Water bombing aircraft tested near Geelong

VICTORIA’S water bombing aircraft have been tested in Balliang, helping determine which aircraft tank is best suited for use in future fires.

Multiple emergency service agencies ran a research project looking at water drop patterns.

CFA has been commissioned on behalf of fire management agencies to gain deeper understanding on what makes each water drop different and how suppression tools and strategic investments can be used in managing fires.

CFA predictive services specialist Andy Ackland said the aircrafts play an important role in protecting communities and controlling fires, with the experiments looking at measuring the performance of air drops.

A Helitak was used to make water drops, measured with a series of cups laid out to capture the water from the aircraft, before the cups were then collected and weighed.

“We literally measured the water drops that came from the aircraft tank as well as the spread pattern, coverage, and the amount of water used so that we can try and understand the effectiveness of wetting the ground and helping to control fires,” Mr Ackland said.

“It’s good that we can get some objective measurement of the performance of the different aircraft tank designs to use in certain fuel types so we can actually understand the performance of aircraft in different circumstances.”

Mr Ackland said he’s hoping that they’ll have some insights into the aircraft’s performance later this year.

“We may still have more aircraft to test next spring but it’s going to be really good to have some of that baseline data.

“CFA scientists can look into the relative performance, and we can start planning the future fleet and also factors such as positioning and the effectiveness in different parts of the state.”

Height and altitude, weather, aircraft speed, and more can impact the effectiveness of water drops, with Victorian bushfires having different behaviours and suppression needs.