Transcription
Hello everyone and welcome to this video, today live from Gujan-Mestras, my studios right next to La Teste where I was born, so you have definitely heard about the fires in Gironde. Well, we are going to react to the big current quiz event from the last few days in the general press but also in the specialized press, namely the A400M which could be transformed into a water bomber aircraft. And what made me decide to react to this news is a report on a major national channel where we went from disinformation to disinformation. So what I propose is that we talk about the A400M, then we talk a little about the fight against forest fires, the programs, the new planes, all these things that are coming, and then I will give you a little of my point of view on this huge media space that has been taken up. It is rather a counterfire ignition given what is currently happening with the civil security.
So we will start with the A400M. I had the chance to visit their factories in Seville, Spain, it's very impressive. It's a big plane, a plane that costs around 130 million euros per unit. There are currently 19 in France, we will have 25 in a few years, and in the long term perhaps fifty. It's a bit, in a certain way, our F35, why? Because, to say the least, the program has been complicated, with delays and a budget that exploded. You will tell me that's classic with all modern programs, but there it is, you also have to know when there are problems in Europe, and there, since it is, I rely on Thomas Sanders who was from Airbus, who nevertheless said on March 29, 2009: "It would be better to cancel the program rather than sink into difficulties." Well, nevertheless, they managed to move towards the A400M which is now a plane that works very well, that has proven itself, that has new capabilities, that is propeller-driven, which therefore allows assault drops and of course on primitive runways as well as on beaches, that has been done by the English, even if you doubt it. From a longevity point of view now, it can have an impact. And so the big announcement of July 26, 2022 is this press release which tells us that Airbus has carried out a test flight campaign in Spain with its new generation transport plane, the A400M, equipped with a prototype of a removable kit for firefighting. So this is important: you take an A400M, you fit inside it with what is called a roll-on/roll-off kit, a system with tanks, and you can now have 20 tons of water inside the plane which will be released thanks to, in fact, two large pipes from the rear ramp. They carried out tests which consisted of dropping up to 20 tons of water from the tank in less than 10 seconds at low altitude, 150 feet, at low speed, 125 knots. Look at the images of the angle of incidence of the A400M, we will talk about it again because I think that it is not necessarily a future situation.
Then, inevitably, with the marketing force, with the lobbying force of Airbus, it was picked up in the media, the famous report I was telling you about, and there I will quote two or three little points from the report which tells us that with 20,000 liters of water it would be more than any other aircraft. Well, that's true for what we currently have in France, but it's false, for example others can carry more, but it's okay. It also tells us that it could become an essential weapon in the event of a fire, capable of dumping three times more water than a Canadair. So that's true, but it's absolutely not understanding how the Canadairs work, and that it has the capacity especially to fly 24 hours a day. And there we are told that night flight in an A400M with terrain following is magical, it's wonderful, and it will allow us to attack the fire continuously. And there, a little quickly forgotten, if not even a bit much insulting the memory of Marc Thor persons who were a pioneer in the field, who was a pilot in the US Air Force on A-10, who then flew, who also did helicopters, who had more than 8,000 flight hours under night vision goggles, who worked for 4 years on the development of drops in small single-engine planes against night fires in Colorado. And what happened? Well, he simply got killed on his first drop mission, and it was as recently as November 16, 2021. So all this to tell you what? At present, civil security prohibits drops for planes on night fires. The practice of dropping water on night fires by fixed-wing aircraft is almost not done anywhere in the world for the reason I cited to you: it is extremely dangerous. It is not a future situation. And look a little at these photos: by day already, in two days it's very complicated. So at night, now, with night vision goggles, you get blinded; you even have to take into account the position of the moon so as not to be blinded when flying with night vision goggles. So imagine facing fires. That's marketing, those are good ideas, they look nice in press articles, but from an operational point of view, you are misleading, because it's really light-years away from what operational people can do and what they want to do.
