Helicopters at Custer

K-MAX helicopter
K-MAX helicopter
K-MAX helicopter, N161KA, at Custer, SD, July 8, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert

I stopped by the Custer, South Dakota airport the other day and talked with the helitack crew and checked out the firefighting helicopters on the ramp.

The K-MAX in the photos is operated by Swanson Group Aviation and is assigned to Custer as one of the 34 Type 1 helicopters on national contracts this year. It can be a little rare to see a Type 1 ship actually parked at their “assigned” station, since as a national resource they move around frequently. This one and the AStar below had just returned from working on fires in Colorado.

K-MAX helicopter, N161KA
K-MAX at Custer, SD. Photo by Bill Gabbert

These photos look like they are distorted — no helicopter can look like this, right? But they are unedited except for cropping. Kaman Aircraft only built 38 of them between 1991 and 2003, and 25 are still flying. Eight of those 25 are on exclusive use contracts with the U.S. Forest Service for firefighting. My theory is that the USFS likes the K-MAX because it is much less expensive than the other five models of Type 1 helicopters on contract, but they can still count it as a Type 1, even though it may be about 20 gallons short of being able to carry the 700-gallons of water required as the minimum for a Type 1. The K-MAX has about 25 percent of the capacity of an Aircrane and the cost is also about 25 percent. The USFS pays $1,924 per flight hour for a K-MAX K-1200 compared to $7,718 for an Aircrane which can carry 2,650 gallons of water.

The most striking feature — well there are several, actually — are the two counter-rotating main rotors. Since they rotate in opposite directions, the torque is balanced, leading to striking feature number two — there is no need for a tail rotor. Striking feature number three is the extraordinarily thin width of the ship when viewed from the front. It looks like there is barely enough room for one pilot to squeeze into the cockpit.

The K-MAX is one of the few helicopters specifically designed to do nothing but carry external loads. Kaman made no compromises. There is no room for a passenger, very little room for internal cargo, and no wasted space or weight.

AStar helicopter at Custer, SD, N357TA
Eurocopter AS 350 B3, N357TA, at Custer, SD, July 8, 2012. Photo by Bill Gabbert

The second helicopter at Custer was a Eurocopter AS 350 B3, usually called an AStar. This one is operated by Roberts Helicopters out of Cheyenne, WY.

It’s nice that the two helicopter vendors got together and coordinated the paint schemes.

AStar and K-MAX helicopters
AStar and K-MAX helicopters. Photo by Bill Gabbert

A little trivia about the AS 350 B3: it was first helicopter model to land on the summit of Mt. Everest, 29,030 feet above sea level.

National Guard photos of the High Park fire

National Guard Bambi bucket
Nebraska National Guard crewmembers of Company C 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Battalion dump water from a Bambi bucket onto flames of the High Park Fire, June 18, 2012. (Photo by Staff Sgt. Tate Petersen, Company C, 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Support)

The National Guard has deployed Blackhawk helicopters from several states to the High Park Fire near Fort Collins, Colorado. Additionally Guardsmen from Colorado are augmenting the Larimer County Sheriff’s Department to provide assistance in securing evacuated areas. They posted these photos to Flicker, and some of them, especially the one above showing a rare view from a helicopter while dropping water, are exceptionally good.

Fire seen through Blackhawk door
Kansas Guardsmen Sgt. Sheldon Snodgrass, a flight instructor with Company G, 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Battalion, observes the High Park Fire in Larimer County, Colo., approximately 15 miles west of Fort Collins while out on a Bambi bucket mission to help provided structure protection, June 15, 2012. (Photo by Sgt. Ryan Kohlman, Company G, 2nd-135th General Support Aviation Battalion)
Firefighters on Highway
High Park Fire, June 18, 2012. (Official Army National Guard photo by Sgt. Jess Geffre/RELEASED)

(More photos are below.)

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USFS restores 4 helicopters previously cut

Helicopters on contract, 6-19-2012
Firehawk helicopter
Firehawk helicopter. Photo by Bill Gabbert

In 2011 the U.S. Forest Service had 34 helicopters on national contracts and even though their request for proposals for this year was for 34, they only awarded contracts for 30. The agency cut the helicopters formerly based at Alturas, CA; Oakridge, OR; Orland, CA; and Porterville, CA.

