Longer fire seasons are intensifying demands for helicopter maintenance, with platforms experiencing greater wear and tear through prolonged use. Vertical Plus spoke with leading operators and industry experts to learn how they are adapting to these challenges.
Britton Coulson is president and chief operating officer at Coulson Aviation, an aerial firefighting specialist with a fleet that includes CH-47 Chinooks, UH-60 Black Hawks, the Sikorsky S-61 and S-76, and the Bell 412.
He stressed the impact of longer and more intense fire seasons on aircraft utilization, as well as the corresponding increase in wear, fatigue exposure, and maintenance demands.
“Firefighting helicopters do not operate in a benign environment. They are routinely exposed to high cycle counts, repetitive heavy-lift profiles, sustained operations in heat, smoke, ash, dust, and austere field conditions,” he said. “That combination accelerates wear across dynamic components, drive systems, rotor blades, filtration systems, engines, and airframes.”
It is not just about the number of hours flown, but the nature of the flying, Coulson explained. Many aircraft are seeing prolonged periods of high-intensity seasonal use, often with less traditional downtime between campaigns.
This means experienced operators cannot manage maintenance through minimum compliance alone, but instead need a real understanding of factors such as mission-driven fatigue and the warning signs of degradation across the fleet.
“Fire seasons are not just getting longer. They are becoming operationally denser, and that changes everything for maintenance.”
Planning, discipline, and depth
The key to striking the right balance between availability and maintenance needs is planning, discipline, and fleet depth, Coulson explained. Where possible, major inspections and heavy maintenance events are scheduled outside peak fire seasons.
“But in aerial firefighting, the reality is that fire seasons are getting longer, overlapping across regions, and becoming less predictable. That reduces the traditional maintenance window and makes advance planning much more important.”
If a major maintenance event cannot be avoided during an active season, the operator must be honest about the consequences and manage around it.
“You either have the fleet depth, spare aircraft, back-shop capability, and parts support to absorb that downtime, or you do not. There is no magic solution. The risk comes when operators try to stretch aircraft availability by running too close to the edge.”
Aerial firefighting demands a much more integrated fleet management strategy than conventional operations, Coulson added. Critical spares are a major part of this.
“If you are operating in remote regions, under seasonal surge conditions, with aircraft exposed to harsh environments, you cannot rely on just-in-time logistics,” he said. “Operators need to hold the right rotable pool, high-failure consumables, critical dynamic components, filtration elements, and field maintenance support equipment. If you do not have those spares positioned ahead of the season, you are already behind.”
However, stockpiling parts alone is not enough, he said. “The stronger strategy is vertical integration: planning, maintenance control, supply chain, engineering, back shops, field support, and reliability analysis all working together. That is where scale matters.”
Extreme weather
Dennis Blumenthal is chief of helicopter maintenance at Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD), which operates a fleet of S-70i Firehawks and Bell 412s. The impact of growing flight hours presents unique challenges, he said.
Blumenthal said he has been tracking LACoFD’s flight times for almost 25 years and has always known which months of the year historically are the most intense: July is usually number one, followed by June, August, September, and October. In recent years, however, that pattern has changed because “fire seasons are definitely getting longer.”
Traditionally, major maintenance events were scheduled during the January to May period, ensuring that at least 80% of the fleet would be available from June through November. However, growing unpredictability is making this more difficult, he said.
For example, Blumenthal said he had planned a range of preventative maintenance events in January 2025, but they were rescheduled following a request from the section’s air operations chief due to an upcoming wind event. Four days later, the Palisades and Eaton fires began, and LACoFD was involved in nine days of firefighting operations in January. “So, he made absolutely the right decision,” Blumenthal noted.
That extreme weather pattern was mirrored at the end of the year by one of the heaviest rainstorms in 20 years, he said. Between Dec. 24 and 27, the department flew almost the equivalent of a full month of fire operations, performing 85 hoist rescues.
“At the start of the year, we’re fighting the worst fires that we had in a long, long time, for nine days. And almost a year later, we’re in another model where we’re doing all of these rescues. So it’s getting more and more difficult for us to predict the best time of the year [for maintenance].”
This naturally impacts maintenance demands. The goal remains to plan scheduled maintenance events as far in advance as possible, while also carrying out day-to-day maintenance as required.
