How many different jobs can a Huey do?

One reason, I think, is that there are other helicopters out there besides the Huey. Oh my gosh!!! Blasphemy!!! Why not open the discussion to a variety of retired military helos doing civilian work?

I've got lots of Hueys and others. But, I can always use more.

But, I'll start with Hueys and see where the thread goes from there.

Hevilift of Australia.

3 from the California Division  of Forestry. 

And,  Los Angeles County. 

Gee! Who woulda thunk I'd come up with fire fighting?

Randie,

   Thanks for the pics and getting this thread started!  I know there are lots of other helos than just Hueys, but I like Hueys and I was curious just how many tasks the old girl has been put to over the years.   You may recall that there was a thread started for Vietnam era non-Hueys.  Why not start one yourself?  I'll leave it to the Blackhawk fans, Heavylift fans, etc. to start their own thread.  I would be curious to see if any other single type of helo has been put to as many uses as the Huey, however.  Besides, I think there are more kits in more scales of the Huey than any other single helo so there should be inspiration for everyone from the HO modeler to the super-detailer who wants a 1/24 scale firefighting bird.  However, I will admit I'm a little biased!

    Ray

Edit: How about we open the floor to Vietnam Era birds that have been put to other uses?  I say this because I just found thsi video of a Hughes 500 that officially qualifies as the coolest thing i have seen a helicopter do in a while.  Now this pilot has some SKILLS!

http://onemansblog.com/2007/04/19/worlds-most-dangerous-job-power-line-tree-trimming-helicopter-pilot/ 

I couldn't get it to play all the way through. But, according to the intro. it happened somewhere around here. I now reside in Fort Smith, AR.

Okay. Viet Nam era birds would be okay. That gives me a few more fire fighters and some heavy construction workers.

But, I'll stick with the Huey theme to start.

Here's one from Kern County, CA.

And Sacramento.

How about some Huey offspring? Here's a cobra from Florida.

And some from Washington state.

Now for some 'heavy hitters'.

A couple of a CH-53 owned by Heavylift. It has been used for construction and fire fighting. 

And a couple of Erickson Skycranes' H-54/S-64 Skycranes.

Randie,

  Thanks for the pics!!  I guess you like firefighters like I like Hueys of all kinds.  Sorry about the link. The video still works fine for me, but here is the original YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMQgt5YiD0w

    Ray 

That pilot definitely had his hands full a couple of times.

Did you happen to check out this one or this one while you were there? 

Here's another City of Los Angeles chopper making a drop. And, yea you could say I like my water bombers!

Randie,

More firefighting helis. They're amazing, especially the Cobra.....and the Huey......and the -53....well all of them really. Thanks for sharing.

Rich

PS What's with the dyed blue water, is it a chemical they put in to help dowse the flames or is that just the colour of the water in LA???

It's not water. I believe it's Phos-Chek®. But, I'm not positive. I know they were experimenting with different dyes at one time. It's to make it more visible to help the pilots in alignment for the next drop.

Phos-Chek® is normally red but, it has been used in it's undyed form which is an off-white. They also have a red dye that turns to a neutral color after a period of time. It is normally used ahead of the fire and on vegetation around structures. I have seen pictures of them dropping it directly on structures to protect them, also. Sort of a chemical fire break.

Phos-Chek® also serves as a fertilizer to promote rapid regrowth to avoid erosion. 

The blue is usually gel, it is a water based foam product, thicker than water or foam but not as long lasting as retardant (phoschek). I think they chose blue to make it easier to tell it apart from the phoschek for evaluation purposes. CDF was evaluating gel in their S2T airtankers for a couple of years, not sure if it is still being used or not. It was found to be effective in light fuels like grass but not as good as retardant in heavy brush or timber. 

The undyed phoschek is not very common but when it is used its usually in wilderness areas so it doesn't stain the rocks red.

For the original post

 Rescue

This is Yosemite Helitack 551 and it does it all, law enforcement, search and rescue, rescue, medivac and fire. Here they are short hauling an injured climber off a ledge.

Thanks for the clarification, Aaron. I thought of that later but, I wasn't sure if that was the case so, I didn't modify my post.

Do you all get any help from Lemoore NAS up there in Yosemite? I know they had a rescue squadron there for awhile. 

Lemoore used to be a regular visitor but their rescue unit got closed down a few years ago (2002 or so). CHP has picked up the slack and we get them in the park quite a bit between actual use and training.

I took this last month during a training drill.

Nice pictures, Aaron. I had heard that they were out-of-business but then I saw somewhere where they were supposedly still up and running.

Again, nice pictures.