Fire -air support in Australia.

[Daveroo]

Contracted aerial firefighting assets are arriving in Victoria for the Australian bushfire season. Conair’s Tanker 162, an RJ-85, arrived on December 7. Coulson’s C-130Q is expected to be there by Monday night local time, December 8, at the earliest. They will be based at the Avalon Airport in Victoria.
As usual, two of Coulson’s S61 helicopters will be on contract, beginning December 17 this year. One of them was in storage over the winter at Essendon Airport. The other was seen December 8 being trucked from Port Melbourne to Essendon.
Two Erickson Air-Crane helicopters are being contracted through Kestrel Aviation in Victoria for service in the state.
New South Wales had two Air-Cranes delivered by an Antonov cargo aircraft on October 4. Those two helicopters are “Gypsy Lady” and “Ichabod”; their contract started on October 6.

[Anthin]

Thanks Daveroo.

It looks like it could be a summer of Hell down here
in OZ.

They will be needed.

Anthin.

[AussieMan]

Dave, Anthin while this looks good on paper to me it is a lot of overkill on the part of the previous Victorian Government. While the RJ85 and the C-130 may carry more retardant/water than other aircraft they will be restricted in their range and which airports they can fly from and in my mind will do, at most, one drop per hour allowing for flying to and from the fireground and time on the ground re-fuelling and loading.

As someone who has spent 10 years as an Air Radio Operator for the NSWRFS experience tells me that Air-cranes, medium and small rotary and fixed wing are more productive and have a higher degree of accuracy.

[Anthin]

Pat. I was thinking,the bigger picture. NSW ACT and Victoria.

For just victoria I think you are right.

Have a safe Summer.

Anthin.:santahat:

[Daveroo]

well for one,i didnt send them,i just shared the fact they are to be there.but in my years as a fire fighter and the years since..these higher capacity tankers are well worth it,if utilized correctl;y,which im sure they will be,while the 802's are busy short shottin with theyre 800 gallons,which here they arent allowed to carry the full load,not sure about there,then these hevies can come in,lay long lines of retardant along the flanks and start building line,which the 802s can then come alone and work the corners and hotspots out on the head,also the larger load will ,or can be used to build lne across the head...which isnt very effective anywhere,...lol...