Elvis has left the building

Despite popular demand, Elvis has not returned to Australia for this year’s Erickson Air-Crane tour of Australia. But while there is no overweight, white body-suit, blue-suede-shoe-wearing rock star headlining the show, six Erickson S-64E Air-Cranes are touring Australia as the headline act for the 2014-15 bushfire season.

It’s the size of a Kenworth, but it’s incredibly nimble for the size and is incredibly powerful.

Making more comeback tours than John Farnham, the ‘Erickson Show’, now in its 17th season touring Australia, is brought to you this year by Mangalore Airport’s Kestrel Aviation. This bushfire season will feature star performances by N189AC Gipsy Lady and N957AC Ichabod, who are setting up for an initial residency at Bankstown Airport. N194AC Delilah will be on stage out of Essendon Airport with N217AC Malcolm appearing at Ballarat. N218AC Elsie will be positioned at Brukunga in the Adelaide Hills, and N154AC Georgia Peach will start its performances from Jandakot Airport, south of Perth. Returning from the busiest season ever seen for Air-Crane operations in Australia, the new 2014-15 summer is Kestrel Aviation’s second year of a three-year contract, with two-year options, managing the Air-Cranes nationally. “Last season was the biggest in the history of Air-Crane operations in Australia due largely to NSW and Victoria having extended campaign fires,” said Kestrel Aviation managing director Captain Ray Cronin. “The hours the six Air-Cranes flew were more than ever before. Over the past 10 years thefire season pattern has definitely changed. The activity levels for our fleet of Bell 412s and 212s on bushfire operations last year was up 130 per cent on the previous year. So that’s telling us something. Our machines are working hard. ”According to the National Aerial Firefighting Centre’s 2012-13 annual report, that year’s bushfire season saw the six Air-Cranes activated 135 times for firebombing operations, dumping a staggering 12,544,296 litres of suppressant or retardant during 4,187 air drops.