Aerial Observer

Unit 0 – Introduction

Objectives:

During this unit the cadre will:

  1. Introduce instructors and students
  2. Discuss administrative concerns
  3. Review course objectives
  4. Describe the nature of the Aerial Observer mission
  5. Discuss mission limitations
  1. Introduction
  2. Purpose of course

The purpose of the course is to provide students with skills applicable to successful operation as an Aerial Observer. This material is intended to supplement the Interagency Aviation Training modules required for Fixed-Wing Flight Manager – Special Use.

  1. Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to;

  • Describe procedures for safe and efficient flight operation
  • Describe procedures for reporting incident location, size and behavior to dispatch and ground resources
  • Understand the limits of the aerial observer mission with regard to other incident aircraft
  1. The Aerial Observer Mission

The purpose of the aerial observer is to locate and relay incident information to fire management and dispatch. In addition to detecting, mapping and sizing up new fires, the AOBS may provide ground resources with intelligence on fuels and fire behavior and describe access routes into and out of the incident areas for responding units.

  1. Mission Limitations

As described in the Interagency Standards for Fire and Fire Aviation Operations Chapter 16, only qualified Aerial Supervisors (ATGS, ASM, HLCO and Lead/ATCO) are authorized to coordinate airspace operations and give directions to aviation assets. Flights with a “Recon, Detection or Patrol” designation should communicate with tactical aircraft only to announce location and altitude and to relay their departure direction and altitude from the incident.

Aerial Observer

Unit 1 – Navigation and GPS

Objectives:

Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:

  • Understand common Latitude/Longitude formats
  • Understand common maps in use and their role in flight following and incident plotting
  • Understand the basic features of a Sectional Chart
  • Become familiar with GPS units and mapping software in use on local units
  1. Latitude/Longitude and Datum

Several latitude/longitude formats are in use, with the two most common being degrees minutes, seconds (DD° MM’ SS”) and degrees, decimal minutes (DD° MM.MM’). A datum provides the reference point from which geodetic measurements are made. The 1927 North American Datum (NAD 27) is still widely used on many maps and by some ground units, however the Region 6 light aircraft contract requires the use of GPS units displaying degrees, decimal minutes using the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS 84) datum. Confirm with dispatch the format used in your area. A degree is equivalent to 60 minutes, and a minute equals 60 seconds. A minute of latitude is essentially equivalent to a nautical mile, as is a minute of longitude at the equator. Since meridian lines converge as they approach the poles, the greatest distance a minute of arc can transcribe is a nautical mile. Therefore, we can say that if you’re within a minute of a given location, you’re within a mile. A nautical mile is about 6076 feet (exactly 1852 meters by international agreement), so a tenth of a minute is about 600 feet, and a hundredth around 60 feet. Similarly, a second is around 100 feet, and a tenth of a second is just about 10 feet. Many GPS displays offer readings to three and four decimal places. But can we say with any degree of confidence that we can mark a location on the ground from a thousand feet overhead, moving at a hundred knots with an accuracy of a thousandth of a minute, or just 6 feet? Reporting coordinates beyond a couple of decimal places is probably superfluous.

  1. Maps

Aerial Observers may use a variety of maps. These include:

  • Forest Maps
  • Fireman’s Maps
  • Atlases and Gazetteers
  1. Forest Maps

Forest maps are often readily available and depict jurisdictional boundaries, prominent landmarks including major roads, and often display legal descriptions and latitude/longitude – often in 7.5 minute increments. Terrain depiction is often limited.

  1. Fireman’s Maps

Fireman’s maps often depict terrain with contour lines and forest roads in great detail. They also include useful information to firefighters including water sources, helicopter landing areas, potential incident base locations etc. While detailed, they can be difficult to read in flight, and the maps can be large and unwieldy. Selecting and folding maps to show areas of interest prior to flight will help with management in the cockpit.

