Caption from the Lori Helicopters' Facebook page: "How about that!! Dipping your water bucket into a pool, at the base of a narrow necked, 40ft gorge, in a 25 knot crosswind and all at altitude. Wow, that's certainly some incredibly controlled flying... you go Shawn!— at Mt Kenya Forest. (photo used with permission. Credit: Teeku Patel / Sokomoto.com) "

Updated at 9:22 a.m. March 21, 2012

Soldiers from the Kenyan and British armies along with 500 local residents and volunteers are helping to slow the spread of a large wildfire burning in Kenya on Mt. Kenya. They are assisting the Kenya Forest Service and the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) on the fire that is burning indigenous and bamboo forest and moorland.

An article at allafrica.com said helicopters from the KWS and the British Army have been joined by a “volunteer” helicopter from Lady Lori, a company that provides helicopter services out of Nairobi, Kenya. We contacted the company and learned that initially they did volunteer the use of the helicopter, but now they are “on the clock”. Lady Lori’s Facebook page has some additional photos of the Eurocopter AS350 B3 which has been working on the fire for five days.

Photo used with permission. Credit: Teeku Patel / Sokomoto.com

Here are some excerpts from a blog on the Lady Lori web site, dated March 20, which also has copies of the photos:

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Yesterday afternoon Shawn Evans, our Canadian Long-lining specialist, his Lady Lori AS350B3 and the heroic ground team were battling to save a school that was being threatened to be engulfed by flames.

It concerns one of the largest forest fires in Kenya’s history and the first time a Kenyan fire has been fought by air. The photo’s describe how Lady Lori’s people are trying hard to get the fires under control:

1. As darkness fell it appeared that we might have succeeded, however moments later the wind picked up and once more the fire took hold of the tinder dry trees. We’re all just praying that the school was somehow spared and we’ll find it still in tact this morning.

2. Shawn and his Lady Lori Eurocopter are operating at between 6,000 and 13,000ft, right on the outer limits of man and machines capabilities.

3. How about that!! Dipping your water bucket into a pool, at the base of a narrow necked, 40ft gorge, in a 25 knot crosswind and all at altitude.Wow, that’s certainly some incredibly controlled flying… You go Shawn!

4. It’s now the fifth day since we took-off from Wilson in response to the Chief Park Warden, Simon Gitau’s, request for assistance with the herculean efforts up on Mount Kenya. Simon Gitau is heading up the efforts in an attempt to seize back control from the forest fires. It’s all very much touch and go at the moment, however he did receive the incredibly welcome addition of 30 British soldiers, who have been dispatched to camp out on the mountain and assist the KWS and Police personal already there fighting the fires.

5. Much more is needed though and whilst Lady Lori are certainly proving their worth, helicopters can only assist in reducing fires to a manageable size, it’s the people on the ground that actually put fires out. Here’s hoping for less wind, some heaven sent rain and a few more additional firefighters on the ground.

Written by Ian Mimano on 20.03.12
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A jury in Oregon is deliberating, after a week-long trial, a case related to the crash of a helicopter on the Iron Complex (or Iron 44) fire in northern California in 2008 that killed nine firefighters and crew personnel. The lawsuit was initiated by the surviving co-pilot, William Coultas, and the estate of the pilot who died, Roark Schwanenberg. They are suing the maker of the helicopter’s engines, General Electric, for $177 million, claiming there were problems with a fuel control valve and that the specifications on the fuel filters were inadequate to remove contaminants.

GE’s position agrees with the findings of the NTSB which determined that the owner and operator of the Sikorsky S-61N helicopter, Carson Helicopters, under-stated the weight of the helicopter and over-stated its performance in the documents they provided to the U.S. Forest Service when bidding on their firefighting contract. The NTSB estimated that the actual empty weight of the helicopter was 13,845 pounds, while Carson Helicopters stated in their contract proposal that the weight was 12,013 pounds. For the purpose of load calculations on the day of the crash, the pilot assumed the weight to be 12,408 pounds, which was 1,437 pounds less than the actual weight estimated by the NTSB. According to their findings, for the mission of flying the firefighters off the helispot, the helicopter was already over the allowable weight even without the firefighters on board.

Mr. Coultas has long claimed that Carson Helicopters and the two pilots were not at fault for the accident and that the engines did not provide full power as they lifted off the helispot that day with a load of wildland firefighters. The NTSB disagreed, saying that the engines were operating at full power when the rotors clipped trees as it tried but failed to gain adequate altitude.

Killed in the crash were pilot Roark Schwanenberg, 54; pilot Jim Ramage, 63; Shawn Blazer, 30; Scott Charlson, 25; Matthew Hammer, 23; Edrik Gomez, 19; Bryan Rich, 29; David Steele, 19; and Steven “Caleb” Renno, 21.

