Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
Exclusive Use Helicopter Flight Services, Yosemite
Department of the Interior
AI summaryThe Department of the Interior's Interior Business Center is buying one contractor-operated, contractor-maintained medium helicopter, with crew and fuel truck, for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service at Yosemite National Park, California. Only small businesses can bid, and the response due date is November 13, 2026, 10:00 AM Pacific. It is one indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ: the government orders as needed) contract with a base year starting March 1, 2027 and four 1-year ordering periods. More in the summary
AI summary Beta
The notice looks incomplete: Part of the solicitation file was attached but not read: the middle of the technical specifications and contract terms (avionics, crew qualifications and duty limits, schedule of operations and reaction time, unavailability damages, and extension terms). Read the full solicitation on SAM.gov. Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
The Department of the Interior's Interior Business Center is buying one contractor-operated, contractor-maintained medium helicopter, with crew and fuel truck, for the U.S. Wildland Fire Service at Yosemite National Park, California. Only small businesses can bid, and the response due date is November 13, 2026, 10:00 AM Pacific. It is one indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ: the government orders as needed) contract with a base year starting March 1, 2027 and four 1-year ordering periods.
Who can bid (5)
- Small business: the contract is a 100 percent small business set-aside; the size standard for NAICS 481211 is 1,500 employees
- Hold and keep current the FAA certificates the contract lists, including a Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate, a Part 133 rotorcraft external load certificate (Class B loads at least) and a Part 137 agricultural aircraft certificate, with the offered aircraft on the carrier's authorized lists
- Offer an aircraft that meets every minimum requirement: nine insured passenger seats, turbine engine, left-seat pilot-in-command, skid landing gear, BLR FastFin or equivalent, dual hydraulics, and the 1,500 pound payload
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- Active SAM registration, with a copy of the first page of the registration sent with the offer
- A current safety management system (SMS) manual and evidence of meeting the FAA SMS requirements, sent with the offer
How to submit: One electronic copy by email to Melanie Johnson at Melanie_Johnson@ibc.doi.gov; hard copy and fax are not accepted. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (9)
From the version posted Oct 13, 2026.
- Serious: Small business set-aside. Only small businesses can bid; a firm over 1,500 employees under NAICS 481211 is not eligible.
- Serious: FAA certificates and listed aircraft needed at offer time. You must already hold the FAA certificates, and the offered aircraft must be on your authorized aircraft lists when you send the offer.
- Serious: Missing aircraft documents can remove the offer. The performance charts, load calculations, weight and balance record and certificates all have to be in the proposal, or the offer can be dropped.
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- Worth checking: Safety management system and accident history are scored. Organizational Safety is one of three equal non-price factors, so a weak SMS manual or a poor accident or FAA violation record can hurt the offer.
- Worth checking: Prices needed for all five years. An offer that leaves any year unpriced is not acceptable, and rates that are out of balance between years can be rejected.
- Worth checking: Contractor pays for fuel in the lower 48 states. Fuel cost goes into the flight rate, and rates are adjusted up or down when jet fuel prices change from a set base price.
- Worth checking: Demanding flying and possible Alaska dispatch. Missions are flown at high altitude and in heat, and the aircraft may be sent to Alaska, which requires current passports for the crew.
- Minor: Service Contract Act wage rates apply. Two Department of Labor wage determinations (1995-0222 and 1995-0221) are part of the contract, and the contractor must keep up with new revisions.
- Minor: Questions were due Oct 23, 2026. Check the amendments for the agency's answers.
Read from the notice and 4 attachments. Show which files.
- Sol_140D0426R0068.pdf (read)
- B08_SOL_140D0426R0068_NPS_EU_H_T2_Yosemite.pdf (read)
- B03_Attachment_II_WD_1995-0221_Rev__74_06_29_2026.pdf (read)
- B03_Attachment_I_WD__1995-0222_Rev_72_04_11_2026.pdf (read)
Full summary
What they want
- One medium helicopter, flown and maintained by the contractor, on exclusive use (government controls it 24 hours a day) at Crane Flat Helibase: 172 days a year, estimated May 3 to October 22
- Minimum aircraft: nine insured passenger seats not counting the pilot, turbine engine, skid landing gear, left-seat pilot-in-command, BLR FastFin or equivalent, dual hydraulics, and 1,500 pounds of hover payload at 30 degrees Celsius and 7,000 feet pressure altitude
- Crew: a pilot-in-command with a relief pilot, a fuel service vehicle driver with a relief driver, and a mechanic with a relief mechanic
- One fuel servicing vehicle; in the lower 48 states the contractor supplies all fuel, priced into the flight rate (the "wet" rate, fuel included)
- Missions include short-haul, rappel, cargo letdown, search and rescue, fire suppression and monitoring, initial attack, prescribed fire and aerial ignition, flown from 2,000 to 14,000 feet
- Estimated 250 flight hours per year, plus optional extensions of an estimated 20 days and 20 flight hours per year if ordered
- Two collapsible water or retardant buckets, a keeperless cargo hook, and the other aircraft equipment listed in the specifications (Section B6)
- After award: a small temporary office trailer for three people (pilot, driver, mechanic) with air conditioning and heating; the government supplies power and water
- Contract type
- One indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract: firm fixed unit prices, with time-and-materials items (paid at set hourly rates) under task orders. Minimum guarantee is 172 days of daily availability in the base year.
