Behind the Scenes of a helicopter

Ever wonder about what goes into a helicopter?
All the operations behind the scenes? Here’s a sneak peak at our Anchorage facility and what all goes into allowing the helicopter to operate!

Air Operation Center

We’ll start off with the Dispatch center (We call it the Air Operations Center, or shortly AOC OR 121.5FM The Guard since we’re always playing music in the office). The Dispatch Center is a 24 hour 7 days a week 365 days a year operation. We have a total of 6 personnel running the dispatch center. All are qualified Dispatchers or hold some type of pilot certification. 3 are full time workers, while 3 are part time. Our full timers work 4 days a week Monday - Thursday while our part timers work from Friday - Sunday.
The dispatchers are the master of knowing information, everything from departure of aircraft to determining when and where weather is located at. Not only are they good for weather, when our helicopters (God forbid) crash or go missing, the dispatchers began to make those 9-11 calls and try to locate them.

Maintenance
The guys who are here late at night making sure the ships fly! Here are a few pictures I just took of our ships in either Maintenance Status or training Status here at our base.
Our crews work around the clock to keep our ships flying. When a ship isn’t flying we aren’t making money. Our Maintenance crews are FAA Certificated A&Ps with special training to work on our helicopters.


Our former Japanese Coast Guard ship going through some MX repair.

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We blew up some floats, pretty radical right? These are on the side of the ship so if it goes into the water it deploys and keeps the helicopter upright!


Our latest fireship getting tanks installed being prepared for the fire season this upcoming season!


The Bell 412 (BigGirl) getting ready to head out of the United States so we’re demobilizing it! She still wears her original Erickson colours.

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Your posts are pushing me slowly to a career that is aviation related. Love seeing these “Behind the scenes” photos you post on the forums, keep it up!

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It’s a fun career! Make sure you don’t ever want money ;) lol I love my job and career! I couldn’t imagine any other industry!

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Uhh, I am no map expert, put that map in pic 1 looks…

Odd…🧐

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Sorry you lost me, explain?

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Is the screens with maps a collage of sorts? It don’t look right🧐

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GOTCHA! No they’re up there for random and kinda cool picture of locations we operate at!

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Ok, figured it was somthing like that, now sitting at a desk is somthing I can relate to so I suppose I can’t say what I always say…😂

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Still looks really cool, keep up the amazing posts!

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That’s really cool. Thanks for the info!

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Taking the big dogs for a test run up the valley yet? Those mountain shots are gorgeous

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A couple have been flying over some local glaciers to get some hours in!

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@anon93248082 what is your favorite bird you have

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Our 412, N397AL. Best helicopter I have ever flown!

i just searched a picture of one.
beautiful chopper-
i dont know a whole lot about helicopters except for the fact that the s-76 in x-plane 11 is a pain to fly

but certainly is a cool chopper

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Really great! I really want to get into the industry after I graduate. Flight games and their communities have really pushed me to do so. You should keep posting stuff like this. It’s really interesting!

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It’s a great industry!!

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