Helicopter Costs in South Africa
South Africa entered their wildland fire season, known there as veld fires, at the beginning of December. Here is an article that details the use of Mi8 helicopters on a fire (from www.io.co.za).
Helicopters again came to the rescue on Tuesday, putting out a veld fire on the mountain overlooking Simon's Town in Cape Town, despite windy conditions and "awkward" terrain.
Here is the part that really caught my eye.
The helicopters operate at a cost of about R23 000 an hour, and Venter says the location of the fire determines who pays for them.
That converts to USD $3,626.62 per hour! I'm pretty sure that operating a Type I helicopter in the U.S. would cost at least that much per hour, although I don't have a firm number available.
As a side note, the definition of veld is an elevated open grassland in southern Africa.
Comments
It's not uncommon in the USA to pay from $6-10,000 per hour for firefighting contract helos.
Posted by: Brian at December 15, 2005 10:31 AM
Thanks for your post, Brian. I was pretty sure it was more here in the U.S. than what they are paying in South Africa.
Joe
Posted by: Joe at December 15, 2005 12:31 PM
