
Since that time, there has been a deafening silence on whatever happened to the project. Navy in the spring of 2006, while the other was being flight-tested to obtain FAA certification in the restricted category. At the time, Heavy Lift President Robin Rogers reported that they were installing a 2,400-gallon water tank and snorkel system in one of the two CH-53Ds the company purchased from the U.S. What ever happened to the project to tank up some CH53D into Fire Stallions? In January of 2007, Aviation International News ran an article about Heavy Lift Helicopters, a division of Fresno, California-based Rogers Helicopters, converting the first commercially-owned Sikorsky CH-53D Sea Stallions for firefighting operations. The chief said to me, “The fires we fought in the 90’s, we felt like we could win, but every fire I’ve been put on in California in the last 6 t o7 years you don’t feel like you’re winning, you’re just trying to make sure that nobody gets hurt.” The fires they help fight today are a different animal from the ones they used to fight they’re bigger, more destructive, and there’s almost always a firefighter who dies. They were lamenting over the fact that wildland firefighting isn’t ‘fun’ anymore. Last fall, he came back to help on the Mendocino Complex Fire with another retiree. “He’s a recently retired Chief of a southern California county. “These fires are becoming a new normal that’s concerning me and some of the most veteran people in the industry.” “For example, I had a conversation with a friend who has been fighting fires for over three decades,” said Brett. An Idea Forms “As a relatively new executive in an industry that’s been around for a while, I was struck by the growing size and severity of wildfires,” reflected Brett L’Esperance, CEO of Dauntless Air, a Minnesota-based operation with a fleet of twelve Fire Bosses and one wheeled Single-Engine Air-Tanker (SEAT).

Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and state agencies limit the percentage of wildfires that burn out of control, is something more needed? Could there be an approach that would do more to snuff wildland blazes faster, limit them to fewer acres, and better cope with the problem of overgrown forests that lead to explosive blazes? One man thinks there is. Although initial attack on wildfires has been proven to work time and again, helping U.S. It is also not unknown for staff to face legal consequences for their actions, and prosecutions occur, pour encourager les autres, not to make a similar mistake.ĭespite a relatively quiet wildfire season in 2019, increasingly ferocious wildfires are bound to occur again as in years past. Politicians, civil servants, and acquisition staff are expected to act with great probity when dispensing taxpayers’ money - any perception of 'gold plating' or, worse, favouritism and corruption, is often met with severe opprobrium, disciplinary action or even dismissal.

I felt exactly how you would feel if you were getting ready to launch and knew you were sitting on top of two million parts - all built by the lowest bidder on a government contract.' Though Glenn doubtless underpinned his comment with a trademark charismatic grin to remove some of the sting from his words, he, and anybody else that has worked for a government organisation, will be aware of the struggle that often exists when spending public money is involved.
Airattack 650 free#
The Lowest Bidder by Paul Kennard Mercury, and later Space Shuttle, astronaut John Glenn was asked by a reporter in a press conference after the Free World's first Orbital space flight: 'When you were sitting in that capsule listening to the countdown, how did you feel?' Ever one for a soundbite (before soundbites even existed), Glenn replied 'Well, the answer to that one is easy.
