Huey's story: Firefighting from the air

Before coming to Sisters this past week, the Bell Huey helicopter was lifting buckets and dropping water on fires out of Klamath Falls, Prineville, John Day and now Sisters, all during the months of June, July and August.

Working from a 75-day State of Oregon contract, the nearly 2.5-ton workhorse assisted the crews on the ground in the battle of the blazes during the Summit Springs Complex Fire.

The red-and-white painted helicopter is owned by Troy and Genevieve Woydziak, who own and operate Baker Aircraft in Baker City. Having started its life at the Bell Helicopter factory in Fort Worth, Texas in 1966 as a UH-1D model it was shipped to Korea with the Army in 1967.

After being converted to a UH-1H model in 1973 it was redesignated and stayed on in Korea till 1979 when it made its way back to Fort Lewis, Washington, from 1992 till its retirement in 1995 to Davis-Monthan AFB Storage in Tuscon, Arizona.

The Huey served the Army in many different locales but not Vietnam.

"There is no record of any combat operations. Have seen no bullet holes and have heard no ghosts. It's just been a reliable soldier," said Thomas Holland, Director of Maintenance for Baker Aircraft.

The Huey's combat role is in fighting fires.

"The fire is currently burning on both Forest Service and State of Oregon property. Which means there's a lot of paperwork to do, lots of follow-through," said pilot Troy Woydziak.

Woydziak's equipment came to Sisters helibase on Tuesday, August 19. The temporary helibase was located on Goodrich Road in the field of farmer John Leason. Leason's field has been designated "Pineridge Ranch Airport" by the State of Oregon's Department of Aviation for decades.

The grassy strip was very useful to Leason when he was flying his own aircraft between his businesses in the valley and his business in Sisters where he currently resides and still carries on with his farming.

A flying contract with the State of Oregon has stipulations such as: each helicopter must have its own fuel supply to support the helicopter for a minimum of eight hours of flight per day.

Driven by a mandated certified fuel truck driver, the fuel truck that Woydziak brought with him carries 1,700 gallons of Jet A fuel. At $5.63 a gallon that's $9,571 per truck load.

The Huey holds 209 gallons of fuel equaling a payout of over $1,000 with each fill-up. With a 90-gallon-per-hour fuel burn and a maximum flying day of eight hours that comes to roughly $4,000 per day in fuel alone for this one aircraft.

There were up to nine helicopters on the field last week, two of which are twin engine machines that burn much more fuel.

That's a major reason why fighting the Summit Springs Complex fires has cost some $4 million.

Another State of Oregon contract stipulation is that a mechanic, certified on the specific aircraft listed in the contract, be available within 12 hours.

Every morning the mechanic inspects the aircraft and signs off on an inspection sheet verifying the aircraft is airworthy that morning. In addition, the pilot does his pre-flight inspection before each take-off.

Each aircraft is also required to have its own "manager" that is provided by the State of Oregon. The manager does paperwork for each aircraft, inspects load calculations done by the pilot (noting elevation, temperatures, the load weight and the safety margins in all of that), weather info and frequencies. The Aircraft Manager is in constant communication with the mobile helibase command center located on the field with the aircraft.

Before a helicopter can take its load of fire-quenching water to the inferno, the pilot must know where to find a place to dip his bucket. The helibase command center instructed pilots to use two ponds in the area.

When asked why two ponds, Woydziak said, "When the air tankers are flying to and from the fire with their load of fire retardant we keep out of their way when refilling our buckets by using a pond outside the flight path to the fire. This keeps our safety at a good place. But when the tankers aren't in the flight path we go to the closer pond."

The bucket Woydziak uses is a 340-gallon Water Hog.

"We put a lot of water on the flanks of that fire to keep it from jumping the lines the ground crews have worked so hard at establishing. The wind made it difficult for ground crews to keep those lines, we've had lots of high winds that were lifting and shooting out spots of fires past those flank lines," said Woydziak.

"While flying I could see the ground crews come in right after my water drop to spread the ground out and expose as much of it as possible to the irrigation. I also saw bulldozers clearing paths enabling the ground crews to get a stronger foothold on this fire. We all work together."

Woydziak first started fighting fires on the ground in 1989, driving engines for BLM and the State of Oregon. Using the money he was making fighting fires he went to flight school, earning his pilot certificate also in 1989.

Between 1992-1995 he managed the LaGrande Airport. Flying in P2-V Neptune and PB4-Y air tankers on fires between 1995-2004 for Hawkins & Powers Aviation led the way for Woydziak to start his own business at the Baker City Airport in 2004. The State of Oregon awarded Woydziak his first flying contract in 2004.

It takes a lot of people to get and keep one helicopter in the air. In this case it's a family affair. There's Woydziak as a relief pilot; his brother, Luke, as the main pilot; dad Greg as the main Certified Fuel Truck Driver; brother, Mike, as the relief Certified Fuel Truck Driver; sister Michele as investor in company aircraft; son Mabry as a lineman at the family aviation business; and wife Genny as business partner in all of it.

"It's just not possible to do this without support from my family, dedicated employees, and numerous other supportive individuals from our community," Woydziak said. "We're all in this together."