There are more than 1,200 fire personnel battling the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fire.Many are on the ground, but a handful are thousands of feet in the air working on containment efforts."It's a monster fire, and it's going to take some time," said Andy Lyon, the public information officer for the Calf Canyon and Hermits Peak Fire.There are three different types of aircraft being used to battle the flames."The scoopers were used first to try and slow the advancing wildfire," said Lyon.These aircraft are tasked with dropping water on the fire to cool it down, making it less intense. This gives fire crews on the ground time to prepare a containment line."The air tankers were used to create a retardant line on top of a ridge just west of town," Lyon told KOAT.The retardant is the pink substance that creates a second containment line, acting as a backup, in case flames move past the first containment line ground crews created.The third aircraft is a bucket ship."Helicopters of different sizes with buckets of different sizes dip into a lake or a pond and then fill those buckets with water and drop that on a hot spot to cool it down," said Lyon. "So without that air support, we may have to pull back and the fire may burn unchecked. With that air support, we may be able to go right to the fire edge and try and put that fire out right at the fire's edge, which is what we prefer to do." KOAT captured video of a bucket ship over Cochiti Lake Wednesday afternoon assisting the Cerro Pelado Fire. Its bucket hangs roughly 200 feet below the helicopter and carries 2,600 gallons of water. They look small in photos and videos, but it's big enough to fit a Smartcar inside.Winds can affect containment lines and aircraft."If it was a consistent wind, we could build a very strong containment line in the path of that wind-pushed fire. But since there's shifting around, we have to shift. Every time the wind shifts and sometimes, as has happened more than once in the last couple of days, the wind shifts allow the fire to go around existing containment lines," said Lyon. "Then in some ways, we're kind of back to square one because we have to try and now build a new containment line for the new growth."If winds are strong, the planes and helicopters are grounded. "It's dangerous for these pilots to fly with heavy loads close to the ground. And on top of that, it can be ineffective. Either the wind is creating so much smog that they can't see where they're going to up, or the wind will disperse the water or retardant before it actually reaches the point where they want it to land," Lyon said.