I’ve had about 20 years of fire ops in east coast states, starting back in the late 80s when we learned On The Job, so there’s a little bit of experience to refer to.
We all have to start somewhere and there have been numerous missed opportunities for a solid home owned and operated aerial firefighting to be set up and nurtured. Time and again the cheap and easy choice has been made by officials to engage overseas operators rather than nurture ‘our own’ and keep the money and experience here in Australia. We missed out on setting up our own S-64 Aircrane fleet back in the late 90s, and have spent more since on bringing in N Reg machines than we would ever have outlaid on a fleet of new machines (as did the Italians). Operators such as Kestrel have battled hard to get night ops up and approved, forever slowed down by the CASA and achieved so much despite the obstacles put in their way. McDermotts have a great setup of Helitacks all on P2 or N registrations which allow them to go overseas and Make Money, a virtual impossibility with any VH machine.
So why can’t or won’t we allow Australian pilots to get a foot in the overseas dominated door of LAT and VLAT ops? Why should aircraft pilot be an approved occupation for migrants; it certainly wasn’t some 40 years ago? The skill levels must be there, and the requirements certainly in place to meet the demands of the job; helicopter pilots must have ag/low level endorsement to be allowed out on fire ops (Helitack and Firebird) so I’d expect similar requirements for plank drivers to get onto the fireground. Minimum hours are also required (100 last time I looked) so it’s not as if Capt Bloggs is going to jump into a LAT without being thoroughly trained.
And my pet irrit has long been the so-called Free Trade Agreement with the USA, where no-one, not even the Canadians, can operate on their own register on fires in the US. All have to be N Reg.
Yet we roll over and let them into Australia with only a requirement for an Australian AOC, watching a vast amount of money and experience drift away at the expense of every Australian taxpayer.