On my way back home from North Shore tonight around 6.30 pm I came across the Warkworth based Skyworks AS 350 B3 Squirrel ZK-HWW2 damping down a scrub fire just North of Albany that had threatened several houses. It was close to the East Coast Road which gave me a grandstand view of the operation:
I had not seen this type of firefighting equipment before. The Squirrel sucked up a load of water from a bladder that was supplied by a fire truck, into the pod underneath using a fixed length of hose,
and then flew off to the nearby fire where it dropped its load onto the fire in a dump out of the pod.
Christchurch Helicopters have been operating these bellytanks since 2019,there are also 2 in Queenstown.
ReplyDeleteBelly tanks are great. Surprised to see dedicated ones in NZ but had to eventually get here. Did a bunch with tanks on B205 B212 in Aus and EU. AS350B3 with a tank is very effective.
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