  1. Atlases and Gazetteers

Atlases and Gazetteers allow a large number of maps to be carried conveniently in book form. Some are commercially produced, while many units produce forest atlases for local use. Commercial products vary in depiction of natural and man-made features, but are often useful in gaining a “big picture” view of the landscape. Most show latitude/longitude ticks on or near the margins allowing for easy flight following.

  1. Sectional Charts

While probably not your primary map, sectional charts provide useful data regarding airports and special use airspace. Sectional charts can be dense with symbols, but for your purposes, understanding a few basics will get you a long way.

  1. Title page

The title of the sectional chart is at the top, and its coverage area is indicated by the shaded portion of the map of the continental U.S. The effective dates of the chart are also prominently displayed. Information changes periodically – radio frequencies, airport data etc., so having up-to-date charts ensures having the best information.

  1. Legend

The reverse of the title page contains the legend. With a little time spent studying the legend page, you’ll gain a pretty good understanding of the symbols depicted. For further study, the FAA produces an Aeronautical Chart User’s Guide, which explains sectional and other charts in great detail.

  1. Latitude/Longitude depiction

Latitude and longitude is shown on sectional charts in a 30 by 30 minute grid. Small tick marks show each minute of latitude or longitude, and somewhat larger tick marks show each 10 minutes. Here’s a sample below:

Fig. 1

Latitude and Longitude shown on a sectional chart

Here we see the intersection of 44 degrees North latitude by 120 degrees West longitude. Latitude increases from south to north, and longitude increases from east to west.

  1. Magnetic declination

Magnetic declination (called magnetic variation by aviators) is shown with a dashed magenta line. Aircraft use magnetic headings, so if you’re dealing with lookouts or ground personnel using a true north reference, knowing the local declination facilitates making the conversion. The chart segment shown in Fig. 1 shows a 15° 30’ east declination.

  1. Special Use Airspace

Several types of special use airspace are shown on sectional charts that have implications for flight safety. A few of those are shown in Fig. 2 below:

Fig. 2

Some airspace depictions

Shifting southwest from our previous image, we see some notable airspace depictions on the sectional. A couple of Military Operations Areas are shown enclosed within the hatched magenta border – Juniper North and Low, and Juniper South and Low. MOA altitudes and times of use are shown in a table in the margins of the sectional chart printed in magenta, like the MOAs themselves.

A couple of thin gray lines cross the area. These are military training routes – one of which is labeled IR342. Altitude and time of use data are not shown on the sectional chart. This information is published elsewhere, and your dispatch office can help you determine if any potential conflicts may exist. Also note that while the route is shown as a thin line, actual route heights and widths vary considerably between route segments – at times becoming several miles wide.

The pale blue line in the upper left of the image is a so called “victor” airway, extending between navigational aids. This one – labeled V269 – extends between the Deschutes and Wildhorse VORs. Victor airways are well-used routes that exist from 1200’ AGL up to 18000’ MSL. While their importance has diminished somewhat with the advent of GPS, which allows point to point travel without following specific airways, traffic along victor airways is likely to be heavier than that found elsewhere.

  1. Restricted/Prohibited areas

These areas are indicated by a hatched blue line on the sectional, as shown in Fig. 3. These areas exist over areas of significant hazard, or over areas of vital national security interest. Restricted areas require permission from the controlling entity to enter – information that may be found in the sectional margin, shown in blue. Prohibited areas are just that – stay out or risk the ire of those with bigger and more dangerous airplanes than the one you’re in.

