Fire Hawk

While that season proved to be quiet with only about 105 hours of flight time, the Black Hawk’s performance convinced Pay’s to bring out N563OJ last December.

Pay’s Helicopters managing director Ross Pay said the decision to use the aircraft for firebombing operations added another dimension to aerial firefighting.

“I think sometimes people are wary of new things and things that are expensive to operate,” he said.

“The Black Hawk sat around for quite a while and then we had those bad bushfires out west of Scone at Dunedoo last February, the Sir Ivan fire, which kept us busy for a couple of Weeks.”

The results were impressive with good feedback from fire and emergency services in the area.

“Once they used it, they realised the Black Hawk was doing the work of three medium helicopters. When you look at the cents per litre delivered to the fire, the aircraft is cheaper to run than anything else they used,” Pay said.

“People were genuinely shocked at how much water this thing was putting on a fire. I know it’s a different tool and it’s not dropping retardant in lines, but if you’re just talking about pure volume, there’s not much out there that can match a Black Hawk.”

Joining forces

The story behind how Pay’s and Timberline came together is one of both good timing and demand for a better supported rotary-wing Platform.

Since starting operations in 2004, the Kaman K-Max, with its unique intermeshing dual rotor configuration, had been a stalwart of Timberline’s heavy lift operation, much of which focused on heli logging and ski lift Construction.

But faced with uncertainty over the future of the K-Max, company vice-president Brian Jorgenson began looking at other options in 2014. Those included the Sikorsky S-61, Aérospatiale SA330 Puma and even upgraded Bell UH-1 Hueys.

“There was more demand than there were aircraft and you couldn’t buy a K-Max. They weren’t in production at the time,” Jorgenson Said.

“All of a sudden the Black Hawks popped on to the scene. It was unexpected. I literally looked at the government auctions website and here’s 10 Black Hawks for sale.

“It was literally a shot in the dark. We jumped in a plane, flew down to Alabama where they were parked waiting for sale. We took a mechanic with us who had been in the military for 10 years and had a lot of experience with Black Hawks. He crawled all over them and said ‘If you’re going to do this, these things are in absolutely great shape’.”

That would eventually result in the company’s first refurbished Black Hawk, N434TH, going on display at Heli-Expo in Louisville, Kentucky in March 2016.

Sometimes people are war y of new things that are expensive to operate.’ R OSS PA

Ross Pay was also at Heli-Expo, and was in the market for a new helicopter to join his firefighting fleet, which has been operating for the past 25 years.

“We’d done a bit of research and figured the old Hueys had done a pretty good job over the years but really, they’re getting to be a pretty old helicopter,” he said.

“With all these Black Hawks coming into the civilian market, we figured they’re the next best thing in helicopter firefighting that will be around for probably the next 20 years. So we really wanted to become involved with it. I did some research on Timberline and their history and I thought they’d be a good fit.”

Introduced by mutual friend and HeliOps magazine publisher Ned Dawson, Pay and Jorgenson soon began talks on how to bring a Black Hawk over to Australia for the fire Season.

“Ned knew Ross was toying with the idea of bringing Black Hawks in by either buying or leasing one to help move the Australian industry forward with the next generation of aircraft,” Jorgenson said.

“After Ned introduced us, I flew over to Australia a month later and met Ross. I was really impressed with the operation Pay’s had and the feel of Everything.

“We took it forward, figured out how to make it work and we did it.”

While Timberline and Pay’s don’t have a formal contract with firefighting agencies, Jorgenson said “call when needed” agreements are in place with New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia to use the aircraft.

Indeed, Jorgensen admits it was a gamble to bring the aircraft to Australia without a formal contract, albeit a calculated one that is now starting to pay off.

“We bear the risk of bringing it over here and having it available,” he said.

“The Black Hawk is not a Swiss army knife, it’s just another tool, but when used correctly it can do a lot. Once we got out to Australia and got working, it went really well.”

