Transporting a MH-47 Chinook Helicopter

I have to admit that I never gave much thought to how large helicopters such as the MH-47 Chinook are transported when they are not able to fly. Yes, I was being a little dense. Anyway, I was intrigued when I was checking my Facebook feed this morning and saw this post by Coulson Aviation of a MH-47 Chinoom being transported by a large tractor trailer. I do believe but I am not certain that a smaller helicopter might be able to be transported by a large aircraft such as a C130 when they are not able to fly. Anyway, I thought that these pictures from Coulson might be of interest to some of you so I am sharing it today

Direct link to March 4th post by Coulson Aviation on Facebook

About Billings Fire And Chinook Helicopters

Direct link to October 2025 Video from Vertical Magazine 

I hope you enjoy this nine minute video from Vertical Magazine about how Billings Flying Service became Chinook Helicopter Specialists. For those celebrating, enjoy the rest of the end of year holidays.

2025 Wildfire Season: Coulson Helos and 10 Tanker DC-10 Tanker in action

I do my best to follow Airtanker companies that contract with the US Forest Service or individual States on Facebook. Today I highlight 10 Tanker Air Carrier, 10 Tanker has a fleet of DC-10s, and Coulson Aviation. Coulson's fleet includes 

• CH-Helitankers,
• Blackhawk UH-60 
• Helitankers, 
• 737 Fireliner, 
• C-130 Hercules
• Sikorsky S-61 Helicopters

More information on Coulson's fleet may be found here, with some videos.

Billings Flying Service: CH-47 Helicopter

Direct link to video from Billings Flying Service on YouTube

I got interested in posting about the CH-47 helicopter when I came across a video by Earl Watters, a helicopter pilot for Billings Flying Service on Facebook a couple of weeks ago. In this video, which I will share later, Earl shares about Boomer, the CH-47 he flies. I contacted him and he gave me permission to share this video with you. In the meantime I checked out Billings Flying Service and liked the details that they provided on their webpage. For example, go to their home page where you will find the video that I embedded at the beginning of this post. Billings provides some good information about their fleet of helicopters: CH-47, Bell 206 and UH-60A. In fairness, I should note hear that there are other aviation companies that fly CH-47 helicopters such as Coulson Aviation USA.

Just today thanks to a May 16th article on Aerial Fire about Earl Watters and Boomer and that linked  to a short article from B105, The Northlands #1 for New Country. When I went to the B105 article about Boomer and Earl in early May I found some good information about Boomer and a little information about Earl. You will see a couple of videos of drops that Boomer made on a couple of wildfires in Minnesota in May. This article states that that it takes only 40 seconds for Boomer to fill up with 2,300 gallons of water, going on to say that Boomer has to refuel after two hours of flying. Earl contacted me to clarify Boomer's fuel consumption, Boomer consumes 50 pounds a fuel a minute (not 50 gallons).

Prior to writing this post, I checked my blog to see what other articles I had written about the CH-47 and found my November 18th 2022 post on the CH-47 with some of the same information about Billings that I used here. In addition, if you go that post, you will see a five minute from Earl Watters about aerial firefighting with a  Billings CH-47. Take a few minutes to go and watch the video.

Some information  from Billings on CH-47 performance and stats, go here for more details

• Range: 360 nautical miles
• Fuel burn: 340 GPH (gallons per hour)
• Cruise speed: 140 knot
• Maximum hook weight: 26,000 pounds
• Maximum engine horsepower for each engine: 5,000 hp

Billings CH-47 for aerial firefighting, go here for more details (with video)

• Buckets: 2,700 gallons maximum capacity, full load release in three seconds
• CH-47D tanks: 2,500 gallon capacity, fill rate of 4,000 gallons per minute. full load release in three seconds

Here is Earl Watters in his Facebook video from May discussing the performance of Boomer, the Billings CH-47 he flies.

New South Wales Rural Fire Service: New CH47 Added to Aviation Fleet

 As the bush fire season in New South Wales (NSW) Australia is underway, I wanted to find a little more information about their fleet of firefighting aircraft including the new addition of a CH47 Chinook Helicopter to their fleet. I knew that I had read that the NSW Rural Fire Service had acquired a CH47 Chinook in the last 3 or 4 months, and a little digging in my email revealed that Mike Archer had shared an article in his August 7th Wildfire News of the Day newsletter about this acquisition, he referenced this August 7th  article in Helicopter Investor discussing this purchase. 

Rob Rogers, commissioner, RFS said: “The Chinook carries a similar load to a 737 large air tanker but can fill up and turn around faster, protecting people and homes from fires." ...

