Pictures from Missoula Helitack, MT DNRC

2008 Fire Season

Above:  The University of Montana, seen from the air, looking north at Mount Jumbo and the Rattlesnake.

    For the 2008 fire season I decided to stay close to Missoula, and accepted a position with the DNRC's SWLO helitack crew based in Missoula.  I had been offered several other positions with federal crews in Montana, Alaska, and California, but with a return to school looming Missoula seemed like a good choice.  They also gave me a shot at getting signed off as Helicopter Manager, which I'd been trying to get for the past year or so, making the deal that much sweeter.

    The season got off to a slow start, as there had been a lot of snowfall over the winter, and it was slow in melting.  Temperatures in Missoula were back to "normal," meaning highs in the low 90s rather than low 100s, as they were last year.  Also contributing to the slow season was a mellow weather pattern with very little in the way of thunderstorms that produced lightning and fires.  Every time we had a thunderstorm it was followed by rain.  Lots of rain.  We had several storms blow through the Missoula valley and leave over an inch of rain in their wake.  Oh well.

    We did have some prolonged periods of hot and dry, and during those times we had enough human caused fires to keep us busy.  In fact, we had so many urban-interface fires within about 5 minutes flight time of Missoula that I almost had shirts made with "suburban helitack" printed on them.  In addition to being the manager for 87Mike, our ship, I also went out with the DNRC's two statewide ships, once to Helena and once to Plains.  While in Helena (with Junior as my crewmember) we IA'd a few fires, one south of Butte, and another northwest of White Sulpher Springs.  Both were pretty fun, as I'd never really fought fire in central Montana before.

    In the end, I had a great season, seeing and doing things that I never would have done on a federal crew.  The DNRC has different policies and regulations than do the federal fire agencies, and has different expectations of their employees as well.  A perfect example is that the DNRC expects crewmembers to get very hands-on with the aircraft - washing it, fueling it, and helping the pilot with anything he asks.  This is something that the fed crews I've worked on really didn't do.  The fed approach - which is very justified considering that they don't own their aircraft - is more like "This is a helicopter.  It's expensive.  Don't touch it unless you have to."

    But most importantly to me was that after a few weeks of putting me through the paces as a manager trainee, they saw that I could do the job well and turned me loose to do it.  I only rode in the back of the helicopter as a crewmember once this year for a fire call.  The rest of the time I rode front seat as manager.  My boss trusted me enough to leave me in charge, feeling confident enough in my abilities that he stayed at the base for most of the missions we flew, leaving me with the privileged ability to make decisions on my own.  This was something that I had rarely seen supervisors do in the federal agencies, and it meant a lot to me.  I gained a lot of experience, both practical and memorable, and enjoyed every minute of it.

Above:  SWLO Helitack logo that I designed.

Photos of the events of summer...

87Mike at Blue Mountain for Missoula Unit training	87Mike dropping water at Blue Mountain	Me and 12Bravo, our spotter plane	Dan Grimm giving the "thumbs up" after the Blue Mountain training
The Pump House fire as it looked when we arrived	98Mike and the Pump House fire	94Mike inbound for the dipsite, Pump House fire	The Moustache himself (Mr. Nanke), taking a picture of 98Mike on the Pump House fire
Jason "Abooo" and 87Mike at the Pump House dipsite, Big Hole river	98Mike at the dipsite	Ryan AKA "Junior" after we hooked up the bucket on the fire	Bailey, Ryan, and 94Mike
94Mike with the pump house stack and fire in the background	Tanker 21 dropping on the Pump House fire	Beautiful Butte America, with the Pump Station fire in the background	Me and 87Mike at a helispot in the Pintlers
87Mike and crew, loading up engine folks for a ride to a fire in the Pintlers	Steve, Ben, and Junior waiting at the Pintler helispot	View from the manager's seat in 94Mike, Plains, MT	94Mike at Plains, MT
Door to the Plains helitack shack, with stickers from crew that have been there before	Pilot Al inside the Plains shack, keeping his mind sharp with a mystery novel	87Mike and 94Mike outrunning a storm to the Missoula airport	Missoula Unit crewmember Lindsey, catching a ride on 87Mike
Our helibase fox, running across the pads at the SWLO helibase	Junior and one of the South Africans who visited at the end of the season	Missoula and Hellgate Canyon viewed from 87Mike	The "M" and the Mt. Sentinel
87Mike banking into Missoula, looking up Grant Creek	Tal "throwing" a bucket of water into a tree, demonstrating for the South Africans	The helibase, after its "renovation"

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"I don't make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts."  - Will Rogers