Just like new

The refurbishment of an ex-military Black Hawk for civilian use is both a long and extensive process.

Timberline bought the first two of an eventually six-strong Black Hawk fleet at a military auction back in October 2014.

While the Black Hawks themselves were well maintained and in good condition, they still required a thorough overhaul with the first airframe, N434TH, taking 8,000 man hours alone to refurbish.

Timberline stripped out more than 400kg worth of excess wiring and military communication systems. That included removing two hover infrared suppression systems (HIRS), each weighing about 60kg, taking out the back seats and stripping off the original paint.

Civilian radio and communications equipment was then installed, including a Technisonic TDFM‑9000 radio with several Motorola APX‑8000 modules allowing the radio to be programmed to work with all Australian fire and emergency services. The airframe’s exterior and interior were also repainted.

With a starting weight of between 5,260kg and 5,360kg depending on the airframe, Jorgenson said the empty weight of the refurbished airframe is somewhere between 4,810 and 4,860kg – an eight-nine per cent lighter aircraft.

Timberline’s Black Hawks have kept their standard twin General Electric T700-GE-700 engines, each producing 1,622shp.

Jorgenson said while there was an option to upgrade to GE’s latest T700-701D engine, currently used in Boeing’s AH-64E Apache, the small increase in performance at altitudes above 4,000ft was not worth the extra cost at this stage.

“At this point, it doesn’t make sense to make that transition to those engines,” he said.

“The small increase in hot and high performance has not been something our customers are willing to pay for.”

Following its refurbishment, N434TH received its Restricted Category type certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in late February 2016, with the Black Hawk put to work by April of that year.

The aircraft spent about 800 hours on heli logging, firefighting and ski lift construction operations before it left the US for Australia in November 2016, arriving in January.

However, before it could come out, Timberline had to seek International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) approval from the US State Department for a license to operate the Black Hawk in Australia, which included clearance for Pay’s personnel and anyone needing access to the Black Hawk.

Pay’s also hold the Air Operator’s Certificate (AOC) from CASA to allow the Black Hawk to fly in Australia.

Now on its second Australian tour, Pay said those approvals were easier to achieve thanks to good working relationships with CASA and the US State Department.

“We know we can get the Black Hawk over here two weeks before the contract starts so it’s up-and-running and ready to go,” he said.

Delivery on demand

The key advantage the Black Hawk holds over other rotary-wing firebombers is its speed.

“All the helicopters I’ve ever flown pretty much have an 80kt vne (velocity to never exceed) with an external load. The Black Hawk’s vne is 140kt,” Jorgenson said.

“We can pick up a full bucket of water and scoot along at about 110kt going back and forth. It’s much quicker across the ground from a water source to a fire.

“And then with the pump, we’re able to get full buckets out of pretty small water sources.”

The Bambi bucket can draw water from dams or creeks with between 30cm and 40cm of water, with the pump able to reach full capacity in under 40 seconds.

“Firefighters like it because we turn up with as much water as an AT-802, and depending if there’s a dam close by, we’re filling up every three or four minutes with another 3,400 litres of water,” Jorgenson explained.

“When you’re in a crisis mode of trying to slow a fire down or trying to protect a house, it really comes down to how much water you get there and how fast.

“Our bucket is infinitely variable in that we can make as many drops as we need to.”

At the time of writing, the Black Hawk had only seen action in New South Wales, but Jorgenson and his crew were kept busy with a spate of fires near Newcastle and Pilliga National Park near Coonabarabran in January. Timberline even brought out a third pilot to help with the workload. The company normally brings out two pilots and an engineer to Australia, along with a 40ft shipping container containing spare engines, blades and other parts.

“It ends up being about $1 million worth of spares that we bring with us, just in case,” Jorgenson said.

Once being tasked by the Rural Fire Service, Timberline’s crew have 15 minutes to get airborne.

“We’re on a 15 minute response window so at that point, we’ve already turned up earlier in the day, done a pre-flight inspection and got everything ready,” Jorgenson said.

