Friday Fun: Black Hawk Helicopters in Western Australia

As we continue into the holiday season around the world it is winter in the United States and Summer in Australia. Summer in Australia means bushfire season and State of Western Australia has a few tankers and helicopters available to help the firefighters on the ground including two Black Hawk Helicopters that I believe are from Coulson Aviation. Their bushfire season has gotten off to a busy start with 1,611 bushfires since October. I saw this fun video from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA which they shared on their Facebook page with some holiday music showing featuring some firefighting helicopters and tankers. Unfortunately, when I embedded the video, I was not able to share the text accompanying the video which should be found here, hit the see more link in the top right to read the full text.

2023-24 Australian Bushfire Season: Coulson Tankers in Australia

 Following up on the article I wrote on November 27th about Coulson Tankers heading to Australia,  Tanker 133, a C-130H tanker, arrived in Richmond, New South Wales (NSW) Australia on Monday. Australia likes to assign nicknames to air tankers, Tanker 133 is known as Froy. She is ready to help the NSW Rural Fire Service. Tanker 137, a 737 Fireliner, will be arriving soon and will start a contract on December 1st as a large airtanker available nationally to all of Australia to work bushfires. For more information see this November 27th article from Australian Aviation (I used one of my three free articles, so there is a paywall).

Froy, which was recently converted can carry up to 4,000 US gallons of retardant See this March 2023 article from Skies Magazine for some more background on Coulson's airtankers including tanker 132 (see below). Some information for Coulson has information on each aircraft in their fleet of firefighting aircraft on their fleet page.

Coulson Tanker 132, also a C-130H tanker, landed in Australia on or about October 21st.

She worked her first bushfire about a a few days later, flying out of Richmond NSW.

2023-24 Australian Bushfire Season: Two Coulson Airtankers Headed to Australia

 As Coulson finishes fall maintenance on their airtankers, those that are on contract or otherwise committed to Australia for their summer bush fire season are being sent to Australia. Tanker 133 is on her way to Richmond New South Wales Australia

Tanker 137 departed yesterday for Australia. I am not quite sure where exactly in Australia Tanker 137 is going, but I know that she will serve where needed. Nor do I know the exact details of how many more tankers Coulson is sending to Australia. 

Thanks to Coulson, the tanker pilots and support staff for helping out our friends in Australia during their summer bush fire season.

2023-24 Australian Bushfire Season: Western Australia Summer Bushfire season (November 6th)

It is summer in Australia and with summer comes bushfire season. Western Australia is seeing an impressive bushfire season with at least 100 bushfires burning as of a day ago.

I learned about the impressive bushfire season in Western Australia after reading a Facebook post from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service saying that they had dispatched two aircraft to Western Australia, a C-130 airtanker and a Citation aircraft.

Wanting to be sure that I had my facts straight, I found the Facebook post from the Department of Fire and Emergency Services WA confirming that they are getting a large airtanker.

2023-24 Australian Bush Fire Season: Two Erickson Air-Cranes headed to Australia

Two Erickson Air-Cranes Helicopters, both are S-64F models, N163AC and N178AC, otherwise known as Bubba and Isabelle have probably already left or will soon be leaving Long Beach CA for their journey to Victoria Australia for their summer firefighting season. According to the Erickson Incorporated Aerial Firefighting page of their Website, one of their clients is the National Aerial Firefighting Center in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Specs for the S-64F model can be found on this pdf file of S-64F Technical and Performance Information, that is available from the S-64 link on Erickson's fleet info page. 

Thank-you Bubba and Isabella, pilots, and support crew for your upcoming service in Victoria. Stay safe.

2023-24 Australian Bush Fire Season: Coulson T-132 Going to Australia Soon

Coulson T-132, one of Coulson's C-130 Hercules air tankers, has recently finished her 2023 contract with the US Forest Service and is currently undergoing maintenance. When this maintenance is completed she will go to Australia, perhaps by cargo ship, where she will go on contract with New South Wales in Australia for their summer fire season. She will be based in Richmond, New South Wales. See this March 2023 article in SkiesMag for more information on Coulson's fleet of C-130's. Coulson's C-130 Hercules air tankers have a 4,000 gallon RADS-XXL tanking system that can be rolled on and off the tanker.

Summer Bushfire Season Started in New South Wales Australia on October 1st

I follow the New South Wales (NSW) Rural Fire Service on Facebook partly because I have some friends and family who live(d) in New South Wales but also because for reasons that are hard to explain, I have grown to care about that particular Australian State. But I want to say that I care about the whole country of Australia. So as the Australian summer fire season continues I will try to pay attention, as I can, to bush fires in all of Australia. Anyway, I don't know about the rest of Australia, but I know that the summer bush fire season or what Australians call the Bush Fire Danger Period started on October 1st.

One thing I get from following the NSW Rural Fire Service on Facebook is an idea of the number of bush fires burning across the State of NSW and in their posts they link to how residents of NSW can stay informed of bush fires near them through the NSW Rural Fire Service's Hazards Near Me website  they also have a smart phone app. The post I embed below is dated October 2nd.