Fig. 3

Restricted Airspace

  1. Airport Information

The ability to identify airport information can aid in the planning of fuel stops and identify alternate airports to use during periods of inclement weather or during an in-flight emergency. Here are a few examples:

Fig. 4

Christmas Valley airport

Christmas Valley is an airport with a single runway, does not have fuel or other services such as a mechanic, and is an uncontrolled field, which is to say that it does not have a control tower. Uncontrolled airports are shown in magenta. The runway is shown within the magenta circle oriented as it is on site – in this case running east-west. The star atop the magenta circle indicates that the airport has a rotating beacon that helps identify the airport location at night, or during periods of low visibility. Civil airport beacons alternately flash a green and white light. The airport name is shown, along with the three-character designator of the field, 62S. Below the airport name, the field elevation is shown in bold italic type, 4317 feet above sea level. The asterisk and letter “L” indicate the presence of runway lighting. The two-digit number 52 indicates the length of the runway in hundreds of feet, 5200 feet in this case. For airports with more than one runway, this number describes the usable length of the longest runway. Since Christmas Valley is an uncontrolled field, pilots are expected to announce their intentions over the radio, and maintain their own traffic separation. The bold italic number 122.8 indicates the radio frequency in use at Christmas Valley, called a Unicom frequency. Many larger airports also have a Unicom frequency used for getting airport advisory information, ordering fuel etc. In this case the magenta circle with the letter “C” inscribed indicates that 122.8 is also the CTAF, or Common Traffic Advisory Frequency used by pilots to announce intentions.

Here’s a somewhat bigger airport:

Fig. 5

Ogilvie Field

Like Christmas Valley, Ogilvie Field is uncontrolled, but with a few differences. Perhaps the most significant difference is the availability of fuel, as shown by the square tick marks around the perimeter of the magenta airport symbol. There is also an Automated Weather Observing System, or AWOS on the field, which continuously broadcasts weather observations. Some AWOS stations have different features, and the number 3 suffix in this case shows that this AWOS reports visibility and ceiling height information in addition to basic weather observations. You can hear the broadcast by tuning one of the airplane VHF-AM radios to 118.375. Ogilvie Field also has two runways, and the depiction RP27 indicates that runway 27 has a right-hand traffic pattern. Runways are numbered according to their orientation to magnetic north, so runway 27 is oriented 270 degrees relative to magnetic north. Approaching from the other direction, the runway is oriented 90 degrees, and is numbered 9.

Here’s a depiction of a controlled field:

Fig. 6

Pendleton

Controlled airports like Pendleton are shown in blue. Its control tower frequency is 119.7, with the star next to the frequency indicating that this is a part-time tower. When the tower is closed, the “C” within the blue circle shows that 119.7 remains the CTAF frequency, and pilots are expected to self-announce intentions on this frequency just as though it were an uncontrolled field. Pendleton also has an automatic weather station on the airport, in this case an Automated Surface Observing System operating on 118.325. There is also a Unicom frequency for the airport of 122.95.

Many controlled airports also broadcast airport and weather information continuously through an Automatic Terminal Information Service, or ATIS frequency. Unlike an AWOS or ASOS, the ATIS broadcast is a recording created by the controllers on the field, and is usually updated hourly, unless airport conditions change dramatically before the next scheduled update. In addition to weather data, an ATIS broadcast also includes airport information such as the runways and instrument approach systems in use, and relevant Notices to Airmen, or NOTAMS.

  1. GPS and Mapping Software

You may find a variety of GPS units and mapping software in use on your home unit, with a great deal of variability in sophistication and features. Panel mounted units in the airplane are required by contract to use the degrees and decimal minutes format, with the WGS 84 datum. Hand-held units may be configured differently. Confirm with dispatch the format and datum used in your area. It’s not a bad idea to state format and datum when communicating with ground units. A GPS unit can be set to a different coordinate system fairly easily, but you might find it convenient to keep a conversion table handy to switch between degrees, minutes, seconds to degrees, decimal minutes. A conversion table is given below:

