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| The Lakeview Helitack and Single Engine AirTanker (SEAT) bases are collocated at the Lake county airport (LKV) in Lakeview Oregon. Situated between the Fremont/Winema National Forest and the Lakeview District BLM, the crews initial attack coverage spans almost 6.2 million acres of federal and state lands. Additional agreements exist between the USFWS and the National Park Service.
The Helitack crew consists of 19 firefighters: one manager, one assistant, two lead crew, three senior firefighters and twelve seasonal crewmembers hired by the USFS, BLM and ODF. The season begins at the end of May with firefighter training and refresher. The helicopter becomes available in the beginning of June for a 100 day exclusive-use contract. Training and physical fitness is top priority. One day a week is set aside for crew training when the entire crew is on duty. This gives the crew a chance to work and train together as a whole. P.T. is conducted every morning. Conditioning hill hikes and running is the norm. With a large crew, we have the ability to send crewmembers on off district assignments and still maintain a strong force for initial attack. In previous years we've had the opprotunity to staff a CWN helicopter for severity purposes. For our excluse-use needs we use the Bell 206L-3 LongRanger on contract from Rogers Helicopters Inc. tail number N712M. The elevation of the Lakeview airport is 4733 ft. It has a 5306 ft asphalt runnway with parking for four SEAT aircraft. Fuel is supplied by a local vender providing both Jet A and 100LL AV gas. The SEAT base stores 5000 gal of Liguid Concentrate (LC) and 10,000 gal of water. The Lakeview area climate is as diverse as it's fuel types. At the peak of the summer, day-time temperatures can reach 100 degrees with fuel moistures dropping well below normal. The coniferous forests contain dense stands of Ponderosa Pine, Lodgepole Pine and White Fir. To the North is the "High Desert" with vast expansions of Sage, Juniper and grasses. In 2004, the crew initial attacked 35 fires, supported 6 large fires, flew almost 400 flight hours and rotated five six person helitack crews to Alaska to staff a Bell 212 HP helicopter throughout the summer. |
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Initail Attack Coverage Area
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Helitack Manager
David Machado Office: 541-947-6183 Base: 541-947-6190 |
Asst. Helitack Manager
Clark Hammond Office: 541-947-6171 |
SEAT Manager
Vicki Baker Office: 541-947-6227 |
Unit Aviation Officer
Shad Sitz Office: 541-947-6187 |
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