Thank you or the information Gentlemen. To move away from the merits of different platforms/techniques and back to the original question.

I understand from the reply’s that the majority of smaller aircraft are Australian operators. Why then can Australian industry not provide the ‘heavy’ machines? The expensive taxpayer funded ones.

For example the NSW Government signed a deal with Coulson of Canada for 737 and Citation operations. US or Canadian (?) C130 and BAe146 contract tankers. US Erickson Skycrane heavy choppers in Victoria, US registered Dauphin in QLD fires this week, US Blackhawks at Bankstown etc etc etc

the US registers dauphin and and bell 214’s are actually owned by McDermott Aviation which is an Australian Company. So don’t assume that all N registered aircraft are owned and operated by a US company.

Skycranes are owned and operated by Erickson but brought in under a discreet AOC by an Australian operator, so they are getting a decent cut. Erickson also builds their skycranes as they are the manufacturer. They have sold some to other countries and also supplement that fleet with counteracts operating on opposite summers. An Aussie company can’t afford this investment and have them sit idle over winter.

now you say well why doesn’t the Aussie send their own aircraft overseas in winter? Well there’s lots of financial and regulatory reasons and also ability to compete on price as to why that doesn’t happen. One such example being that most of the Australian aircraft have a host of local Aussie EO’s installed in them. To operate those aircraft in the USA on a forestry contract all that equipment would have to be STC’d, forestry doesn’t accept EO’s. That’s not including the fact the US forestry requires those aircraft to be operating under a US part 135/133 certificate, not a discreet AOC like in Australia for the foreign aircraft.

So in short unless you want the taxpayer to pay more than double for the same heavy assets, then it doesn’t make sense for an Australian operator to purchase these assets themselves. This is really what it comes down to.

dont forget that not all N registered aircraft are brought in. Some are actually owned an operated by Aussies but it’s easier than having them on the casa register for a myriad of regulatory reasons with casa being casa.

Dan the man is wheeled out about this time each year in front of the lineup of birds on the tarmac with every media outlet in attendance.

That’s why.

Yes. You are about 3 months out of date with your newsflash!

So 5 x Airtractors operating simultaneously cannot replicate the same drop pattern as 1 x 737? Intuitively, this would surprise me. 15,000 litres is 15,000 litres.

+1 for what Havick said. Sometimes one big splash is required, other times a water pistol does better. You also need to know that a drop can be very dangerous to firefighters underneath, it ain’t just gentle summer rain, so their safety is another thing that has to be considered.

Try Australian Aviation December 2018 re purchase.