1 / .02 / 16 / .27 / 31 / .52 / 46 / .77
2 / .03 / 17 / .28 / 32 / .53 / 47 / .78
3 / .05 / 18 / .30 / 33 / .55 / 48 / .80
4 / .07 / 19 / .32 / 34 / .57 / 49 / .82
5 / .08 / 20 / .33 / 35 / .58 / 50 / .83
6 / .10 / 21 / .35 / 36 / .60 / 51 / .85
7 / .12 / 22 / .37 / 37 / .62 / 52 / .87
8 / .13 / 23 / .38 / 38 / .63 / 53 / .88
9 / .15 / 24 / .40 / 39 / .65 / 54 / .90
10 / .17 / 25 / .42 / 40 / .67 / 55 / .92
11 / .18 / 26 / .43 / 41 / .68 / 56 / .93
12 / .20 / 27 / .45 / 42 / .70 / 57 / .95
13 / .22 / 28 / .47 / 43 / .72 / 58 / .97
14 / .23 / 29 / .48 / 44 / .73 / 59 / .98
15 / .25 / 30 / .50 / 45 / .75 / 60 / 1.0

Fig. 7

Conversion from seconds (left columns) to decimal minutes (right columns)

Aerial Observer

Unit 2 – Airspace/Deconfliction/Flight Following/FTA/TFRs

Objectives:

Upon completion of this unit, students will be able to:

  • Understand Special Use Airspace and other potential airspace hazards
  • Understand local airspace deconfliction procedures
  • Understand flight following methods
  • Learn the significance of the Fire Traffic Area
  • Understand Temporary Flight Restrictions
  1. Airspace

The airspace in which we operate may contain numerous hazards, seen and unseen, that have potentially significant impact on our operations. This unit describes some of the airspace-related hazards and attempts at mitigation. Topics addressed include:

  • Local Aviation Hazard Maps
  • Military Operations Areas
  • Military Training Routes
  • Unit boundary issues
  1. Aviation Hazard Maps

Aviation Hazard Maps should be available for your unit, and are often prominently displayed at air bases and dispatch offices. As the manager of you flight, you should become familiar with local hazards. Hazard maps are a useful aid, but are unlikely to account for all potential dangers within your area. Use the maps as a basis for understanding local hazards, but keep your eyes open in flight!

  1. Military Operations Areas

Military Operations Areas may overlie you patrol area. These areas are depicted on Sectional Charts with a hatched magenta border. In the margin of the sectional chart, also printed in magenta, is a table describing the MOAs depicted on the sectional, along with times and altitudes of use, and contact information of the controlling entity.

  1. Military Training Routes

Military Training Routes are depicted on sectional charts with faint gray lines. However, route widths and altitudes of use wary widely, and are not depicted on the chart. Your dispatch office should be able to help you determine which routes are likely to be in use on a given day. This does not relieve the flight crew of the responsibility to see and avoid other traffic!

  1. Unit Boundaries

Incidents near unit boundaries dictate special caution since responding aircraft that may be out of communication with one another could be rapidly converging. Communication between dispatch offices and between airborne units and dispatch should head off most conflicts, but poorly reported incidents of uncertain location, and flight crews crossing unit borders unannounced can contribute to added danger. Your neighboring units may appreciate your assistance, but communication with your home and adjacent dispatch offices is essential.

  1. Deconfliction

Deconfliction refers to the identification and attempted mitigation of airspace hazards. Many dispatch offices expend considerable effort in providing deconfliction information to air crews – make the most of it! Deconfliction extends to activities such as:

  • Agency fire and resource flights
  • Military activity
  • Special events – fly-ins, air shows etc.
  • Local attractions – sightseeing, hang glider/paraglider activity etc.
  1. Flight Following

Keeping dispatch informed of the location and status of airborne resources is the purpose of flight following. You can aid your dispatch office and other interested parties by being aware of the following:

  • Dispatch procedures
  • Flight Following frequencies
  • Automated Flight Following
  • Use of transponder code 1255
  1. Dispatch Procedures

Chapter 20 of the National Interagency Mobilization Guide provides direction on the role of dispatch regarding flight following, including the use of Automated Flight Following. Your dispatch office may employ minor variations, but flight crews should be prepared to report duration of fuel on board, number of souls on board and confirm AFF activation upon launch, and report any deviations from the planned route while airborne.