Captain Wang Yongqian piloted *** to take off.
Check the condition of the aircraft before take-off.
At 8 o'clock in the morning, the early morning sun shone through the mist on the tarmac of Taiyuan Yaocheng Airport. With the high-speed rotation of the propeller, the engine roared, and a *** took off into the air. This is a daily forest fire danger air patrol, and the reporter was allowed to board the plane and experience it with him.
Air "Sentinel".
On January 31, the reporter followed the staff of Shanxi Aviation Industry Group to the Shanxi Provincial Aviation Ranger Station of Taiyuan Yaocheng Airport. Open the hangar, there are several *** of different models parked inside
What I was going to take that day was a Bell-412*** with a fuselage length of 1709 meters, the length of the main rotor is 1402 meters, the height of the fuselage is 457 meters. It is reported that it is the main model of the current air patrol in our province, and the bucket under the fuselage can carry 2 tons of fire extinguishing water. Next to it, there are two types of aircraft, Mi-171 and H125, which can carry 3 tons and 1 ton of water respectively. They are all "sentinels" in the air for patrolling forest areas.
The maintenance staff will slowly push the *** to the tarmac, do pre-flight inspection, and fill with aviation fuel. Taking advantage of the opportunity, the reporter met the captain Wang Yongqian. He is a national special test pilot, with a cumulative time of 7,800 hours of piloting, and he has rich experience. He told reporters that Shanxi's forest area is extensive, and the plane is equipped with auxiliary fuel tanks, which can fly 600 kilometers in one trip with full fuel. Compared with civil airliners, the speed of ** is not fast, the fastest is 200 kilometers per hour, and it can't even catch up with high-speed rail. However, it also has obvious advantages, such as the ability to hover or pan left and right in the air, and the ability to rotate 360 degrees in the air.
When you are ready, please take off. "You can take off. "After 20 minutes, the tower gave a release order, ** flew away from the airport, kept it at an altitude of 300 meters, and headed northwest, with 2 captains and 1 observer on board. According to the staff of Shanxi Aviation Industry Group, as an important ecological barrier in Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei and Henan, our province continues to promote the construction of aviation forest protection and aviation fire emergency rescue forces. The Provincial Emergency Management Department has cooperated with Shanxi Sanjin General Aviation Co., Ltd. to build an aviation forest ranger station with Taiyuan Yaocheng Airport as the main garrison base to carry out aviation patrol and emergency rescue throughout the province.
Almost every day, there will be *** from Taiyuan Yaocheng Airport, hovering over the forest area in the province to search for fire hazards.
Wide field of view. Anyone who has ever taken a civil airliner has the impression that the moment the plane takes off, passengers will have a brief sense of weightlessness. The reporter noticed that ** did not feel this way because it was vertically off the ground and not fast.
After liftoff, the field of vision instantly widens. Looking through the window, the tall buildings and vehicles on the ground are getting smaller and smaller. However, there are propellers overhead, which is relatively noisy, and the people on board must communicate through the radio of the headset. Captain Wang Yongqian said that there has been smog recently, and the ground looks foggy and not clear enough. If it is summer, the clear water along the way is like a mirror, and the mountains and forests are reckless, which is enough to show that the ecological environment of Shanxi is very beautiful.
**You must not fly at will, you must follow the route you have pre-requested. At present, starting from Taiyuan Yaocheng Airport, there are 7 forest patrol routes such as Luliang Black Tea Mountain, Taiyuan West Mountain, Yangquan and Changzhi. After about 20 minutes, the roads such as the Universiade Expressway, the West Ring Expressway, and the Binhe West Road were clearly visible, and then they reached the sky above the Xishan Mountain Range. At this time, the observer sitting in the back row began to "look left and right", and made a real-time observation of the situation outside the cabin, either visually or through the use of telescopes.
