Bluedrop Awarded Contract for their Hoist Mission Training System (HMTS) by CAL FIRE

Halifax-based Bluedrop Training & Simulation, through its sister company Bluedrop USA, has been awarded a contract to provide two advanced Hoist Mission Training System (HMTS) for helicopter hoist operator training.

These acquisitions will support the recent addition of the 12 Sikorsky S70i CAL FIRE HAWK helicopters. The full size HMTS will be deployed to CAL FIRE’s training center in McClellan, CA. The HMTS will be integrated with a flight training device to be able to provide full crew collective training for missions carried out both by the pilot crew and the rear crew. The Portable HMTS will also be deployed to CAL FIRE’s training center and will be transportable to different CAL FIRE sites for recurrent training.

The CAL FIRE HAWK’s primary mission is responding to initial attack wildfires and rescue missions. The CAL FIRE HAWK is also equipped with an external hoist for rescue missions. This specialized rescue technique involves highly trained firefighters being lowered from a hovering helicopter to an injured or trapped person below. Once secured to a harness or stokes basket, both the victim and rescuer are then hoisted into the helicopter and flown to a landing zone.

Bluedrop designed and developed the HMTS, a highly specialized, VR hoist simulator. The fully immersive, full haptics, high fidelity HMTS is unique and provides initial, recurrent and mission training capabilities for helicopter hoist operators working in complex environments and high-risk situations.

“On behalf of Bluedrop I am pleased to announce that we have been awarded a contract to provide training systems for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). This contract is of particular significance to Bluedrop as it represents a major milestone as our first sale to a US state Department. We are proud to be a part of the CAL FIRE’s emergency services training to deliver world class training services to the CAL FIRE.” Jean-Claude Siew, Vice President of Technology & Simulation, Bluedrop Training & Simulation