SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
While the NWT's water bomber fleet of four CL-215 aircraft may not be 60 years old, the government is holding fast to its $27-million plan to replace the aircraft with eight Air Tractor Fire Boss AT-802 water tankers by 2017.

Buffalo Airways mechanic Cory Dodd, who supervises the maintenance on the GNWT's fleet of four CL-215 water bombers, says Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger's assertions that the age of the aircraft requires they be replaced are inaccurate. - Cody Punter/NNSL photo

Late last month, Environment and Natural Resources Minister Michael Miltenberger argued for the expenditure to be included in next year's infrastructure budget. His comments during a Committee of the Whole meeting Oct. 27 weighed heavily on his assertion that the aircraft were 60 years old and in dire need of replacement.

Not so, says Cory Dodd, a mechanic at Buffalo Airways who has been supervising the maintenance of the GNWT's 215s for more than a decade. While Buffalo Airways holds the GNWT contract for the planes' maintenance, Dodd made it clear that his opinions are his own.

"They are very young airplanes," said Dodd. "The thing with airplanes, age is relevant but they get maintained to a standard."

Buffalo Airways also operates four CL-215s of its own, which were used to help combat this year's forest fires. In their current state, the four GNWT aircraft have been guaranteed for another 20 years of service, he said.

The four CL-215 aircraft in the GNWT's fleet were built between October 1985 and 1986, said Dodd.

After a request to Miltenberger and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources to clarify the age of the aircraft, it was conceded that this is the accurate manufacture date.

However, the two Pratt and Whitney R-2800 engines equipped in each plane were designed in 1937 and was last produced in 1960, according to a written statement from the department.

"It's an old aircraft past its best before date. We need to modernize," said Miltenberger.

"We disagree that it could be extended another 20 years. We don't see that as viable," said James Tolley on behalf of Miltenberger in a follow-up interview.

While it is true the engines could have originally been manufactured 60 years ago, Dodd said this is not the way airplanes' ages are measured.

The age of a given aircraft is measured in airframe hours - the number of hours it has been in the air since being new from the factory.

Every 1,500 airframe hours, the engines are taken off and overhauled. So, Dodd argues that saying those engines are 60 years old is still inaccurate.

Those four GNWT CL-215 aircraft have between 4,500 and 5,000 hours each, he said, adding each plane puts in roughly 125 hours in the air during an average three-month firefighting season.

"To put it into perspective, the airplanes that everybody in Yellowknife flies out on their vacations, the Canadian North and the First Air 737 200s, they were built in the early 1960s, and most of those airplanes are running around 50,000 (to) 60,000 airframe hours," said Dodd.

"Most people don't realize that, but that's the way it works. It's all done by airframe time.

"When you've been around these airplanes for as long as we have, and you've put a lot of time and energy and passion into them, when (Miltenberger) goes to say they're 60-year-old airplanes, which is an incorrect statement, and they're in dire need of retiring - maybe he should retire."

The age of the aircraft is not the only reason why the fleet needs to be replaced, said Miltenberger.

One major issue is the type of fuel used in the CL-215s, called aviation gas. This type of fuel is becoming less and less common in developed western countries as jet fuel becomes more widely used.

In 2012 and 2013, there were two instances when CL-215s had to be grounded on runways because of a lack of fuel in the community, said Miltenberger. One of those instances happened in Inuvik, the other was in Norman Wells. While Environment and Natural Resources officials declined to disclose the specific details or dates of those groundings, "we did not run out of AvGas in the middle of a fire," stated ENR spokesperson Judy McLinton in an e-mail.

Another reason why the 215s need to be replaced is the ongoing maintenance costs, which total roughly $4 million per year for the fleet, said Miltenberger during Committee of the Whole.

"The fuel consumption (of the 802s) is probably one-third and it's Jet B versus lead-filled AvGas," he said Oct. 27. "The operating costs, because they're newer planes, would be considerably less."

The CL-215 fleet was purchased from the federal government by the GNWT in 2005 for $1 apiece. The territorial government has been using the planes since 1991, after forest management responsibility was devolved from the federal government in 1987.

"If you got a free car would you get rid of it if it was working perfectly fine," asked Dodd. "It just doesn't make sense that you would take a perfectly good plane and mothball it."

"Overall, I don't think they'll save money."

The capital budget for 2015-16, including the $27 million to purchase eight 802 aircraft, has been approved and was given royal assent by NWT Commissioner George Tuccaro on Nov. 6. The GNWT's new firefighting fleet is expected to be in operation by 2017, said Miltenberger.

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