Then behind that, they show us magnificent animations where we see an A400M landing on a beach about 2.5 meters from the sea, refilling, they tell us that we will be able to recover 20 tons of water in the space of 5 minutes. You can be sure that requires special training, special staff, special equipment. And if you want to be as close as possible to the fires, as close as possible to the flames, a case like in Gironde where the wind turned a lot, that requires being flexible where you will recover the water. So if you have to set up equipment on a beach that is not really accessible, well, it's very complicated. In short, in French in the text, it seems very attractive when it's marketed to you like that on TV; in real life, it has absolutely nothing to do with it. And you have to know how to take a step back from this information and understand a little bit, in a macro way, what fighting fires is.
To fight fires effectively, in fact, you have direct attacks against the fire, indirect attacks, or parallel attacks. Each time there are different ranges of aircraft that exist. The Americans have a specific terminology: they have the SEATs, Single Engine Air Tankers, which are basically the small ones that can drop up to about 3 tons of water or retardant (it's not the same thing, we'll talk about it again). Then you have the LATs, the Large Air Tankers, we are in the range of 6 to 15 tons, for example the C-130. Then you have the VLATs, Very Large Air Tankers like the DC-10 which can still drop 45 tons, that starts to be a lot, which tend to drop higher: the LATs rather at 100-150 feet, the VLATs rather above 250 feet. And you had a 747 that did that in its time, the Super Tanker 747, which was stopped because, incidentally, it was apparently the least precise, probably the least effective of all categories. You also have what are called water scoopers, like the famous CL-415, the Canadair, which is also nicknamed "The Pelican". So what can it do? It can take water directly from a lake or the sea if the swell conditions are correct, and it will be able to drop 6 tons of water at 150 feet, but it generally will not work alone; it works in a rotation, in a team, and you have three or four Canadairs that will work together and will be able to maintain a continuous presence on the fire. In the case of the fires at La Teste, you had on one side Lake Cazaux, on the other side the sea, and thanks to the rotation, you had 6 tons of water falling almost every 45 seconds on the fire, almost uninterrupted, extremely effective. Why? Because in fact, whether you drop water, foam, or retardant, the impact on the fire will be different. There are really two things to take into account. The first is what you send: water – roughly, according to big Canadian figures, it lasts about 4 minutes; then foam – you will have an impact for about 20 minutes; and the best is retardant – you will have an impact between 4 hours and 24 hours depending on weather conditions, humidity, many things. So water, foam, or retardant? The most effective is retardant, of course. Now it depends on what you are trying to do. If you want to do a direct impact, send water continuously, that's fine. Now there are two types of effects with water: you have the fact, like on the A400M, that it's a spray behind, and there is no blast effect; or what you want to seek – so that's the stress you're looking for – is an impact. And there, thanks to bomb bays like on the CL-415, you open the bays, it falls, there is mass, an impact, it can even go a little into the subsoil when there are fires that linger underneath, and there you have a real impact. So in summary, what is very impactful is water that falls from bomb bays more or less continuously thanks to a rotation of CL-415s, or to spread retardant close to the fire line, for example parallel to the fire line, there you will also be able to have an impact.
I talked to you about SEATs, I talked to you about LATs, I talked to you about VLATs. There also exist MAFFS – I don't know exactly how to pronounce it – Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System, where these are planes like the C-130 that have kits exactly what Airbus is doing for the A400M, which are used. So the United States already uses that on C-130s; moreover, in 2012 they lost a plane and 4 crew members during a drop. And their objective there, what is it? Well, to be able to use C-130s or other types of planes to reinforce firefighting forces. Note that the A400M, as I told you, they invented something, but this already exists on C-130s, it exists on C-390, there have been tests on Casa 235, Casa 295. Generally, the lessons we hear are that VLATs are not that effective, that the most effective are water scoopers, SEATs, and LATs, and the Dash 8 apparently amazed with its maneuverability capabilities.
