359 MAEDY

Air Fire-Fighting Detachments

Even though the 359 MAEDY has the Dekelia airport as mother base, its aircraft are spread all over the Greek territory during the fire-fighting period. Detachments consisting of 2 to 3 aircraft and personell are in standby for air surveillance and protection of the quite large surrounding area.

These detachments operate as a scaled-down MAEDY, and consist of pilots and maintenance personnel. The senior pilot of each detachment has the command.

The detachments’ airplanes operate from half hour before sunrise to half hour after sunset.

The typical take-off readiness is usually 15 minutes. In fact, a PZL pilot is able to take-off in less than 10 minutes, as the pre-flight inspection is conducted early in the morning and the planes have their water tanks full at all times.

The maximum water load for the PZL M-18B comes up to 2.200 kg. A small tank in the plane’s forward cowling is full of retarding fluid which is mixed with water during the drops.

During the fire-fighting period, which lasts from June 1st to October 31st every year, the Hellenic Air Force distributes the 359 MAEDY planes as follows:

A pair of PZL deploy each to Kavala, Mitilini, Kerkira, Kefalonia, Lamia, Tripoli, Sparta and Epitalio airports, while three Grumman G-164 redeploy to 132 Combat Group at Agrinio airport.

During the summer period, operational control of the aircraft is assumed by the Fire Brigade.

The squadron’s planes patrol daily during high-risk hours, with full water tanks and are ready to act immediately if required. In this way the reaction time is substantially reduced.

The pilots of 359 MAEDY operate usually under extreme weather conditions and to very remote areas.

The G.164 A/G airplanes mainly carry out aerial crop dusting missions, according to the demands of the Ministry of Agriculture Natural Resources and Environment.

The Grumman is also capable of carrying a 1000lt water load in a tank located in front of the pilot’s seat, so that another role for the G-164 is the aerial fire-fighting.

The unit’s 10 Bell 47G-5 and Bell 47G-3 helicopters contribute additionally to the aerial crop-dusting missions and despite their age, are very effective in this role.