I love fire fighting & I talk to as many operators as I can when I’m on a fire as everyone has a method of doing things which is just a bit better than everyone else, alternatively I see it as our collective responsibility to say STOP when we see a catastrophe unfolding.
My 2 cents worth -
- I believe a 150ft longline is a minimum length for AS350 size & above to minimise downwash. Not so critical when battling a running blaze but for spot drops & cleanup it makes a big difference.
- You need to carry as much fuel as you can while lifting the maximum water load you can. With the multi drop buckets available now I fill the AS350B3 to 100% fuel then button off water as I’m lifting to stay within the limits. It’s not uncommon in big timber country or in the hills to burn 10% fuel just getting back to the fire from the fuel truck, & when the water point is 5% fuel from the fire the fuel gauge goes down pretty quick. Once I’m down to 70% fuel I’m lifting the full 1000 litres that the bucket can hold. I know this isn’t a commercially competitive operation, but you can be sure the firies notice when 1 company consistently goes for fuel 30 minutes before everyone else does on a fire. Multiply this by 100’s of cycles on a campaign fire & you lose a lot of bucketing time to fuel ferrying.
- Forget the cycles, with the money that’s being blown on this operation the cost of changing parts is negligible.
- Use the FM limitations to work out what you CAN do, not what you CANNOT do. The FM determines the limits, operate to the limits. If the pilot needs the doors off to see properly then get the doors off & operate the machine to the appropriate limits. There is nothing more dangerous in fighting fires than not being able to see as much as possible, with multiple AC operating low level in a smoky environment in a tight circuit if I had my choice I’d be sitting out on the skid with the crewy so I could see better! If the pilot is not looking at the bucket then it’s just a matter of time until they drag it through the trees, & the trees usually win.
- Only critical people on board the AC, if the pilot can’t fight a fire on his own then the pilot should not be fighting fires.
- No one near the bucket or longline when lifting or landing, this goes for bucketing or utility work longlining. I hate people handling the line, it introduces risk to the ground crew & is unnecessary. With an inexperienced pilot (video example) ensure there is a large enough area that they can safely land with lots of clear area around the fuel truck, longline & helicopter. As they gain experience that area will be able to be reduced. For example when I started a football field seemed too small, now I Place the bucket at the bumper of the truck, coil the longline beside the truck & land at the back of the truck so a couple of rotor diameters beside the truck works fine.
- There is a lot of fire fighting experience in the civilian commercial industry around the world, none of those operators fight fires using the procedures the German Police have developed. This begs the question - Have the police developed a groundbreaking new way of doing things that the rest of the world will follow, or has the rest of world tried all of this before & through hard lessons learnt decided that it’s not the safest or most efficient method?