The jury began their deliberations on Thursday, March 15. We will update this article when they return a verdict.

Thanks go out to Christian and Dick

The following was released on PRWeb by the American Helicopter Services & Aerial Firefighting Association (AHSAFA), a Washington-based trade association representing commercial operators of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft engaged in aerial wildland firefighting. It is a good update on the status of four companies that provide helicopters for wildland fire management, Erickson, Columbia, Intermountain, and Rogers.

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Aerial Firefighters Gearing Up For The 2012 Wildland Forest Fire Season

Helicopter operators specializing in aerial firefighting are anticipating an early start to the 2012 wildland fire season.

Washington, DC (PRWEB) January 25, 2012

“With near record lows in rainfall, combined with record high temperatures in much of California in December–plus ongoing dry conditions throughout much of the Southwest–the aerial firefighters are preparing for an earlier than normal deployment of assets, given the prevailing high fire dangers, especially in those parts of the country,” said Tom Eversole, Executive Director of the American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association (AHSAFA) in Washington.

“For us, the 2011 fire season never really went away,” noted Dan Sweet, Public Relations Manager for Columbia Helicopters in Portland, Oregon. “For instance, we have had a Columbia Helicopters Vertol 107-II in Big Spring, Texas, since March of last year, and expect to keep that helicopter there for the immediate future.” Sweet noted that Columbia performs heavy maintenance, as well as pilot training during the winter months. This year, 15-20 pilots will be assigned to four of the company’s aircraft–three Columbia Helicopters Vertol 107-II’s, and one Columbia Helicopters Model 234 Chinook–which will be operated under US Forest Service (USFS) exclusive-use contracts for firefighting. That is the same number operated for the USFS in 2011. Concurrently, 30-40 field maintenance crews are undergoing training.

Portland/Central Point Oregon based Erickson Air-Crane has yet to see a break in activity pertaining to the fire season on a global level. Currently the company holds 5 contracted locations in Australia between the Central, Southern and Eastern portions. In December a 6th location was requested by the Fire Authorities for Erickson to provide an S-64 Helitanker for Western Australia operating out of Perth. Half of these will return to the United States and the other half will be shipped to Greece under contract with the Greek fire authorities. San Diego Gas and Electric requested an addition S-64 in August to augment its power line construction and fire standby through the middle of January 2012 for the greater San Diego City and County areas. Erickson is also gearing up for the U.S. fire season with 6 S-64’s under exclusive use contracts with the U.S. Forest Service with 2 additional aircraft assigned to the city of Los Angeles, CA. Erickson Air-Crane will be operating 16 of their own aircraft and providing maintenance and crewing for up to 5 additional customer owned S-64’s.

Intermountain Helicopters of Sonora, California is also getting ready for an active fire season through an aggressive maintenance program on its Bell 212 and Bell 412 twin engine helicopters, according to Rick Livingston, Director of Operations. Currently, Intermountain Helicopters has a six person staff, which includes four pilots and three mechanics, some of whom are cross-trained to fly and maintain the aircraft. “All annual inspections are done prior to the fire season, in order to avoid component failure in the field during mid-season,” Livingston noted. “That’s why, when a component is within about 100 hours of change out, we’ll do it immediately, rather than let it go to the life limit, and risk a failure in the field. We have a very proactive, preventative maintenance program, not just for the helicopters, but the fuel trucks, and maintenance trailers that go out with them.”

Fresno, California-based Rogers Helicopters’ Vice-President Robin Rogers reported the company, which operates a mixed fleet of 11 single and twin-engine helicopters, has two Bell 212s and one Eurocopter A-star helicopter, along with a fixed wing Turbo Commander aircraft, ready for dispatch. “In addition to annual aircraft scheduled maintenance checks, our staff of 25 mechanics also perform annual inspections of our support equipment, which includes a combination of 30 fuel trucks, and maintenance trailers,” said Rogers. “We also inspect all of the equipment that needs to be aboard each aircraft, by contract, such as the Bambi buckets, and long lines.” Recurrent and upgrade pilot training is also done concurrently with the maintenance period. Right now, Rogers Helicopters employs 40 pilots, of which 22 are full time. As with maintenance, all pilot training is done in-house. “Our training is pretty standardized, because there is really no way to predict the severity of the fire season until it happens,” said Rogers. “If history is any indication, you would usually see fire activity in California and the Southwest in the March or April time frame. But with the current dry conditions and the Santa Ana winds, a wildfire could break out any time.”

Columbia Helicopters, Erickson Air-Crane, Intermountain Helicopters, and Rogers Helicopters are members of the American Helicopter Services & Aerial Firefighting Association (AHSAFA), the Washington-based trade association representing commercial operators of helicopters and fixed wing aircraft engaged in aerial wildland firefighting.

Thanks go out to Dick