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Aircraft Coordinator - National and GACC

Position Description

Introduction:

This position performs an emergency support and coordination function that is mobilized at National Planning Level 3, or as activity warrants, to support the National Interagency Coordinating Committee. It may also be activated to support individual Geographic Area Coordinating Centers as necessary, and work with interagency partners and vendors to meet incident, area, and national aviation needs.

Duties

  • Utilizes specialized knowledge to coordinate and assist in interagency mobilization to fill resource orders for aircraft assignments, as well as locating and filling overhead resource orders.
  • Develops staffing schedules for pilots and aircraft, tracks pilots’ mandatory days off, monitors aircraft availability, monitors pilot flight and duty limitations, and use of the Automatic Flight Following throughout the day to anticipate areas of need.
  • Attends daily briefings and participates in daily conference calls to make strategic planning recommendations on the most efficient use of aviation resources.
  • Serves as a primary point of contact and subject matter expert for aviation dispatch related questions.
  • During the off-season, may be called upon to serve on various aviation committees, as well as cadre for some aviation related courses.

Position Knowledge and/or Requirements

  • Thorough, extensive, specialized knowledge of all phases of interagency air operations relative to wildland fire suppression.
  • Extensive knowledge of aircraft safety.
  • Knowledge of governing policies, regulations, procedures and practices.

Supervisory Controls

  • Both national aviation management and the National Interagency Coordination Center Manager may supervise this position. The supervisor makes assignments by defining objectives, priorities and deadlines.
  • The incumbent, being self-motivated and self-directed, independently plans the manner in which assignments are to be carried out, and handles problems and deviations in accordance with policies and accepted practices.
  • Completed work is usually evaluated for technical soundness, appropriateness, and conformity to policy and requirements. The methods used by the incumbent to arrive at the end results are not usually reviewed.

Guidelines

  • Numerous guidelines are available, but have gaps in specificity.
  • The number and similarity of guidelines and work situations require the incumbent to use seasoned judgment in locating and selecting the most appropriate guidelines and adapt them to specific cases.

Complexity

  • The work is characterized by the performance of a wide variety of duties that involve different and unrelated practices and methods. Some duties involve formulating recommendations and proposed solutions to aviation related problems and issues.
  • Formulating such recommendations and proposals require the incumbent to analyze the phases or issues in each assignment, and develop the chosen course of action by selecting from many alternatives.
  • The work involves conditions and elements that must be identified and analyzed to discern interrelationships.

Scope and Effect

  • The purpose of the work is to provide a comprehensive approach for the most effective utilization of firefighting aircraft. Through information provided by personal contacts with vendors, pilots, and aviation managers, along with the Resource Ordering Status System (ROSS), the incumbent determines and shares the status of the fleet with Area Coordination Centers as well as agency aviation officials nationwide. Through daily electronic status forms, the incumbent provides accurate and current preparedness data, thus allowing for more timely responses to incidents.
  • The objective of this work is to achieve cost effective and timely decision making.

Personal Contacts

  • Contacts are national, regional, and local in scope and include center managers, dispatchers, aviation managers, air operations fire personnel, vendors, and pilots.

Purpose of Contacts

  • Makes recommendations and presents proposed solutions to problems related to making the most effective utilization of the national aircraft fleet.
  • Facilitates the mobilization of pilots and aircraft to fill outstanding aviation resource orders.
  • Shares information.
  • Collects information on availability of support personnel and individual aircraft managers.

Physical Demands

  • Duties primarily involve office type work with occasional field activity. Work is characterized primarily by light physical exertion.

Work Environment

  • The environment involves everyday risks or discomforts that require normal safety precautions typical of office type work.

NWCG Latest Announcements

NWCG Equipment Technology Committee Releases New Equipment Bulletins

Date: September 27, 2024
Contact: Equipment Technology Committee

The Equipment Technology Committee (ETC) has released three new Equipment Bulletins:

  • ETC-EB-24-003 Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) in fuel containers.
  • ETC-EB-24-004 Two-compartment fuel and oil container (Dolmar) unavailable in the United States (US) and reminders for upkeeping current inventories.
  • ETC-EB-24-005 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Inspection, Care, and Maintenance.

These bulletins remind field going personnel of important issues related to equipment for wildland firefighting efforts.

References:

NWCG Alerts

ETC-EB-24-003 Diesel exhaust fluid (DEF) in fuel containers

ETC-EB-24-004 Two-compartment fuel and oil container (Dolmar) unavailable in the United States (US) and reminders for upkeeping current inventories

ETC-EB-24-005 Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Inspection, Care, and Maintenance

The Experiential Learning Subcommittee is looking for your feedback on Staff Rides

Date: September 20, 2024
Contact: Ashleigh D'Antonio and George Risko, Leadership Committee

The Experiential Learning Subcommittee needs to hear from the field about where the greatest need lies regarding staff rides and their accessibility.

