P.j. Helicopters, Inc.

P.J. Helicopters, Inc., a family-owned for-profit precision helicopter lift service provider headquartered in Red Bluff, California, operates as a prime contractor delivering Type I, II, and III rotorcraft services for wildland fire suppression, aerial ignition, reconnaissance, short-haul operations, rappel services, and emergency response missions across western federal lands, with no subcontracting footprint and no small business set-aside designations on the majority of its recent work.

The vendor's federal footprint concentrates almost entirely on the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), a civilian agency within the USDA Forest Service. NIFC accounts for 156 awards valued at $284.8 million in combined potential value—73% of the vendor's total portfolio. The Department of the Interior, across multiple bureaus and offices, represents the second-tier customer with 148 awards; the Bureau of Land Management's Idaho Region alone carries 9 awards worth $34 million. This concentration on two cabinet departments in fire management and emergency response underscores P.J. Helicopters' single-mission focus: it does not pursue broader federal IT, logistics, or professional services work.

P.J. Helicopters holds two major indefinite delivery vehicles anchoring its federal work. The Type 1 Helicopter Support Services 2025-2034 MATOC, a $50 million multiple-award contract effective January 1, 2025 through December 31, 2034, supports 10-year procurement of Type I rotorcraft services evaluated on a lowest-price technically acceptable basis. The Type 3 Helicopter Support Services 2023-2032 IDIQ, an $80 million multiple-award contract awarded April 12, 2023 and running through December 31, 2032, enables the Forest Service to procure Type III helicopter services on an as-needed basis. A Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) numbered 12024B20G5048 has generated 67 task orders worth $32.9 million combined, making it the most heavily utilized vehicle. These three vehicles collectively structure P.J. Helicopters' engagement model: the Forest Service and NIFC issue delivery orders ranging from under $6,000 to over $1.2 million per order, with completion dates typically set for either December 31, 2027 or 2029. The vendor does not compete on agency-wide GWACs, GSA Schedules, or cross-functional IT vehicles; its access to federal work flows entirely through fire-management-specific IDIQs and BOAs.

Recent activity shows steady volume across 2022–2024, with 26, 34, and 43 awards respectively before flattening to 29 awards in 2025 and 7 through May 2026. The recompete cliff in the next twenty-four months is modest—46 awards with $7.4 million combined potential value—reflecting the long-term nature of the underlying IDV vehicles which carry their own multi-year option periods. Dollars obligated to date stand at $126.3 million against $389.1 million combined potential value (32% obligation rate), indicating substantial remaining drawdown capacity across active vehicles.

P.J. Helicopters' award history spans nearly forty years; the source data captures 415 total prime awards with no sub-award activity, confirming the vendor operates as a direct prime exclusively and does not participate in teaming arrangements or prime-to-sub pipelines. The vendor competes full-and-open on NIFC and BLM vehicles; historical set-aside designations are sporadic—a handful of total small business set-aside delivery orders and IDVs from 2021–2022—but represent a negligible share of current work. The firm positions itself as a mission-critical operator for federal wildland fire management, with deep regional expertise in California, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado operations and a fleet of dedicated rotorcraft. Its competitive moat rests on aircraft availability, pilot staffing, operational readiness for rapid deployment during fire season, and familiarity with federal fire-operations protocols rather than on contract vehicles, past-performance relationships with defense or civilian IT customers, or broad-based government contracting infrastructure.