FESA Smart chopper unveiled for bushfire season

[Matt.]

From : http://www.abc.net.au/local/stories/201 ... 381634.htm

1 December, 2011 4:13PM AWST
New smart chopper unveiled for bushfire season
By Brooke Bannister

Perth's first day of summer could be a sign of things to come with high temperatures, strong winds and multiple bushfire warnings across the state but there's a new weapon on hand for this fire season.

With the summer and bushfire season officially starting today, it's also a good day to launch a new weapon to combat bushfires in the state's south.

A new $4million 'intelligence' helicopter will be ready to assist ground crews and be their 'eye in the sky' when it comes to combating bushfires.

FESA's Chief Executive Officer Wayne Gregson launched the twin-engine unit, which won't be used for water bombing but will gather information for fire crews.

"This aircraft is fitted with state of the art surveillance equipment, such as an infra-red high definition camera, laser mapping and a microwave transmitter which can beam real time pictures of the fire back to our operational management teams," Mr Gregson said.

"This sophisticated equipment can penetrate smoke and pinpoint the exact location of the fire front."

The high-tech unit will provide firefighters with critical information faster to help protect lives and properties under threat.

The helicopter is being leased to FESA and the Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) for the next five years at a cost of $6.9million.

Despite the new equipment Mr Gregson said it was up to residents to be prepared for the challenging bushfire season ahead.

"Fire management agencies are doing all they can to be prepared for the demanding season ahead and it's imperative that the community also play their part in being prepared," he said.

"To herald in the start of the season fire conditions are extreme over the next few days and residents who live near bushland must take responsibility to prepare their homes and double check their survival plans now."

Information on how to make a bushfire survival plan is available on the FESA website.

[Helitak_670]

Heliwest Bo-105 VH-XRG

Also the Skycrane is apparently arriving this week or next at Jandakot.

[auntys_eyes]

Has there been a decision on where the Air-Crane will be based? I heard Pearce was an option due to its size and weight?

[dlcat1]

I wouldn't think the size or weight would really be much of an issue given they forward base out of grass paddocks or small ovals. I think more of the issue would be hangar space and accommodation for the support crew

[Helitak_670]

JANDAKOT.
Going to be parked where the RAC helicopter used to be in front of the tower. This is info from 2 mates down at Jandakot.

[matth2004]

I've sat with the air ops officer before watching realtime footage of the fire streamed by the air intel chopper. It's really impressive. Three small panel antennas are setup on a tripod outside at the ICC in MIMO configuration and a battery box with inbuilt 802.11n sits next to it. The laptop indoors just connects to the wireless network and then uses VLC to stream the realtime footage onto the display. I think it's HD, well at least it looked like it. Super impressive.

[Zebedee]

FYI a post was removed from this thread as it fitted a classic spammer profile.

Carry on!

[matth2004]

Well now my reply looks stupid haha!

[Zebedee]

That's OK it was an informative post anyway

[Matt.]

Since this original post has been 'resurrected' here is a recent image of said helicopter

[Zebedee]

Very nice shot!

[beans]

Silly question perhaps. But I wonder what frequencies and protocols are used on the microwave link? I'm going to take a guess that they run TCP/IP over some sort of radio protocol? Maybe encrypted? It also sounds like the chopper must transmit at a fairly high power (presumably omni-directional) as the range is 200km (http://www.helimedia.co.uk/pdfs/Casestudy-Heliwest.pdf).

Ultimately what i'm getting at - I wonder if it's possible to tap the signal and view the video.