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.
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.