Customer insights
One long-term customer is Andre Hutchings, director of operations for Volo Mission, an external load/aerial fire training company. He is also a command pilot for Columbia Helicopters. Columbia Helicopters has been an SEI customer for more than 26 years, Volo Mission has been an SEI customer for 10 years, and Hutchings has been flying various models of Bambi Buckets for more than 24 years, he said.
For him, Bambi Buckets are number one in the industry. “They work as advertised: they are reliable, durable and simple to use from a pilot’s perspective,” Hutchings said. “There are models, sizes, and options for all helicopters, and they’re easy to maintain, care for and repair in the field for your maintenance teams. If looked after and stored correctly, as per the SEI ops and service manuals, they’ll be a crucial tool in your kit for many years.”
SEI Technical Salesperson Ryan Spilchen observed, “Customers comment that they love how tough and dependable the products are.” It is not uncommon for customers to purchase two Bambi Buckets per helicopter to comply with contracts, he said. Some customers have hundreds of buckets to outfit all of their helicopters, he said, adding that the U.S. market seems to have the greatest need now because of the intensity of its fire seasons.
Hutchings recalls a couple of significant fire seasons where the Bambi Bucket was especially useful. “One of the most memorable Bambi Bucket experiences for me was an urban fire on the outskirts of Redding, California, where there were literally fires in the streets (that were) burning homes and other structures. We were using a 2,000-gallon Bambi Bucket and people were out waving at us to drop on their homes. It was surreal. We dropped a lot of water that day and saved a lot of homes and buildings,” he said.
A Bell 205 dumps water in Australia.
Another time in 2021, he was in Turkey fighting a fire in a Columbia Chinook using a 2,600-gallon Bambi Torrentula bucket with a PowerFill option. Carrying 22,000 pounds of water, it’s “literally a swimming pool,” he said. “The Turkish fire managers and fire crews had never seen a bucket with the ability to make multiple drops from one bucket load of water.” They expected three or four drops, depending upon the size of the fire. “So they were apprehensive at first, telling us that they preferred us to drop the entire load and just refill and return. It took some educating and some positive results to show that this capability was an invaluable addition to their firefighting arsenal and from that point on, they were asking for ‘split drops’ by name every time we rolled up on a fire. It had a huge impact on the support we were able to provide the Turkish crews on the ground and Turkish Fire Service, and I don’t think there is another company out there that can provide that type of capability. It’s truly a game changer,” Hutchings said.
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