Several aircraft have been operating out of North Las Vegas airport to fight the forest fire coded “Carpenter 1”.
Carpenter 1 is a large fire on Mount Charleston, that began on Jul. 1 and remains the highest ranked priority fire in the U.S. according to the National Interagency Fire Center.
Taken by Alan Sondak, the interesting images show some of the 17 choppers operating from North Las Vegas A/P to fight Carpenter 1, including an Air Crane, a Bell AH-1F, a Bell 212 and a Bell 210.
David Cenciotti is a journalist based in Rome, Italy. He is the Founder and Editor of “The Aviationist”, one of the world’s most famous and read military aviation blogs. Since 1996, he has written for major worldwide magazines, including Air Forces Monthly, Combat Aircraft, and many others, covering aviation, defense, war, industry, intelligence, crime and cyberwar. He has reported from the U.S., Europe, Australia and Syria, and flown several combat planes with different air forces. He is a former 2nd Lt. of the Italian Air Force, a private pilot and a graduate in Computer Engineering. He has written five books and contributed to many more ones.
The Vietnam War-era aircraft is used by the private contractor to train U.S. Air Force Joint Attack Terminal Controllers (JTACs). In March 2020, Blue Air Training, a private contractor headquartered in Las Vegas, that provides […]
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Interesting… How Cobra can help for fire fighting?
Looking for fires with thermal imagers….there may not be smoke without fire, but there sure is fire without smoke.
(or smouldering undergrowth anyway, that can reignite a forest fire)
“The new Firewatch helicopter is a redesigned AH-1 Army “Cobra”
helicopter and is a prototype for a new aerial supervision platform for
coordinating air resources over wildland fires.”
What exactly does the AH-1 do?
I’m guessing aerial command and control of the ground units but do you have any more info?
The AH-1F Firewatch Cobras replaced the worn out OV-1D Broncos in the aerial command and control, fire reconnaissance roles. As well as keeping a watch on fire spread, direction and speed. The fact that it has excellent visibility to the sides lets them do orbits around things they are looking at.
Interesting… How Cobra can help for fire fighting?
Looking for fires with thermal imagers….there may not be smoke without fire, but there sure is fire without smoke.
(or smouldering undergrowth anyway, that can reignite a forest fire)
“The new Firewatch helicopter is a redesigned AH-1 Army “Cobra”
helicopter and is a prototype for a new aerial supervision platform for
coordinating air resources over wildland fires.”
http://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=1&f=5&t=220568
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_AH-1_Cobra#U.S._Forest_Service
What exactly does the AH-1 do?
I’m guessing aerial command and control of the ground units but do you have any more info?
The AH-1F Firewatch Cobras replaced the worn out OV-1D Broncos in the aerial command and control, fire reconnaissance roles. As well as keeping a watch on fire spread, direction and speed. The fact that it has excellent visibility to the sides lets them do orbits around things they are looking at.
A good overview is here:
http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?215289-USFS-AH-1S-209-Firewatch-Cobra
Vietnam era helicopter force re-purposed for humanitarian missions!
Whats next? B2 Spirit delivering precision food parcels?
For a little more information on the AH-1/Bell 209 Firesnake look here: http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/downloads/AviationGuide_FINAL_web.pdf