Conair Group Inc.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Introduction 1.1 Aircraft 2 Air Attack 3 Air Tankers 4 Notable Firefighting Missions 5 External links

[edit] Introduction

Conair Group Inc. of Abbotsford, British Columbia, formerly known as Conair Aviation, is a company specializing in retrofitting firefighting aircraft and maintaining customer and company-owned aircraft. Conair has a fleet of aircraft that are broken down into two categories — air attack, and air tankers.

[edit] Aircraft

• Air Tractor AT-802F
• Air Tractor AT-802F Amphibious "Fire Boss"
• Piper Aerostar PA-60
• Convair CV580 Series, Conair Convair 580 - Air Tanker
• Turbo Commander TC 690 Series
• Cessna Caravan C-208B
• Conair Firecat
• Douglas DC-6
• Canadair CL-215

[edit] Air Attack

Conair's attack aircraft, more commonly known as "Bird Dogs", are aircraft that guide the air tankers to their drop zones, either directly on the fire or on the perimeter of the fire. The attack aircraft are Piper PA-60 Areostars, Turbo Commanders, and Cessna 208 Caravans. These aircraft are always used in conjunction with the air tankers.

[edit] Air Tankers

Conair's tankers include Air Tractor AT-802F, and AT-802F Amphibious "Fireboss" variants, Convair CV580's, Convair CV580A's, Convair CV5800's, Conair Firecat's (retrofitted S-2 Trackers), Douglas DC-6's, and Canadair CL-215's. Conair's primary tanker base in British Columbia is in Abbotsford at the Abbotsford International Airport which also is where their main retrofitting facility is located. Conair also has many secondary tanker bases in BC along with Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and the Yukon. In BC where Conair is operated from, the secondary bases include, Kamloops,and Penticton (which also serves as the Interior base for the Martin Mars waterbomber). Conair now only produces the Convair CV580, 580A, and the Air Tractor AT-802F, and AT-802F Amphibious "Fireboss" air tanker variants.

[edit] Notable Firefighting Missions

• July-August 2003 The Barriere and Strawberry Hill fires near Kamloops, British Columbia
• July-August 2003 The Okanogan Mountain Park Fire that devastated a subdivision of Kelowna, British Columbia

[edit] External links

• Conair Group Inc. company web site