There are a range of steps that can support those efforts, he added. For example, LACoFD maintains a very large inventory of parts for its Bell 412s and Firehawks, with the aim of minimizing the effects of aircraft on ground (AOG) maintenance.
That large supply of parts has become even more important following the COVID pandemic’s impact on global supply chains. The goal is to have duplicates of everything.
“In the rotorcraft world, my standard lead times are 270 days. So having those parts on the shelf is one of the most critical things that I need to do,” Blumenthal said.
Fatigue accumulation
Billings Flying Service (BFS) operates the largest civilian-owned Chinook fleet in the world, with 12 platforms deployed in the U.S. and internationally on firefighting operations.
Peter Yegen, the company’s director of aircraft support, pointed to January 2025 as a clear example of the recent increase in fire activity and season duration, with BFS deploying four aircraft to fight fires in Los Angeles — “an unprecedented level of activity for what has historically been a dormant month.”
From a mechanical standpoint, helicopter firefighting is inherently demanding, Yegen said. A typical mission can involve up to 30 lift cycles or water drops per hour. The aircraft carry about two hours of fuel onboard and can be utilized for as many as four fuel cycles per day.
“While this type of work may not impose the same peak loads as logging operations, the cumulative effect of repetitive heavy-lift cycles drives significant fatigue accumulation across critical components.”
Parts consumption generally scales proportionally with flight hours, but extended seasons compress maintenance timelines and increase demand on already constrained supply chains. That challenge is amplified by the fact that the CH-47 is a legacy military platform with limited commercial support infrastructure.
For BFS, this means sustaining the aircraft largely through its own internal resources. “By investing in component repair capability, supply chain control, and practical engineering solutions, we’re able to support higher utilization rates while maintaining reliability and controlling cost.”
Maintaining availability during fire season is as much a logistical challenge as a maintenance one, Yegen said. “Success depends on how effectively we can position resources, execute maintenance in the field, and keep aircraft mission-ready without unnecessary downtime. At BFS, that means operating as an integrated support and logistics system behind the fleet, not just a maintenance organization.”
The company deploys a deliberate and integrated spares strategy, he said, alongside an FAA Part 145 component MRO operation. From a planning perspective, it aims to forecast demand based on scheduled replacement intervals while building in a buffer for unscheduled maintenance events.
“Our view is that if we can effectively forecast demand, control repair cycles, and maintain access to critical components, we are far better positioned to sustain high utilization rates,” Yegen said.
Unique challenges
Technicians face constant physical hazards, Yegen said, beyond air quality concerns caused by smoke, ash, and dust exposure.
“Uneven terrain, rotor wash, and high-tempo operations increase the risk of slips, trips, and falls both around and on the aircraft,” he said. “In many of the remote, arid locations where we operate, additional environmental risks such as venomous snakes and spiders are a real consideration, often taking shelter in ground support equipment and aircraft components.”
Field maintenance also introduces logistical and operational complexity, he added, including limited infrastructure, time pressure to return aircraft to service, and the need to work with constrained tooling and spares. That requires technicians to be highly adaptable and resourceful.
“To address these challenges, BFS emphasizes a combination of preparation, training, and support. Field teams are equipped with purpose-built kits, high-use spares, and special tooling and consumables that follow the aircraft,” he said. “We also prioritize experienced personnel who can make sound decisions in high-pressure environments, supported by rapid AOG response when additional resources are needed.”
Firefighting maintenance is unlike conventional hangar-based maintenance in almost every respect, Coulson said, pointing to dust and ash contamination, retardant residue, constantly changing operational demands, and the challenge of remote field maintenance, among other issues.
The solution is preparation and structure, he said, including mobile maintenance capability, strong field-service procedures, pre-positioned spares and tooling, and robust maintenance control. He also highlighted the need for reliable supply-chain support and clear escalation paths back to engineering and quality teams.
Technological evolution
Technological advances are becoming increasingly important, but they must be practical and tied to real operational value, Coulson said. He pointed to blade coatings and erosion protection, noting that Coulson Aviation has been “working on aviation-specific coating solutions that we believe will materially help. There is more to come there.”
