Examples of this include, but are not limited to: Obtains daily shift briefings with the pilot, mechanic, MMA Captain, and duty officer on pending missions, weather forecast statewide, upcoming maintenance on aircraft, national and local fire situation, fire weather, and planned missions of the day;
Participates in pre-mission planning and briefings, understands information sources for mission planning;
Prepares aircraft for daily operations; assures familiarity with aircraft;
Assists flight crew with any needs or requests;
Assists intelligence officer with data review and analysis;
Maintains situational awareness to ensure safe flight operations;
Maintains appropriate level of mission response readiness;
Uses and understands multiple communication systems in and on aircraft, including multi-channel radios; AM radios, etc; uses appropriate radio etiquette, what each radio is used for and more;
Uses knowledge of fire behavior, fire danger, and fire weather, to determine mission safety and preparedness;
Uses aircraft missions systems and situational awareness software; ensures thorough understanding of updates, new systems, and processes including naming conventions of files, and end user upload of files. This includes, but is not limited to;
Loads fire/detection locations into aircraft mission systems;
Operates EO/IR sensor to obtain mission data;
Creates point of interest data in aircraft mission systems;
Creates fire perimeter data in aircraft mission systems;
Creates route data in aircraft mission systems;
Creates range and bearing data in aircraft mission systems;
Completes mission size-up and provides information to appropriate party or dispatch center;
Takes snapshots of points of interest in aircraft mission systems;
Records video clips of critical mission information;
Uploads all required data to CO-WIMS system;
Verifies data in CO-WIMS system;
Communicates and sends maps with ground party via VHF or 800 MHz radio;
Provides size-up and critical mission data and information to Incident Commander or appropriate point of contact, including maps, conditions, new starts and more.