Originally Posted by
SASless
In the USA....firefighting with helicopters is less about putting out the fire and more into safely making money throwing water at the ground.
USFS Rule encourage that as they want to have as few crashes and loss of lives and injuries as possible during the Fire Season.
You know it----raising the humidity one bucket at a time....
A fire is not out until the team has made their overtime allotment for that roll---I may or ay not be jaded at this point in my career.....lol
Originally Posted by
SASless
If using the US Forest Service Load Calculation system....over weight would not be a factor due to how conservative their performance calculations are determined.
Gordy can explain how that works, if he will, as he does lots of US Forest Service work with multiple types of aircraft.
Yep, I can do that, basically the USFS takes about a 10% download on performance if carrying people, (HOGE---Hover Out of Ground Effect), in simple terms... 5,000' 30 C go tot the carts and the helicopter is able to lift "X", we deduct about 5-10% depending upon THEIR chart... We then deduct EW, pilot weight, hour and half of fuel weight based upon their chart and what we are left with is our "allowable loading" for the day.
We also complete a HOGE-J number which is our allowable weight to lift WITHOUT the download--as it is assumed this is on the "hook" and is "jettison able" hence the J.
This is the chart we compete daily for expected altitude / temperature of where we are flying: