The big guns were called in, by the NSW Rural Fire Service, to help fight the bush fire at Wuuluman between Mudgee and Wellington late last week.
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An Erickson Skycrane helicopter – also known as Elvis – arrived at Mudgee Airport to refuel with Commercial Helicopters and wait on standby to help out with the blaze on Friday morning.
The call for help finally arrived for the water-bombing machine at around 2pm, after the blaze was upgraded to a Watch and Act.
The aircraft, made famous for its highly visible involvement in bushfires across New South Wales and Victoria in the past few years, is considered to be one of the most valuable fire fighting tools.
The statistics on the 27 metre long machine are impressive with it capable of dropping approximately 9000 litres of water in a single load - and able to travel at speeds of up to 200km per hour.
Pilot Don McLeod said the Skycrane is very impressive at putting a fire out.
“If we’re close to the water source we can dump on the fire every two or three minutes. And we only need to refuel every two hours.
“At the end of the day, we suppress the fire and the guys on the ground are the ones that put it out.
The aircraft got its nickname due to the time that it spent working for the United States National Guard in Memphis, where singer Elvis Presley lived for most of his life.
But the impressive eight blade orange machine that is currently still in the region, is actually called Elsie.
“Each of the Skycrane machines have individual names, but most people just call them all Elvis.” Mr McLeod said.
A makeshift airbase site was set up at the Goolma cricket ground on Saturday, to make the trips back for refuelling shorter.
The NSW RFS also called in the large and very large air tankers – Hercules C130 and DC 10 – known as Thor and Southern Belle.
The DC 10 is 55 metres long with a wing span of 50 metres, can carry 44,000 litres of water or retardant and travels at speeds of 650km/h.
Lake Burrendong was closed to the public during the weekend to allow for the aircraft to gather water for the operation.
Full interview with Pilot Don McLeod inside the cabin of the Ericsson Skycrane is available on the Mudgee Guardian Facebook page.
