Job Openings!

Well, it is that time of the year again. While it is still an unknown as to how many of our 2008 crewmembers might return for another season with Zion Helitack, we must press forward in recruiting the next generation of Zion Helitack crewmembers. Those that wish to apply for a seasonal position on Zion Helitack may do so by following the directions below:

Go to: www.usajobs.com

On this page there are two ways to find us... in the middle of the page next to large lettering that says "Search Jobs" there sits two boxes. One is for the job title (Ignore It). The second is for an address/agency - you can type in 84720 and hit search... you will then have to scroll through several pages until you find the following job announcment DOI-FIRE-2009-003 next to it will be the words National Park Service, Cedar City

you may also do this the simplified way...

Go to: www.usajobs.com

On this page there are several tabs at the top of the page... the first tab is "search jobs" next to it is "my usajobs", "info center" etc... click on the first tab that says "search jobs". The page that comes up next will have a box at the top that says "Keyword"- in this box type the following job announcement number DOI-FIRE-2009-003 and hit enter or search. This will take you to a page with a few similar looking announcements. Once in the announcement for Cedar City, Zion National Park... follow the directions. Be certain that you select Cedar City NPS as a choice when you voice where you want to apply.

Now - a couple of things to keep in mind. I believe the 1st cut off for applications is January 20th. You must have your application in by that time if you wish Zion Helitack to consider you. Second, take some time with your application... we are not the only people that look at the applications and rate them. Don't be mistaken that you can make a phone call and talk directly to myself or my assistant, and that this will take the place of a good application. It does not! I do encourage phone calls to learn about the program and ensure that we are the program for you, however... in the end it is the application and your references that will win you a position on the crew... so take some time in filling out the application, and put some thought into your references.

I will be posting later today, a detailed look into the crew and what you can expect. Or I suggest you look through our past posts to learn a little about us.

Good Luck... we look forward to seeing your applications.
Cheers, ML

Fallen Firefighters

Every year despite ongoing efforts, we lose lives to the fighting of wildfires. Some lives are lost to freak accidents that many say were unforeseeable, other lives are lost because of mistakes made... foreseeable and preventable if only we as a society could learn lessons from the past. We are supposed to be devoting our efforts as supervisors to ensuring the safety of those whom put their trust in us, both on and off the line. I think if you were to ask most any supervisor, he or she would tell you that they are doing their best. Doing their best to ensure that those young men and women that work for them are given the best training, the safest equipment, and the guidance that will keep them from becoming a fatality. My question is this... if we are doing our best, why do we continue to lose firefighters to mistakes made that could have been foreseen or prevented? Is our best good enough, and when do we know that we have reached our best? I don't know that I have the answers... I don't know if anyone has the answers. If the answers to those questions were obvious, then I'd like to think we would do something to change the future based on the past... I know that we are trying, but as the great Yoda once said,"Try not, do or do not. There is no try". Isn't that the truth? No such thing as trying... you either accomplish what you set out to do, or you fail... and don't get me wrong, failure isn't all that bad. As long as you learn from your failures, they can be looked upon as success. I should restate that... As long as we all learn from one another's failures, we can be successful.

Following any fatality, there is an investigation. Most investigations talk about the same old thing... here is what went wrong, and this is what was ignored from lessons previously learned. I agree that often in fatalities on the line it is easy to see causation... however, none of us have a crystal ball that will show us the results at the end of the path we choose to go down. However, we should not be making mistakes that someone else has already made... especially when such mistakes lead to lives being lost.

In 2006, on the Devils Den Fire, I lost a very good friend. Following the investigation, there were lessons to be learned... many of which were lessons that had been taught due to other fatality fires. I made the decision, following the summer of 2006, that I would no longer wait for someone else to do their part in teaching the next generation of firefighters how to be safe. I'm sure that some of you understand what I am talking about... If the district didn't organize a staff ride to visit a fatality fire, then my crew went without. I often times would take for granted that the course I just sent my crewmembers to, had all the essential information that they needed to learn about the subject and how to remain safe. This often went unchecked by me... I did not take the time to quiz my crewmembers about the things they should have gotten out of the course. If there is a lesson that I have gotten from the death of my friend, it is that I have the power and resources to teach the next generation of firefighters the lessons that they should learn. I don't presume to know it all... non of us really do! But what I do know will no longer be kept just in my minds vault, but will be shared with anyone who will take the time and interest to learn from me and those who have lost their lives.

