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Single-engine airtankers and scoopers — the ground school for the fire seat
Airtanker pilot training, built from the agency standards.
TankerPilotEDU teaches what a SEAT or single-engine scooper pilot is expected to know before the first fire: the aircraft and its fire gate, the water source, fire behavior, the Fire Traffic Area, the contract limits, and what it takes to get and keep a DOI/USFS pilot card — every lesson traced to the document that says so.
Built from the sources the fire agencies publish
NWCG Standards (PMS 505 / 508 / 518)
USFS Airtanker Standards
DOI SEAT & Scooper Contracts
Air Tractor Pilot Training Program
FAA Handbooks & ACS
From the ag seat to the fire seat
Know what you are getting into before the first dispatch.
A single-engine airtanker is an agricultural airplane with a fire gate. If you fly ag, the airplane is familiar; the mission is not. This course covers the part that is new — the fire, the people directing you over it, the rules at the water and the retardant base, and the paperwork that decides whether you fly this season at all.
01
Start here
The aircraft and the program
What SEATs, LATs, VLATs and scoopers are, how the program came to be, the AT-802 fire gate and emergency dump, and the Fire Boss at the water.
Open the first track ›02
The fire
Fire behavior and fire operations
S-190 foundations, retardant and coverage levels, the Fire Traffic Area, aerial supervision, drop limits, radios and duty limits.
Explore fire operations ›03
Get carded
Carding and currency
The Interagency Pilot Qualification Card: hour minimums, Level II to Level I, the IMCS evaluation, and a self-assessment.
See carding prep ›
Sourced, not summarized
Every number here has a document behind it.
Drop heights, wind limits, water-source rules, duty limits, hour minimums — each lesson names the standard, contract or manual it came from and the edition it was read in. When the agencies revise a number, the lesson is revised from the new document, not from memory.
See our training standards ›Built differently
Ground school for a seat that has never had one in one place.
Built by an active ag pilot. The material a new tanker pilot needs is scattered across NWCG standards, USFS and DOI documents, the manufacturer’s training program and FAA handbooks. This course puts it in one sequence, with flashcards and knowledge checks on every track.
7
Course tracks
—
Lessons
01
Traceable to real sources
NWCG PMS 505, 508 and 518, the Forest Service Standards for Airtanker Operations, the DOI SEAT and scooper contracts, Air Tractor’s FAA-approved Pilot Training Program, the Interagency Standards for Fire and Fire Aviation Operations, and FAA-H-8083-23.
02
Written for the pilot, not the agency
What the rule means in the cockpit — what to say entering the Fire Traffic Area, what to do when the gate will not open, when a Level II pilot must broadcast and when to turn a mission down.
03
Honest about what’s verified
Source status stays visible so you know what is grounded in a cited document and what still needs confirmation against the contract you will actually fly under.
Explore the library
Choose your next track.
Every track in the course, in order. Open a track to read it; tap “See what’s inside” to see the lesson list before you decide. Large and very large airtanker material will be added as its own group.
About the creator
Built by a working pilot.
Benjamin Cardon grew up working a farm. By 14 he was building and flying a radio-controlled ag plane built from his own plans. He began flight training at 15 and earned his private pilot certificate on his seventeenth birthday.
He spent years on the line, then built a career the long way — line man, flight instructor, Part 135 instructor, and Assistant Chief Flight Instructor at Avcenter. He flew charter in light twins, hauled bank checks, and ran air ambulance routes through winter nights between Salt Lake City, Pocatello, Twin Falls, Boise, and Jackson Hole. He joined SkyWest in 2003 and has been there ever since — currently flying the Embraer 175 as a Line Captain and holding a CRJ type rating with approximately 11,000 hours in the CRJ. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Aviation Science and serves as both a Sim Check Airman and a Line Check Airman.
He is dual rated — fixed wing and rotorcraft — and flies both night ag and daytime ag. His first ag seat was a night ag operation in Yuma, Arizona. He owns and competes a Pitts S-2B and a Starduster II, with aerobatic competition wins to his name.
TankerPilotEDU is the companion to AgPilotEDU, his agricultural pilot course. The airtanker material started life as a section of that course and now has a home of its own, with room to grow into large and very large airtankers.
Certificates & Ratings
ATP · Commercial Ag · Dual Rated (AMEL / RH) · CFI · CFII · CRJ Type Rating · Part 135 Instructor · Asst. Chief Flight Instructor · Sim Check Airman · Line Check Airman · Line Captain (SkyWest, EMB-175)
Aircraft Flown
Ag-Cat · Ag-Cat (Garrett turbine) · Piper Pawnee · Turbine Brave · PZL M-18 Dromader · Air Tractor 402 · 502 · 602 · 802 · Bell OH-58 · Bell 206 JetRanger · Bell 206 LongRanger · Owns a Pitts S-2B and a Starduster II
Based
Aberdeen, Idaho (fixed wing ag) · Yuma, Arizona (helicopter ag) · SkyWest operations
Ready when you are
Learn the fire before you fly it.
Whether you are an ag pilot looking at your first SEAT contract or a carded pilot keeping current through the winter, the course is here and it is ready when you are.