As a Canadian firebombing pilot during the middle of the 2003 BC
fire season
41 days on red alert ( 5 min from dispatch to wheels roll)
with no days off, including flying 182 hrs in 291 flights. One 3 day period included 24.7 flight hrs and 41 flights. This was legal as Transport Canada waived the 3 days off in 30 and 6 days off in 60 duty limit ( with a 8 flight hr and 12 hr duty day limit after day 30). The problem was not enough pilots and a fire season that would not slow down. We finally got 5 days off on day 42 but it didn't matter as I was going to ground myself any way.
The good news is firebombing pilots get the whole winter off
