| |
PSB Insurance Brokers Pty Ltd has many thousands of valued clients around Australia. One of our most ‘high flying, high profile’ clients or probably more aptly, low flying client, Helicorp Pty Ltd.
Helicorp Pty Ltd is the company that brings ‘Elvis’ to Melbourne each year for the fire-fighting season. Elvis is of course the Erickson Air Crane Fire Fighting Helicopter.
The Erickson Air Crane is an awesome piece of machinery which can vertically pump 9000 litres of water into its tanks in 45 seconds whilst hovering or fill the tanks in 20 seconds with the sea snorkel whilst still on the move. It has a rotor span of 72ft.
During the recent Sydney bushfires, Elvis showed what it could do and no doubt saved an enormous amount of property and at least 14 lives according to headlines in the various papers (copies attached).
Like all successful operations, there are many behind the scene players and PSB Insurance Brokers where but one small part.
Before ‘Elvis’ could be released to the fire zone in Sydney, it needed a portable refuelling station on location near the bushfire zone together with its own special refuelling module. Kin Ho (Financial Controller) of Helicorp Pty Ltd rang me and requested we obtain insurance cover on a prime mover together with a tanker and refuelling module and 30,000 litres of jet fuel which needed to travel to Sydney to be on standby near the fire zone for refuelling.
Let me tell you, the insurance companies weren’t beating a path to our door, as they’re not dumb!?, they figured jet fuel and fires didn’t go well together.
To the credit of Rob Turner of QBE/Mercantile Mutual, he saw a bigger picture of what could be saved in terms of potential lives and property and agreed to provide the cover needed to release the tanker. He understood that these people were professional fire fighters and would take all the professional precautions with the fuel tanker.
When Kin rang me to arrange the covers, l was at the MCG with my family watching the Boxing Day Test and Kin was at the zoo with his family. I counted over 40 phone calls on the mobile phone bill for that day so l didn’t get to see much of the cricket (l think Hayden made a ton, but then again, he did that most innings this summer), nor did Kin get to see much of his family at the zoo.
Mark Robertson, the Chief Pilot at Helicorp arranged all the logistics of releasing Elvis from it’s contract to be on standby in Victoria to allow it to be used in the bushfire emergency in Sydney. I dare say Mark didn’t see much of this family over the Christmas/ New Year either as he arranged the logistics of bringing Georgia Peach and the Incredible Hulk to Sydney, which he did with stunning efficiency. The skill of these pilots to fly such enormous machines through smoke and high winds, at low altitude and accurately dump 9 tonne of water in one hit is nothing short of extraordinary, let alone hovering 20ft above the water as the weight of the helicopter increases by 9 tonne in 45 seconds and not actually ‘splashing down’ into the dam, is concept worth thinking about.
It has been a long standing association between PSB and Helicorp and we thank Helicorp for their foresight in bringing out Elvis to Melbourne every year, and subsequently, Georgia Peach and The Incredible Hulk to Sydney this year and for the fantastic work of the aviators. Brencorp pilots sit on standby at various locations around Victoria over our summer, ready to protect Victorians and their properties.
Rob Viney
Managing Director
P.S. Mark Robertson assures me it is a ‘wives tale’ that a scuba diver got sucked up out of the sea, by one of these machines. He informs me that scuba divers always dive in pairs??!! (plus there is a grill on the intake manifold to filter large objects)
|
