Alberta Forest Service Airtanker 203 - C-GFSL - Slave Lake, Alberta
Posted by: 
wildwoodke
N 55° 17.566 W 114° 45.828
11U E 641990 N 6129649
This Airtanker is used to drop water or fire retardants as an initial attack in the case of a forest fire. There were three tankers observed at Slave Lake, Alberta.
Waymark Code: WMJ3JN
Location: Alberta, Canada
Date Posted: 09/17/2013
Views: 2
This aircraft is a Canadair CL-215T. It has a cruising speed of 324 km/hr and has twin turbo 2,380 HP engines. The fuel capacity is 5.345 litres.
These tankers form part of the fleet of airtankers that can be dispatched anywhere in Alberta by Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development. They describe this type of fire fighting aircraft as:
The CL-215 is an amphibious, flying boat-type aircraft specifically designed as an airtanker. It can scoop water from suitable water bodies and deliver long-term fire retardant from airtanker bases. The CL-215 has a cruise speed of 277 km/hr, and it carries 5455 litres in a two-door compartmentalized tank. The airtanker can also inject Class A foam, which it carries in a 750-litre onboard tank, into the water load to make it more effective.
Alberta owns four CL-215 aircraft: the first came into service in the spring of 1986. Three of the four piston-powered CL-215 are currently in a conversion program that will replace the piston power plants with turbine power plants. After conversion, these airtankers will be designated as CL-215T.
These aircraft operate as a single group of two or three airtankers. The number depends on the need to take aircraft out of service to perform the conversion."
See: http://srd.alberta.ca/Wildfire/WildfireOperations/AirTankers.aspx
More information on Alberta's fleet of fire fighting aircraft can be found at this website: http://srd.alberta.ca/Wildfire/WildfireOperations/documents/AlbertaAirtankerFleet-May2011.pdf