The CH-47 is powered by two Lycoming T55 turboshaft engines, mounted on each side of the helicopter’s rear pylon and connected to the rotors by drive shafts. The aircraft’s counter-rotating rotors eliminate the need for an antitorque vertical rotor. This enables all the power to be used for lift and thrust. The ability to adjust lift in either rotor makes it less sensitive to changes in the centre of gravity, important for the cargo lifting and dropping, such as when deployed on firefighting missions.

The CH47 arrived in NSW in late July or early August. At present it can carry up to 10,000 liters (or 2,641 gallons) in a bambi bucket. During the (Australian) winter of 2024 an internal tank capable of carrying 11,000 liters (or 2,905 gallons). 

Direct link to YouTube video from Sky News Australia

I thought that you might be interested in reading a July 2023 article in the Aerial Fire Magazine on the NSW Rural Fire Service's aerial firefighting fleet that may be found here. I was glad to read this article because they referred to other aircraft in the NSW fleet: six Bell 412 helicopters, a 737 Fireliner "Marie Bashier", two Cessna Citations for fire mapping and monitoring, and a third fixed wing aircraft. In addition I learned more about the NSW Rural Fire Service's aviation resources and how they are used in aerial firefighting. Finally, I just saw an interesting article on Aerial Fire (dated October 13th) reporting that Australia's largest firefighting helicopter, which I think is the CH47, was used to retrieve a submerged vehicle from a body of water.

Coulson Aviation: 2022-23 international operations

As many of you may know, one of the aviation companies that have wildland firefighting contracts for their air tankers and helitankers in the United States and outside the U.S. is Coulson Aviation. Coulson has been on my mind of late because it is wildfire/bush fire season in the southern hemisphere and I know that Coulson has contracts in the southern hemisphere. I recently saw a December 5th article on Aerial Fire reporting that Coulson just signed a four-year contract with the Western Australian Government for one of their C-130 air tankers. Knowing that Fire Aviation would have reported about this contract, I found this December 5th article on Fire Aviation by Kelly Andersson reporting on the contract for the C-130 and another contract for a 737 air tanker. So Coulson will have two of their large air tankers on contract in Western Australia during their summer fire season. According to this December 13th Facebook post by the Dept. of Fire and Emergency Services in Western Australia, Coulson’s C-130 saw action on or about December 12th.

Among the other countries with Coulson's firefighting aircraft are according to Coulson's May 2022 news release Argentina purchased a Coulson 737, also see Bill Gabberts May 12th article on Fire Aviation. This year according to this December 20th Coulson Aviation Facebook post Coulson also has a C-130 air tanker and a CH-47 helitanker in Chile. To the best of my knowledge Coulson still has a presence in New South Wales, Australia this season, see Coulson Aviation's Australia website for more information. I know that in prior years, Coulson have had a presence in on or two other countries that I have not listed here. 

Direct link to video by Coulson Aviation on YouTube

CH47 Chinook

Several years ago when I was still going on occasional scenic flights with a pilot friend, I have a memory of seeing a CH47 Chinook. If memory serves, my pilot friend saw it first, and then I saw it. The Chinook was probably a few miles away so it appeared to be small. However, considering that I can recall seeing small single engine aircraft from the same distance that looked like a large dot in the sky, the fact that we could recognize the Chinook said something about its size. That was the first and last time I was even close to seeing one in person, so to speak. For some reason I was thinking about this apparent sighting of a Chinook while on a scenic ride this morning and decided to focus o the CH47 Chinook today. Knowing that the CH47 is being used for wildland firefighting I wanted to devote today's post to the CH47.

The CH47 has a sixty plus year history dating back to the Vietnam War era, for specifications, history, and some photos of the CH47 go to this page from Military.com. 

Some CH47 Chinook's have been repurposed for use as a heavy lift helicopter that can be used in wildland firefighting and other heavy lift operations. Billings Flying Service out of Billings, Montana operates CH47 Chinooks. With a range of 360 miles, a maximum gross weight of 50,000 pounds, a maximum air speed of 140 knots and a hook that carry about the 26,000 pounds (Billing's CH47 Chinook page for this and more specifications and information about their CH47 Chinooks) they are an impressive helicopter. The Billing's CH47 Chinooks, with a tank capacity of 2,500 gallons and a bucket capacity of 2,700 gallons, are used for wildland firefighting, see Billings aerial firefighting page for more information.

In the video below from Earl Watters featuring a Billings Chinook CH47, you will see some shots of the instrument panel, shots of dipping to fill her tanks, shots from the cockpit of dropping water, and shots on the ground getting her read to fly a fire. The CH47 was working a fire near Folsom California in August 2022. Enjoy. Allow just under five minutes to watch the video.

