Mad Max: Firey Road

If you’re thinking that coordinating a massive, 5000-litre-capacity Russian helo in Australian operations might get complicated, you’re not wrong.

The responsibility for suppression of wildfires, or bushfires in Australia, does not rest with the federal government. The governments of the six states and two territories will have one or more agencies responsible for bushfire prevention and suppression.

Within each state key players can be grouped into two categories of Australian “firey”: urban-based full-time fire and rescue services, and a mainly all-volunteer rural fire service in country areas. As a result, there are approximately 200,000 volunteers assigned to 5,000 small town brigades. Approximately 10-15,000 fire vehicles are in service. On a global scale these figures are enormous considering Australia only has a population of 24.6 million and a land area the same as the USA, excluding Alaska and Hawaii.

Where it is safe, efficient and cost effective, states and territories utilise aircraft to support their firefighting activities, mostly chartered from experienced commercial aircraft service providers at home and overseas. A small number of aircraft are owned by Australian fire agencies.

Due to the expense of aerial firefighting, the state and territory agencies share the aerial firefighting resources. This is managed by the NAFC, created in 2003 after it was noted that aerial firefighting services were hampered by the problem of a fire crossing a state border, when the first responders could not easily follow the fire due to the contractual and funding complications at that time.

Today, a helicopter allocated to a state comes under the control of the relevant state fire control centre for tasking, but can be redirected when necessary by mutual agreement between other agencies and NAFC.

Enter Mad Max the Mi-8.

Any international helicopter firefighting contractor such as Hevilift moving to a host country such as Australia needs to be prepared to operate under two regulatory authorities: firstly, the aviation legislation of their own country, and secondly, the regulations and operational protocols of their host country.

For example, a US based contractor would come under the Federal Aviation Administration rules, and their helicopters would be registered in the USA. Australia, however, has a working arrangement with the European Union Aviation Safety Agency, EASA. As a result, the Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) states their regulations are aligned with EASA rules. (Unfortunately, Australia has decided to go it alone and produce somewhat complex and unique new rules now being introduced to be effective in 2021.)

Prior to arrival during missions to assist Australian firefighting agencies, a US based operator must seek approvals and concessions against Australia’s rather more complicated regulations. Fortunately, despite the significant bureaucratic hurdles to be overcome by an FAA approved operator, the system has been made to work well and is a credit to all concerned.

CASA chief executive Shane Carmody says there are around 500 aircraft, provided by over 150 operators, available for firefighting across Australia, supplemented by many other overseas resources. During these emergency situations CASA has been doing everything possible to facilitate and expedite the issue of regulatory authorisations, approvals, permissions and exemptions necessary for aerial firefighting and support agencies.

This can be complex, Hevilift’s Brisbane base manager James Bond tells the World of Aviation, explaining that considerable work and cost had gone into meeting the contract’s requirements. The helicopter was rewired to take Australian required avionics and radios. Ground support equipment was purchased, and recruitment and training of operational staff was completed.

Hevilift’s Brisbane base was close to CASA’s offices, where a great deal of time was spent processing all the documentation required to allow a foreign registered aircraft and crew to operate in Australia on commercial and firefighting activities.

Mad Max and the Hevilift crew were sent to Merimbula, for tasking by fire agencies in the state of New South Wales, returning to Papua New Guinea on Thursday 6 February for operational reasons. Even though Mad Max is a relatively fast helicopter, the journey will take almost three days, flying most of the way in sight of the Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef.

During the current Australian fire disaster, the Mil Mi-8 MTV helicopter was capable, of dropping 5,000 litres of water; making it second only to the S-64 Erickson Air Crane which can drop 9,500 litres — every one of them useful to fight this devastating season of bushfires.

…a helicopter allocated to a state comes under the control of the relevant state fire control centre