Fly Helicopter. Fill Water Bucket. Fight Fire. Repeat.

It was a lovely wedding, but something about it smelled a little... smokey. 

The wedding took place last weekend, on a bluff overlooking the Pacific Ocean near the town of Lucia, California, not far from Big Sur.  Telstar Logistics was on hand when the bride and groom were joined in matrimony, but off in the distance, we were distracted by the deep thumping sound of spinning helicopter blades. 

Looking to the south, we could see firefighting choppers dipping their water buckets into the cold Pacific water to battle In a forest fire was burning out of control a few miles away:

By the next morning, as we brunched on pastries and eggs, the fire had grown larger and more ominous... and the helicopters were still hard at work. So we went to get a closer look.

We arrived just in time to watch one of the helis as it was arriving for a water refill.  It was N699RH, a Kaman Aerospace Corp K-1200 firefighting helicopter operated by Ranier Heli-Lift.  Having never seen a Kaman helicopter before -- or even heard of them, for that matter -- we did some research to find out more.

The Kaman is a strange-looking beast: It's thin as a rail, with a bulbous cockpit and twin rotors mounted on opposite sides of the fuselage. Very insectoid. But form follows function, it seems, as the Kaman is a workhorse helicopter "specifically designed, tested and certified for repetitive external lift operations and vertical reference flight." The Wikipedia explains:

Known as a synchropter, there are two main rotors, which are mounted side-by-side. Each rotor is angled away from the other, and they counter-rotate, thus intermeshing and providing not only lift, but also countering the torque of the other rotor. All of the engine power goes toward lift, with no parasitic loss to power a secondary torque rotor, as found in conventional helicopters. The power transmission and control systems are thus simpler, as well. Control is through the use of servo-flaps mounted on the trailing edge of each rotor. The arrangement also makes for extremely quiet operation compared to other helicopters.

Although only 38 Kaman K-1200s have been built, it seems the US military is also investigating the development of an unmanned version that might be used for combat supply and troop transport in Iraq and Afghanistan.

PS: Congratulations to the happy couple, Fred and Christine, with best wishes for all that lies ahead!

LINK:

Kaman Aerospace K-MAX (Official company website)

PREVIOUSLY:

Helitack 406: A Firefighting Helicopter in California

DC-10 Fire Tanker Joins the Fight Against SoCal Blazes

Hovercraft Save California Island from Raging Wildfire

(PHOTOS by Telstar Logistics)

Comments

[Blaize]

Perhaps you could answer a burning question: how do they NOT pick up sea otters and then drop them from a height onto a fire. How? Or is roasted sea otter just par for the course?

[dr.hypercube]

"warning - approach from front" - the Kaman mantra. See here for (as far as I'm concerned) the kanonical Kaman.

[Jean Commons]

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