Adapting Rotorcraft Mission Task Elements to Wildfire Applications

Adapting mission task elements (MTE) to a wildfire environment would help characterize how aircraft handling qualities may change in the presence of a wildfire. It would also provide insight into how a (often retrofitted) vehicle may degrade in its operational environment, allowing pilots to be more informed making “go/ no go” calls in real-time during a crisis. This work focuses on rotorcraft applications, although some lessons learned may be relevant to fixed wing aircraft. A review of wildfire-related aviation casualties and pilot accounts from fighting wildfires informed critical areas of risk during each segment of a generalized Wildfire Scenario. MTEs from ADS-33/ MIL-DTL-32742 such as the Decelerating Approach, Depart/Abort, and Missed Approach were mapped to this scenario and then altered to focus on the relevant wildfire scenario. Slung loads (such as supplies, water, or fire suppressant) also change vehicle dynamics which may significantly impact handling qualities. One of the most challenging scenarios is when a rotorcraft must quickly climb to avoid terrain during or shortly after dropping water/fire suppressant. A custom MTE is presented that would challenge the vehicle in a similar way to this type of maneuver. Variations of conditions that could be explored using these MTEs are also discussed, as well as which variations would benefit the most from motion-based simulation.