SFV Business Journal

Helicopter Firm Finds New Revenue Fighting Fires

Pilots maneuver water buckets on 150-foot line.

By MARK R. MADLER Staff Reporter

Helinet Aviation Services LLC had a busy year in 2021 when it came to its newest service – providing helicopters to fight wildfires.

The Van Nuys company responded to 12 different fires in seven states last year and kept its aerial firefighting team deployed for 96 straight days, said President Tom Norton.

“We have two trailers that are fully outfitted to support long-term sustained operations,” Norton said. “As we are consuming those parts, we are replenishing at a stock level so we can stay out as long as possible.”

Helinet decided in 2019 to get into aerial firefighting and started to deploy the helicopters – two UH-60 Black Hawks – in 2020 and had its first full year of activity last year.

“It seemed like a good fit for us especially being in Los Angeles and given the frequency and proximity of fires,” Norton said. “We certainly have the skillset. And so it was a question outfitting and configuring the aircraft correctly.”

The company had a special window installed on the Black Hawks – a half-moon shaped observation port that sticks out from the cockpit door so that the pilot can see past the side of the aircraft.

The pilot needs to do that because, as Norton explained, “you are taking a 150-foot line with a bucket attached to it and you have to go to a water source that is directly beneath the aircraft.”

The next stage in the operation is flying to the fire and having to put the water on it. Sometimes there is reduced visibility and the pilot must fly for long hours in remote environments, Norton said.

“It is not your standard ‘I am going to come to the office in Van Nuys and fly a charter to Santa Barbara,’” he added. “It is much more demanding.”

Through Helinet’s partnership with the Black Hawk’s two private owners – Brown Helicopter Inc. in Pensacola, Fla. and Anduze Helicopter in Los Angeles – the aircraft is supported by a team of pilots, a fuel truck, back-up equipment and maintenance technicians, according to a release from the company when it got its first Black Hawk in June 2020.

Helinet contracts with Cal Fire, the state agency that protects property and lives from fires, the U.S. Forest Service and agencies in seven other states.

Last year, the company responded to the Dixie, Windy and Willow fires in California; the Pinnacle, Planet Ranch and Backbone fires in Arizona; the Sand Mountain fire in Idaho; the Townsend and Richard Spring fires in Montana; the Jack fire in Oregon; the Parley’s Canyon fire in Utah; and the Schneider Springs fire in Washington.

“In the case of Pinnacle Fire in Arizona, they had to go out three times,” Norton said.

Alaska is the only state the company has a contract with that it did not send a helicopter to, he added.

To make sure that Helinet’s personnel and equipment can meet the demands of aerial firefighting, U.S. Forest Service performs a rigorous inspection and qualification exercise. The pilots must demonstrate the ability to operate the aircraft with the water bucket. The helicopter is inspected, and the records are reviewed to make sure both are suitable to perform the firefighting mission, Norton said.

“Some operators are not inclined to have to go through those exercises because they take time to prepare for and it is not an insignificant amount of investment for the company to configure for a firefighting mission,” he added.

Norton declined to give an amount of what Helinet has invested in the aerial firefighting but did say from a budget standpoint he looks at both recurring and non-recurring costs.

“We look at operating costs over specific period of time and model that on a worst-case and best-case scenario,” he said.

The worst-case scenario is having the helicopters ready and waiting and not getting called to fight a fire. That means no revenue coming in to offset the costs of the salaries of standby crews and maintenance, Norton added.

The best-case scenario is just the opposite – having the helicopters ready and waiting and being called to fight a fire on behalf of agencies.

“We want to provide a stellar service to support the firefighting effort because we think it is very viable mission,” Norton said. “We want to make sure it is viable to the company.”

AVIATION & AEROSPACE

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2022-01-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

2022-01-03T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://sfvbusinessjournal.pressreader.com/article/281840057004953

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