Thu, Dec 30, 2010
LSA Used For SAR, Ground Support
A fire department located at 8,300 feet above sea level in the
Ecuadorian Andes has acquired a Flight Design LSA as its aerial
support unit. Supported by John Hurst and Jeremy Endsley of Sebring
Aviation, the Basin Fire Department began operations at the
Mariscal La Mar airport.
Equadoran Firefighting CTLS
Hurst and Endsley traveled to Ecuador to train fire department
employees in assembly, maintenance, and flight training of the
CTLS. The group operating the LSA is called the Air Volunteer Fire
Department of Basin. "Using the CTLS in this way, our Fire
Department has an effective tool to help in search functions,
recognition and support of ground operations by providing a better
service to the community of Cuencana," said Fire Department leader
Hugo Cobo.
Cobo said the decision to buy the CTLS was made after studying
different information of other aircraft manufacturers including
experimental, LSA and other general aviation. He determined the
CTLS was the only aircraft that meets the safety operation and
performance requirements for the Fire Department. Besides the low
cost acquisition and operation made the CTLS our choice for search
and ground support operations.
The CTLS is the first and the only aircraft to be used in all
the Fire Department operations including search and ground
operations support. Cobo estimates that the airplane will be flown
about 25 hours per month, considering that there are months in the
wild fire season that the CTLS will have a greater use.
The fire department's pilots received 5 hours of training at
Sebring and approximately 5 hours of training in Cuenca. "We find
this very helpful because the training is not that long and this
time assures a good training for a safe operation," Cobo said. "The
aircraft will certainly improve the Fire Department´s
response capability giving more and better information about
different emergencies we will be dealing with. As the
Cuenca´s Fire Department supports other Fire
Department´s in the region and nationwide the CTLS will be a
helpful tool we can depend upon."
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