Yes I figured out pretty quickly that if I did my light metering and set for "correct" exposure the pics would all end up over-exposed from the extra light of the flames. So now what I do is meter on the pad, then bump the shutter speed up until it indicates a full stop under-exposed and shoot at that setting. I can only do so much with them in post because I'm shooting jpegs, the D7000 is not a pro-level camera so the buffer can't really handle continuous RAW for long and I want to maximize my fps.
Edit: I don't know if I described that very well, I don't think the fire is so bright that it illuminates and over-exposes the entire scene (the background would still be correctly exposed) it's that at "correct" ambient metering the flames/highlights are completely blown out.
I know how you feel, I used to shoot a lot with an SLR back in the film days too, but then when things went digital I spent most of the last 10-12 years with just point-and-shoot cameras. What finally pushed me into a D-SLR a couple years ago was having a kid. But this is a great time to get back into photography, digital imaging technology has finally equalled and even surpassed what you could do with film. If size and weight are a concern for backpacking etc just have a look at what's going on with mirrorless cameras, you can get incredible images with very small kit these days. Check out:
https://www.sansmirror.com/
Your Super DX3 and my HyperLOC 300 weigh in about the same. And they're nearly the same length but mine is an inch thinner so doesn't need any nose weight (I'm about three calibers stable) but I do have a Garmin GPS up front which is about the same as your bird shot ~5oz. Add one of your Pro38-6GXL motors (30-35oz) and you'll be +/- 100oz on the pad. Good luck on your cert flight!