So currently in France, what do we have on paper? We have 12 CL-415 Canadairs; apparently, in mid-July we had about 9 in flying condition. Of course, you can't have 100% of the fleet operational at any given time. We have 6 Dash 8s – I think the seventh has been delivered, the eighth should arrive next year or soon – and in mid-July apparently there were 4 out of 6 operational. On the European level, the replacement for the Canadair CL-415 has been ordered, which will be the Viking DHC-515. And there, Europe bought them; they bought 12, 2 should be positioned in France but will not belong to France, so we will not be priority on them. This DHC-515 has been marketed as capable of night operations; nevertheless, it is intended as multi-mission, multi-role, with the ability to do search and rescue at sea, also a capacity to land and deploy a small boat, or even do a bit of maritime patrol or maritime surveillance. So inevitably they highlight the night flight capability; that doesn't necessarily mean, probably doesn't mean, that they will be able to do night drops. I insist on that.
You also have in France some companies, notably one in Corsica created by a former air force pilot, which has SEATs, so Single Engine Air Tankers, and leases its services, which are part of contracts in the south of France.
Now I'd just like to take a very short pause and look at an attack in its element. We talked about direct attack, parallel attack, different heights relative to the flames. What must be well understood is that flying in hot air, flying around a fire, is not at all normal flying. The structures of the planes will be severely tested. Just look at the accident history of firefighting planes to understand. On August 16, 2003 in Italy, due to turbulence, a Canadair was lost. In Tuscany in 2005, this time a Canadair hit power lines. Still in 2005, this time in Calvi, the fuselage of one literally gave way, probably due to aerology. In 2007, a Canadair hit hills. And it's just these last years – where I want to go is that these planes, the CL-415, 95 planes built, well, 11 of them have been written off. Why? Because they operate in a very dangerous environment. And look at the C-130, look at other planes, look at these images: the structural fatigue is enormous. So take a plane that from the base was designed for that, it is reinforced for it – like the Rafale Marine, everything is thought out – to take an A400M that was not at all initially designed for that, it means leading it towards enormous constraints from a fuselage and wing point of view. You will damage it.
The other point is that you will need to go into difficult-to-access areas in Corsica, in Ardèche, to enter small valleys to be impactful. It's not just about dropping; you also need to have an impact. And so for that, you need to put the water in a place, you need to be able to get close. And the attack run, the run to go get that, well, it will require entering the terrain, it will require being very agile, it will require going into conditions where the plane will be battered, where the weather will not be good. In short, it will require from the machine – and I'll talk about the humans afterwards – enormous specific skills. And if you want an example, well, the DC-10 in 2007: it goes in to make a pass, descends, and then it hits a small turbulence, it ends up with the left wing going down, and during their turn they lose 100 to 200 feet too much, to the point that with a DC-10, which is an absolutely enormous plane, they touched the trees with the left wing. To give you an idea, a VLAT, while targeting a drop at 250 feet, can find itself losing 100 to 200 feet almost instantaneously due to aerological phenomena. And I remind you that hot air provides less lift; you have a huge loss of lift when you get close to fires. From there, firefighting is not at all a mass sport; it's a specific job with specific problems that require ultra-trained personnel and ultra-effective support teams behind.
And what bothers me, what annoys me with this – and that's why I'm making this video – is that with this buzz around the miracle solution proposed by Airbus, which has been picked up in dithyrambic fashion by the non-specialized press and even a bit by the specialized press, I think we are absolutely missing the real solution for fighting fires.
So what is the real solution? The real solution would perhaps simply be to go see the French firefighting specialists. There are unions, like the National Union of Civil Aviation Flight Personnel, for example, with excellent former sailors, excellent former air force pilots, excellent civilian people as well. And I had the chance to fly with some of them; they are incredible professionals who are completely devoted to their mission, former military personnel who have had a career, who have been to war, who are truly driven by the weight of the mission, who get up every morning to provide a service to the nation, to the Republic. And we find ourselves with documents like the one from March 9, 2022, with a strike notice. And believe me, if they have come to that, it's not in the DNA of a military person, a former military person, to have to go on strike. We find ourselves with declarations for three years: the water bomber pilots of the Civil Security Aviation Group denounce multiple dysfunctions while continuing to carry out one of the sovereign missions of the Ministry of the Interior – protecting people, property, and the environment against forest fires. And I'll let you read the documents, I'll put the link below. But to put it simply, currently you have pilots and members of civil security who fight fires, who are on duty with information all day long, and well, non-payment of flight bonuses – 65% of salary – problems with salary payments, even non-payment. Oh, don't be shocked saying, "I don't think it's possible, it's the state that pays." I refer you to Louvois and all French soldiers on external operations who were not paid for years. It's a real catastrophe.
