Issue 335: Fire Bird

The Chinook is categorised as a Type 1 helicopter by national firefighting agencies – the same as the Erickson Air Crane. While it is important not to compare red ‘apples’ with orange ‘oranges’, the CH-47D will lift more – up to 22,680kg (50,000lb); fly faster – at more than 140kt in transit; and use less fuel – around 500 litres per hour less, when compared with other Type 1 firefighting helicopters currently operating in Australia.

“It’s got some impressive capabilities given its speed and its ability to lift pretty large volumes of water – it really stands out in a class of its own,” said United Aero’s chief pilot Sam Borg. “There’s a few positives that firefighting agencies might find attractive in the long run. Moving forward, we hope to make it a regular asset on contract.”

The D model Chinook, converted from a C model, is powered by twin Lycoming T55-GA-714A turboshafts equipped with FADEC (fully automatic digital engine control), making it one of the more modern and fuel-efficient Type 1 helicopters fighting fires in Australia. “We have had lots of positive comments about it with what we’ve been able to do so far,” said Borg. “Once we have sat down and spoken with the agencies and told them about what it can do, those that were not already aware, were pretty excited about its capabilities. On a cost per litre dropped basis, it will be a real benefit to the fire agencies.”

The load can move you sometimes as opposed to you moving the load.

Airborne

The Chinook is crewed by a pilot, copilot and engineer with the pilot flying from the left-hand seat with the door off.

“The copilot is calling out the weights, reading out power settings and calling out the RADALT altitude,” said David Tappe, one of the Chinook’s pilots. “When we’re making a drop, the bucket comes off the ground at 230ft and the copilot walks us down to make sure we don’t get too low, or in fact, too high.”

The engineer on board monitors a maintenance panel in the aft cabin keeping an eye on fluid levels, filters and lights while also checking all the fittings during the flight to make sure nothing springs a leak that the pilots could not see from the front.

Originally a civilian Super Puma long line pilot, Tappe is new to the Chinook, only recently transitioning on to type. “Some of our crew are veterans and flew the D model in the US Army,” said Tappe, who has also logged some time in an Erickson Air Crane. “It was a great transition onto the Chinook and I love this aircraft. I never thought I would ever fly it because you are just not going to get your hands on a military aircraft as a civilian.”

Tappe’s transition onto the Chinook took about 12 months which included conducting emergency procedures in a simulator and a season firefighting as a copilot before completing final training and check rides.

“I was a construction pilot in the Super Puma for eight years so I was very experienced in long lining but just needed time in the Chinook. I was picking up 8,500 pounds (3,856kg) and now we’re picking up between 17,000 pounds (7,711kg) to 20,000 pounds (9,072kg). When you pick up something that heavy it acts a little differently than what you would expect in a normal aircraft. That weight now is almost equivalent to what your aircraft weighs and the load can move you sometimes as opposed to you moving the load. So, it becomes a different animal to have that much weight below you.”

Leaning out the left-hand door gives the Chinook pilots a chance to keep a good eye on the load hanging below.

“The load sits well below the aircraft and you can see pretty well when you’re leaning out the left,” said Tappe. “If the long line was anything shorter then it would become a little more difficult to see because it is hard to get all the way out of this cockpit to look down. Some of the firefighting we did this season in the mountains in Montana, you needed that 230 foot length to get in between the trees and down into some of the rivers.”

Depending on the height above sea level and outside air temperature, the Chinook can lift its 7,600 litre Bambi bucket full from the get go.

“We compute before every lift to work out what weight we can lift as we don’t want to over-gross the aircraft,” said Tappe. “We have the ability to drop some water out of it until we get to a [weight] number that we like. We watch our engine instruments as we pick up the weight but generally we’re never reaching the limitations of the engines, it’s more of a weight limit on the aircraft. You can over-gross the aircraft before you overwhelm the engines. It just has great engines. They produce when you want them to produce and you never go into its limits range.”

On the ground

With its blades stored inside the fuselage for shipping, it does not take long to get the Chinook flying again. Engineers use a beam attached to the two rotor heads to lift the Chinook off the ship and onto the dock by crane. Carrying its own towbar inside the fuselage means a local forklift can tow the Chinook to an area for the crew to reattach the blades and have it ready to fly in around half a day.

The Chinook travels with a crew of five engineers, who, along with the pilots, all rotate through Australia every 28 days. Following the helicopter are a 33,000-litre refuelling tanker and a Pantech truck carrying spare parts and role equipment. A shipping container back at United Aero’s Camden base contains a spare engine and blades.

As the empty 220kg bucket is too heavy to man-handle, a Kawasaki Mule all-terrain vehicle is carried onboard the Chinook to tow out the Bambi Max bucket, the long line and rigging equipment from its fuselage.

