8 Field Transport Operations

On the whole helicopter operations ran smoothly once schedules had been worked out. Our main camp moves and some of the drill site moves were done with the 3 Squadron UH-1H and went very smoothly and efficiently. There was a one day delay, due to weather, for our pull-out of the field.

The set-up in the BH 212, with the rear facing seats and the permanently fitted auxiliary fuel tank, limited its effectiveness when it came to moving cargo as an internal load. The other problem with the rear facing seats was that it was difficult to give the pilot directions when trying to locate a landing site for close support work. The lack of any ground to air communication with the BH 212 made it difficult to work with when the helicopter was approaching our camp or drill site and when moving drill gear from site to site.

For a moderate sized event such as this one, it was extremely useful and efficient to have a spread-sheet with all the helicopter loads for the put-in (Table 1). This information was also made it much easier to figure out loads for the pull-out. A copy of Table 1 was given to Rex Hendry.