Columbia Basin Helicopter, Inc.

Columbia Basin Helicopter, Inc., doing business as David McCarty, operates exclusively as a prime contractor delivering wildland fire suppression, single-engine airtanker (SEAT) operations, aerial herbicide application, and equipment transport services to federal land management and emergency response agencies. The vendor is a small business headquartered in La Grande, Oregon, and competes predominantly on full-and-open vehicles without reliance on set-aside categories; recent awards show 73% of orders issued without set-aside designation, though several parent IDIQs carry total small business set-aside framing.

The vendor's customer concentration is highly concentrated in interior and western federal land agencies. By award count, the National Interagency Fire Center dominates with 88 awards ($160 million combined potential value), followed by the Bureau of Land Management's Oregon-Washington region (24 awards, $35.7 million) and Idaho Region (17 awards). By dollar value, the Idaho Region BLM contract dominates: a single $400 million SEAT flight services IDC awarded February 8, 2024 (now expired as of May 21, 2024) anchors the portfolio and accounts for 72% of the vendor's combined potential value. The next tier of customers—the Forest Service's Fire and Aviation Management operation ($160 million), Region 4 Intermountain ($51.5 million), and the Forest Service Washington Office Acquisitions ($50 million BPA)—collectively represent 26% of combined value. This concentration in four customer agencies is sharper when measured in dollars than in volume: the top five agencies by award count cover 73% of awards, while the top five by potential value represent 98% of total dollars.

Columbia Basin Helicopter holds multiple parent vehicles anchoring task order flow. The Type 1 Helicopter Support Services 2025–2034 IDIQ (National Interagency Fire Center, $50 million ceiling, January 1, 2025–December 31, 2034) carries 26 task orders worth $10.4 million delivered through September 2025. A $50 million single-award Blanket Purchase Agreement with the USDA Forest Service for Land Management Integrated Resources (April 2023–March 2033) supports varied natural resource work. The BLM's Pacific Northwest Herbicide Application IDIQ ($24.25 million, total small business set-aside, September 2023–September 2028) issued 24 delivery orders. A $2 million Forest Service Intermountain Region IDC for helicopter-based aerial application services (September 2022–August 2027, total small business set-aside) covers herbicide, seeding, and equipment transport work in Idaho. A $500 thousand NIFC heavy equipment BPA (total small business set-aside, February 2026–June 2028) and a $250 thousand VIPR I-BPA for miscellaneous equipment (May 2024–May 2029, total small business set-aside) round out the active portfolio. The Basic Ordering Agreement 12024B20G5014 (BLM) generated 52 task orders worth $16.1 million, the highest volume of any single parent vehicle.

Activity has grown from 18 awards in 2022 to 28 in 2025, with the most recent delivery order issued September 1, 2026. Only two awards face completion within the next twenty-four months (combined potential value $113 thousand), indicating minimal recompete exposure in the immediate window; the vendor's largest contracts—the $400 million SEAT IDC and the $50 million NIFC Type 1 Helicopter IDIQ (January 2025–December 2034)—have long runways. Columbia Basin Helicopter operates a lean internal delivery model: no subcontractor relationships are identified across the award portfolio, and the vendor executes 100% of work as prime contractor using its own aircraft and personnel based in La Grande, Oregon.

SCI-reported invoicing of $12.4 million across FY2022–FY2024 reflects a narrow slice of the vendor's federal work; the SCI dataset covers only service contracts above the $150 thousand reporting threshold and excludes the majority of the vendor's delivery orders, which are goods purchases or products (SEAT operations, equipment transport). FY2023 peak invoicing of $5.1 million corresponded to 17.8 FTEs; FY2024 invoicing of $5 million corresponded to 2.4 FTEs, reflecting the episodic nature of wildfire season and task order scheduling. On SCI-reportable prime contracts, government-paid hourly rates ranged from a 10th percentile of $128.72 per hour to a median of $499.98 per hour and 90th percentile of $993.61 per hour, spanning crew labor, pilot labor, and management support services across variable scope and skill mix. The vendor delivered zero SCI-reportable hours in FY2025; this reflects contract type and reporting thresholds rather than business cessation—the Type 1 IDIQ and other parent vehicles continued to generate delivery orders.

The vendor's capability footprint is laser-focused: specialized aviation services (SEAT and helicopter) for federal wildland fire suppression, vegetation management (herbicide application via aerial platforms), prescribed burn support, invasive species treatment, equipment transport, and natural resource restoration. Representative recent work includes a $564,549 delivery order (July 1, 2025, National Interagency Fire Center, Type 1 Helicopter IDIQ) for wildland fire suppression with completion through December 31, 2029; a $359,653 delivery order (October 1, 2024, BLM Oregon-Washington) for herbicide application with completion November 15, 2024; and a $51,638 delivery order (January 16, 2025, BLM Oregon-Washington) for the Prineville Oak task order with completion April 15, 2025. All orders carry firm fixed-price terms. The vendor fields no subcontractors and does not pursue or hold positions on GSA Schedules, GWACs, or civilian agency IDIQs; its competitive reach is confined to Interior and Agriculture federal land management channels.

Aerial Application, Aerial Forest Fire Fighting, Precision Lift