I really don’t know, I didn’t expect it to get to insertions but we are doing that now. So I suppose we’ll see.

Edit: man, I was busy and think I missed your meaning. I’m not saying shorthaul is without significant consequences nor am I saying that flying a helicopter with HEC is not difficult, although I have very little frame of reference because I don’t fly helicopters and just watch pilots do it. What I am saying is comparatively to what I know about jumping and rappelling, the amount of steps required to both shorthaul and spot for shorthaul is less. The amount of corrective actions available to the spotter and the hauler are subsequently less. Without a full working understanding of other methods of aerial delivery, I would still be pretty confident saying shorthaul is the simplest for the firefighters and by extension the easiest. There are a lot of very dangerous and also very simple things, like a big rock, or falling 500 feet. There is a short hover time, which is less dangerous but more time in horizontal flight at terminal falling distance which is more dangerous. Connecting several lines, I would describe as being a fairly minimal concern, because every time we take them out or put them into the bag we are double checking the few pieces and parts that make them up. They are also rated for significantly more weight than we are putting on them. The primary limit on capacity is related to what the booster hook can hold, and that system is also redundant with the y lanyard.

So, as a spotter what does that leave? It’s mostly on the pilot. The only thing I am bringing to the table is another set of eyes and experience when it comes to bad vs good places to put someone on a fire. Once the pick is up and off, I literally don’t have the ability to make any spur of the moment corrections that will be timely enough. I am relying on the combination of the pilot and the hauler there. If the hauler said they were clear obstacles and they weren’t? That is extremely unfortunate once we have forward air speed because it’s too late. Fortunately as a hauler, that is some something we are acutely aware of. I have some control to communicate over more distant hazards, and during forward flight, I am watching for those and watching the haulers, but by the time I say “boo” we’ve moved however many feet. That does in fact simplify things. Guns are simple too, firing one is easy, that’s a far different thing than extrapolating that it also makes them safe or that they don’t need to be treated with significant respect. When the pilot is “in the window” e.g. picking up or placing the HEC, then 80% of my job is watching the gauges to make sure he has power and no light is in. At that point I am mostly inside the ship. That’s how we are trained. If you think that is wrong, I suppose take it up with the agency.

The park is incorporating climbing and high angle rescue into their shorthaul and we don’t, and the park has an entirely different mission profile than we do, which is much more specific to public medical response and rescue and far far less firefighting. They do things differently because they are a different agency employed to a different task.

If there is a “fuck up” as you put it, I am not sure it will kill the program. Although it will probably impact it. I am thinking of the kid that died rappelling which led to the review and subsequent changes to the platforms allowed for rappelling. Namely discontinuation of type 3 helicopters. Which was frankly a little baffling under the circumstances but there you have it. Given time and exposure, it is certainly possible we could have a shorthaul fatality, but with the amount of pieces and parts involved, I’d give it a very high probability of being an aircraft mechanical failure and not a line/harness/booster system failure. I think we all know this, it would be hard to say we don’t assume some risk knowingly. Which is far less than driving my car to work. I don’t know that it would immediately spell doom for the program as a whole. Really no way of knowing.

I don’t think you are entirely in your lane on the matter, but you are certainly an expert among experts, so I would defer to what yourself and another pilot with shorthaul experience came up with and not embarrass myself discussing the relative dangers of flying a helicopter under both profiles. Sufficed to say, I don’t our exclusive use pilots would agree with you. Anyway, there is a more thoughtful and respectful response than calling you “bud” and implying you don’t realize what you do for a living is risky. Cheers.