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THE FRENCH "SECURITE CIVILE"

CANADAIR DIVISION

- Meeting with the flying firemen -

Within the Air Force it is often said that motivation, training and investment are not sufficient to make an excellent fighter. Instinct makes the difference. Instinct is or rather has become the natural capacity to adapt oneself to whatever situation. It is actually true that instinct is a very important quality to be a water bomber within the Sécurité Civile. But it is not sufficient.
We were lucky to meet several of these pilotes on the Marignane base in May 2002. As you will see their job does not only consist in putting fires out with a plane and that it requires very specific skills making these pilotes very special.

The most well known aircrafts from the Sécurité Civile are currently called "the Canadairs". Most of the people do not know that other kinds of water bombers than these big aircrafts also named "Yellow pelicans"exist. There are actually a few people who knows that Canadair is the name of the manufacturer. It is a subsidiary of the Bombardier group which also manufactures airliners. This misuse of language shows the success story of these aircraft, as well as their noble and efficient image.

A bit of history

At the beginning of the 60's, the French Protection Civile bought 4 seaplanes from the Second World War changed into water bombers (PBY Catalinas) to the Canadian company Canadair. In 1969 the Canadian group designed the CL-215, the first amphibian aircraft especially created to fight against fire. After 25 years of good and faithful service, conclusive proof of its efficiency, the CL-215 was replaced in 1995 by a modernized version : the CL-415.


Canadair CL-415 : an impressive aircraft

This huge and squat aircraft (nearly 20 meters long and 30 meters wingspan) is equipped with a boat hull and fitted with a classical high wing allowing the propeller to be maintained out of the water. All over the world this aircraft has been progressively replacing the CL-215. These two planes are quite similar.

Indeed from the outside they seem to be the same ! The huge engines have been replaced by rangier pods which are protected from the turboprop's exhaust stain. The most obvious difference is the presence of winglets and some small stabilizer.

As far as the Sécurité Civile is concerned, the modernization can be seen through a new painting scheme designed to improve its image but also to be

true to tradition as well as to the requirements of flight safety.

Inside, the difference is not so obvious. The back of the plane is nearly empty except a few seats far from being cosy, the tank of mixture of foam under one of these and the two huge tanks containing 6 tons of water ready to be released. As in the CL-215, it is possible to go in the plane's nose by crawling under the instrument panel (dated from the very last generation !).

Dials have disappeared and have been replaced by glass cockpit. These latter can provide instantaneously a lot of information which is not always useful for short flights, neither in case of fire. Anyway, our hosts could say that in such a situation nobody cares!

Nethertheless it makes flying easier. Performances are far from being impressive for former fighter pilots (maximum speed 200 kts, not so bad compared to its design. It is important to underline the fact that the 20 tons aircraft is instantaneously made lighter from 6 tons of water during the dropping. Moreover, it needs an important gas resource especially in mountainous areas.
In this occasion the saving of power compared to the CL-215 is rather interesting.
The aircraft is effecient and safe. Crews have clearly shown how much they trust this family of planes.

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