The transcript is worth a read.
The witness evidence was that ON A BAD DAY, unless a heli gets airborn quickly it is good for assett protection only.
However Council indicated that Narrewareen and another fire was contained by Elvis on Feb 7th.
In general commissioners were interested in the time it takes to task aircraft.
They were exploring the notion that a higher number of light utility helicopters, which could automatically respond on pager (as in WA) rather than waiting 30(?) minutes for three levels of admin to task, as in Victoria, would have better chance to deliver water to the fire when it could do some good. 1st 900 liter drop within 15 minutes (followed by more drops) or a 9000 liter drop within 45 minutes?
Also yesterday a very experienced air attack supervisor described the fire conditions as not unprecedented in respect to rate of spread over a short period of time, but unprecedented that the conditions did not abate. He described flying conditions as marginal and uncomfortable but not unsafe.
In my view this statement gave more credence to the idea of a small quantity of water delivered early is in general a better plan than a large drop delivered later, by which time even if the attack is successfull on the source of the blaze, the spotting effect is the horse that has since bolted.
other interesting fact was cost of retardant on DC10 is around A$35k per drop.
Estimated total cost per drop is around A$100k.(depending on number of drops)
That is a lot of time in light helis, even if they are responding to false alarms...
Mickjoebill