Air Attack ship orbits high above the fire and is usually the first on scene unless a helicopter gets in there first. Air Attack will set up in a high orbit and radio in his/her observations on the fire to the ground units. Then as the tankers start coming in they will be placed in an orbit OPPOSITE of the air attack orbit away from the plume of smoke for safety reasons. They fly opposite orbits so Air Attack sees the planes twice as much. There is a designated direction for both but I can't recall which is what. One by one as air attack directs them a tanker will drop from that orbit into a lower orbit and drop it's load on the fire from that orbit. Then it will go back up to the higher orbit and back to the tanker base for reloading. Meanwhile the helicopters are skipping low along the ground between a water source (called the "pond" on a fire) and the fire's edges and hot spots. If the fire isn't big enough, then tankers and copters can;t fight the fire at the same time. If there is one copter, it is easy while the tanker drops the copter loads and while the copter drops the tankers orbit. They stay out of each other's way.

On a bigger fire with plenty of tankers and helicopters the two may be fighting totally seperate lines of the fire and not have to worry about each other. This diagram shows the cross section of the orbits and how everybody stays out of the way. Next time you are on a fire look up and watch them all circle around at different elevations. And over the radio, using this diagram will help you visualize what you are hearing as everybody talks away.