Where Ive been? No? Probably not? ;D 
Well, Ill tell you anyway...
Ive been furthering my next career...
The past 6 days Ive been at our local Rural Fire Service Fire Control and two of those days out at the Airbase where they have been fighting a large fire (it has burnt about 20 thousand hectares) and several smaller ones. On Thursday, our Airbase put out over 200 thousand litres of retardant. Sadly...just missed the record!
My time started last Sunday night and I finished yesterday with Friday off and yes, even amongst all that, I was still going to work and making coffee as I had arranged to do swing shift till midnight so as I could go home and get some sleep before my paid job started. However, I can tell you by Thursday, I was sure wishing I wasnt behind the coffee machine and was somewhere else! That is, the Airbase.
The Airbase role is my aim to reach in this organisation and I was keen to see how it all went and operated. My superiors were happy to send me out there as long as I wasnt going to get too upset. Id have been more upset if they hadnt let me go! I have my eyes set on the Airbase Manager role and so was allowed to hang around the two men who were doing that job. After seeing what they did and didnt do, I reckon with the training its a job I could do standing on my head. And thatd be a sight to see I can tell you!
So, I was pretty happy to be around the aircraft, as per usual. I knew quite a few of the fixed wing pilots and those I didnt know, I soon became friendly with as we had either some other pilot we knew in common or just some other common ground with aviation experience. It was pretty telling when one of the fixed wing pilots told me to make sure I identified myself to him over the radio whenever I was working and he was flying. It really brought home to me just how much these guys do like to relate to someone they know on the ground. Ultimately, the job of ABM is to keep these guys working and happy. Theres nothing worse than a grumpy pilot.
It was Thursday that saw me standing at the coffee machine, being glared at for no known reason by a customer at the other end of the shop, realising that I needed to get myself back in to aviation some how. Becoming an Airbase Manager could be the way for me.
So, its been a long week and it was made slightly easier by my son being in Sydney with his grandparents so I didnt have to worry too much about him being home alone so much! I really wasnt getting home much before 1am most days this past week.
Well, the fires are all within containment lines now and are being monitored. Of course, there is a lot more in this district that might burn, the combination of extremely dry conditions, heavy fuel loads on the ground and storms that have a lot of grounded lightning strikes can only produce more fires in the remote areas. I seriously doubt that this is the last big fire for the summer but I sure hope that my thoughts are wrong in this regard!
Its a strange thing that the new friends that Ive made, I may only see again when amongst disaster such as this. Thats kind of an odd thing and it actually made me stop and think when saying good bye and hoping to see these people again, as you know it will mostly likely be when were brought together to fight fires.
Having said that, I sincerely hope, as an RFS Bush Fire Fighter, that any and all of you who are in known and even unknown bushfire regions that you have done your own personal bushfire evac plans, have done your own hazard reduction and have also done your own hazard identification. Whilst all this might sound like scaremongering, I can assure you that its asked purely from a position of "Ive seen it and dont wish it on anyone" and any precautions you can take will ultimately save your life in the long run if a bush fire is heading your way.
Meanwhile, for all the aviation freaks amongst us...



And one for truck freaks...

There are more images on my flickr page...
www.flickr.com/photos/duchessandtheduke

Well, Ill tell you anyway...
Ive been furthering my next career...
The past 6 days Ive been at our local Rural Fire Service Fire Control and two of those days out at the Airbase where they have been fighting a large fire (it has burnt about 20 thousand hectares) and several smaller ones. On Thursday, our Airbase put out over 200 thousand litres of retardant. Sadly...just missed the record!
My time started last Sunday night and I finished yesterday with Friday off and yes, even amongst all that, I was still going to work and making coffee as I had arranged to do swing shift till midnight so as I could go home and get some sleep before my paid job started. However, I can tell you by Thursday, I was sure wishing I wasnt behind the coffee machine and was somewhere else! That is, the Airbase.
The Airbase role is my aim to reach in this organisation and I was keen to see how it all went and operated. My superiors were happy to send me out there as long as I wasnt going to get too upset. Id have been more upset if they hadnt let me go! I have my eyes set on the Airbase Manager role and so was allowed to hang around the two men who were doing that job. After seeing what they did and didnt do, I reckon with the training its a job I could do standing on my head. And thatd be a sight to see I can tell you!
So, I was pretty happy to be around the aircraft, as per usual. I knew quite a few of the fixed wing pilots and those I didnt know, I soon became friendly with as we had either some other pilot we knew in common or just some other common ground with aviation experience. It was pretty telling when one of the fixed wing pilots told me to make sure I identified myself to him over the radio whenever I was working and he was flying. It really brought home to me just how much these guys do like to relate to someone they know on the ground. Ultimately, the job of ABM is to keep these guys working and happy. Theres nothing worse than a grumpy pilot.
It was Thursday that saw me standing at the coffee machine, being glared at for no known reason by a customer at the other end of the shop, realising that I needed to get myself back in to aviation some how. Becoming an Airbase Manager could be the way for me.
So, its been a long week and it was made slightly easier by my son being in Sydney with his grandparents so I didnt have to worry too much about him being home alone so much! I really wasnt getting home much before 1am most days this past week.
Well, the fires are all within containment lines now and are being monitored. Of course, there is a lot more in this district that might burn, the combination of extremely dry conditions, heavy fuel loads on the ground and storms that have a lot of grounded lightning strikes can only produce more fires in the remote areas. I seriously doubt that this is the last big fire for the summer but I sure hope that my thoughts are wrong in this regard!
Its a strange thing that the new friends that Ive made, I may only see again when amongst disaster such as this. Thats kind of an odd thing and it actually made me stop and think when saying good bye and hoping to see these people again, as you know it will mostly likely be when were brought together to fight fires.
Having said that, I sincerely hope, as an RFS Bush Fire Fighter, that any and all of you who are in known and even unknown bushfire regions that you have done your own personal bushfire evac plans, have done your own hazard reduction and have also done your own hazard identification. Whilst all this might sound like scaremongering, I can assure you that its asked purely from a position of "Ive seen it and dont wish it on anyone" and any precautions you can take will ultimately save your life in the long run if a bush fire is heading your way.
Meanwhile, for all the aviation freaks amongst us...



And one for truck freaks...

There are more images on my flickr page...
www.flickr.com/photos/duchessandtheduke


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