Those technological efforts must solve the problems operators actually face, he stressed. He pointed to fuel quality, noting that fuel remains one of the few single points of failure in aviation.
Coulson Aviation has developed its SafeFuel program to address the issue, delivering an onboard fuel quality assurance and protection system that continuously monitors fuel during uplift and identifies contamination or degradation before it reaches the aircraft’s critical systems.
He also highlighted the growing role of predictive maintenance. A health and usage monitoring system (HUMS) is one manifestation of this, he said, but the approach is now much broader, with Coulson using predictive maintenance for component trending, fleet reliability analysis, and operational data monitoring.
“Predictive maintenance is not a buzzword. It is the disciplined use of data, trend monitoring, and fleet experience to act before failure occurs.”
Yegen said two of the most impactful technologies for BFS in recent years have been 3D scanning and additive manufacturing. These tools have enabled the company to rapidly develop specialized tooling, create precise assembly rigs, and prototype repair solutions with significantly reduced cost, lead time, and material waste.
“This not only improves efficiency within the MRO and field repair environments but also enhances our ability to solve problems that traditional supply chains struggle to support.”
Francois Lassale, president and CEO of Vertical Aviation International (VAI), highlighted the importance of data in modern maintenance, particularly in challenging operational environments such as firefighting.
He pointed to VAI’s new data program, which includes its flight data monitoring (FDM) initiative developed with Brazos Safety Systems. The program provides operators with insights into both operations and maintenance needs.
“We can collect data to allow operators to benchmark themselves against the rest of the industry, examining everything from maintenance to operations and from workforce to safety.”
That would deliver insights across an entire community of aircraft. For example, an individual Black Hawk operator could gain visibility into trends emerging across a broader group of users.
“I think the most powerful thing the helicopter operator community can do to protect their operation, protect lives, and protect our industry is by helping to share some of their data with us, such as flight data,” he said, stressing that the program will remain operator-owned and function according to operators’ requirements.
Ronnie Ries is vice president of marketing at GPMS International, developer of the Foresight MX predictive HUMS. He said HUMS and predictive maintenance technology are “really opening operators’ eyes to the actual stress their helicopters and crews are experiencing with these extended [fire] seasons, not just how many hours they’ve flown. It gives them clear visibility into negative trends, flags maintenance-induced issues, and shows exactly how the aircraft is being flown through flight data monitoring.”
For example, this can include exceedances or other conditions that quietly accelerate wear and push maintenance due dates forward sooner than expected. “That’s where predictive maintenance starts to feel truly real.”
The future of HUMS is not about adding more sensors, Ries said, but about making the systems operators already have more connected and actionable.
“Right now, a lot of operators still have HUMS data living in one system, maintenance records in another, and operational flight data somewhere else. Bringing all of that together into one seamless workflow will let teams move faster and make more confident decisions.”
Staffing needs
A shortage of qualified aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs) is a serious challenge for the industry. Lassale said the average age of a mechanic today is 56, meaning not enough younger people are entering the sector.
“We need to be smarter as an industry about how we attract young folks into this world and then how we retain them without losing them to the airline world or something else.”
Lassale said VAI is developing a separate Workforce Development Initiative aimed at bringing together OEMs, operators, suppliers, government agencies, and other stakeholders to address the issue through approaches such as sponsorships, scholarships, and donations.
Yegen said BFS sees consistent demand across multiple critical roles, not just AMEs. He said the company is working to develop more talent internally, including placing less experienced mechanics and helpers alongside seasoned crews to build hands-on experience. “This mentorship-based model accelerates development while reinforcing a strong safety and performance culture.”
In addition, BFS is participating in a U.S. Forest Service-supported internship program that brings students from accredited aviation programs in to work alongside operational crews during the summer, allowing them to gain practical experience while earning academic credit.
The answer is not simply to complain about a labor shortage — operators must build the pipeline themselves, Coulson said. For example, Coulson Aviation is developing training programs through its Coulson Aviation Academy.
“To attract more people, the industry also needs to do a better job telling the truth about what makes this work meaningful,” he concluded. “Supporting firefighting aircraft is demanding, but it is also mission-driven work with direct public value. You are not maintaining an aircraft for a timetable. You are supporting life safety, community protection, and national resilience. For the right people, that matters.”