According to the observer, once a smoke or fire point is found, it should be reported to the relevant departments in time to deal with it, and a fire line map should be drawn quickly. Subsequently, according to the unified arrangement, ** will cooperate with ground firefighters to implement aerial fire fighting and rescue. After more than 1 hour of patrolling, no abnormalities were found and the flight was successfully returned. On the way back, he encountered a "small episode", and the turbulence of the air made the reporter feel his stomach churning and sweat on his head. The observer handed over a plastic bag and said with a smile: "There are 'guests' on the plane today, which is quite stable, otherwise I can't stand it." ”
Sprinkling water against the wind. Through the headset microphone, the reporter asked a question: "In case of a fire, go to ** get water?" ”
To extinguish a fire in a forest like this, you first need to find a source of water. Because you can't just find a faucet to connect to water, you must have a suitable lake and reservoir. When you arrive at the fire scene, it is not realistic to find a water source now, and it is likely to delay the best time to extinguish the fire. According to the co-captain, the Provincial Emergency Management Department has counted the take-off and landing points and water intake points in the province after thorough verification, and solved the problem. Of course, during their daily inspections, in addition to closely observing the forest fire risk, the crew will also inspect new water intake points along the way.
Under the plane, a bucket can be hung, which is the water intake device. For example, when it reaches the top of the reservoir, the plane lowers its altitude and hovers at a height of about seven or eight meters above the water. Lowering the rope, the bucket sinks into the water, takes less than 1 minute, and when it rises again, it is full.
Then, bring the water source above the point, reduce the height to 50 to 100 meters, press the switch, and all the water in the bucket can be spilled in an instant. The co-pilot said that 2 tons of water is equivalent to the amount of water of a medium-sized water tank fire truck. The fire is not big, a few trips back and forth are enough.
In winter, "water bombs" are thrown. This is because when the bucket is filled with water, it is easy to freeze during flight and cannot be opened. A "water bomb", on the other hand, is a water bladder with a detonation device, which can prevent this situation.
The whole process seems simple, but it is not easy. Captain Wang Yongqian told reporters that if you want to accurately cover the fire source, you must judge the orientation and altitude in advance, and you must also consider the inertia factor.
Make a difference. In the past few years, in the fight against forest fires, ** has repeatedly shown his skills.
In the early morning of June 18, 2022, a fire broke out in the Jinggou Forest Area of Jiaoloushen Township, Xingxian County, Heichashan Nature Reserve, with steep slopes and dense vegetation. At the same time, due to the restrictions of road conditions, ground firefighters cannot carry out fire extinguishing operations at close range, and aviation emergency rescue is urgently needed for air cooperation. Shanxi Sanjin General Aviation Co., Ltd. received the dispatch instruction from the Provincial Emergency Management Department, and immediately dispatched a Bell-407 type to the fire point with an external bucket to carry out the fire reconnaissance mission. Fire extinguishing operations are carried out in a timely manner according to environmental conditions. In the early morning of the 19th, according to the development trend of the fire and after consultation with the Provincial Emergency Management Department, Sanjin General Aviation immediately adjusted the emergency rescue plan and decided to dispatch 2 external buckets from Taiyuan City and Jincheng City to join the rescue. It was summer, the temperature was hot at noon, and the fire site was located in a mountainous area, which had a great impact on the flight. The emergency rescue crew members were not afraid of the high temperature and smoke, and extinguished the fire in a tense and orderly manner. However, the wind direction at the scene was changeable, which caused the fire point to continue to shift. Each time a fire is controlled, a new one will appear. In response to this situation, 3 cranes carried out bucket water intake and precise sprinkling operations in an orderly manner, and worked closely with the ground fire extinguishing team to continuously compress the scope of the fire and effectively control the development of the fire.
After continuous fighting, 3 aircraft operated for a total of 38 hours, 34 sorties, sprinkled 119 barrels of water, and with the efforts of all personnel, the fire was basically extinguished on June 21.
According to statistics, since the end of 2021, Sanjin General Aviation has cooperated with the Provincial Emergency Management Department, with a total of 798 hours and 37 minutes, 921 sorties, and 236 sprinklings08 tons, giving full play to the advantages of flexibility, speed and efficiency in fire extinguishing operations.
Reporter Li Tao.
Photo by correspondent Xian Bowen Taiyuan Evening News.