Huey's: part 1

I have spent the last couple of days doing two things: getting ice off of my long driveway and reading about Huey (UH-1H) helicopters. I got interested in finding out a little more about Huey's because the New Jersey Forest Fire Service (NJFFS) has two UH-1H helicopters. Huey's, manufactured by Bell, were widely used in the Vietnam war. These military helicopters were modified for use by federal and state forest fire agencies for wildfire fighting. The equipment (e.g. including but not limited to helicopters and land vehicles) that many State forest fire agencies use to fight wildfires are in the Federal Excess Personal Property Program.

According to the FAA registration database, the two Huey's used by the NJFFS are in the Federal Excess Personal Property Program. That is, according to the FAA registration database the owner of these two Huey's is listed as the USDA Forest Service FEPP. Under FEPP, the USDA Forest Service owns the equipment, in our case the Huey helicopters, and loans them to State foresters to fight wildland fires.

The two Huey's used by the NJFFS, known as Delta 5 and Delta 6, have 300 gallon bambi buckets. A bambi bucket looks like an upside parachute suspended from the belly of the heliocopter. If you go here and click on air operations in the menu at the top of the page, you will see some photographs of Delta 5, including a couple of Delta 5 with a bambi bucket.

Forest Fire Services in other States including but not limited to California (CAL Fire), North Carolina, and Florida use Huey's that are in FEPP.

The CAL Fire Huey's are equipped with water tanks and bambi buckets. To see a CAL Fire Helicopter making a water drop from it's tank see this you tube video. Note the long tube suspended from its belly used to fill the tank with water.

Huey's can also carry 10 passengers, and perhaps as many as 14, so they can also be used to transport wildland firefighters.

More on Huey's tommorrow.