Conair: S-M-S to the M-A-X

Pilots for Canadian aerial firefighting company, Conair, take the notion of Safety Management Systems (SMS) to a new level. I've watched general aviation and corporate pilots perform pre-takeoff safety briefings for years (I don't have experience with airlines) and have never seen a briefing with quite depth and tempo as I saw watching Conair pilots Chris Baldwin (left) and Jeff Brousseau.

The two were prepping for an IFR training flight and water dumping run in a Convair CV580 twin turboprop as part of a training mission from the Abbotsford International Airprot (YXX )in Abbotsford, BC on 4 April.

Look for Flight International's full Aerial Firefighting feature package (which contains a large article on Conair) in the 24 May issue.

Courtesy of YouTube, here's a video of the kind of work Conair does on a daily basis in fire season...