Today the USFS announced they changed their minds and decided to award an additional four exclusive use national contracts for helicopters. They will be:

  • Two S-61s owned by Siller Helicopters of Yuba City, Calif.;
  • One S-64 Skycrane owned by Erickson Air Crane of Central Point, Ore.;
  • One S-70 (Blackhawk) owned by Firehawk Helicopters of Leesburg, Fla.

Here is the updated list of USFS helicopters on exclusive use national contracts for 2012:

Helicopters on contract, 6-19-2012

All of these helicopters are Type 1, which requires a minimum capacity of 700 gallons, except for the eight K-Max ships which can carry only 680 gallons according to the capabilities listed on two of the K-Max contractors’ web sites. The K-Max has about 25 percent of the capacity of an Aircrane and the cost is also about 25 percent. The USFS pays $1,924 per flight hour for a K-Max K-1200 compared to $7,718 for a CH-54/SK-64.

The National Interagency Aviation Council study that was approved by the National Wildfire Coordinating Group in July, 2008 recommended that there be on exclusive use contract in 2012, 34 Type 1 helicopters, 47 Type 2 helicopters, and 100 Type 3 helicopters. The same study recommended that by 2012 there should be 23 large air tankers plus 3 water scooper air tankers on contract, for a total of 26, and by 2018 a total of 35 air tankers (32 plus 3). Currently we have 9 large air tankers on exclusive use contracts with 3 more to be added by the end of this year, and 4 additional in 2013.

Idaho man charged for shooting helicopter which was flying on prescribed fire

An Idaho man has been charged with shooting at and hitting a helicopter that was being used for aerial ignition on a prescribed fire in the fall of 2010. As Wildfire Today told you then, the pilot was 69-year old Vietnam War veteran Earl Palmer, operating the ship for Hillcrest Aircraft Company out of Lewiston, Idaho, assigned to a prescribed fire near Clarkia in Shoshone County

Mr. Palmer said there were four shots, two of which struck the helicopter. He was quoted as saying that a control tube was struck and cracked by a bullet, and that the helicopter was “within minutes of coming apart at which point the helicopter would have wrecked.”  He landed the ship immediately after it was hit.

The Lewiston Tribune reported in a story published May 26 that 58-year-old John Ernest Ross of Fernwood is scheduled to appear in 1st District Court in Wallace on July 10. He is being charged with interfering with or destruction of an aircraft, a violation of Idaho code.

Court records say Ross initially denied shooting at the helicopter, but later said he probably did but had been drinking and couldn’t remember.

The online article at the Lewiston Register web site displays a bit of irony. Below the article  is a display advertisement, probably automatically placed based on the content of the article. The ad says: “Tell Congress: Support the 2nd Amendment. Sign Petition.”, and has a photo of a revolver.

CAL FIRE and National Guard helicopter training

UH-72 Lakota
Blackhawk dipping
Blackhawk dipping

On April 14 and 15 CAL FIRE and the California National Guard held their annual helicopter training in preparation for the wildland fire season. This year there were three UH-66 L Blackhawks and two UH-72 Lakota helicopters at the CAL FIRE Training Academy in Ione, California. Typically they would have CH-47D Chinooks as well but the National Guard Company from the Stockton facility is going overseas. These photos were taken and sent to us by Bob Martinez, a Volunteer in Prevention Photographer for CAL FIRE/Fresno County Fire. He also sent us photos last year that he took at the training. Thanks again Bob.

UH-72 Lakota
UH-72 Lakota

One of the highlights of the training was the addition of the new UH-72 Lakota, a version of the Eurocopter EC145. It is basically an off the shelf model, barely militarized, simplifying maintenance and parts availability. These helicopters, 345 of them, are being introduced to the Army and the Army National Guard to replace the aging UH-1H/V (Bell 204) and OH-58A/C (Bell 206) helicopters. The Lakota has two engines, cruises at 153 mph, carries two pilots and six or eight passengers, or two stretchers and a medical staff. Some of them are outfitted with a winch which can be used for extracting injured soldiers or firefighters from remote locations. On fires it will not drop water but will be primarily used as a platform for a military Helicopter Coordinator, which is required when military helicopters are flying. It can also be used for recon, transportation, EMS, or logistics missions. The Lakota is built in Columbus, Mississippi by  the American Eurocopter division of EADS North America.

