Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
USWFS EU T3 Helo Fire - Fort Wainwright, AK
Department of the Interior
AI summaryOnly small businesses can bid for the Interior Department's single-award contract for one light helicopter, with crew, for U.S. Wildland Fire Service missions based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The Government has sole use of the helicopter for 120 days each year; orders run April 1, 2027 to March 31, 2032, plus a possible six-month extension. The response due date is November 17, 2026, 2:00 PM Central Time, sent by email. The award is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, meaning orders are placed over time. More in the summary
AI summary Beta
The notice looks incomplete: Part of the combined synopsis and solicitation PDF was attached but not read here: the middle, from the aircraft equipment list (Section B) through the contract terms in Section C. Check the full PDF on SAM.gov. Check the attachments on SAM.gov.
Only small businesses can bid for the Interior Department's single-award contract for one light helicopter, with crew, for U.S. Wildland Fire Service missions based at Fort Wainwright, Alaska. The Government has sole use of the helicopter for 120 days each year; orders run April 1, 2027 to March 31, 2032, plus a possible six-month extension. The response due date is November 17, 2026, 2:00 PM Central Time, sent by email. The award is an indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract, meaning orders are placed over time.
Who can bid (8)
- Small business under NAICS 481211 (size standard 1,500 employees). Proposals from large businesses are unacceptable.
- Hold an FAA Air Carrier or Operating Certificate covering rotorcraft, VFR day and night, passengers and cargo in the lower 48 states and Alaska
- Hold a 14 CFR Part 135 Air Carrier Certificate, with every offered aircraft on the required aircraft list
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- Hold a 14 CFR Part 133 Rotorcraft External Load Operations Certificate authorizing at least Class B loads
- Hold a 14 CFR Part 137 Agricultural Aircraft Operations Certificate
- Offer an aircraft with a Standard Airworthiness Certificate that meets every minimum aircraft requirement in Section A
- Current SAM.gov registration, with a copy of the first page of the SAM registration in the offer
- Evidence of meeting FAA safety management system (SMS) requirements for Part 135 operators
How to submit: Email to Contracting Officer Lynn Herrman at lynn_herrman@ibc.doi.gov. What to include is under Full summary below. Check the solicitation's instructions on SAM.gov.
Things to watch (8)
From the version posted Oct 16, 2026.
- Serious: Small business set-aside, FAA air carrier certificates required. Only small businesses can bid, and the offer must show Part 135, Part 133 and Part 137 certificates; a business without them cannot qualify.
- Serious: Aircraft must meet every minimum requirement. An offer with an aircraft that misses any minimum in Section A (seats, 900-pound payload, speed, skids, turbine engine) is unacceptable and may be dropped.
- Worth checking: Funds not yet available. The Government says funding is not presently available and it may not make an award, so a bidder could spend on a full proposal without an award.
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- Worth checking: Full crew and fuel service, including lower 48 deployment. The offer must cover a pilot, mechanic and driver each with a relief, available around the clock; in the lower 48 states the contractor also supplies fuel, a fuel truck and a driver.
- Worth checking: Safety management system evidence tied to May 28, 2027. The solicitation asks for FAA safety management system evidence "no later than May 28, 2027" yet lists it as an offer item; ask the contracting officer whether it is due with the offer.
- Minor: Wage determinations apply to added crew. Additional pilots and mechanics must be paid at least the prevailing wages in the Department of Labor wage determinations, whatever rates the offer states.
- Minor: Past performance limited to three prime contracts. Only up to three recent contracts the prime offeror itself performed count; a business with none gets a neutral rating.
- Minor: Offer sent by email with set file names and volumes. A late or wrongly assembled email offer risks being rejected; follow the volume and file naming rules.
Read from the notice and 4 attachments. Show which files.
- Combined_Synopsis_and_Solicitation_for_BLM_EU_Helo_T3_Fort_Wainwright.pdf (read)
- Sol_140D0426R0114.pdf (read)
- B03_WD_1995-0221_Rev__74_06_29_2026.pdf (read)
- B03_WD_1995-0222_Rev_72_04_11_2026.pdf (read)
Full summary
What they want
- One contractor-operated and contractor-maintained light (Type III) turbine helicopter on exclusive use at Fort Wainwright (Fairbanks), Alaska, for 120 calendar days a year, May 6 to September 2, for fire suppression and natural resource missions
- Crew: a pilot-in-command (PIC) with a relief pilot, a mechanic with a relief mechanic, and a fuel servicing vehicle driver with a relief driver
- Minimum aircraft: five insured passenger seats not counting the pilot, a 900-pound hover-out-of-ground-effect (HOGE) payload at 25 degrees C and 7,000 feet pressure altitude, 130 knots VNE (never-exceed speed) at 20 degrees C and 3,000 feet, skid landing gear, 14 CFR 27 certification
- Mission equipment listed in Section B, including a cargo basket, remote cargo hook, synthetic longline and two collapsible water or retardant buckets
- Fuel: the Government supplies fuel in Alaska and flights are priced dry (without fuel); if sent to the lower 48 states the contractor supplies fuel, a fuel truck and a driver, and flights are priced wet (with fuel)
- Be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week during exclusive use, dispatchable anywhere in Alaska and the lower 48 states, with transit through Canada when moving south
- Price per year: daily availability (QTY 120 DAYS, guaranteed), estimated flight hours (QTY 200 FLIGHT HOURS), optional extension days (QTY 30 DAYS) and extension flight hours (QTY 75 FLIGHT HOURS), plus time-and-materials additional pay items
- The Government can order up to 150 days of availability per aircraft per calendar year; the minimum guarantee is the first year's 120 days of daily availability
- Contract type
- Single-award indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contract. Orders are firm-fixed unit price task orders, with economic price adjustment for insurance and time-and-materials (T&M: paid for actual hours and costs) for additional pay items.
