As alberta Another highly active one prepares for what may happen. wildfire seasonBC Helicopter Company has signed a new contract with the Alberta government to train pilots to fight wildfires from the sky at night.
“Alberta has decided to go into nighttime firefighting activities with the aircraft, so it will be with NVGs (night vision goggles) on and actually operating on the fire,” said Trent Lemke, owner of Ascent Helicopters. “They want 24/7 services for their firefighters.”
Lemke says there aren’t a lot of operators offering these services in the province or even the country, adding that there are many benefits to fighting wildfires after the sun goes down.
“You have less fire activity so you can actually respond to fires with a higher success rate,” Lemke said.
“The other part is ground crews are working on fires 24/7, so when crews are on a fire it means they can now support them with aircraft.”
A pilot for Ascent Helicopters says it takes a while to get used to wearing an NVG during flight, as it’s not something that’s taught during basic training, but once he went through it, he said It’s like flying during the day.
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“The plan will be for most of the flight to be conducted under NVG, and usually as we get close to taking on water, we will have to look out of our goggles, but we will be constantly transitioning back and forth,” said Ascent Helicopters. said flight training manager Dean Elliott.
“As we fly into the path of the fire or fall on the fire, we will operate it from under the goggles.”
This is not the first major contract Ascent Helicopters has been offered. Last year, the company signed a 10-year, $544-million contract to serve as B.C.’s air ambulance helicopter provider. Elliott says a big reason the company’s services are in such demand are the purpose-built tanks in the underside of their helicopters – which the company developed about 15 years ago.
“It’s a homegrown tank – it’s a purpose-built tank and actually one of the few purpose-built firefighting tanks in the world,” Elliott said. “We can offer specialized tools in addition to NVGs to help anyone succeed.”
The new contract with the Alberta government is for the next five years, and the crew will take to the skies on Sunday and head to Alberta, with training starting on Monday.
Between March 1 and October 31, 2023, wildfires burned 2.2 million hectares of land in Alberta.
, With files from CFJC
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