The Helicopter Operation

[Humptulips]

This particular sale was purchased by a mill. They have said that the wood in that area is exactly the right size and quality for their operations. I expect they'll make up a little bit on the skidder operations.

Funny thing, I was talking to a friend today at work that is pretty good at marketing wood about this thread. He said the only way this would work if it was a mill buying the wood. Guess he knows what he's talking about.

Footnote: Yea, I'm back limping aroud trying to cut a few trees down and whittle a few limbs off. Foot is killing me.

 

[hammerlogging]

Hump, Hope the recovery continues, one day at a time. I know some wild cutters with enough junk in them to make you superman, I could ask if they'd share, but I personally think that may prolong the recovery from overuse.

Mr. Ellison, yes, i think thats exactly why they are igonoring the lion situation. But, I think its a reflection of the people in part, a limited public participation/outcry. Yes, it could make harvest plans more complicated, but, logging isn't the only thing to life (am i jinxing myself with this? I hate the stories of all the mill closures, unemployment, etc from the spotted owl) I'm glad that they're out there though, protected or not.

 

[slowp]

Yes, high and lots of maintenance. They were broke down yesterday, but it was foggy too, and had to run to Canada for a part. Got quite a spiel from the mechanic. There are very few original parts in their Huey. It started originally as an army trainer in 1962. They have a longer tail on it, and a rotor from a 212, the engine is from something else. He said it is a hot rod helicopter. But he also said the metal was starting to wear out. They also want to put emergency landing spots around the units. That worries me.

Now, on this sale, there is also skidder logging, and yarder logging. Those units go at the same price as the helicopter. So they might keep it economical, but I still don't like helicopter sales. The latest one sold, and to a logger. I'm hoping he can pull it off because he (and his crew) are the best I've worked with. You tell him something, and he's taking care of it...yesterday the botanist was out and showed us where some pretty bad noxious weeds were. I saw the logger talking to his just arrived on the sale log truck driver and pointing the patches out.

I've invited the planners out, but only one taker so far. He's worried about the plans for more helicopter sales in smaller timber that are now in the works.
I hope he can sway them a bit. But I'm very pessimistic.

 

[slowp]

More things I learned this week...I've never worked much with helicopters and never on the West Side of the mountains. (for non PNWers, the West Side of the Cascade Mtns. to the ocean,is the GOOD tree growing area) Since a helicopter is bringing in a large volume of timber to one landing, it has to be large to accomodate not only the decking area, but also the ever growing slash pile. The landing crew has to have room to move or run in. The yarder landing that originally was declared almost the right size, has had to grow more for this.

I looked at the rope chokers. Just a thick inch and a half hunk of nylonish rope with a loop in each end. They are a pain in wet freezing weather. The shovel operator said they put them in a heated trailer to dry in the winter, but the ones that are already set and left in the unit overnight will be frozen and hard to undo the next morning. That might start happening in our lovely month of November.

 

[Humptulips]

Block cutters use the nylon rope when flying. Usually 7/8 but the eyes wear out fast. It cuts and will actually burn the line when the sling tightens up. It dioesn't seem like it would be a problem after they flew. Seems like the act of flying would free it up. I cut a few blocks in the 70s and that 7/8th sling rope would handle a 1/4 to a 1/2 cord so maybe a 1000 pounds.

When I speak of blocks I am talking about cedar blocks for use in the shake and shingle industry, usually salvage cedar from older logged areas.

 

[slowp]

Today I learned that they need to have an emergency landing area in the unit. So, I loaded up the vest and asked for directions (they were flying) and headed up to the tippytop of the tippytop unit. I have to approve and put the special paint on the trees prior to cutting. I pack about 50 pounds of well, stomach muscle so it was a grunt. But adrenaline kicked in because even though I was following THEIR instructions, they were flying over me. And, having seen the empty chokers come in to the landing, I didn't have a very good feeling so hurried up and went sideways to get out of the way. Then had to skirt some hung up by the cutters trees, and then just huff and puff up the hill which actually flattened out so it became pleasant. I'm thinking the rope is more like an inch in diameter. Here's a picture.

I purposely did not eat anything prior to hiking up the hill, nor did I pack it up the hill. It would be too heavy in the tummy. So I left this suggestion at the soon to be emergency landing site.

