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Protecting the Community - Helitack Training Exercise - September 2010

Ripley Valley RFB played host to the QFRS Air Operations team as part of a 'pre-season training exercise'. Three Helitack appliances (668,670 and 671) with their crews joined forces with RFS crews on the ground with a series of simulated wild fire water bombing and recon sorties.

Day One, September 1, 2010 and the Helitacks were used in conjunction with a hazard reduction burn at "Bravo", a 10Ha parcel of land at Swanbank just to the NW of the Station. The burn added some realism to the training and the three Helitacks certainly helped out the ground crews when it came time to mop up.

 

There were plenty of old mines that had formed dams as water sources.

Simulated fire outbreaks adjacent to the main burn were used as targets.

The Next Exercise

Day Two changed to an area of grass land near Wensley Road that was also a requested hazard reduction burn. We were joined by a crew from Greenbank RFB in their new medium GN52.

The plan was to light up small strips of grass within within the area of the hazard reduction burn just prior to the arrival of the Helitacks and they would extinguish the flames. Ground crews would mop up.

Unfortunately; during the first run in to perform a drop, the Helitacks were ordered away unexpectedly from the area by nearby RAAF Base Amberley. They contacted crews on the ground a short time later about their orders to abort and then the race to contain the fire was on.

The guys did a great job in rounding up the fire, supported also by 645A who were at the Station to monitor the exercise.

 

The Helitacks were later cleared to water bomb in the area again.

They now had a slightly larger target area to practice on. The fire was brought back under control and contained within an hour.

Whilst not the ideal Helitack training exercise, the event proved to be a very good training exercise for those on the ground. Fires never always run to a plan, escalation of an incident can happen very quickly and management of the fire during that period takes a lot of coordination and great team work. The whole team did a great job in challenging circumstances.

Area made safe and time for lunch. The Helitacks returned to finish their training back at Bravo after lunch with a few more sorties and simulated water bombing runs over the previously burnt area.

Ground crews completed the hazard reduction burn and tidied up the area into the afternoon.

Thank you to all those who helped. A thank you also to Matt Cater for some of the great photos.

 

If you would like to see the 2008 helitack Training Exercise at Ripley, please Click Here.

 

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