Random postcards from a retired National Guard Blackhawk crew chief.
Thursday, May 05, 2016
Bucket Work
Photo by Rick Klaur
Doing our annual re-qualification for Bambi Buckets. Yeah, those are my feet hanging out the side of the helicopter. Sitting in the door gives you the best visibility for the drop.
Apologizes for not coming around more, especially as you post daily. :) BTW, how many gallons do those Bambi Bucket hold? And can they haul chem retardants as well?
What can I say? I've never been able to write like the real bloggers do. :-)
SEI makes buckets that range from 72 gal for the R44 to 2600 gal for the CH-47/53. The buckets we use are usually the 660 gallon variety, but we cinch then down to 70% (460 gal) for more of a margin. The bucket in the picture is actually the next size smaller at 440 gal. We can use retardants in them, but the set up the Forest Service uses for that is kind of complex for a helibase, so that usually goes to the fixed wing guys.
For the Mi-26 they hang two of the 2600 gal buckets on it for a gross weight of 44360, which as I recall isn't too far from the launch weight of an F-4N.
2 comments:
Apologizes for not coming around more, especially as you post daily. :) BTW, how many gallons do those Bambi Bucket hold? And can they haul chem retardants as well?
What can I say? I've never been able to write like the real bloggers do. :-)
SEI makes buckets that range from 72 gal for the R44 to 2600 gal for the CH-47/53. The buckets we use are usually the 660 gallon variety, but we cinch then down to 70% (460 gal) for more of a margin. The bucket in the picture is actually the next size smaller at 440 gal. We can use retardants in them, but the set up the Forest Service uses for that is kind of complex for a helibase, so that usually goes to the fixed wing guys.
For the Mi-26 they hang two of the 2600 gal buckets on it for a gross weight of 44360, which as I recall isn't too far from the launch weight of an F-4N.
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