There's a new bird on the block.

For the first time, the fleet of airtankers providing air attacks on the Yukon's wildfires includes a pair of Air Tractor 802s that arrived last Saturday from Kamloops, B.C.

The dual-purpose, single-engine aircraft is designed to be an aerial bug sprayer or a fire bomber.

Veteran pilot Tim Garrish tells of how a colleague was once spraying in the morning, then re-rigged for bombing in the afternoon.

With 30 years in the business, including time on the Firecat airtankers, Garrish isn't about to ignite a debate about which is better his AT-802 or the Firecats across the tarmac flown by his buddies.

But he's quick to point out a couple of sweet features. They include the computerized drop system that allows him to preset the exact volume and spread pattern; the turbo engine, maneuverability, and the ability to go on a bombing run.

But each airtanker is a tool and different aircraft bring different attributes, such as the Firecat's ability to cruise 17 kilometres an hour faster, at 315 km/h.

The Air Tractors carry 3,000 litres of retardant, or a tad fewer than the 3,200 litres for the Firecat.

'I can vary the coverage level and I can also vary the volume,' Garrish said minutes before leaving Whitehorse Tuesday afternoon for redeployment in Carmacks. 'So I can drop the whole load, I can drop half of it or I can drop a quarter of it.

'The airtankers are tools, and if you use them in the right place, they do the job.'

The AT-802s' maiden deployment to the Yukon came amid a rash of lightning strikes that started fires in and outside the protection zones.

Three new fires on top of the 20 picked up last weekend were detected in the Mayo district Monday. One was knocked down and corralled by three airtanker groups, including the Kamloops group.

Under normal operating conditions, there are two airtanker groups based in the Yukon: one group of three Firecats and a birddog; and one group comprised of a DC-6 and a birddog.

During the peak of activity last weekend, there was a total of nine Firecats, the two AT-802s, the DC-6 and four birddogs.

Doug Aston has been an air-attack officer for 30 years, directing the airtankers from the seat of a twin, turbo-engine birddog that generally zips along more quickly than the tankers.

Depending on what's called for will dictate the method of attack, whether it's painting a straight line of retardant as a fire break along one flank, or weaving along the jagged edge with more precision drops, Aston explains.

He says time management is a key consideration.

Having two or more tankers drop their loads one after the other along a line can be an effective use of the aircraft. But it could also mean delays back at the base when they all land to reload at once, he points out.

Ideally, says Ashton, he likes to use up the entire load in the first airtanker in single or multiple drops, so that it's headed back to reload while the others move in to take their turns bombing the fire.

'So you might have two or three tankers working the fire, stacked in 500-foot intervals,' Garrish points out.

'It's more efficient to have the next tanker watching where the initial tanker drops,' Ashton adds.

As quickly as the AT-802s arrived, along with the two Firecats and the birddog that make up the Kamloops airtanker, they will be leaving.

Cooler and damper weather conditions prompted Tuesday's release of the Abbotsford, B.C. group of four Firecats and a birddog. The Kamloops group is scheduled to leave today.

Wildland Fire Management entered into a new three-year contract with ConAir of Abbotsford last winter to provide the Yukon with the three Firecats, the DC-6 and two birddogs at approximately $2 million a year.

Lorne Harris, air operations manager for fire management, says the Yukon has two, one-year options to extend the contract.

The Yukon, says Harris, goes the extra mile when it sets out specifications for its airtanker contract, so the aircraft are equipped to easily mesh with the firefighting requirements of other provinces or territories, or Alaska.

He says being able to send the tanker groups elsewhere when the risk of fire is low here helps the Yukon recover some of the annual contract cost. And it does happen, often, because of the ability for the Yukon groups to fit in, he says.

Harris says the face of fighting fires from the air is always changing. The day is coming when there will no longer be the unmistakable roar of the twin piston engines powering the Firecats as they pass overhead.

Harris says there is a continuous movement to modernize the country's airtankers, and most jurisdictions are now flying the larger aircraft powered by turbo-jet engines.

'The piston engine Firecats and DC-6 are all being replaced by modern turbine aircraft,' he says. 'So it is an end of an era for the piston aircraft.

'After the next three to five years, you are not going to see any piston airtankers around.'

ConAir has already stated it will be phasing out the piston Firecats and DC-6s in just a few years.

The B-26 bombers that were last based in the Yukon in 2001 under a contract with Airspray have already been phased out in Alberta.

Generally speaking, Harris says, it's more efficient to use the larger and faster airtankers.

Harris points out that one of the more common airtankers used by the provinces is the Lougheed-188 Electra, which carries 11,365 litres and cruises at well over 300 km/h.

It would be more efficient to have one L-188 Electra leave Whitehorse for a remote fire than to have three Firecats moving much more slowly, and with a combined capacity of less than the Electra, he says.

The catch, Harris points out, is that the modern airtankers like the Electra and Conair 580 can't work off gravel airstrips: Whitehorse and Watson Lake are the only two paved-strip airports.

When the time comes for its next contract, even having the Dawson City airport paved would open a huge door of options for the Yukon's air attack operations, he says.