“It’s just a matter of getting changed, strapping our helmet on, firing it up and going.”

With the collapsible Bambi bucket already loaded into the back of the aircraft, the Timberline crew can transit as fast to the scene of the fire as 150 knots before finding a suitable clearing to land, unload and hook up the bucket.

“We then talk to the Air Attack Supervisor to get an idea of what the plan is, where the water sources are and what their most urgent need is,” Jorgenson said.

Flying in a small fixed-wing aircraft or helicopter, the Air Attack Supervisor is in constant communication with firefighters on the ground to help co-ordinate payload delivery. The role is similar to that of a forward air controller in military operations where airstrikes are involved.

“The incident commander or ground crew will tell him what their objective is, and he’ll confirm if that will work or not,” Jorgenson said.

“The Air Attack Supervisor monitors us and allows us to do our jobs without having to spend a lot of time talking to other people.”

Jorgenson said a firebombing tactic which worked well during January’s Pilliga National Park fire was to follow in two or three single-engine air tankers (SEATs), such as AT-802s, which would drop their payloads in a mostly straight line across the fire Front.

With the bulk of the fire extinguished and its main progression stopped, the Black Hawk could then come in and clean up any remnant fires across valleys or fingers of the Terrain.

“Wherever the Black Hawk goes to fight fires, it quickly convinces the firefighters that it’s the machine for the job. It’s just a matter of it being used to its capability and what it can do,” added Pay.

“When you look at it on paper, the hourly rate is quite dear but when you look at it in terms of cents per litre delivered to the fire per hour, it becomes quite economical.

“Most people have been blown away by how effective it is and how much water it can shift in a short amount of time.”

Synergy

Despite its temporary presence, the Black Hawk is a valuable tool in Pay’s arsenal of firefighting aircraft, which also included a UH-1 Huey, AS350 B2 Squirrel and two AT-802 Fire Boss aircraft with amphibious scooping floats, among other types.

The Sir Ivan bushfire west of Pay’s base at Scone in February 2017 turned out to be something of a proving ground for how Timberline’s Black Hawk linked in with the rest of the firebombing fleet, joining forces with Pay’s Huey and Air Tractor 802s.

“The Black Hawk offers increased capability but it also complements the existing fleet,” Pay said.

“For firefighters, they’ve got to have a broad range of aircraft on contract and fixed wing aircraft are quite a bit cheaper to maintain than the Helicopters.

“I think it’s the way aerial firefighting works. You’ve got to have a number of different tools in the toolbox. Some suit certain situations better than others and there’s some situations where they all work.”

‘It quickly convinces firefighters that it’s the machine for the job.’ R OSS PAY

Pay said his company was looking at further opportunities for the Black Hawk to be used in Australia, now that its capability as a firebomber had been well and truly proven.

“With the Black Hawk’s fast transit speeds, once you’re flying around at 140 or 150kt, you can get somewhere fairly quick to be effective and help, as opposed to a Skycrane which, while it carts a big load, is a very slow helicopter and takes a long time to get anywhere,” he said.

“It’s just getting people’s heads around its speed and the load it Carries.”

In the near future, Pay’s is looking into the possibility of having Australian pilots trained on Timberline Black Hawks, subject to the various regulatory approvals that would need to be met.

And there’s the possibility of working on heavy lift operations outside of firefighting involving powerlines and ski lift construction.

“We’ve got something that lifts almost four tonnes. It’s just a matter of making powerline companies and those sorts of people aware there’s a lifting capability,” Pay said.

“Timberline is one of the most professional helicopter companies I’ve ever dealt with. With the way they run their business and how their pilots conduct themselves and fly, I’m very happy to be associated with Brian and his crew.

“I believe the Black Hawk is a good fit for firefighting anywhere in Australia. We’d look at taking the Black Hawk to any state that wanted to use it.”

Timberline’s Black Hawk was expected to remain in Australia into February before returning home to the United States. When it goes it will certainly have left behind a lasting impression.