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Author Topic: Other then fire work?  (Read 4838 times)

Offline Fabo

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Other then fire work?
« on: December 05, 2007, 07:05:02 PM »
Seeing floods in Orgeon and Washington on CNN just now, a question came to my mind - what do you fire pilots usually do work-wise when there are no wildfires? We all know Mary and the Minivan do secret squirrell jobs, and Jim (?) has posted pics of floated heli...

Is there any "normal" work you usually do these times? Do you also use your flying skills on other kinds of disasters - as these floods?
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Offline Rooster Cruiser

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Re: Other then fire work?
« Reply #1 on: December 05, 2007, 07:27:24 PM »
Fabo, due to the unique ability of a helicopter to hover and its very expensive operating costs, just about every work application for a helicopter could be considered out of the "ordinary".  If there is a job that seriously needs to be done and nothing else can do it, you call for the whirlybirds.   |:)\ |:)\ |:)\
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Offline Fabo

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Re: Other then fire work?
« Reply #2 on: December 05, 2007, 07:37:32 PM »
Quote from: Rooster Cruiser on December 05, 2007, 07:27:24 PM
Fabo, due to the unique ability of a helicopter to hover and its very expensive operating costs, just about every work application for a helicopter could be considered out of the "ordinary".  If there is a job that seriously needs to be done and nothing else can do it, you call for the whirlybirds.   |:)\ |:)\ |:)\

That is for sure, but I mean our local bunch specificaly. Sure I know helis are there, there was some kind of I think Coast Guard Hawk doing evacs out of there on screen. Pretty impressive things, too bad they are so ugly  ::wave::
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Offline G-man

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Re: Other then fire work?
« Reply #3 on: December 06, 2007, 06:09:17 AM »
Quote from: Fabo on December 05, 2007, 07:37:32 PM
Pretty impressive things, too bad they are so ugly  ::wave::

It works to our advantage--we don't fly, we are just so ugly that the earth repels us... ::whistle:: ::whistle::
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airtac

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Re: Other then fire work?
« Reply #4 on: December 06, 2007, 01:47:38 PM »
Quote from: Fabo on December 05, 2007, 07:05:02 PM
Seeing floods in Orgeon and Washington on CNN just now, a question came to my mind - what do you fire pilots usually do work-wise when there are no wildfires? We all know Mary and the Minivan do secret squirrell jobs, and Jim (?) has posted pics of floated heli...
Believe it was Gordy who posted the whirly-bobber pictures....

As for Jim (me) ::wave::, in the off season, I do a little instructing and a lot of hunnydoos.................I manage to stay busy ::drinking:: ::silly:: ::sleep::
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Offline Mike

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Re: Other then fire work?
« Reply #5 on: December 08, 2007, 02:19:27 AM »
We actually fly fire almost year round. The season for each forest is not that long but we go to MANY different forests.
Panaca Jane was in Kentucky until yesterday and is now in Texas.
We fly for fires almost until December here in LA. Then we fly for "prescribed burns" (where we set fires on purpose)
And in February, the first ship leaves for Arkansas.....

But we do fill in with a few odd jobs here and there. Movies, charters, tours, and utility-lift-work (airconditioners, construction, hay-slinging, frost control)
So, we don't get bored....

PLUS:
Every year we need to do:
135 recurrent training on each model
Factory Safety Course on each model
135 recurrent training, ops-specific
longline training
and all the checkrides that come with it
(FAA, OAS, AMD)

For a Guardian Pilot, we're talking about 3 to 7 checkrides a year.....
(and most of them during winter for obvious reasons)
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