Air Tractor Inc

Air Tractor AT-802 Modified For Bulk Fuel Hauling

Payload, power, reliability and speed: these four factors have made the Air Tractor AT-802 a highly effective agricultural and single engine firefighting air tanker. Now, this popular 800-gallon aircraft designed from the ground up to meet the tough requirements of aerial firefighting is being transformed by the Conair Group as a bulk fuel hauler to operate in remote areas of Canada’s North Country.

The decision to create this highly modified AT-802 was customer-driven according to Rick Pedersen, Vice President and General Manager of Conair. “The need we addressed was for bulk fuel hauling into remote areas that have no other access by road or water,” says Pedersen. “Typically, these areas are isolated, remote villages, natural resource communities or mining communities and, during winter months, the only access they have is by winter ice roads or aircraft.”

The genesis of the fuel hauling project began two years ago, according to Pedersen. “We had hauled fuel with an AT-802 a number of years ago”, Pedersen says, “however, it wasn’t the most efficient way; the plane wasn’t optimized for hauling bulk fuel. But we certainly proved that the aircraft could do the job.” Pedersen says Conair had the experience, resources and technical expertise to make the concept work.

Conair Group is an Air Tractor dealer and Canada's most experienced specialty aircraft operations provider, offering a wide range of aerial fire control products and services to customers throughout Canada. So why did they select the Air Tractor AT-802 as the ideal aircraft for bulk fuel hauling? According to Pedersen, the aircraft has the right design and flight characteristics to become an efficient back country bulk fuel hauler, with some modifications. “For this set of mission parameters,” says Pedersen, “the Air Tractor AT-802 is definitely the most efficient to operate. And the high utilization requirements this particular customer needed is aimed at driving operating costs down significantly compared with other aircraft alternatives. We project that the aircraft will see utilization of from 800 to 1,200 flight hours per year.”

All of the modifications and fabrications were done at the Conair facilities located in Abbotsford, British Columbia. The company has more than 100,000 square feet of hanger and shop space designed to service and maintain a fleet of more than 50 fixed-wing specialty aircraft. Its in-house engineering and support services team enables Conair to undertake extensive aircraft modifications for specialty applications, primarily for aerial firefighting.

The aircraft modifications began when Conair acquired a special-order AT-802 two-seater aircraft from Air Tractor. This “base” AT-802 came with its standard Pratt & Whitney PT6A-65AG turbine engine and 800-gallon fiberglass hopper. However the aircraft was without spraying equipment or fire gate system and related components.

The first modification was to increase the bulk fuel payload beyond that of the 800 gallon hopper. An additional aluminum lower hopper was designed, fabricated and installed on the belly of the aircraft, creating a two-piece, independent upper and lower bulk fuel tank system. Loading and off-loading pumping systems were installed for the two tanks.

“We modified the top venting system of the upper fiberglass hopper”, Pedersen relates, “to create an emergency dump system for rapid evacuation of the bulk fuel. This allowed us to reach a certain maximum weight , which in turn allowed us to meet stall speed requirements set by Transport Canada.”

Many modifications were also performed to assure full lightning protection for the aircraft. Obtaining lightning certification meant installing lightning protection materials and systems throughout the aircraft. Beyond that, a number of critical aircraft components had to be removed and transported from Conair to Lightning Technologies of Pittsfield, MA, and tested to receive certification that the aircraft could disperse any lightning impacts.

When modifications were complete, the aircraft was certified with Transport Canada (Canada’s equivalent of the Federal Aviation Administration) for bulk fuel hauling, lightning protection and cold weather flying.

With the aircraft modifications complete, Conair undertook an extensive fuel hauling flight test program, demonstrating to Transport Canada that the aircraft met the performance specifications the department had specified. As part of the flight testing program and final certification, Conair developed a flight manual supplement for the modified AT-802.

The completed fuel hauling AT-802 aircraft has a payload of 4000 liters or 1056 U.S. gallons of bulk fuel and is certified to haul jet fuel, stove oil products, diesel fuel, and gasoline. After all of the modifications, the aircraft gross weight remained unchanged.

Air Tractor President, Leland Snow, says, “We’re very happy to see the AT-802 being utilized as a fuel hauling aircraft. It adds yet another mission to this versatile aircraft’s capabilities. We were confident in Conair’s ability to design and certificate the modifications. Conair’s willingness to take on the project resulted in an immediate sale and opened a new market for the AT-802.”

“As part of the aircraft’s delivered configuration, we provided our customer, Wilderness North, of Thunderbay, Ontario with pilot and maintenance training for proper operation and support of the aircraft,” reports Pedersen.

Wilderness North is one of Canada’s top providers of “fly-in” fishing vacations, with sixteen outpost cabins and five lodges within the Ogoki and Albany River watersheds in Canada’s Ontario province. The fishing outfitter recently took delivery of the one-of-a-kind AT-802 fuel hauling aircraft, reports Pedersen. “We’re looking forward to following the aircraft’s performance this winter.”

“It’s been a really big project for Conair”, concludes Pedersen. Conair really set a new standard with this project.”