Direct link to video from Earl Watters on YouTube

Coulson Aviation: Scenes from Chile

 I have recently been writing about Coulson Aviation's operations in Chile (February 10th and February 12th), today I will wrap up this short series about Coulson's operations in Chile by sharing some of Coulson's Facebook posts. They are also posting about their operations in Australia. If you have difficulty with the embedded posts or you prefer not to disable any tracking extensions, I hope that the direct link below each of the embedded posts will work, depending on your browser it may not work, I am sorry if that is the case.

Direct link to post on Facebook

Direct link to post on Facebook

Direct link to post on Facebook

Direct link to post on Facebook

Coulson Aviation: Night Vision Goggles

 I wrote about Coulson's operations in Chile the other day including their use of night vision goggles for their night aerial fire suppression operations. Coulson has a very nice Facebook Page (here)where they make good use of social media to share about the Air Tankers, Helicopters, Helitankers and supporting aircraft deployed to help the crews on the ground fight wildfires. At this time of year they are working in Australia and Chile. I saw a nice post on their NVG (night vision goggle) fire operations in Australia and California, and now in  Chile. I want to share their post with you.  If you do not have a Facebook account and want to see the entire post, this link should take your directly to the post with the need to log into Facebook.

2021 wildfire season: Coulson in Chile

When I got interested in the current wildfire season in Chile, thanks to Mike Archer's reporting on wildfires around the world in his Wildfire News of the Day emails (go here to subscribe), I knew from Coulson's Facebook page and Bill Gabbert's Dec 13, 2020 article that Coulson Aviation had aircraft under contract in Chile. I wondered about other firefighting aircraft that might be working in Chile. From reading some news reports of wildfires in Chile, I think but am not certain that SEATs and smaller helicopters fly fires in Chile in support of firefighters on the ground. Unfortunately, the best link that I had is no longer active, so I am not in a position to say anything substantial about other aircraft that might be flying fires in Chile. But I do know that Coulson is in Chile so I will focus on Coulson's operations in Chile here.

I was recently in contact with someone from Coulson who confirmed to me that Coulson has four CH47D Chinook helitankers and one UH60 Blackhawk currently under contract in Chile (for more information on these helitankers see Coulson-Unical and Coulson's Facebook page. I wrote about Coulson's CH47 helitankers and Blackhawks in May 2020, sharing a nice 2019 video where Britt Coulson discusses these helitankers and a link to an article in Vertical Magazine about the Chinook. Shortly after my recent correspondence with Coulson, I saw this February 9th news release from Coulson with more information about their operations in Chile. I also understand both from my correspondent from Coulson and the aforementioned news release that night operations in Chile will be conducted this year. I am sure that these night operations, even if under a trial period, will be an important weapon in Coulson's aerial firefighting arsenal in Chile.

When I was perusing the Coulson Aviation in Australia webpage yesterday, I saw a video report shared on their Youtube Channel from an Australian news outlet on a trial conducted in Australia last year to test Coulson's night aerial fire suppression capabilities. The report is not talking about operations in Australia, they make no mention of Chile, I do not know the result of this trial, and I am not certain which of Coulson's helitankers and/or Blackhawks have the necessary night flying technology installed. However, with those caveats in mind. this report gave me an idea about how Coulson's night aerial fire suppression operations might work. Enjoy!

(updated and corrected on February 11, 2021) I want to thank my correspondent at Coulson Aviation for taking the time to provide me with some corrections regarding Coulson's night aerial fire suppression operations. Coulson has been doing night aerial fire suppression operations in California for awhile now, most recently in 2020 using Chinooks. About four or five years ago Coulson did a trial using night vision goggles in Victoria, Australia. That trial was successful and since then, Coulson has been using Sikorsky's for night aerial fire suppression operations in and around Victoria, Australia. This will be the first year that night vision goggles will be used by Coulson in Chile. When I was perusing the Coulson Aviation in Australia webpage yesterday, I saw a video report shared by Coulson on their Youtube Channel about the night vision goggle trial in Victoria Australia that was done four or five years ago . This video report gave me an idea of how Coulson's night aerial fire suppression operations work in Chile. 

Coulson-Unical CU-47 and UH-60 Helicopters

Last March I noted when Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation wrote about a partnership between Coulson and Unical Air, called Coulson-Unical. This partnership will add several UH-60 and CH-47 helicopters to Coulson's fleet of firefighting helicopters. Bill wrote about Coulson-Unical in a March 2019 post on Fire Aviation where he had this to say about the plans for the plans for the UH-60 and the CH-47 helicopters:

The capabilities of the helicopters will include night-vision, IFR navigation, and hover filling. At least some of the newly acquired CH-47s and UH-60s will be outfitted with RADS internal tanks. The basic design of the RADS was created by Aero Union decades ago and features steep slopes on the sides when space allows, to facilitate enough head pressure at the bottom to ensure quick and constant flow. The technology used will enable automated target drops for the night vision goggle firefighting program and will have the capability to adjust flow rates based on speed and altitude. A Coulson helicopter that has been certified in Australia for night drops has been used on a regular basis for the last several months during the country’s 2018-2019 bushfire season.

