Fire season helitack

[novaboy032]

Anyone know what the frequencies are or will be this season? Saw a skycrane yesterday but picked up nothing on the radio...

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[VK3RX]

Unless something has changed, if aircraft are fire bombing these are the air band frequencies (AM mode of course) used in order of priority in Victoria, and also agreed with the other State fire authorities.

F-CTAF = Fire - Common Traffic Advisory Frequency.

I've only ever heard the first two used. The first they seem to have exclusive use of (and I believe it is used for the same purpose interstate), but the others are shared with other aviation users eg. 126.35 is an air to air chatter frequency. I've heard the first active recently.

132.55000 F-CTAF 1
135.55000 F-CTAF 2
126.35000 F-CTAF 3
128.90000 F-CTAF 4
129.95000 F-CTAF ALTN
130.95000 F-CTAF ALTN
131.20000 F-CTAF ALTN
131.85000 F-CTAF ALTN

[novaboy032]

Awesome! Thanks mate I heard a little chatter on the weekend over an SMR channel that someone was requesting a firebird to a fire on Phillip island but never heard anything else after that so this would explain alot I guess

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[Blake]

Yep, as above, VK3RX is spot on.
As per AM 1.05, 4.2: "Should a Fire-CTAF not be allocated for an incident, the State default Fire-CTAF is 132.55 MHz."

[Blake]

All though, I seem to remember that aircraft on the CTAF frequencies exclusively involved in firefighting activities used either a different mode (FM vs AM), a different audio type (digital vs analogue) or a CTCSS/NAC code.
I can't remember which, and I may be wrong.
Perhaps someone can shed some light.
My guess would be digital, but again, not sure.

[VK3RX]

I've always heard them using normal airband AM, which would suggest they use their airband radio to communicate with each other.

Logical; separate radio from CFA comms, same radio to communicate with other aircraft, ATC etc.

[Xplorer]

I've heard Air Support in the last few days on RMR network.
From what I've been hearing, air support come up on the dispatch channel, fly to the location and change to the FG channel.
Same as what the appliances on the ground do.

RID 3333330 Firebird 330 "Osborne"
RID 3333346 Helitack 346
RID 3333377 Helitack 377 "Bird Dog"

I'm sure there are many others. I'm going through my logs to identify others.

[VK3RX]

Yep when on a scene, if there is only one aircraft, that's how they usually operate.

If there is more than one aircraft, they talk to each other (e.g. chopper to chopper or chopper(s) to Bird Dog) on a F-CTAF frequency (usually F-CTAF 1), and one of them (usually the Bird Dog) liaises with the ground troops on the FG channel.

Heard that the other day with the fire near Colac.

[VK3RX]

Thought I'd add an audio clip of an earlier fire with air support.

Comms are on one of the AM F-CTAF frequencies between the two aircraft, then when a run is completed one talks to ground crews on a FG freq., (I quickly enabled that channel ) then comms back on F-CTAF.

Also a link showing near real time aircraft deployment:

https://firewebext.ffm.vic.gov.au/Burns ... ftList.htm

Other info:

http://kestrelaviation.com.au/news/

[Xplorer]

If you're also monitoring the RMR network, here are some others:

VIC FIRE TOWERS (more to add soon)
3240969 - Mt Wombat Fire Tower
3249416 - Mt Buller Fire Tower
3304806 - Mt Hickey Fire Tower

[Xplorer]

From various news sources, Victoria are conducting night time trial of fire fighting aircraft from Ballarat airporrt.

May pay to dial up the RMR network, VHF Fireground (Digital & Analogue) and Airband frequencies.

Sources:
https://www.emv.vic.gov.au/news/night-t ... bing-trial
https://www.premier.vic.gov.au/victoria ... -aircraft/
http://www.thecourier.com.au/story/5248 ... this-week/

Emergency Management Victoria
Night-time aerial firebombing trial.
Victoria’s emergency management sector will continue a trial of night-time aerial firebombing this summer.

The first phase of the trial was successfully completed last year and focused on reconnaissance flights and aerial mapping. Work will continue this summer to build on aerial operations and with a trial of firebombing at night.

This work is being led through Emergency Management Victoria, with DELWP and CFA, and with the support of the Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA).

Based out of Ballarat, the trial will be heavily safety focused and is expected to be underway by mid-March.

Night-time aerial firebombing has the potential to significantly improve Victoria’s firefighting capability building on the number of hours aircraft have to respond to fires.


Premier Victoria
In an Australian first, aircraft will take to the sky at night to test the use of night-vision technology to drop water on fires.

Emergency Services Minister James Merlino said the trial, led by Emergency Management Victoria (EMV), will guide the future use of night-time aerial firefighting in this state.

The trial will be based out of Ballarat Airport, and will involve two aircraft. One aircraft will conduct reconnaissance flights during the day and provide strategic oversight during the night, while the other will collect water and drop it on a series of controlled fires and targets after dark.

The trial has been approved by Civil Aviation Safety Authority and will start this week. It will also test the ability to hover-fill helicopters at night and the efficiency of night-vision technology, including infrared systems and night-vision goggles.

Night-time water-bombing is used in limited overseas locations, but was not currently deployed in Australia. The results of the trial will be used to inform operations in all Australian jurisdictions, not just Victoria.