The BBXHL7600 bucket is the second-largest that Bambi makes and takes about 15 minutes to rig up or to pack away, and is fitted with a PowerFill pump, enabling it to pull water from the bottom up in a water source as low as 46cm. Once dipped into the water source, it takes around five seconds to fill before the pilot lifts it away for a drop.

On the inside

There is nothing fancy inside N947CH. Its restricted type category currently prohibits the carriage of non-essential personnel onboard, but certification to carry cargo for missions such as flood relief is progressing.

Attached to the floor in the forward fuselage is a 1,000-litre tank for liquid foam, which is a wetting agent to increase the effectiveness of the water when it is dropped.

“You use a 0.2 per cent mix ratio and it is set depending on the water volume you have got,” said Borg. “The foam is pumped down a hose line into the bucket and it agitates with the water while you’re flying to the drop. We use the foam as standard when the tasking agency asks for it.”

Under development is an internal water tank that will increase its firefighting payload to 10,000 litres. The single roll-on/roll-off tank system has pistons with a 137cm diameter at each end to push water towards a valve in the centre and out through an aperture in the Chinook’s floor. The new tank has been fit-tested inside the Chinook but has yet to fly, said quality director Tony Cabler at Jordan Aircraft Services, which is building the tank at its Central Point, Oregon facility.

“Our engineering group is still working with the design authority, Perideo, here in Central Point, on the centre section with all the mechanical components that make it work. The snorkel will hang from the forward left window. It’s intended the tank will fill in less than a minute using hydraulic pumps with the pistons inside the tank retracting as it’s filling. The pistons will then push together from each end when it’s dropping and will be controlled by a computer allowing the head pressure to remain constant throughout the dump cycle.”

Helimax is confident the tank will be ready and certified to fight fires during this year’s northern hemisphere summer. When the Chinook returns to Australia at the end of the year for our summer it will return with the internal tank fitted.

“The fire agencies are looking for getting maximum volume of water onto the fire ground to combat the fires these days,” said Borg.

Fire agencies are looking for getting maximum volume of water onto the fire ground.

“This season the DC-10 air tanker is here dropping in excess of 40,000 litres. Once we get the Chinook tank equipped, it’s going to be able to drop a quarter of what the DC-10 can, but it won’t need to fly all the way back to a primary airport to reload. Depending on how far away from the fire the water source is, we are quite easily going to do four drops in the time it takes for the DC-10 to return to the fire having landed and reloaded.

“It’s horses for courses but the big drops are handy at times and we see the Chinook as a pretty potent machine. With its manoeuvrability the Chinook will be flying lower and is more accurately able to pinpoint where the loads need to go, as well as having the ability of following the fire line around.”

Sign-off

Helitack 279 was the first time the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) has had to approve a CH-47D to operate in Australia to fight fires. “CASA were very good and they came through with the goods as we had them under the pump to get our AOC approved with the CH-47D included on it,” said Borg. “While they initially thought that we wouldn’t get our AOC in time before Christmas, we had a few anxious moments, given their last day at work for the year was Christmas Eve. But they were able to make it happen and we got it on December 23. As it turned out we were on the Wye River fire just after Christmas and we wouldn’t have been able to assist with that fire had we not had the AOC.”

Foreign invaders

Every season, like clockwork, the usual question of ‘why do we import foreign firefighting assets and not buy our own?’ does the rounds.

“There is the argument about foreign assets, I can understand that, but it’s one of those aircraft that you cannot afford to buy and have sit in your shed for a three month contract every year,” said Borg. “It’s just not sustainable to do. We’re better off teaming up with someone like Helimax to provide the aircraft and for us to have operational control to pursue work opportunities here. It is working through an Australian company providing local jobs – increasing our exposure and skill-set and ensuring that not all the money is going offshore.”

While military CH-47D Chinooks are a common sight in parts of Australia training for war and providing humanitarian and disaster relief support, the presence of a civilian red, black and white-coloured one over the fire grounds may prompt some local Chook pilots to express an interest in flying it.

“Because this is the first year, we haven’t gone down the path of using local pilots, but longer term we will certainly be looking at the prospects of getting some locals into it,” said Borg. “And that won’t necessarily be pilots with Chinook experience. To be honest, it would be easier to train a long line civilian guy to fly the Chinook than it is to train an experienced Chinook pilot how to long line. Expecting to start your long line career in a Chinook with a 200 foot long line is a big ask. You are better off choosing someone who has come through the ranks flying smaller machines with a long line and convert on to type. That’s not to say it’s impossible because some of our current pilots are ex-US Army and they have adapted quite well.”

Bigger punch

To date, the Chinook has impressed both the Victorian and New South Wales fire agencies, having predominantly worked fire grounds in the south-east of the country this season. The Chinook will return to Helimax’s base in Michigan once the season is wrapped up, which is all dependant on the conditions in Victoria. “If fires prevail there, then the Chinook could remain here until about March,” said Borg, “But it will be coming back again at the end of the year, that’s for sure, with a bigger tank and a much bigger punch.”