Flight Path
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Modern ground school for single-engine airtanker pilots
Modernizing SEAT pilot training.
Most tanker pilots learned this job the hard way: a stack of PDFs, a few days at a carding clinic, and whatever the veteran in the next chair felt like passing on. TankerPilotEDU puts it all in one place and teaches it the way people actually learn — short lessons you can read or listen to, flashcards and knowledge checks that come back at the right interval so what you studied in March is still there in July, and real accident cases, radio procedure and contract language instead of hangar rumor. Every lesson is built from the standards and manuals the agencies publish, with the source named. Whether you are chasing your first seat or getting ready for another season, this is the ground school we wish had existed.
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
Before the first dispatch
Know what you are getting into before the first dispatch.
The single-engine airtanker seat asks a lot: a heavy airplane, low over rising terrain, in smoke and turbulence, with several people directing you over a fire at once. This course covers the mission itself — the fire, the people directing you over it, the rules at the water source 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 ›04
Airmanship
Mountain flying, low-altitude maneuvering, upset recovery
Density altitude, ridge and canyon technique, accelerated stalls, upset recovery, ground loops and bounces, TEM, areas of vulnerability and the airtanker accident record.
Open the airmanship tracks ›05
The pilot
Human factors and the long season
Heat stress, sleep and circadian rhythm, Dunning-Kruger, home and family, helmets, Nomex, boots and the DOI-approved helmet list.
See the human-factors tracks ›06
Radios & the base
Government fire radios, contracts and bases
VHF-FM and P25 radios, frequency guides, how contracts and duty limits work, where tanker pilots stay, and the airtanker season around the world.
Open radios and contracts ›
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 ›How you learn here
A syllabus that pays attention to you.
Reading a manual once and hoping it sticks is how most pilots have always studied, and memory research has been clear for a century that it doesn’t work: you forget most of what you read within days unless you are made to pull it back out of your head, and the pull works best when it’s spaced out over time. TankerPilotEDU is built on that. Two tools do the work — Flight Path and Stay Sharp — and you’ll find both in the sidebar the moment you open the course.
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Course tracks
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Lessons
01
Flight Path — the syllabus that runs itself
Open the course and Flight Path tells you exactly where you are and what to do next: the next lesson in sequence, what you’ve finished, what’s due for review, and how long it will take. No hunting through a table of contents. It knows what you’ve done and it has an opinion about what comes next — and some days that opinion is “nothing, you’re current.”
02
Stay Sharp — the part that makes it stick
Every knowledge check in the course becomes a question with its own memory. Get it right and it comes back later; get it wrong, or get it right but shaky, and it comes back sooner. Questions about the things that kill people — stalls, the gate, the dump, wires, limits — resurface more often than questions about paperwork. Three separate gauges keep you honest: your Sharp Streak (are you showing up), your Proficiency Tier (what you actually retain), and your Knowledge Currency (how fresh it is). Nothing leaves your browser unless you choose to share it.
03
Read it, or let it read to you
Every lesson is narrated, so you can get through a track on the drive to the base or in the motel with the lights off. Flashcards and a short section review at the end of every track, and quick knowledge checks with a real voice telling you how you did.
04
Every number has a document behind it
NWCG standards, the USFS airtanker standards, the DOI SEAT and Fire Boss contracts, Air Tractor’s FAA-approved Pilot Training Program, the Red Book, FAA handbooks, NTSB and interagency accident reports. Each lesson names its sources, and when something couldn’t be verified, it says so instead of guessing.
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 pilot who started on the tanker base ramp.
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.
His fire-aviation background started on the ramp. From 15 to 18 he was a fueler at the Pocatello air tanker base, fueling PB4Y-2s, P-2V Neptunes, DC-6s, DC-7s, P-3s, C-130s and a Hawkins & Powers C-97 — airplanes that are long gone from the airtanker world. He later flew as an Air Tactical Group Supervisor platform pilot in Twin Commanders and Cessna 414s across the Western United States.
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 built on the same engine as his other course, AgPilotEDU, but it is its own course for its own seat, 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 · Twin Commander and Cessna 414 (ATGS platform) · Owns a Pitts S-2B and a Starduster II
Based
Pocatello, Idaho · SkyWest operations
Ready when you are
Learn the fire before you fly it.
Whether you are working toward your first SEAT or scooper card or keeping a card current through the winter, the course is here and it is ready when you are.