- Period of performance
- Base year March 1, 2027 to February 29, 2028, plus four 1-year ordering periods; the SF 1449 form (Standard Form 1449, the commercial order form) gives March 1, 2027 to February 29, 2032. Each year has a 172-day exclusive use period, estimated May 3 to October 22.
- Place of performance
- Crane Flat Helibase, Yosemite National Park, California. The aircraft may be dispatched to Alaska.
- Estimated value
- Ceiling (the most the government may order) of $15,000,000, which the solicitation says is not a historical or planned amount
- How they'll choose
- Best value tradeoff: award goes to the offer with the best mix of the factors. Technical Capability, Organizational Safety and Past Performance are equal to one another, and together they are significantly more important than price.
- Offers due
- November 13, 2026, 10:00 AM Pacific
- How to submit
- One electronic copy by email to Melanie Johnson at Melanie_Johnson@ibc.doi.gov; hard copy and fax are not accepted
What they'll judge offers on
- Technical Capability: the offered aircraft must meet every minimum requirement or be rated Unsatisfactory; a more capable aircraft rates better
- Organizational Safety: safety management system (SMS) questionnaire answers, flight time, accidents and FAA violations
- Past Performance: how recent, how relevant and how well the offeror performed; no history gets a Neutral rating
- Total Evaluated Price: unit rates applied to the daily availability, flight hours, extension and additional pay item quantities for all years
What to include when you submit
- Volume I (offer): signed and dated SF 1449, the Section A pricing schedule pages filled in, acknowledgment of any amendments, and Exhibit E-1 (Offeror's Miscellaneous Information)
- Price every one of the five years in whole dollars; complete a separate pricing schedule for each aircraft offered
- Include a copy of the first page of your System for Award Management (SAM) registration showing current status
- Volume II (technical): Helicopter Questionnaire and Helicopter Information Form for each aircraft, with performance charts and Interagency Load Calculation forms, including the bucket sizes
- Volume II also needs a weight and balance record made within 24 months of the closing date, the airworthiness certificate and registration for each aircraft
- Volume II also needs the first page of your FAA Part 135, 133 and 137 certificates, and Operations Specifications A003, B050 (48 contiguous states and Alaska) and the D085 aircraft listings
- Volume III (organizational safety): evidence of meeting FAA safety management system requirements (the text cites May 28, 2027 and the May 2024 FAA final rule), your current SMS Manual, and answers to Questions 1 to 33 of the Exhibit 11 questionnaire
- Volume IV (past performance): Past Performance Information Sheet (Exhibit E-4) for no more than three of your most relevant contracts as prime, performed in the three years before the solicitation was issued
- Prices in the offer stay firm for 180 calendar days from the date offers are received; email may need to be split into several messages for large files
Not in the notice text
- Part of the solicitation file was attached but not read: the middle of the technical specifications and contract terms (avionics, crew qualifications and duty limits, schedule of operations and reaction time, unavailability damages, and extension terms). Read the full solicitation on SAM.gov.
- How the aircraft reaction time (how fast it must be ready after a call) and the daily schedule of operations work
- Whether there is a current contractor; the documents do not name one
- Whether there is a site visit or pre-proposal conference; none was found in the text read
Eligibility and how to respond
- Set aside for small businesses: only a business that counts as small under this notice's NAICS code can bid as the prime contractor. More open small business set-asides under NAICS 481211
- How to submit, from the AI summary: One electronic copy by email to Melanie Johnson at Melanie_Johnson@ibc.doi.gov; hard copy and fax are not accepted. Check it in the notice before you send anything.
- Service contracts usually set minimum pay rates (the Service Contract Act). Price the labor with the SCA price calculator.
Notice details
- Posted
- Oct 13, 2026
- Notice type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- Office
- Ibc Acq SVCS Directorate (00004), Herndon, VA
- Product/service code
- V211 · Transportation/Travel/Relocation – Travel/Lodging/Recruitment: Air Passenger
- Business type
- Transportation, logistics & vehicles (FedReady's grouping, from NAICS 481211)
- Attachments
Past awards and competition
Who has won work like this before, the likely incumbent, and what similar contracts paid, from USAspending.gov.
Before you respond
- How to respond to a solicitation (8 steps)
- How to read a government solicitation
- How to price a government contract
- Set-aside contracts explained
Terms on this notice: Solicitation, Set-aside
Full notice text from SAM.gov
Exclusive Use Helicopter Flight Services, Yosemite National Park, CA
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