, which can be filled while hovering from natural open water bodies.