Last season I took my crew to the site where my good friend lost his life... It was my first return to the location in nearly two years, and it was emotional. I know that both the new and seasoned crewmembers on my crew had some level of reservation about visiting the site... One thing about most firefighters is that we don't wish to be reminded of our mortality. However, I think that reminders of such mortality is important.

The climb to the fatality site overlook, at Devils Den, is no small feet. In this picture you can see that the crew is trekking their way up the steep and rocky slopes far above the valley floor. I think this difficult climb helped make visiting the site more impactful than it might have been. It also keeps the general public from making the trek. It is important to myself that those whom visit this site, really desire to do so... It is not a climb for the faint at heart, or those who are looking for a easy afternoon stroll... Only those looking to visit the site, with strong conviction to do so, will actually make it to the top.

Once at the top... you can still see the evidence of the raging fire and the destruction done. There is also a subtle evidence of the battle waged. In the picture below you can still see the faint red trace of slurry coating the rocks, as a crewmember reflects on what was happening the day my friend lost his life.

There was a lot of reflection going on that day. I was not the only one that had a connection to the friend that lost his life. It was a day for some to tell stories of the man he was, and the lessons he taught... still for others it was an introduction to a brave and seasoned firefighter that lost his life. It is my hope that lessons were learned by all on this day, by making the trip to the Devils Den fatality site and telling the story of the battle that took place on this ground.

Spencer lost his life on August 17th in 2006, on the Devils Den fire in Central Utah. I have learned many lessons from this fatality fire. Perhaps one may argue that the lessons were learned for me, due to my close ties to Spencer. I suppose that there is truth in that... I found myself reflecting back on the times that I had done what Spencer did that day. I am saddened to say that it took the loss of a good friend for me to realize that those stories of lost firefighters were not so distant... and the possibility of me making similar mistakes was real! I don't take that for granted any longer... and if there was a true lesson to be learned from me, it is that we are all a part of this family! I don't have to know the person on a level like I did Spencer, in order for the lesson to be validated. I am looking back on lessons learned from other fatality fires with a new understanding of just how close those people were to me... and just how easily those individuals could have been me!

In the end it was a great day... despite some somber moments, the crew enjoyed the day. Smiles still remained at the end of the day... and now the crew had something to bind them together, an experience that only they shared with one another. Just as I write about it now, there is a feeling that I can't put into words what any of us felt as we visited that site together.

I spent some time at the end of the season talking with each of my crewmembers. I asked them about the things that went well, and the things that needed improvement... as most supervisors do. I also wanted to know about what was memorable for them, and for most... it was the time spent at the beginning of the season on the hill at Devils Den. I expect that Zion Helitack will continue to start our seasons off with such trips to important battlegrounds where lessons were learned... are learned!

Never stop teaching... lives depend on it! There is a moment for teaching in everything we do... and though the crew may roll their eyes and say,"here he goes again", I know that they appreciate the lessons from the past and the time spent teaching them. So be a teacher... share what you know... and maybe someday, we'll stop repeating the mistakes made and avoid taking the paths that lead to undesirable endings.

Cheers,

Puma RX - Bryce Canyon N.P.

We had a fairly good season in light of it being a slow year for fire and aviation. One of the projects tackled this year by resource management was the Puma prescribed burn at Bryce Canyon National Park. The intent of the burn was to change the vegetation model to something that would not support a running crown fire... thus providing the visitors at Bryce Canyon a small (some day unseen) buffer, should a fire threaten the park from the West. It was a large undertaking, that took a lot of planning on the behalf of park fire management.


We became a large part of what was going to take place. Many days of preparation by ground crews led to a couple of good photo ops, as we burned both by ground and air. As time would permit I snapped these photographs of the events taking place...

Enjoy...


