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An N.C. Forest Service pilot Dromader M-18 air tanker drops 400 gallons of water onto the runway at Central Carolina Community College’s Emergency Services Training Center. Forest Service pilot Ernie Williams made four drops during a Nov. 1 aerial fire fighting ground crew training exercise. Twenty-four Forest Service personnel primarily from the Service’s Region 2 (Piedmont area) were trained in how to refill the air tanker from the Service’s 4.900-gallon mobile retardant base tanker.

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North Carolina Forest Service Pilot Ernie Williams watches as District 5 Assistant County Ranger James Dupree (left), of Greene County, gives a ‘thumbs-up’ to the crew controlling the tank loading pumps during a Nov. 1 Forest Service ground crew training session at Central Carolina Community College’s Emergency Services Training Center. District 5 Assistant County Ranger Brandon Hill (center), of Wayne County, has attached the hose to the plane’s tank as Hannah Thompson-Welch (right), assistant county ranger for Wayne County, observes. Twenty-four Forest Service personnel, primarily from the Service’s Region 2 (Piedmont area), were trained in how to refill the air tanker from the Service’s 4,900-gallon mobile retardant base tanker.

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North Carolina Forest Service personnel (right) man the pumps controlling the flow of water to one of the Service’s Dromader M-18 single engine air tanker as others (back, left) attach the hose and monitor the flow during a Nov. 1 Forest Service training session at Central Carolina Community College’s Emergency Services Training Center. Twenty-four Forest Service personnel, primarily from the Service’s Region 2 (Piedmont area), were trained in how to refill the air tanker from the Service’s 4,900-gallon mobile retardant base tanker. For a forest fire, the crew would load fire retardant, not water.

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North Carolina Forest Service fire fighters watch as pilot Ernie Williams and his Dromader M-18 air tanker drop 400 gallons of water onto the runway at Central Carolina Community College’s Emergency Services Training Center. The Forest Service was at the ESTC Nov. 1 to train 24 of their personnel in the reloading of air tankers from the Service’s 4.900-gallon mobile retardant base tanker.

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The North Carolina Forest Service held air tanker fire fighting ground crew training Nov. 1 at Central Carolina Community College’s Emergency Services Training Center. Forest Service District 10 Ranger Ron Hollifield (center, left) and District 10 mechanic Randy Connor (center) describe the functioning of the Service’s 4,900-gallon Mobile Retardant Base tanker (behind them) and the use of pumps to load the fire retardant it holds into the Service’s single engine air tankers. Twenty-four Forest Service personnel, primarily from the Service’s Region 2 (Piedmont area), were trained in how to refill an air tanker.