Operators of the latest generation of aircraft to enter the firefighting sector rell us how they're preforming in their new role.
BY: JEN BOYER
The first aircraft in the US Forest Service (USFS) modernization effort took flight to battle fires across the nation last season. Contracted to increase safety, the next generation aircraft not only performed as expected on their first assignments — but also highlighted the new capabilities they’re bringing to the fight.
The motivation behind the modernization effort was to increase safety on aviation fire contracts. On the helicopter side, the USFS wanted to achieve this by replacing aging legacy aircraft with newer types loaded with modern technology and safety-enhancing features like dual engines, digital glass cockpits, enhanced data monitoring, automatic flight following, real-time communication systems, and more.
For the 2024 fire season, the USFS reserved five type 2 (medium helicopter) contracts for these modern aircraft. Three operators won those contracts: Oregon-based Hillsboro Aviation, Montana-based Heli-1, and Georgia-based Helicopter Express. All three were heavily involved in working with aircraft OEMs and the USFS to identify and equip the ideal platforms to meet the contract requirements, and the hard work paid off with a smooth fire season.
“The aircraft did great, flying 250 hours or so this year with no issues, no downtime,” said Jordan Gipe, director of operations at Missoula, Montana-based Heli-1, which operated an Airbus H145 during the 2024 fire season in Montana. “We love the aircraft and love the direction the agencies are going with recognizing the value of it.”
Hillsboro, Oregon-based Hillsboro Aviation operated an H145 based with the Coronado Helitack crew in Sierra Vista, Arizona. Later in the season, it also fought fires in Colorado and Wyoming, performing without an issue in high density altitudes, while reportedly building quite the fan base.
“The customer really loved it,” said Ryan McCartney, vice president and chief operating officer of Hillsboro Aviation. “I think people are impressed with the technology and the performance was better than a lot of people expected. Anyone who was skeptical about the aircraft and then saw its performance was impressed. In fact, we had a firefighter mention to our team that his family was excited about him flying in the new modern twin-engine helicopter. They felt he was much safer. Toward the end of the season, we had a number of visiting crews who were not assigned to the aircraft come by to see it and learn more about it. There was a lot of excitement and a sense of ‘we’ve got to get one of these!’
Both companies’ helicopters performed bucket water drops and transported crew and supplies on their contracts without a hitch. In many ways, the aircraft were being underutilized in terms of their capabilities.
“My opinion is the 145 is a Swiss Army knife,” Heli-1’s Gipe said. “It has so many capabilities the forest service and state agencies haven’t even tapped into for the safety and value of the aircraft. They have yet to fully utilize things like NVG [night vision goggles], hoist, IFR [instrument flight rules capability], radar, and dual hooks. I would love to see the contracting agencies add operations that utilize this machine’s full capabilities.”
Helicopter Express operated two new Subaru Bell 412EPX helicopters on its USFS contracts last year. The aircraft were specifically assigned to support rappel operations, replacing the aging medium Bells that typically serve these contracts.
“Last season taught us that the 412EPX’s overall performance was fairly equal to the Bell 205. The firefighters were excited about the second engine, which allows us to continue a hover operation after an engine failure or fly away on one engine in most scenarios,” explained JR Liming, chief pilot at Helicopter Express. “It made the crew feel safer, and I also got a lot of comments about how the crew found the aircraft more comfortable and they enjoyed all the new technology.”
The USFS is far from the only agency focusing on modernized helicopters. Ventura County Sheriff in California primarily operated Bell UH-1 Hueys/205s built in the 1960s and 1970s for its rescue and firefighting operations. In 2023, the county took delivery of a Subaru Bell 412EPX, and the difference has been a game changer as it significantly improved the county’s capabilities.
The aircraft proved itself early on with a rescue in the mountains. Last summer a hiker was lost at 8,000 feet in temperatures exceeding 90 F (32 C). The helicopter was able to fly in with a full four-person crew — pilot, hoist operator, medic, and rescuer — make a confined area landing among the trees, load the patient, and safely fly out with torque to spare.
“We never would have been able to do that in the Huey,” said Rolla Boggs, a fire/sheriff pilot for the county. “With the [205] Huey, we would have had to kick some people out of the aircraft, offload equipment, or burn off fuel to make that landing. With the 412, we were able to do that rescue with no issues at all, a real testament to the machine. It makes it possible for us to more safely perform missions and better respond to missions due to its increased capabilities.”
When not performing rescues, the aircraft is available for firefighting, which it did during the devastating Los Angeles fires earlier this year. The increased power of the 412 allows the county to fill its 375-US gallon (1,420-liter) belly tank to maximum, an improvement over the 200-gallon (750-liter) maximum it could fill the 205’s tank, and its faster cruise speed of 120 to 125 knots allowed for faster turns. Boggs said the aircraft’s onboard FADEC systems also make the aircraft far more stable and easier to handle in the region’s turbulent Santa Ana winds, which are a common contributor to fires. The aircraft is also IFR capable. While the county doesn’t often need to fly IFR, the added layer of safety, and the ability to get in and out of the airport when thick Southern California marine layers prevail, is a bonus, Boggs said.
LEARNING CURVE
Operating entirely new aircraft comes with a few growing pains, and bringing on new, modernized aircraft was no exception. While the aircraft transition for rappel crews was pretty seamless due to the similarity of the aircraft, the digital displays presented teaching moments.
“We transitioned from an analog system to a fully digital glass cockpit with FADEC,” explained Helicopter Express’s Liming. “The EPX is capable of monitoring many systems that we simply don’t have access to on a 205. The system provides many messages that are advisory in nature, [and] the pilots and crews of our legacy Bell mediums are not accustomed to these. A light could be telling you that your cargo hook is armed, for example. These types of indications do not require an emergency landing or procedure, but the crews are trained that if a caution light comes on, that means something is wrong and we have to land immediately. It caused a little anxiety, so we had the opportunity to conduct a bit of awareness training to help crews understand the workings of the new helicopter. We were able to overcome that quickly and the Forest Service was great in helping with that training.”
Heli-1 experienced similar situations. “The people we carried, some of them had been in the legacy Bells for decades and this was something new,” Gipe said. “It loads different, the camera systems are different, the cockpit avionics are different. It’s a helicopter, but in every possible way it is different. It took some time to get used to, but our experience was once they understood what the aircraft was doing, they really liked it.”
FUTURE POTENTIAL
While USFS contracts last year were specific in defining the modernized aircraft’s duties, the potential to expand their use is significant. With IFR, hoist, and NVG capabilities, matched with increased payload and range, the aircraft can expand into nighttime operations, transition in IFR conditions, perform hoist rescues, and more. Government organizations such as Ventura County are already providing a roadmap and illustrations of the aircraft’s success.
“All of these agencies — Forest Service, states, and counties — are big ships, and it takes time to turn them,” Heli-1’s Gipe said. “For us, it’s getting the aircraft out there and demonstrating the hoist and talking about other capabilities, because once they understand, they can start to put a value on it and start coming up with a metric to issue contracts that include these scopes. We’d really like to see U.S. government agencies look up to Canada’s rapattack program, where they rapidly deploy and can rappel, hoist, drop water from a tank, do medevac, and more, and they do it all 24 hours a day. That’s the model the Forest Service and other agencies should look at modeling with these machines.”
Vertical Magazine | June/July 2025 | Volume 24 Issue 3 | Page 136-144