One of the two infrared line-scanning, fire-mapping fixed wing aircraft operated by the U.S. Forest Service has been out of action for the last seven days. Forest Service spokesperson Mike Ferris said this was due to expected maintenance, an “intricate Phase inspection” required on the Super King Air 200, N149Z. The work is being done by three USFS mechanics at Ogden, Utah. Mr. Ferris expects the aircraft to be back in service for mapping fires tonight, August 10.
During the last seven days the workload increased for the other infrared aircraft, the N144Z Cessna Citation. During some missions their pilots maxed out their duty day and mapping requests from fires were UTF’ed, Unable to be Filled.
In September of 2014 N149Z was down for an extended period of time for a serious problem with an engine mount.
AHHHH
The joys of heavy MX on a AH1……got a good bench stock?
It also doesn’t help that both the cobras went into heavy maintenance at about the same time.
Last summer also, both Firewatch Cobras were down at the same time for heavy maintenance. https://fireaviation.com/2014/08/09/firewatch-cobras-at-redding/