9APlus
flight through the smoke can easy stop the engines therefore some mods are recommended
What are you smoking....? I have flown in the thickest smoke for years and there are no detrimental effects to our engines:
A helicopter would not have saved the pier..... the wood was burning pretty hot and a single drop would do nothing but take away the heat for a minute.
Helicopters really just cool the fire down to allow other methods to be used. Remember a fire needs 3 things, (well 4 but give me a minute), Heat, Oxygen and Fuel to burn---take away one of the three and there is no more wild fire.
Here in the US, the fourth element is "overhead" or "management" as you call it, (we call it hangers on earning a pycheck watching us work...)...with out that there is no fire......