operates on a daytime schedule, five days a week, with on-demand overtime available if needed to support operations.
Maintaining Readiness Maintenance personnel are at the Air Operations hangar first thing in the morning, at 6:00 each day. Tey begin with a planning meeting to coordinate maintenance priorities
During any mission, an issue can arise with a specific
piece of mission equipment, or the aircraft itself, that limits or prevents its ability to continue. Typically, that aircraft is replaced by a spare aircraft. However, during a long fire operation in which all assets—aircraft and staff—are stretched to their limits, fixing a specific squawk or issue as quickly as possible is essential and, at the same time, very difficult.
Te dedication of the Air Operations
maintenance section cannot be over- stated. I have personally experienced coming off a fire and calling in to the base to alert them of a squawk. As I landed, I was greeted by one or two of our maintenance techs running to the aircraft, parts in hand, ready to complete a fix and get the aircraft back up and running as soon as possible. Tis kind of dedication and teamwork is what makes LACFD Air Operations a special place to be and an incredibly fulfilling place to work.
Maintaining Awareness While the maintenance crew is con- ducting the daily maintenance inspections on the aircraft, the aircrews conduct a lineup meeting. Led by the assigned air captain, this meeting is an opportunity for the aircrews to discuss any pertinent department business, conduct continuing education, brief any temporary flight
This emergency rescue of a person who fell from a cliff
onto the rocky Pacific shoreline is a prime example of some of the challenges LACFD Air
Operations faces:
rugged conditions for aircrews and ground crews alike. (Mike Leland Photo)
and individual assignments, followed by daily maintenance inspections of the three aircraft on call that day. Once the inspections are completed, the aircraft are released to the assigned aircrews for preflight and mission preparation. However, completing the daily inspections is only one
tiny part of the work the maintenance section is responsible for. LACFD Air Operations performs the vast majority of its helicopter maintenance in-house. On any given day, you’ll find one or two aircraft in various states of teardown, undergoing an annual or five-year inspection. Other com- mon sights are maintenance technicians rebuilding a turbine engine in the engine shop or sanding down and repainting rotor blades in the paint shop. Every LACFD maintenance technician attends multiple
schools, resulting in a maintenance team with a wide range of capabilities. Tis gives the maintenance chief the ability to rapidly transition people from one job to another, which is essential in a multimission operation that requires 24/7/365 readiness.
30 ROTOR SEPTEMBER 2023
restrictions in the area, and coordinate any follow-on support missions or aircraft training requirements. Tis is also when aircrews discuss at the unit level any prior com- pleted missions and pass on any lessons learned. Ensuring that all Air Operations team members have
the same level of mission readiness, including procedural, situational, and risk awareness, is a high priority. Achieving a consistent flow of information in a shift-based organization is an ongoing challenge. To ensure coverage across the entire Air Operations
team, every piece of knowledge and all training must be duplicated and disseminated for each of the three shifts. If someone has taken a day off and missed a shift where training took place, follow-up training must be coordinated. Lessons learned that are passed on during one day’s lineup meeting must be communicated to all personnel who were not present. Learning to operate effectively and consistently in a constantly changing environment is difficult and can require
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