If the President of the HAA thinks that there are helicopters in this country that are capable of doing what the aircranes can do, or even close to doing what they can do then she does not deserve to be in that position.
We do not have those kind of aircraft because it is impossible to support them on a year round basis. There is little application for those helicopters in this country except during the fire season.
I gather she is acting as a voice on behalf of other operators that do not like seeing international competition and that is understandable but what is the solution? Does anyone really think that an Australian operator is going to invest in a heavy lift helicopter and have it sit around for 6 months gathering dust in the hope that the next fire season will be a big one????
Having said that, the government has done so little to encourage local operators to invest in big aircraft which is probably the real injustice here because our pilots are bloody good at fighting fires and they happen just about every year. But will someone tell our Rosemarie to get her head out of the sand and take a proper look at the local industry and to stop saying things like "Our helicopter industry is geared to fight fires", because it does little for her credibility in that position. We may be good at it with what we have, but we don't have much.
DF