Bankstown - That's January

[Grahame Hutchison]

For the technically inclined, here are the instrument panel shots from N178AC "Clancy". A little difficult to shoot because there is so much window area and light and dark contrasts.

Pilot's side instruments.



Pilot's collective control with plenty of functionality, the top red button is for the siren
located outside, just behind the cockpit and pointing dowands.



Centre panel instruments (and pilot side).



Centre pedestal instruments between the front seats.



Left seat instrument panel. The radio altimeter was located directly above the system test panel on top of the dash. It was a vertical
set of lights in different colours, the green section being the optimal height for the fixed pipe salt water refill (done at 30kts)



The overhead instrument panel directly above the centre pedestal.

[Nigel C]

Grahame, try using a circular polarizer filter, you can get these type of shots without the reflection off the glass.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Thanks Nigel, only had the camera with me this time, no extras, but I will give that a go. The Sky-Crane has so much window area, including the floor area and the big side bubble windows. They also had reflective shields in the main front windows for sun protection.

[Jethro H]

Great shots thanks! Good to see the detail of the cockpit. One could imagine the sweat the crew would have since most fires are in +30 degree heat outside in the first place... or 46 in SA this week.

The info I received from my air-support person at the RFS is there are five Aircranes/Skycranes deployed in Australia this season. For the period of Australian operations, three aircraft have been temporarily renamed with Australian themed names.

- "Elvis" (N179AC)
- "Elsie" (N218AC) - temp name is "Bluey" (Australian for 'red head')
- "Malcolm" (N217AC)
- "Isabella" (N178AC); temp name is "Clancy" (Clancy of the Overflow)
- ""Christine" (N173AC) temp name is "Flynn" (John Flynn of the RFDS)
- "Delilah" (N194AC);

Elvis and Bluey original allocated to Victoria
Malcolm and Clancy originally allocated to NSW
Flynn allocated to SA
Delilah is a 'spare'.

Apparently they have signed for a 3 year summer contract.

[Grahame Hutchison]

Clancy's pilot told me that his aircraft was a national asset and could be deployed anywhere.

[Jethro H]

I believe they can be all assigned anywhere, but for contractual reasons they allocated them to certain states.

[Jethro H]

I see that BK117 VH-FHF features in "All Saints" on Channel 7 as well.