Hawaii Mars faces uncertain future

by James Careless | June 20, 2013

Estimated reading time 5 minutes, 7 seconds.

Since 2007, the Coulson Group’s 1946 Martin Mars water bomber has ruled British Columbia skies during forest fire season, due to the four-engine propeller plane’s ability to drop 27,500 litres (7,200 gallons) of water, mixed with gel or foam, in a single run. But the Martin Mars’ work in B.C. may be coming to an end, now that the province’s Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resources Operations (a.k.a. the B.C. Forest Service/BCFS) has decided not to renew its annual firefighting contract with Coulson. This is the last summer that the Mars, based in Port Alberni, will be given a direct-award contract.
“For the 2014 fire season, the [BCFS] Wildfire Management Branch intends to tender a contract for a multi-aircraft, turbine, amphibious, scooper group that has the ability to carry both retardants and suppressants,” said a BCFS statement sent to Canadian Skies. “It is expected that once awarded, the scooper group will provide additional capacity and operational flexibility to assist in the management of B.C.’s wildfires. It will be at the discretion of the Coulson Group whether the Mars will subsequently be available under a ‘call-when-needed’ basis.”
So why did the B.C. government decide to stop contracting the Martin Mars – specifically the ‘Hawaii Mars’ version flown by the Coulson Group – after using this aircraft since the B.C. company acquired it from Forest Industries Flying Tankers in 2007? Coulson Group CEO Wayne Coulson blames it on an unfounded bias against the Hawaii Mars’ age, and a decision by government officials to disregard the upgrades and ongoing maintenance that the aircraft receives at his company. 
“The BCFS told Coulson that they no longer wish to contract the Mars because it is too old and unreliable,” Wayne Coulson explained. “That simply is not true. Over the last six years, the Mars has been on contract to the BCFS for 400 days, of which time the aircraft was unserviceable for 2.5 days due to a remote engine change that needed to be carried out in northern B.C.” 
As for the Hawaii Mars being in its senior years? “Although there is no dispute the Mars is over 60 years old, the level of maintenance and the in-depth inspections that the crew carry out throughout the year make it just as safe, if not safer, than the ‘newer’ 50-year-old airplanes the BCFS favours,” Coulson replied.
It is worth noting that the Hawaii Mars – one of only five Martin Mars heavy-lift flying boats built for the U.S. Navy during World War Two – has been substantially modernized. 
“The aircraft has been outfitted with a state of the art EFIS cockpit with everything in it that you would find in a brand new jet: synthetic vision, traffic collision avoidance system (TCAS), terrain awareness warning system (TAWS), and weather radar,” Coulson continued. “All of these upgrades were made to enhance safety, ease the pilot’s workload in heavy air traffic environments, and to provide the fire agencies with the latest and greatest onboard technology.”
Upgrades notwithstanding – nor Coulson’s contention that the Hawaii Mars is the lowest-cost way to drop water on a per-litre basis – the B.C. Forest Service justified its decision by stating that, “The Wildfire Management Branch’s objective is to use the best tool for the job; sometimes, that is land-based aircraft with retardant onboard, sometimes rotary-wing resources, sometimes scoopers through mutual aid agreements, sometimes the Martin Mars.” According to the Ministry, it intends to keep calling on the Coulson Group for air tanker support, along with air tankers from Airspray Aviation and Conair Aviation.
Unfortunately, a large aircraft such as the Hawaii Mars water bomber is too expensive to keep on standby, waiting for the BCFS to call. Given the fact that the Hawaii Mars has done firefighting work for the United States and Mexico, its water bombing days may not be over. But should this aircraft’s jobs continue to dry up, the Hawaii Mars might share the fate of the Coulson Group’s Philippine Mars water bomber. After sitting idle for five years, that aircraft was donated to the National Naval Aviation Museum at NAS Pensacola, Fla. – as a non-flying exhibit.

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