Originally Posted by
malabo
Maybe its an AW139 thing, wide-body, piss-poor utility visibility, and a couple of guys obviously out of their element in confined/unprepared sites. Compensated for by overactive, though productive, CRM. A single-pilot bush guy with an AStar would just have gone in, landed, and left, humming "the high and the mighty". Gordy has mentioned before it is somewhat a "kalifornia" thing with multiple government agencies with their own fleets (this one was LA County Fire - Air Ops) criss-crossing over each other, where out of state the fire is co-ordinated by gov/state, but helicopters are contracted experienced utility operators. You won't substitute experience with training. Was anybody else straining their eyes looking for guy wires?
I guess you're not a fan of the AW139, to each his own. For the record, the ship belongs to LAFD which is the
City of Los Angeles FD. LA County FD has
its own fleet, though I suppose that sort of reinforces your/Gordy's point on all the government operators on the Left Coast. And then there's
CalFire.