Have spent several years doing fire-fighting in South Africa, firstly with the spotter(bird-dog) a/c and then the fixed wing bombers (Thrush and Dromader) and for the last three years with a Bell 407 with an 800 litre Bambi bucket.
As long as there is a good (accessible) supply of water close by then even the small helos are very effective in the right hands. Recently did a fire where we managed 96 loads in an afternoon. Multiply that by 800 litres and it works out to around 75 tonnes of water and retardant. At the fire in question the airstrip was only 3nm away and the helo averaged 8 drops to 1 compared to the fixed wing bombers. The maths is easy.
If the water is more than 5 minutes away then the effectiveness drops and becomes questionable re. the small helos.
Wx Conditions, as well as terrain also play a large part; on a "Red" day, only the Mil8 has any real impact on fire behaviour.
Bert you were there when we came to help out with the Entabeni fire this year. I'm sure you would agree that helos were the only viable option that day. Unfortunately I got recalled back to NLP and missed the party that night, was hoping to have a few cold ones with you...
