page_title: Aerial firefighting and forestry in southern Australia
section_title: Hover exit
hierarchical_section_title: Aerial firefighting and forestry in southern Australia / Rappelling / Hover exit
caption_attribution_description: English: Trainee in jumping position, from helicopter, which is approximately six feet above ground. Lolo National Forest, Montana. September 1958
context_page_description: The development of aerial firefighting and forestry in southern Australia ran in parallel with the rapid improvements in aircraft technology over the last century. As more advanced and capable aircraft became available firefighters and foresters quickly sought opportunities to utilise and adapt them.
  Aircraft have three main advantages over ground resources: speed, access, and observation.
  Aircraft have been used for a wide range of tasks including reconnaissance, firebombing, crew transport, aerial ignition, back burning, gathering infrared imagery as well as operational forestry tasks like aerial photography, surveys, spraying, fertilising and seeding.
  Much of the early pioneering work in Australia was led by the Forests Commission Victoria in collaboration with other State forestry and fire authorities including the Western Australia Forests Department, Forestry Commission of NSW, Woods and Forest Department of South Australia and Forestry Tasmania. Federal agencies including the CSIRO also contributed significantly.
context_section_description: A variation for rapidly deploying fire crews was to "hover exit" or jump from a helicopter which was a technique originally developed by the US Forest Service and also in British Columbia, Canada.  This technique was initially trialled at Tallangatta with the Forest Commission Victoria's contract Bell 47G in 1964. It was revisited again in 1991 to enable specialist crews to deploy from a maximum height of 1.3 m and is ideally suited where vegetation or terrain prevented a helicopter from conducting a full skid landing such as rocky areas in the Grampians and the desert scrub country in Western Victoria. Keeping the helicopter level with sudden changes in the centre of gravity was a major challenge for pilots and crews.
caption: Trainee jumping from a Bell 47J helicopter in September 1958 at Lolo National Forest, Montana. Photo courtesy of the Forest History Society, Durham, N.C.
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