WA Radio Scanner Users' Group

Hi all. These pictures of Helitacs 681, 682, 668 & 669 were taken at Ray Owen Reserve in Lesmurdie, which was the refuelling point during the fire in Lesmurdie Falls National Park on Monday 16/12/10. Sorry about the resolution/quality but as i was on the job i only had my phone for pics.











I have also uploaded the following videos. Again the reso/quality is a bit crappy as they're off the phone.

Helitac 681 landing

Helitac 669 taking off

Helitac 668 taking off

spiffing stuff there chap!

nice pictures and videos. i noticed that they have wig wag lights. is that fore visability or...?

They are actually red and blue LED flashers, although I think the larger aircraft have landing light wig wags?

They denote that it is an emergency vehicle, in operation. You'll find most/all have sirens as well to alert ground crews that they are operating in the area/dropping loads.

Yes, the Helitacs do have sirens. They set them off as they are making a drop pass. Mighty helpfull on the fire ground because after a while you get used to the helicopters constantly passing over head, so when one comes in with its siren sounding you know a drop is coming.

in video http://www.youtube.com/user/yokine8#p/u/5/UBw8gvFDAkI it was the vih new helitacs and it had white lights with wig wags

yorky wrote:They are actually red and blue LED flashers, although I think the larger aircraft have landing light wig wags?

They denote that it is an emergency vehicle, in operation. You'll find most/all have sirens as well to alert ground crews that they are operating in the area/dropping loads.

they are actually just plain white lights, not red and blue.

I also feel that its got nothing to do with the emergency aircraft status, rather used to scare off birds, not sure how, but thats what i have been told by Qantas Engineers

Qantas have wig wag landing lights on their 737 underbelly lights (in fact one has been wired up wrong, it actually has a flashing tail logo light) and they are far from an emergency aircraft
also alot of smaller Prop aircraft have them, the Dash 8's have flashing lights on the nose wheel, i have also seen some Private jets with wig wag landing lights.

video of 682, in slow motion

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXuZu1FoJvQ

AO11912 wrote:

yorky wrote:They are actually red and blue LED flashers, although I think the larger aircraft have landing light wig wags?

They denote that it is an emergency vehicle, in operation. You'll find most/all have sirens as well to alert ground crews that they are operating in the area/dropping loads.

they are actually just plain white lights, not red and blue.

I also feel that its got nothing to do with the emergency aircraft status, rather used to scare off birds, not sure how, but thats what i have been told by Qantas Engineers

Qantas have wig wag landing lights on their 737 underbelly lights (in fact one has been wired up wrong, it actually has a flashing tail logo light) and they are far from an emergency aircraft
also alot of smaller Prop aircraft have them, the Dash 8's have flashing lights on the nose wheel, i have also seen some Private jets with wig wag landing lights.

RFDS's fleet also have them, and i think air asia A320's have them too