This picture captures a small glimpse of the vegetation model that needed to be modified, and the spectacular veiw from our staging area.

So following a day or two of black lining... in order to be able to hold the ignition that would take place from the air... we were off of Bryce Canyon airport, and the PSD operations were underway. This is a good picture of the PSD (Premo Mark III) in action... if you look closely between the step and the helicopter you'll notice a small white ping pong ball, full of its explosive combination of Potasium Premagnate and Ethylene Glycol (anti-freeze), making its way to the ground in anticipation of fire...

Jay Lusher (Grand Canyon) and Nicole Ludwig (Pilot), talked their way through the ignition paterns. It didn't take very long before we had several lines begining to form on the ground, as illistrated in the picture above... I believe Nicole was checking her work, as we waited to see if the fire would take.

... And the fire did take. With the assistance of ground lighters and the right conditions, we had fire! I love the contrast of this picture... the beautiful scenery of Bryce Canyon and equally beautiful scenery (at least in my eyes) of smoke rising from the ground fire we just started.

My dad used to tell me that there was a little bit of a "Pyro" in every firefighter... the fascination of watching fire and smelling the smoke runs in every career firefighters blood. So with that being said, it's no wonder that maybe we put a little too much fire down in some areas. This is evident by the intense heat pictured above... (Disclaimer - we accomplished what was expect and we did so without the fire escaping parameters or exceeding prescription)

I like this photo a lot... the picture of the helicopter leaving behind what it has started.

... There I am! Hanging out with the machine in the back of the helicopter. This is my favorite place to be... no presure to make good decisions as an Ignition Specialist in the front seat, and of course I couldn't fly the ship if I wanted to... I don't posses those types of skills! I am just the "On" and "Off" switch for the machine. Still a vital component to the whole operation, but in a way I am just hanging in my own little world back there...

At times it is good for the pilot to be able to achieve a veiw of where she is flying and what is going on down below... can't do that too well with a door on! She is of course belted into the front seat... we can't afford to have her fall out of the helicopter.

At the end of the day we arrive back at Bryce Canyon airport to admire the work of all involved, from afar... it was pretty impressive for a small prescribed burn.

It should be said that prescribed burning is an essential part of managing our public lands... I would much rather start a fire under controlled conditions with all the needed support in place, than to arrive on a wildfire with too little and be too late to catch it and keep it from destroying the land. We saw fires like this in Yellowstone many years back, and still today as I visit... the damage done by those fires is evident and long lasting. This is why prescribed fire and wildfire use is sooooo important. I know that there are many controversal cases where prescribed fire has gotten out of control and done damage that was not planned for or expected... but there are more success stories than there are disasters. I hope that our land managers will continue to use Fire Use and Prescribed Fire in order to allow mother nature to do what she has naturally done for thousands of years.

That beings said... it was a lot of fun to hang out of the helicopter and lighting up a few thousand acres doing PSD... a true highlight of my summer!

Always a pleasure, Cheers...

Cargo Let Down Training...

It's time to play catch up on the blog... currently the weather outside is cold and a slight drizzle has begun, signs of the impending end of the fire season for Zion Helitack. You may wonder if the ship is still here... the answer is yes! We are in a contract extension that looks like it will continue to the end of next week around the 12th of October. As I wait for word on a possible SAR in the park (lost party in the Subway), I though why not post some of what happened this season.

We started the year excited about the approval to gain Cargo Let Down as a tool for our program. It took a little bit of coordinating, but we finally got Jay Lusher (CLD Check Spotter from Grand Canyon) and Maria Mancano (AMD Check Pilot) to come spend a couple of days training the crew. Following are a couple of pictures of the training that took place.

Of course the first thing that must be done is the rigging of the helicopter... for the rookies, that we are, this takes a little bit of time... and as you can see the blades are turning which adds to the stress of doing things efficiently and yet proper and safe.

Following proper rigging there is a so called "song and dance" that occures over the intercom system, between the pilot and the spotter. During training both the Check Spotter and Check Pilot are also on board to help train the pilot and spotter in the proper verbage... following a short exchange the helicopter lifts... We elected to train in two methods of Cargo Let Down (CLD)... the 1st being shown here is an external CLD. This means that the cargo is rigged to the outside of the helicopter and flown in such manner until over the intended spot to receive the cargo.

Once above the location that has been chosen by both pilot and spotter, the pilot manuevers through small adjustments and the direction of the spotter to fine tune the placement of the cargo. In an external load... the spotter prepares the load to be released, however it is the pilot that releases the load by triggering the belly hook. Once the load has been released from the belly hook, it is up to the spotter to control the decent of the cargo to the ground. Following the cargo reaching the ground the let down line is also thrown to the ground and the helicopter can fly away having succesfully delivered the cargo.

Another method that we trained with is that of doing internal cargo let down. This is where the cargo to be delivered is internal in the helicopter.

You can see in the picture above that the spotter is directing the pilot into place above the end of the rainbow... and there is no visible cargo hanging from the bottom of the helicopter. They are preparing to do internal cargo let down.

Once the pilot is in place the spotter will move the cargo to the door and jettison it out of the helicopter. Then the spotter will move to the controled decent portion of the Cargo Let Down evolution.... hoping to place the cargo where intended.

It looks as though the spotter has nearly reached the ground where the end of the rainbow sits...

All in all... it was a lot of good training and we were given the thumbs up to use CLD as a tool for inserting cargo. It was a couple of years in the preparing and acquiring the go ahead to train for Cargo Let Down, so I am happy to say that Zion Helitack has successfully crossed another bridge in our journey...

Cheers,

Tanker 09 Crashes

I received a text last night from a very good friend of mine, she was very upset and the words on her text said it all..."Tanker 09 crashed tonight..." Several more texts and eventually phone calls followed. The news was confirmed that Tanker 09 had crashed outside of Reno NV. It has been a rough year... I don't know that the deaths which have occured this year are any more numerous than those of past years, however the impact of those involved has hit closer to home than it usually does.

I thought perhaps I would simply link another blog in order for you to get the story... they have said it more elequantly than I could and have many more of the facts...

http://wildfiretoday.blogspot.com/2008/09/air-tanker-crashes-at-reno.html

Tanker 09 had been here in Color Country just a day before... fighting the Toquerville Falls fire just north of St. George. I watched them make several drops on the fire, marvelling at the skill the pilots on board had... I remember seeing the crew when I got back to the Air Center that night. I didn't take the time to say much more than "Hi", as I rushed out the door... tired and ready for a meal. I wish that I would have stopped to tell them what a wonderful job they had done supporting our fire.

All too often the aviation resources that arrive on our fires, show up from seemingly knowhere just to return to that same place. I don't know that us firefighters spend enough time thinking about the risk that these pilots take on a regular basis. Don't get me wrong... it is a risky business that we are in and I am sure the pilots of these large aircraft are well aware of the risk they accept day after day... that doesn't mean that it is any less relevant that we should thank them!

I knew the pilot of Tanker 09... I had talked with him several times over the years, as we both sat eating a meal and watching a blurb or two on the news at the Air Center... These men were good men... with wives and families... looking back I wish that more time had been afforded me to know them and more about their lives. I wish that I had taken a moment longer to talk with them the night they came off the last fire we worked together... that is a moment I will not get back. My point is this, if you haven't thanked a fellow firefighter for the efforts they put in on the fireline lately... well, you should! Also, don't forget that those pilots flying the "heavy iron" above are part of the firefighting family... they too deserve a pat on the back once in a while and to hear the words, "job well done"!

My support goes out to the families of the crew for Tanker 09... today the crew will place our flag at half mast in their honor, and we will not soon forget the difference they made in our battles against wildfire. God bless them & may he now be with them and support those that these men have left behind...

S-61 Follow Up Commentary

explanation to come...but I am removing some of the content of this site... stay tuned!

S-61 Helicopter Crash On The Buckhorn Fire!

I must remove my commentary of the crash... this is at the request of someone in washington... stay tuned for a better explanation... I will post one soon!

ML

Another Rescue

For the second time this year we have had a medical emergency in the park that has required the assistance of the Grand Canyon Flight Crew and their "short-haul" capability. I thought I would share a couple of pictures.

The above photo is of the MD900... a NOTAR helicopter. NOTAR stands for No Tail Rotor. It is a very expensive and fairly rare helicopter, at least in the utility industry. Grand Canyon has a year round contract that is through the local company Papillion Helicopters. The MD900 was purchased special for the contract and is painted in the Park Service colors and with NPS painted on the helicopter.

Short haul is a technique where the helicopter can long line a paramedic (or other specially trained individual) into a location where landing would not be possible. The Paramedic can then conect the injured person or the litter to himself / herself and sling out with the victim. This can be seen in the picture above... the paramedic is extricating the victim using a rescue triangle.

They are then lowered to a crewmember or two who will "shag" the line... they basically help to catch the load and secure or support the victim, as seen above. Zion Helitack is not short haul qualified, however at the request of Grand Canyon Flight Crew... we will assist at the helispot to shag the line... That is one of our crewmembers in the black helping to shag.

Last year Grand Canyon Helitack did 1/3 of all their short hauls out of Zion N.P. Years previous have seen as many as half of the total short hauls that Grand Canyon does, being flown out of Zion National Park. It begs the question... are we to the point where Zion Helitack should look towards gaining the short haul qualification... hmmm.

For now... Zion Helitack will focus on Cargo Let Down and Rappel... Training starts on Tuesday!

Cheers,

Overnight Campout...

Well we finally took our overnight trip. It was a good oportunity to bond as a crew over some really good "Dutch Oven" cooking. Thanks to Thayer and a bunch of novice food preparers... we had plenty of chicken, steak, fish, potatoes, etc. etc.

This is a good picture of Iceman and BT doing what they do best, sample food. The Alaskan caught Halibut and Salmon was wonderfully cooked and made us long for more as it quickly disappeared... "Thanks Thayer"
Shannon spent some time relaxing after BT had taken the crew on a little run in the woods for an afternoon PT. Following the PT some of us cooked food and some went for fire wood. We allowed a couple of our trainee sawyers to try their hand at cutting and gathering wood... actually, lets call it what it is... non of the crew really wanted to collect firewood... so we turned it into a training opportunity.

Of course the biggest hastle with collecting the wood is cleaning the saw afterwards... so once again our 1st time sawyer to a stab at a good field cleaning... Bevans did a wonderful job. We may be able to turn him into a good sawyer after all...

The night ended with a good conversation around the campfire... where we learned a little more about one another as we listened to Bevans strum a little on the guitar, and the Jazz get whipped for the final game of their road to the playoffs... okay, that was a little disappointing... but the rest of the night was a success and a whole lot of fun. Tomorrow, we will wake and take a little hike to the Devils Den fatality site...

Cheers,

Here We Go !!!

May has come and nearly gone, and I haven't yet posted on the blog. I have all the excuses in the world, but its meaningless to spill them now. The crew is all on but one... and she will join us by the weeks end. We have been spending our days at meetings and trainings. Most of you know how the first few weeks go... training, meeting, training, more training, meeting, etc...

We had our first RX of the season. I thought perhaps I would share a couple of pictures I took of David Brothwell falling a snag with fire in it. Not a particularly menacing snag... but it sure was stubborn about coming down. I will post a few more times over the next few days to catch you all up on the things happening with Zion Helitack.

The Season Is Here...

Every year I wait for that tell tell moment when I know that the season is just around the corner. It usually begins with the arrival of the 1st crewmembers. Iceman started today! I guess that means the season is just around the corner.

I am off to Boise for this next week in order to teach an M-410 Facilitative Instructor class. This will be my 4th this winter... I am personnally about "burnt" out on teaching people how to be good instructors. I typically love teaching this class, but like I mentioned this is my 4th time this winter... and with so much more happening this time of the year, well lets just say I would rather be here at the base getting ready for the fast approaching season.

Ritzman will take his leave from the crew officially this next week. I think he will be through on Thursday or Friday in order to finish up paperwork then its off to California for him to start his new job. We wish him well, we know he will enjoy his new job and will exceed expectations out there in Sequoia...

I'll update the post in a little over 10 days...
Cheers,

Another Day At The Office!

What a wonderful project that myself and several members of the Zion Fire Use Module got to participate in just recently. I was wishing that some of my crewmembers could have been on and available to help with this once in a lifetime opportunity. Unfortunately, the way that budgets and more importantly seasonal regulations concerning 1040 hours work... it was not possible to have the crew on.

The project - to remove a lot of vehicles from the Lake Mead recreational area... For a long time (probably since the late 50's or early 60's) people have been driving their old cars out to a particular cliff near the canyon just south of the Hoover Dam. Once there they drive / roll the cars off the cliff. The amount of cars present was nearly 30... most were old and in need of a funural, however others were brand new cars. The latest being a stolen Lexis that was rolled off the edge and destroyed. In addition to a lot of cars, there were over one hundred tires. Some belonged to the cars that were destroyed, but most were just old tires rolled off the cliff to see who could get the most distance out of them.

The project started with a KMax heavy lift helicopter equiped with a hydralic claw. This helicopter plucked as many of the cars and scrap metal off the hill as possible. Following that it was time for us to engage... a 20 person support crew and 6 helitack crewmembers went off the side of this rather steep and rocky hill. Our goal was to collect as much of the garbage as possible and fly it out. The tires were left to me... I went up and down the hill several times that day! It was steep and unstable... not your typical afternoon stroll. Others focused on filling and manifesting nets full of trash. All total we flew approximately 20,000 pounds of crap off the hill. That is not including the cars flown off the previous day.

It was a good project... a dangerous one, however no one got hurt and in the end it was executed well. I don't know if the pictures do justice to the terrain... but as you can imagine... it was as steep as it looks if not steeper.

Oh yes, and a side note... while we were on site and had the ability to do so, we were asked to do another project for Lake Mead N.P. We rigged and flew a building off of a repeater site. I did not get pictures of this... I got video! I am working to compress and edit the video as we speak and hope to have this wonderful footage of a very unique long line operation. I have never had to climb to the top of a building to connect the apparatus to a remote hook... it was a first for me!

Enjoy the pictures... more to come soon!

Cheers

A New Idea!!!

Hello everyone, it has been a while since my last entry. I am swamped getting ready for the crew to come on. Leads are showing up in a little less than a week, and the crew will be on in a month. I was given an idea today, and I wanted to run it by everyone that visits the site.

If you were given a location (i.e. a blog page), where you could advertise your old fire equipment / clothing that either no longer fits or has become excess... would you take advantage of it? I know that for many of us in the business, we have collected small caches of our own at home... I am not saying you should sell the stuff that somehow ended up in your basement bought on the government dollar (that is theft). I am talking about those of us who have purchased our own fire gear, pants, and other equipment because we wanted something better than what was offered to us by the government.

If you had a place where you could buy/sell/trade such items... would you take advantage of it? I'll post a poll to the right where you can give your answer... Let me know!

Cheers,

Aviation News!

It is fastly approaching, the beginning of the fire season (2008). For some the thought of Fire Season is a distant idea... however, the truth is that crewmembers will be showing up in a little over a month! Approximately 6 weeks from now, I will have my complete crew on and working towards being prepared for the fire season... So this is the 1st installment of "Aviation News!"... where I will inform you about the things that are coming up in the aviation world.

Today I recieved an e-mail that will undoubtedly affect many of you in the aviation world. For most of you, the difference will never be noticed... but if things go wrong, you'll be glad that our vendors have complied with the change.

Starting on February 1st, 2009... there will be a frequency change for the E.L.T. (emergency locator transmitter). E.L.T.'s are required in all helicopters that will or do work for the federal government. It is part of the AMD and FS carding system that inspectors with the government verify that each aircraft has an operating E.L.T.

E.L.T.'s for civilian use have broadcast in a frequency of 121.5 Mhz and the military have broadcast at 243 Mhz. On February 1st of 2009 those frequencies will change. Both civilian and military users will share a frequency of 406 Mhz. It is very important that all vendor aircraft switch their current E.L.T.'s to this new frequency as soon as possible. This will require the purchase of new E.L.T.'s... Don't worry, this won't be a hard change! What this means is that it will not be required to change prior to February 1st, 2009, but rather as soon as feasible. Most companies should consider changing out their E.L.T.'s as the rotation for battery replacement is apparent. (most E.L.T.'s require battery replacement every 5 years.)

So why the change... wasn't the current system working? Well the answer is yes! It was working, however the company could make it better. That is what this upgrade is all about. As most of you already know, the government radios have been making a transition to Digital capable. Digital is an upgrade for many reasons which I won't delve into on this post... however, for the E.L.T. to jump into the Digital bandwith of 406 Mhz... has some incredible benefits. Currently the way that the E.L.T. works is through a radio frequency which can be picked up by other aircraft, ground based listening posts, and most importantly the Cospas-Sarsat System. The way that this system works is utilizing satellites in space to recieve and triangulate distress signals broadcast as specific frequencies (i.e. 121.5 / 243 Mhz). The following diagram illustrates how the system works...


Currently using an analog system has caused some false alarms... 1 out of every 50 alerts, on average, is a genuine distress call. This is caused by many reasons, however the only thing that can be done when these ghost alerts come in... is to launch rescue personel or start the search for the distress beacon. This ties up a lot of resources that could be potentially "out of pocket" when really needed. Going to Digital (406 Mhz) allows additional information to be carried on the distress beacon (kind of like sending an e-mail via a radio signal). The information transmitted carries information about the owner of the E.L.T. that has been tripped. This allows the rescue stations to make initial contact via telephone to the owner of the beacon to clarify the potential that an aircraft has genuinly crashed... initial testing has shown that this improves the actual recieved distress calls. 1 in every 17 are actual distress calls. There are a lot of other reasons to move to the new system, however that is the primary reason.

If you are looking for more information concerning the Cospas-Sarsat System you should visit their website www.cospas-sarsat.org this organization is a global organization that provides non-discrimenatory services for the entire world. They recieve signals from not only E.L.T.'s, but also personal beacons and maritime (oceanic) beacons. If you are unfamiliar with how an E.L.T. works and spend anytime whatsoever on aircraft, I would get educated!

Feel free to e-mail any questions you may have to our e-mail zionhelitack@live.com or you can make comment on this blog by clicking the comments link below...

Cheers and be safe out there,

Edit - I would like to thank Cheryl Bertoia, for making the comment below. It should be emphasized, as she mentioned below in her comment, that in order for the Digital 406 Mhz signal to work at its full potential... the user must register their device. The registration of the device is where important information about the company, to include contact information, will be linked to the unique carrier wave specific to each unit. Going Digital is great, but it is kind of like having a computer and not knowing how to run it... all that technology is great but you need to educate yourself in order to use it to its full potential.

So as Cheryl mentioned... if you are purchasing a new E.L.T. and wish to use it to its full potential, than visit the following website and register it... www.sarsat.noaa.gov this is the location where those from the U.S. can register online... or for more information, go to the experts at www.cospas-sarsat.com I'm sure they will answer any questions you may have.

Cheers,

WINNER!

We have a winner... our 1st ever photo contest brought your votes, and in the end you voted for this picture!

Congratulations to the person that submitted this photo... send me an e-mail with a shirt size and we will send you one of Zion Helitack's custom shirts!

Claim your prize... zionhelitack@live.com

Cheers,

PHOTO CONTEST !

So, I have been as patient as possible... and so have those whom have entered! Here is how this will work... the pictures below each have a letter associated with the picture, on the right is a poll with the same letters... vote on the letter that corresponds with the picture that you think is the best. I'll explain again at the bottom of the post...

Lets Vote...

A

B
C
D
E
FG

H
I
J
K
L

M

Once again the voting poll is to the right... you will notice a column with "A, B, C, D, E..." each with a small square next to them... the letters correlate with the pictures. You can vote for as many as you would like! Remember this is the photo's you think are the best... Try to refrain from voting more than once! If you have any questions please e-mail us at zionhelitack@live.com

I don't expect any hanging chads, super-deligates, or recounts... Vote On!