Bill interviewed Coulson Vice President Britt Coulson about the Coulson-Unical partnership in March 2019. You might want to take the three plus minutes to watch the video and learn about these helicopters.

Direct link to Youtube video by Bill Gabbert of Wildfire Today

By August 2019, Coulson-Unical had converted a UH-60 Blackhawk and it was spotted at McClellan in California, see Bill's August 2019 Fire Aviation post for more details. 

Coulson has a nice Facebook page (go here) where they share photos and videos of their aircraft. On May 8th, Coulson posted some photos and a video (the first comment) of their converted CH-47, now known as a CU-47. Then on May 25th, they posted four photos of their new UH-60 Blackhawks. 

I was especially interested in Bill's reporting on the Coulson-Unical partnership and the purchase and planned conversion of CH-47 helicopters because I learned about the capabilities of the CH-47 from a friend of mine. I have actually seen a military CH-47 in the air while one of my pilot friends was taking me flying. Even from a distance of about five plus miles, I was impressed by its size. 

So, when I heard from Mike Archer's Wildfire News of the Day about the Vertical Magazine article about the new CU-47, a recently converted CH-47 by Coulson-Unical I was very interested and saw the May 26th Vertical Magazine article, "Coulson's CU-47 Ready for fire fight" This same article is in the May 22nd issue of Skies Magazine. The author of the article, Howard Slutsken, writes about this conversion, here is an excerpt:

In early March, the first Coulson-Unical CU-47 was flown from the company’s Port Alberni, B.C., base to the Aerial Firefighting North American 2020 conference in Sacramento, Calif.

Featuring a 3,000 gallon roll-on/roll-off internal tank and an advanced Garmin avionics suite, up to 12 CH-47Ds will be converted into next-generation heli-tankers, in a partnership with Unical Aviation that was announced a year ago.

“Unical provides us with the aircraft and a vast supply of parts,” explained Britt Coulson, president and COO, in an interview with Skies.

“They bought the entire Canadian Forces CH-47 parts inventory and were the largest purchaser of CH-47Ds from the U.S. Army.”

The twin-rotor Chinook is well known for its speed, size and payload. While the helicopter is often deployed on fire attack missions carrying a water bucket as an external load, Coulson wanted to give the CU-47 more flexibility and capability.

Slutsken's article on Vertical Magazine/Skies Magazine is freely available as I write this. I don't always know how long such articles will be freely available. 

Reflections on the CH-47 Chinook Helicopter

Direct link to video

I became more familiar with the CH-47 Chinook Helicopter about 10 years ago thanks to a good friend of mine who worked with the CH-47 while he was in the military. He was either a flight engineer or a mechanic, I am not sure which. Needless to say, he loved the CH-47 and suggested I learn more about the CH-47 as he knew that they were used for aerial firefighting while he was in the military. He told me to check out Columbia Helicopters and learn more about the CH-47 and the civilian version. I learned a short time later that Columbia holds the type certificate for the civilian version of the CH-47 known as the Columbia 234 Chinook, go here for more information.

I admit that I don't know as much about the CH-47 and her civilian cousin, however, because of my friend I have deep affinity for the CH-47. So when I am perusing videos of aerial wildfire operations, especially wildfires where military reserves have been called into service, I do look out for the CH-47 Chinooks or Columbia's 234 Chinook.  In addition, there are two other helicopter operators that I know of that have CH-47's used for civilian heavy lift operations as well as wildland firefighting operations, Billings and Coulson. Bill Gabbert of Fire Aviation has written several articles on the CH-47 used in firefighting operations that you may find tagged on his site. Bill wrote about Coulson's CH-47 on March 1, March 8, and September 5, 2019. He wrote an article on Billings in January 2019 . There may be other heavy helicopter operators that I do not know about.

In closing, I would be remiss if I did not mention another incident involving the CH-47 that further ignited my affinity for the CH-47. That is, about five years ago, a pilot friend was taking me on a scenic flight, I believe that we were somewhere in eastern Pennsylvania. He was getting flight following so he was getting advisories of aircraft near are flight path. The controller came over the radio telling him to look out for CH-47 flying north, I believe. I do not recall how far away the CH-47 was, at least five miles? Anyway, it took both of us a several seconds before it registered that what we were looking for, the CH-47 helicopter. So, we both looked and spotted her. She seemed small as aircraft are from that distance, but she was easy to spot. I was thrilled beyond words. I still remember that with a smile on my face. I took out my camera and tried to get a picture, a very bad picture. But I tried. But the better image is what I remember. It is the first, last, and only time I have seen a CH-47 in person, so to speak, with my own eyes.