A pilot from the 43rd Group of the Spanish Air Force explains how their aircraft operate

The massive wave of forest fires that Spain is experiencing has put the spotlight on one of its main assets in the fight against fire.

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Spain has been operating Canadair amphibious aircraft since February 8, 1971. The first two, arriving on that date from Montreal, Canada, were two Canadair CL-215s, initially operated by the 803rd Air Force Squadron, based in Getafe (Madrid). Their first mission in Spain was a search and rescue operation at sea, specifically in Finisterre (A Coruña), on March 11, 1971, and their first firefighting flight was in A Coruña on July 9 of that year. In January 1973, the Spanish CL-215s were assigned to the 404th Squadron, based in Torrejón de Ardoz.

Since May 8, 1980, these aircraft have been part of the 43rd Air Force Group, based in Torrejón, which currently has 14 amphibious aircraft: 10 CL-215Ts and 4 CL-415s. Both are very similar and have turboprop engines, but with different water-carrying capacities: the CL-215T can carry 5,346 liters and the CL-415 has a capacity of 6,123 liters. These aircraft can collect water from reservoirs, rivers, and coastal areas. They load water by landing on the water and opening doors located on the underside of the aircraft, so they do not depend on an airport for recharging, which is a considerable advantage.

This Wednesday, the Spanish Air Force's YouTube channel published an interesting interview with one of the pilots of these aircraft, Captain Francisco Javier Gimeno Benito-Sendín, who has already accumulated more than 1,000 flight hours in these amphibious planes. In this interview, we see him next to one of the CL-215Ts of the 43rd Group, the UD.13-20 (43-20). The pilot explains how these aircraft operate and his impression of the current wave of wildfires in central Spain, which he has been able to witness from the cockpit of one of the 43rd Group's firefighting aircraft (the video is in Spanish; you can activate automatic English subtitles in the player):