A crew member leans from the open door of a helicopter, dropping incendiary "ping-pong balls" into the burn zone

Excerpt from “Getting the Job Done Safely”


Rules and safety are key to Hayden Bergen, the helicopter pilot. “Some of the pilots that firefighters don’t want to fly with are ‘cowboys’ who try to show off. You can’t show government firefighters something they haven’t seen before. It’s not like you need to impress them. They’re more impressed with getting the job done safely and efficiently and with getting home at night” . . .

I asked how he trained to fly burns. “A lot of your trainers are the people you work with. The people I work with--Mark and Mike and Terri---are awesome. This is my third year, and these guys are by far the best I’ve seen. Mark and Mike have a lot of fire experience. Mark repelled out of a helicopter for years--100, 200 feet up. Those guys are pretty highly regarded” . . .

“Learning to fly a helicopter is not overly hard,” he said. “But this job at the Sandhills--you really have to know how to fly. A pilot who isn’t comfortable won’t be able to do it. When a pilot learns to fly, he has lessons in safety and emergency landings. For example, he follows flight profiles which protect him if his engine fails. On a prescribed burn, though, I may fly about 30 feet above the pines. If something goes wrong, we’re going into the trees. It’s a calculated risk. You do everything you can, but the risk is there. Everyone on the helicopter knows that” . . .