When equipped with buckets and belly tanks, helicopters are versatile, fast and effective at delivering water, retardant, gel or foam to a fire. Like fixed-wing airtankers, the drop patterns generated from helicopters are most affected by aircraft height and speed. Understanding these drop patterns helps fire operations achieve the coverage level they need for a given fuel type or fire intensity. While testing tracking systems for helicopters in Salmon Arm, BC this year, we had the opportunity to collect drop pattern data on the Bambi-Max™ bucket and the Bell 212 helitanker.