in 2018 AERIAL FIREFIGHTING AERIAL LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE IN 2018 By Paul Sadler FIREFIGHTING After a record-breaking year of wildfires in 2017, what challenges does the aerial firefighting industry face as the Northern Hemisphere season begins? And how is it placed to meet them? 44 VERTICAL magazine 44 VERTICAL magazine I n the United States, over 10 million acres of land were burned by wildfires in 2017. Since 1952, the only other time wildfire has been as destructive in the country was in 2015. The U.S. Forest Service spent a record $2 billion fighting wildfires last year, with the Great Plains, Florida, the Rockies, and particularly California being areas of focus. Beyond the U.S. border, Western Canada was devastated with British Columbia experiencing its worst fire season on record with over two million acres burned. In Europe, the number of wildfires doubled from 2016 to 2017, as drought conditions gripped the southern part of the con- tinent. Portugal and Spain were especially hard hit with dozens of fatalities. Even typically cold locations such as Siberia and Greenland saw wildfire problems. And parts of Australia joined California with the beginning of a seemingly year-round fire season. What does 2018 hold in store? Vertical asked those involved with the industry around the globe to take the pulse of aerial firefighting, and over the next few pages, you can see what the most recent fire season — in the Southern Hemisphere — has taught us; the forecast for 2018 in North America from Vertical’s meteorologist; the view from the American Helicopter Services and Aerial Firefighting Association; and some of the new develop- ments from bucket and tank manufacturers. One things for sure: helicopters will continue to provide a vital role in the ongoing battle to keep wildfires under control. SOUTHERN SUMMER It’s been a season of change for aerial firefighters Down Under, following two major developments during the southern hemi- sphere summer. Firstly, following a two-year trial, Australia’s avi- ation regulator certified the use of night vision imaging systems (NVIS) for aerial fire attack at night, bolstering aerial firefighting capabilities in the country. The second development was the start of a program to import and locally refurbish more than 10 ex-U.S. Army UH-60 Black Hawks into helitacks, with some to be permanently based in Australia year-round. On March 17, the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) approved Canada’s Coulson Aviation and local Kestrel Aviation to undertake unrestricted aerial fire suppression operations using NVIS to attack bushfires at night. The approval to attack wildfires into the night followed an extensive practical trial at Ballarat, northwest of Melbourne, Victoria, earlier this year, which saw witness to an Australian first. A Coulson Aviation Sikorsky S-61 became the first helicopter in Australia to successfully conduct night fire suppression operations — including hover filling from open water sources — with its crew using NVIS. “This is the first time on the planet that a helicopter has gone into the wild, at night, dipped into a dip site, loaded it up and brought the water to put the fire out,” Coulson Group president and CEO Wayne Coulson told Vertical. After witnessing the deadly Black Saturday wildfire incident cross the state of Victoria in February 2009, claiming 173 lives (Australia’s highest-ever loss of life from a bushfire), Coulson returned to Canada at the end of that season and embarked on a mission to establish a night firefighting capability. “We started night flying with our Sikorsky S-61 helicopters in the timber business flying trees at night in the late 1990s,