  • Do you have an event you would like to turn into a learning experience?
  • Do you have a staff ride built, but are struggling to implement the delivery?
  • Do you need help building capacity?
  • What other ideas do you have to support experiential leadership training?

Fill out this short survey below to help us help you.

References:

Staff Rides: Feedback

Staff Rides

Updated NWCG Single Resource Casual Hire Information, PMS 934

Date: September 19, 2024
Contact: Incident Business Committee

The Incident Business Committee has updated the NWCG Single Resource Casual Hire Information, PMS 934. This update expands the provisions for hiring emergency personnel.

References:

NWCG Single Resource Casual Hire Information, PMS 934

IBC Memorandum 24-03

NWCG 2024 Spring/Summer Highlights

Date: September 13, 2024

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Bureau of Land Management Logo
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National Park Service Logo
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Fish & Wildlife Service Logo
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State Foresters Logo
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U.S. Fire Administration
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Intertribal Timber Council Logo
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International Association of Fire Chiefs
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Welcome to our latest highlights from the National Wildfire Coordinating Group, where we explore the latest updates, insights, and efforts that develop interoperable wildland fire operations among federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial partners.

The Performance Support Package, which for ABRO includes the Incident Position Standards and Next Generation Position Task Book were developed through the Incident Performance and Training Modernization (IPTM) effort. The Performance Support Package will support trainees, those qualified in the position, and evaluators.
 

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NASA Logo

NASA JOINS NWCG!

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is officially an associate member of NWCG. As such, NASA is beginning to collaborate with wildland fire management agencies with the goal of increasing collaboration across agencies and leveraging NASA data, technology, and innovation for nation-wide efforts in wildland fire management. NASA has a rich history of research, development, and technology transfer in the areas of Earth science, space technologies, and aeronautics that support the NWCG mission.

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NWCG new website look.

WWW.NWCG.GOV HAS A NEW LOOK AND DESIGN

The NWCG web team dedicated the past two years to making a significant upgrade to the www.nwcg.gov site. This upgrade involved a comprehensive redesign of over 7,700 web pages.

The modernization of NWCG’s website involved migrating to Drupal 10, a cutting—edge content management system, and leveraging Amazon Web Service GovCloud for secure and efficient hosting. These upgrades help ensure that the NWCG website remains current in content management practices, offering enhanced customization, improved performance, and an overall superior user experience.

NWCG Leadership Committee

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WFLDP Professional Reading Program logo
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WFLDP PRP book covers

The Wildland Fire Leadership Development Program announced the Professional Reading Program’s 2024 list!

The years books include:

  • Young Men and Fire by Norman Maclean
  • The Wisdom of the Bullfrog by William H. McRaven
  • The Art of Clear Thinking by Hasard Lee
  • Emotional Agility by Susan David
  • Writing to Persuade by Trish Hall

Learn more at the NWCG Leadership Committee

INCIDENT PERFORMANCE AND TRAINING MODERNIZATION

In 2023, NWCG kicked off the Incident Performance and Training Modernization (IPTM) effort. A training system overhaul focused on developing a performance-based training system designed to shift training to on-the-job when appropriate.

Over the next five years, NWCG intends to analyze all positions within the NWCG Standards for Wildland Fire Position Qualifications, PMS 310-1. To date we are currently working on 30 incident positions, and planning for 20+ in calendar year 2025.

Subject Matter Experts from a variety of geographical areas and agencies recently completed the position analysis for 16 positions. From this analysis, Incident Positions Standards and a Next Generation Position Task Book will be developed for each position.

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Incident Performance and Training Modernization

NEXT GENERATION POSITION TASK BOOK

In April 2024, NWCG launched the new Next Generation Position Task Book (Next Gen PTB) which is a key component of the IPTM effort. This revised evaluation tool is designed to work in conjunction with the newly developed Incident Position Standards.

Major Next Gen PTB changes:

  • Structured to improve constructive conversations between evaluators and trainees.
  • Reference new Incident Position Standards.
  • Include only tasks required to be evaluated for successful performance.
  • Trainees will be rated on their performance vs. initialing whether a task was completed.
  • Must include written feedback when trainee does not meet the standard.
  • Will be position specific (no combined PTBs).
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Screen shot of the Next Gen Position Task Book
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Banner image of the Wildland Fire Learning Portal website

NWCG’s training course catalog is now available on the Wildland Fire Learning Portal (WFLP).

To access the training course catalog, visit WFLP and either set up an account or login as a guest.