We realize that the problem here is a bit different; we always come back to the same problem: you have captains, you have copilots who get into planes and don't know if they are going to be paid. And I'll even say it's not a money problem; it's a stress problem, being able to concentrate on the mission. They need to be 100% on the mission because, as we have seen, it's a complicated mission. The human in the machine, in the wonder weapon, needs to be 200% on his mission. And that's not possible if you don't get paid. You have family pressure on the side, you have loans to pay. They have even reached the point of asking for the implementation of zero-interest loans. I don't know if you realize. So that's where we are. Then we have the president who comes – and I'm not doing politics, that's not the idea – who says, "It's wonderful, thank you all for fighting the fire." But you have enormous administrative and operational problems in civil security. And rather than taking airtime to explain to us that the A400M will be able to spray with untrained personnel on board, or that it will need to be trained – but by whom? By these specialists? At present, we don't pay them. Well, maybe we could go back to basics, back to the simple things: look at who currently knows, who has the competence. It's our excellent civil security pilots. What do you need, gentlemen, to accomplish the mission? What can we do? And maybe we could listen to them. And we realize, when we read their strike notice, that they are not respected, they are not listened to, everything they propose for safety, for bad operations, is not at all taken into account. And I find that absolutely tragic.
So that you understand, I quote from the strike notice: "It is true that it is simpler for our management to send pilots to the fire preoccupied with financial worries." So there we are. Clearly it's written in black and white: our French pilots who go to the fire, who protect lives – and once again, it's wonderful, in Gironde there wasn't a single life lost thanks to the firefighters on the ground, thanks to the firefighters in the air – well, they go there preoccupied with financial worries. And meanwhile, people tell us, "Oh, great plane at 130 million euros, we could add a kit for X million, and it's great, and we'll have it in the air force, which also has these problems, to come and help because anyway the civil security firefighters can't manage." So really, really, I'm not trying to rant, that's not the idea, but I'm trying to get you to step back. They are selling you buzz information: "It's wonderful, we'll be able to do night operations and everything." Well, finally, the others are not good enough to do it. No, back to basics: we have Canadairs, we have Dash 8s at the moment. And I invite you to watch interviews, etc. We had Canadairs even during the Gironde fires that were not flying due to lack of personnel. But certainly it's not by not paying the personnel that you will get former military or experienced personnel coming out of their military careers whom you ask: "Do you want to go to a national company like Air France, or do you want to go to the Canadairs and not get paid, have no bonuses, and not have your expert opinion listened to on the evolution of the sector?" The trend tends to send people towards Air France. And then we end up with not enough personnel, and then we try to get human resources to run our Canadairs, to run our Dash 8s, and behind that, well, it will make the increase in French skills, the expansion of the specialist aircraft fleet absolutely impossible, because either the specialists existed and they left, or those still there have such a workload that they will not be able to do both operational and organic work – that is, regenerate skills, pass on knowledge, train the new generation. So we are truly at a crucial moment.
And what I would like the media to insist on is the preservation of the HR skills, the truly unique technical skills that exist at the Civil Security base in Nîmes-Garons. And to listen to them, to help them in the middle of the village, and to show them that we are aware of their problems, and that it would be good if they were respected and treated as they deserve.
That's it. Don't hesitate to tell me what you think, don't hesitate to share. You know people in the French administration: send them the strike notice, it might be good for them to understand, and why not the video, so they can take a little step back. And there you go, there are lots of extremely competent people at the Nîmes base; I'm sure they have questions, and you can ask them directly.
Fly safe.
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