UH-72 Lakota
UH-72 Lakota
UH-66 L Blackhawk
UH-66 L Blackhawk
UH-66 L Blackhawk
Two UH-66 L Blackhawks

Infrared video of wildfire in North Carolina

Michael Crouse saw our “one liner” from April 17 about a photo gallery of multiple master streams and a tower-ladder being used on a brush fire in North Carolina and sent us a link to the video below shot from what appears to be a police helicopter in Wilmington, North Carolina. The photo gallery and the video are of the same April 16 fire.

Michael said:

…It has our (NCFS) scout plane, A star helicopter, and the contracted Fire Boss all working the fire. It was shot with a FLIR camera from a helicopter. They switch over to the thermal and it is amazing footage.

At the 2:43 minute mark, the video switches to thermal infrared and suddenly the extent and perimeter of the fire are very, very obvious.  The video also catches water drops from a single engine air tanker and a helicopter.

Thanks Michael.

And below is more video, this time shot from the ground by a Captain in the Wilmington Fire Department, of the same fire burning intensely on both sides of 17th Street.
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Helicopters drop water on burning skyscraper in Moscow

File photo, KA-116, Moscow Police Helicopter
File photo, KA-116, Moscow Police Helicopter
File photo, KA-226, Moscow Police Helicopter

Helicopters dropped water on a fire that burned for hours on the top floors of an under-construction skyscraper in Moscow, Russia on Monday. The building will be, or would have been, the tallest building in Europe when complete, at a height of 1,150 feet. The fire burned for three hours on the top floors which had reached the 880-foot level during construction.

Two KA-226 helicopters dropped water on the fire. Wikipedia says a KA-226 can carry an external load of 1,500kg, which translates to around 400 gallons of water in a bucket.

Firegeezer has more details, including a photo of one of the helicopters working the fire.

Jury awards $70 million for helicopter crash on Iron Complex fire

After deliberating for over a week a jury in Oregon decided on Tuesday that the manufacturer of the engines was at fault for the crash of a helicopter that was transporting wildland firefighters on the Iron Complex (or Iron 44 fire) in 2008. Nine people died in the crash as it attempted to take off from a remote helispot in northern California. Seven of those killed were firefighters. One was a U.S. Forest Service check pilot, observing the operation of the helicopter’s crew, and another was one of the two pilots working for the owner of the ship, Carson Helicopters.

The surviving pilot, William Coultas, his wife, and the estate of the pilot who was killed, Roark Schwanenberg, brought a $177 million lawsuit against General Electric, the manufacturer of the engines.

The jury, after deliberating for six days, made the following awards, totaling $69.7 million:

  • $37 million to William Coultas
  • $4.3 million to Coultas’ wife
  • $28.4 million to the estate of Roark Schwanenberg

Their case revolved around the plaintiffs’ belief that there were problems with a fuel control valve and that the specifications on the fuel filters were inadequate to remove contaminants. They claimed that GE had been aware of the problem for six years.

GE’s defense was along the same lines as the findings of a National Transportation Safety Board investigation of the crash, 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.

The families of eight men who were killed and three who were injured, previously reached out-of-court settlements with Carson Helicopters and the manufacturer of the helicopter, Sikorsky.

Some of the details of the monetary award still have to be worked out. Here is an excerpt from Oregonlive, which says the jury…

…found GE 57 percent at fault — and attorneys will argue in the next 10 days whether that means GE must pay all $70.455 million that the jurors awarded, or whether GE must pay only 57 percent, which amounts to about $40 million.

Jurors found Carson Helicopters 23 percent at fault, but the company won’t be liable for paying its share of the verdict because a judge dismissed them from the case. The jury also found Sikorsky 20 percent at fault, but the company settled with the plaintiffs for an undisclosed amount shortly after trial started. That means Sikorsky isn’t responsible for paying any of the verdict, said Anderson, the plaintiffs’ attorney.

After the crash the U.S. Forest Service canceled their contract with Carson Helicopters. The company then surrendered their FAA Certificate which is equivalent to an operating license. However, they may still be flying for the military in Afghanistan as a subcontractor for the company formerly known as Blackwater Worldwide, which was renamed “Xe”.

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