SA Firefighter

Just wondering if anyone else heard the news yesterday, stating that the Government had organised (14) aircraft to be based in SA. Is this an additional number to the norm, and if so what types? 802's or more rotor heads? Cheers.

im just wondering another fact.....more firefighters for the fire season??? or fires filled with appliances of 2-3 crew members?

the way there heading there will be more planes than firies.

Quote from: Zippy on October 30, 2008, 06:24:42 PM
im just wondering another fact.....more firefighters for the fire season??? or fires filled with appliances of 2-3 crew members?

Or in some cases 2 1/2 crew. LMGDFAO

Ringer....Get over it, that pun is just lame now.... :roll:...anyway...he's probably *.25*...

Anyway, back to the aircraft..


Can anyone confirm or deny? ..

a Sky Crane, 5 fixed wings at Woodside,  2 Helitaks, and numerous fixed wings at lincoln/gambier....

Quote from: Zippy on October 31, 2008, 03:45:42 PM
a Sky Crane, 5 fixed wings at Woodside,  2 Helitaks, and numerous fixed wings at lincoln/gambier....

Fer goodness sake, DON'T TELL THE TROOPS ! 
No-one will bother turning out to rural fires in the bomber response areas.

Oh yeah the media hype again....quick everyone lets all hail "Elvis our saviour" :roll:

If they spent as much media hype on the ground crews as they do this, we might attract more people wanting to join our fine service instead of portraying this is the be all and end all of firefighting :? 

skycrane will save the hill's again this season, so may be they can send a bomber to be located in Narcoorte over the fire danger period rather than just on fire ban days.

I Know CFA are having more aircraft this summer than they did last year.

Gotta look at Risk Bill..

Quote from: Bill Corcoran on November 02, 2008, 07:09:31 AM
skycrane will save the hill's again this season, so may be they can send a bomber to be located in Narcoorte over the fire danger period rather than just on fire ban days.

Go and have a cry!

Are any additional Brigades being trained to support the aircraft on the ground ? I would imagine that more aircraft means more volunteers to support them at the airfields.

what exactly happens up at Woodside Airbase, because i know that woodside cfs isnt that involved in air operations from it, is there dedicated staff there to refill, mix retardant etc?

hmm....best the "big one" doesnt happen before mid december.....Elvis wont be here till then....only 9 or so of the 14 will apparantly be online at the start of the Fire Danger season

Cherry Gardens strip is run by Sturt SES volunteers when required, they are paged to activate the strip.

Region five HQ have a air support brigade and a few of the Naracoorte members and one from hynam(me) have offered to help them as they are low on numbers...

They mix their own at Woodside, if its a decent job the airstrips close by open, like Cherry that use SES and the local CFS. Mt Compass, local CFS, and Athelstone go anywhere they are needed. There are many others around.

I guess this is CFS's way of recognising they are going to struggle to get enough ground crews there, gone are the days of having every truck loaded to the brim with crew.

Millicent look after their local airstrip.

Think region 5 are looking at training up a few other brigades due to the wide range of airstrips in the region.

Quote from: SA Firey on November 04, 2008, 03:32:22 PM
Cherry Gardens strip is run by Sturt SES volunteers when required, they are paged to activate the strip.

Most Cherry CFS members are trained to reload AT802s. We do a refresher most years.
Usually CFS locals open Cherry Gdns strip & get the first load or two out.
By then the SES have generally arrived & we hand it over over.
Our people can then go and sit with the appliances in the station, and be ignored &
bypassed by the R1 IMT as the incident escalates...  :-P

Well someones gotta stay and look after the rest of Region 7  :evil:

Quote from: Seagrave on November 04, 2008, 05:59:38 PM
Well someones gotta stay and look after the rest of Region 7  :evil:

:lol:

Well FIREBAN in this region today and no bomber,I guess back to the good old day if we have a fire today then?? Hope they are here before the start of the fireseason on 15/11/08??

are you sure? have u checked out Gambier Air Base? quite a feeling that theres a bomber and even a fire spotter down your way bill.

Bomber 580 is heading to Millicent as of now 08:00 hrs :wink: