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,
Friday, April 18, 2008
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
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
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
Thursday, April 3, 2008
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,
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,
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