In a joint exercise hosted by the Orange County Fire Authority and Los Angeles County Fire Department, press members gathered at fire loading site ’69 Bravo,’ located on a hillside in Topanga, California on Tuesday to see an aerial demonstration of Coulson Aviation’s CH-47 heli-tanker in operation
The twin-engine CH-47 is being leased by Southern California Edison from Coulson Aviation. During the fire season, the helitanker will be based at the Joint Forces Training Base in Los Alamitos, California and will be available around-the-clock in Southern California.
“The CH-47 Chinook helitanker is a force multiplier,” said Chief Brian Fennessy of OCFA, one of the officials in attendance at the demonstration Tuesday.
Coulson’s CH-47 is able to drop 3,000 gallons of water or retardant in a single pass, with the aim of Tuesday’s event being a pilot familiarization exercise for the CH-47 pilots in refilling from the 69 Bravo site during day and night filling operations that will occur in normal firefighting operations throughout fire season in California.
Yesterday we had a successful exercise with @LACoFDPIO to showcase the new joint agency Helitanker.🚁 This is a regional asset that can be used in multiple counties to fight fires. The helitanker:
•Takes 1 min to fill 3,000 gallons
•Has a water drop cover of approx 10 acres pic.twitter.com/mzMC2j3pZr— OCFA PIO (@OCFireAuthority) November 19, 2020