I managed to make it back down by following the steep sidehill of a drainage, wading through a patch of reprod and huckleberry, and then following a decommissioned (quite well) road to the washed out road. I almost made it back to the pickup during the refueling of the helicopter.

 

[slowp]

I hiked up and checked out one of the units while the helicopter was getting "maintenance". Here's what the logged area looked like. No scarring or tops knocked out, and there's a pretty thick canopy left.

The mechanic explained that they shut down because the pilot realized he was "seeing outside where he shouldn't be able to do so".

 

[MR4WD]

I'm a bit cranky due to having a lot of logging going on and it being spread out all over the place.

Oh come on slowp......you can never have too much logging going on, but it is a drag spending half your day in the pickup driving between operations. The weather here has been great lately so I'm in the bush as much as I can be.......on the down side the ground hornets are getting cranky - been stung everyday almost this past week.

We're doing a small heli sale as well, a couple of shots attached. We're using a Bell 214B...max payload at the end of the cycle around 7,000lbs with an average of 4,500 - 5,000lbs...less at the start of the cycle and as they burn fuel the loads get bigger. They're getting some nice cedar poles out of this permit along with some good size doug-fir (good for around here - up to 3o" dbh) Its mostly beetle kill so its relatively light. On a good day they are getting about 10 loads. They are aslo using rope and wire rope chokers.

I'm trying to get out to the landing but this sale has gone to another logging supervisor so its trying to explain why you're somewhere you shouldn't be if you get spotted by the boss!

Where were you workin that RPM? Ever work around here?

 

[RPM]

Where were you workin that RPM? Ever work around here?

Yah I work in the general area....the heli was up Scotch Creek.

 

[tek9tim]

Yea, Slowp I'm nosey. Hope you don't mind. I just can't see with the current price of logs and fuel how it could be economical to do this.

Shoot, I'm gonna get really nosey.

Too much other stuff, including making the woods safe from a menacing fire...a barely smoldering punky log which was in a very nice huckleberry patch. A hunter left a note on my pickup about the fire so I went up and he showed me the way. He had worked his way through college by fighting fire in the 70s. We dug up a little smoke and dumped my half liter of water on it. Then the only 2 fire guys working today showed up. I got to name the fire, and then munched on huckleberries showing them where the hot spots were.

Who's left? Is Doug still working fire there? I wish we'd pick up a fire. I got soaked this morning rehabing handline on one of our project fires.

The road decommissioning seems to be done with mainly meeting mileage targets as the reason. There are plantations in that area that will be ready for harvest in ten years or so, but with the present mind set, they too will have to be helicoptered. The sale being planned now is going to be helicopter because of the fear of building roads and the certainty of lawsuits if roads are put in. That is the current state of mind here. Not necessarily for every forest, I think this one is on the extreme side.

I sure don't miss fighting fire there. What I always hated was getting a fire up Purcell. The road goes clear in, but a small bridge washed out like 9 miles up. Sucker.

Here, when they decommission a road they just turn it into a 4 wheeler trail. Of course, it's not because of washouts usually, just lack of funding for maintenance. Makes it nice for getting to fires. And rallying my dirtbike.

Where is this unit, anyhow? Does the fire crew there do the BD burning on the units, or do they contract it out? When I was there, only a very small amount of stuff was burned by the fire crew.

 

[Humptulips]

Here, when they decommission a road they just turn it into a 4 wheeler trail. Of course, it's not because of washouts usually, just lack of funding for maintenance. Makes it nice for getting to fires. And rallying my dirtbike.

When they decommission a road here it's not even fit to walk on!

 

[tek9tim]

When they decommission a road here it's not even fit to walk on!

Yeah, guess it depends on how much money they have for the project and the nature of the road being decommissioned. Around here, they include road obliteration with some stewardship timber sales, where they get rid of some of the spur roads into the cut units. Those they do a pretty good job of destroying, restore the original contour and drag brush into it. The roads they turn into ATV trails are the longer roads that there isn't any hope of getting to harvest timber off of. Plus, it's a really low cost alternative, all they do is kelly hump it and put up a restriction sign.

 

[2000ssm6]

I hiked up and checked out one of the units while the helicopter was getting "maintenance". Here's what the logged area looked like. No scarring or tops knocked out, and there's a pretty thick canopy left.

The mechanic explained that they shut down because the pilot realized he was "seeing outside where he shouldn't be able to do so".

Wow, that can't be good. I could not work from having to make sure a chopper would not land on me.