- Period of performance
- Ordering years April 1, 2027 to March 31, 2032 (five ordering years), plus a six-month extension of services under FAR 52.217-8. Exclusive use is 120 calendar days each year (May 6 to September 2); up to 150 days a year can be ordered.
- Place of performance
- Based at Fort Wainwright (Fairbanks), Alaska; the aircraft is subject to dispatch anywhere in the State of Alaska and in the lower 48 United States.
- Estimated value
- Not stated
- How they'll choose
- Best value tradeoff: the three non-price factors are equal to each other and, combined, significantly more important than Total Evaluated Price. Offers that don't meet the minimum aircraft requirements are unacceptable.
- Offers due
- November 17, 2026, 2:00 PM Central Time
- How to submit
- Email to Contracting Officer Lynn Herrman at lynn_herrman@ibc.doi.gov
What they'll judge offers on
- Technical Capability: the proposed aircraft is judged against the Section A and B requirements; greater capability rates better; missing or vague information is high risk
- Organizational Safety: safety management system (SMS) manual and questionnaire, flight time, accidents and FAA violations
- Past Performance: how recent and relevant the work is and how well it was done, based on up to three contracts from the last three years and Government sources such as CPARS
- Total Evaluated Price: reasonableness and balance of the prices, with the highest ordering year prorated to six months added for the extension
What to include when you submit
- Volume I Offer: pricing pages for each aircraft offered (unit rates in whole U.S. dollars), first page of the SAM registration, acknowledgment of any amendments, and Offeror's Miscellaneous Information (Exhibit E-1)
- Name Volume I attachments "Vol I Pricing Pages – Name of Company", "Vol I SAM Page 1 – Name of Company" and "Vol I Offerors MISC Info – Name of Company"; a zip file in a "Vol I Offer" subfolder is allowed
- Volume II Technical Capability: a Helicopter Questionnaire (Exhibit E-4) for each aircraft, performance charts and payload calculations using the Interagency load form, a weight and balance record and equipment list within 36 months of the solicitation closing date
- Volume II also needs the airworthiness certificate and registration for each aircraft, the first page of the 14 CFR Part 135 certificate, Operations Specifications A003, B050 and the D085 aircraft listing
- Volume II also needs, for each proposed pilot, the OAS-64A Pilot Evaluation Application and the Pilot Questionnaire (Exhibit E-2), marking each as primary or relief
- Volume III Organizational Safety: evidence of meeting FAA safety management system (SMS) requirements, the current SMS Manual, and answers to Questions 1-33 of the SMS Questionnaire (Exhibit 11)
- Volume IV Past Performance: the Past Performance Questionnaire (Exhibit E-3) for no more than three of the most relevant contracts the prime offeror performed in the three years before the solicitation was issued; start each file name with "Vol IV"
- Do not enter a price for the six-month extension period
- Questions go by email to the contracting officer by October 30, 2026, 2:00 PM CT, with "Questions – RFP 140D0426R0114" in the subject line
- Prices must stay firm for 120 calendar days from the response due date
After award, you must have
- Current passports for all required contractor personnel, because moves to the lower 48 states usually go through Canada From Combined_Synopsis_and_Solicitation_for_BLM_EU_Helo_T3_Fort_Wainwright.pdf:
…personnel must possess current passports.
Not in the notice text
- Part of the combined synopsis and solicitation PDF was attached but not read here: the middle, from the aircraft equipment list (Section B) through the contract terms in Section C. Check the full PDF on SAM.gov.
- That unread part holds pilot, mechanic and avionics requirements, aircraft insurance (C5), contractor personnel security (C3), the prework meeting (C7) and the clauses, including the limitations on subcontracting clause.
- No total contract value is given. Unit prices are left for bidders; the pricing pages show only estimated yearly amounts for additional pay items, for funding purposes.
- Two Service Contract Act wage determinations (1995-0221 and 1995-0222) are attached; the text read does not say which applies to which crew position.
- Whether the safety management system evidence is due with the offer or by May 28, 2027 is not clear 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: Email to Contracting Officer Lynn Herrman at lynn_herrman@ibc.doi.gov. Check it in the notice before you send anything.
- SAM.gov has no description for this notice beyond its title. The work is described in its attachments, listed under Notice details.
- Service contracts usually set minimum pay rates (the Service Contract Act). Price the labor with the SCA price calculator.
Notice details
- Posted
- Oct 16, 2026
- Notice type
- Combined Synopsis/Solicitation
- Office
- Ibc Acq SVCS Directorate (00004), Herndon, VA
- Product/service code
- V221 · Transportation/Travel/Relocation – Travel/Lodging/Recruitment: Passenger Air Charter
- 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
USWFS EU T3 Helo Fire - Fort Wainwright, AK
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