On May 5 and 6, a New York Army National Guard CH-47 Chinook and approximately 30 crewmembers, including 12 pilots, conducted bucket training on Lake Ontario at Hamlin Beach State Park. The helicopter crews, based at Rochester’s Patriot Way Flight Facility, used specially designed aircraft buckets to scoop up water from the lake and practice dropping the water on designated sites. According to Captain Jessica Persoon, “The purpose of these annual drills are for the aircrews to practice the techniques that would be used to extinguish wildfires in NYS. These crews would be called upon to back up the fire districts in the event there was wildfires, especially the Adirondack region.”
The Chinook crews are from Detachment 1, Company B, 3rd Battalion, 126th Aviation. They operate the CH-47F, the Army’s largest helicopter. It can lift more than 30 soldiers and carry 28,000 pounds of cargo. The buckets used for the Chinook helicopter are capable of delivering 2,000 gallons of water, weighing about eight tons when full. During the training, water was scooped parallel to the shoreline from deep water 500 to 1,000 feet from the shore to avoid any contact with the lake bottom.
The annual pre-summer training is necessary because helicopter pilots need to practice flying with the additional weight of the full water bucket hanging under their aircraft in order to fly safely in an emergency.
At the end of May there will be a Black Hawk helicopter performing medi-vac training also at Hamlin Beach. Look for more information in Westside News or www.westsidenewsny.com.
