Scooper expense is relative to other fixed wing aircraft cost. If the water source is within 7-10 miles, the CL-415’s can make many drops on one 4 hour fuel cycle.
As an ATGS we treat them like the helicopters to help support ground operations.
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I know they are comparable to the 747 in daily cost, their hourly rate is a little less than the 747, but since they travel in pairs, it’s almost twice the cost of the 747 as a pair. I can also understand they are just another tool in a very expensive toolbox.
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747 can drop up to 10,000 gallons per hour.
1 scooper can drop up to 33,000 gallons per hour.
They each excel at different aspects of the fire fight, but that’s a pretty impressive comparison.
Of course, I still can’t imagine them actually costing anywhere near the 747 to operate, that’s nuts!
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I thought the 747 was closer 19,000 per drop??
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From the FS news release … The CL415 is turbine-powered, has a normal cruise speed of 180 knots, and can carry up to 1,621 gallons of water. In an average mission of six nautical miles distance from water to fire, it can complete nine drops within an hour and deliver 14,589 gallons of water.
33,000 gallons in a hour would be 20 drops.
The 747 can drop 19,600 per drop.
???
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Yep, so I based per hour on approximate 1:50 turn around time. Somewhere very close to base could be quicker. Maybe I wasn’t totally fair.
As fast as… Maybe 1:15 per turn around for GST 747? So up to 15,000 per hour max.
33,000 per hour scoop is also max.
FireAviation website for retardant tanker costs.
Air Tractor ad/document for water drop costs
Again, The right tool for the fire at hand is the best tool for the job.
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Oh ok, I get where you were going with that! I was thinking per drop
FS National Airtanker status update
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Would love to see actual flight operations data and run some analytics in ESRI and or PowerBi.
An aug.10th update has added more aircraft to the aerial fleet:
They count them as 15 CWN, 13 EU Exclusive use arrangements and 5 VLATs for total 30 fixed wing on usfs contracts. The 10 military C130’s tranfered to CalFire have not been fully converted to drop (march 2021 separate article, unless I missed an update).
August 10th 2020?
The loads per hour for the helicopters are very low. There more 10-15 loads per hour.
Bell 212HP/Bell 205A1++ $1.33 per gallon at 3000 gallons
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Oops missed that one…sad face
But here is the current article for July 2021:
Less fixed wing available in 2021 then 2020? More population more WUI less resources. But the SoCal Edison funded copters were sent to Caldor fire. Govt. is like an ant colony, many are pulling in the wrong direction but many more are making improvements to colony overall.
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Gotcha.
Ok yeah, fine print says “assuming the rotors are using the same water source as the scoopers” 
.
Maybe some places in the country their only option for dips is big reservoirs. But in California there’s almost always a closer pond or lake to dip than the reservoir that the scooper use! 
They also chose the smallest capacity heli with a 216 gallon Bambi.
I’m sure the cost of a larger heli is a smaller cost increase, but nowhere near the difference of having 2x the capacity or more.
Theoretical Example:
$4,000 per hour. 10 drops an hour. 420 gal/drop
That’s less than $1.00/gallon!
Their fine print keeps it from being “false”.
It surely wasn’t very fair/accurate.
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