ScanDiego.com

The Sycuan Fire Department's Copter 563 paid a visit to Montgomery Field this morning. It's a Bell 212 with registration N212TH.

A few pictures are at the following URL, if interested.

http://picasaweb.google.com/CKennedy92/ ... TjtkD9po6E#

ChrisK wrote:The Sycuan Fire Department's Copter 563 paid a visit to Montgomery Field this morning. It's a Bell 212 with registration N212TH.

A few pictures are at the following URL, if interested.

http://picasaweb.google.com/CKennedy92/ ... TjtkD9po6E#

Good stuff, Chris.

OBR

I noticed the logo on the tail looks similar to LA's Copters.

You're right, it looks just like it!

LAFD is buying AugustaWestland AW139 helicopters.

http://www.agustausa.com/NLT_E_Photos/LAFD.html

Nice helicopters any chance San Diego county will get some in the future?

I think LAFD paid about $14 million each for them, equipped. I doubt if the County could come up with that kind of money.

The new Bell 412EP that is now Copter 2 cost $10.5 million fully equipped.

The County fire helicopters are old refurbished Bell 205's. I don't know what they cost.

Chris,
Nice shots. Do you (or anyone else know where it's normmaly based??

As for the LAFD AW-139s, when I was up there in mid September they were having problems with certification for the tank due to it blocking a sensor. Not as much room in the passenger compartment as the Bells, so getting 2 airflats or whatever they use for litters was becoming a chore.

Looking at the history of this ship....

Per FAA.
Serial Number: 31109 for N212TH
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry ... rtxt=212TH

Comes back to the same ship. When it was flying for Petroleum Helicopters in 1999.
http://www.airliners.net/search/photo.s ... arch=31109

NTSB report on this air ship! The pilot had a drinking problem.
Accident occurred Friday, June 08, 1984 in MILTON, LA
THE ACFT SUBSEQUENTLY TOUCHED DOWN HARD IN A PLOWED FIELD
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/brief.asp?ev_id=20001214X39946

Interesting about the new LAFD helicopters. You would think that for the price they paid they would get something usable.

I don't know for sure where the Sycuan copter is based but I assume it's somewhere on the reservation. I'm pretty sure that the Sycuan Golden Eagle Hotshots have a base northeast of the casino. I think the Sycuan Fire Department has a station elsewhere on the reservation, but I don't know exactly where it is. Either of those could be the base for the helicopter.

The Sycuan helicopter 5-63 is finishing out Its contract with the Bureau of Indian affairs, I believe it has less than 30 days left on its contract and will leave at the end of its contract. The same aircraft was helicopter 303 in 2003 for the CDF it was based at Gillespie Field.


As far as "The County fire helicopters are old refurbished Bell 205's."They are actually Bell 205A1++ they outperform the 212,and 412 considerably and a cost considerably less. The Sheriff's Department and the county did their homework. Here is a link to a helicopter performance guide for firefighting
http://gacc.nifc.gov/egbc/logistics/avi ... _Sheet.pdf Even though San Diego County is not at 8000 feet this guide is still prudent to helicopter performance.

I continued to hear a rumor that a major firefighting agency in California is looking into a civilian version of the Bell UH-1Y helicopter I do not know of any civilian certifications of this type of helicopter. So this may be a longshot. We can only hope.