Heliweb Magazine - July 2017

ALEA SHOW EDITION

JULY 2017 VOL 41

VICTORIA

POLICE

LOS ANGELES

COUNTY FIRE

AIR WING 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES

ARIZONA

DPS

AVIATION TEXAS INTER-AGENCY

EARLY PIONEERS OF

WATER RESCUE TRAINING LONG LINE RESCUE

PILOT PROFILE

JEFF RATKOVICH

VISIT US AT THE SHOW!

BOOTH 208

2 | heliweb magazine

INSIDE

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THE JULY ISSUE

COVER STORY:

VICTORIA POLICE 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES

By Ryan Mason

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INTER-AGENCY RESPONSE

ARIZONA DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC SAFETY AIR OPERATIONS BUREAU

TEXAS PUBLIC SAFETY UNITS TRAIN FOR SUCCESS INTER-AGENCY By Tim Pruitt WATER RESCUE

By Mark Bennett

TEXAS TRAINING TO IMPROVE RESPONSES

By Tim Pruitt

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PIONEERS OF LONG LINE RESCUE SONOMA COUNTY TALKS ABOUT HUMAN EXTERNAL LOAD RESCUE

By Eric Lian

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SOCIAL MEDIA IN LAW ENFORCEMENT

ANGELS FROM ABOVE

THE BENEFITS OF AIRBORNE LAW ENFORCEMENT PR

LOS ANGELES COUNTY FIRE

By Jason Jorgensen

By Scott Dworkin

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AVALON 2017

AUSTRALIAN AVIATION ON DISPLAY

By Kane Arlow

COLUMNS & FEATURES

Helipix From the Desk of

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Straight & Level

20

USHST 22 HeliNews

HeliArt

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PUBLISHER & EDITOR Ryan Mason ryan@heliweb.com

DEPUTY EDITOR Ali Mason ali@heliweb.com

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS: TIm Pruitt Seth Lasko Dan Foster Ralf Block Scott Dworkin

Grab your free subscription to the print or digital mag at

heliweb.com

Colt Roy Jason Jorgensen Jeroen Vanveenendaal Roelof Jan Gort Ed Simmons

COPY EDITOR: Duncan Brown duncan@heliweb.com

LAYOUT: Jason Jorgensen jason@heliweb.com

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Ben Fouts Brian Parsons Jason Jorgensen Dan Foster Scott Dworkin

Jessica Kanellos Lauren Brown Matt Johnson Michael Rocks-Macqueen Tim Pruitt

HELICOPTER ART Eric Lian, Marc Veenendaal

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July 2017 Issue Cover:

Victoria Police is the premier law enforcement agency in the state of Victoria, Australia. The agency’s aviation program has been in operation over 40 years.

Image by Kane Arlow.

All material published remains the copyright of heliweb. No part of this publication may be reproduced, in part or in whole, without the written consent of the publisher. Editorials published do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Content within heliweb is believed to be true and accurate and the publisher does not assume responsibility for any errors. Unsolicited editorial manuscripts and photos are welcomed and encouraged. heliweb cannot be responsible for return unless submissions are accompanied by a stamped, self-addressed envelope. Photos submitted by mail or electronically become property of heliweb unless otherwise specified. Copyrighted photographs must be clearly marked, otherwise they become property of heliweb. Deadline for all advertising is the first day of each month for the following months edition. Information about rates, requirements, etc. is available upon request.

H eliweb is a prou d mem b er of t h e f ol low i n g as s o ci ations

June 2017 | 5

A shot taken at Chico, CA Airport featuring the first Airbus H130T2 to enter service and a CHP H125. Photographer: Michael Piper.

STARFlight H145 arrives at a public safety even outside of Austin Texas. Photographer: Brian Papke

#helipix A Starflight MD 900 is loaded with a passenger at WCA Hospital in Jamestown, NY. Photographer: Ray Duran

Situated in Kazaviaspas, Kazakhstand, this H145 sits waiting to load a patient at a scene. Photographer: Baur Nurbekov A Bell 412 from Vigili Del Fuoco in Italy responds to a vehicle accident in the Italian countryside. Photographer: Sergio Collodoro.

April/May 2017 | 7

An NPAS Airbus H135 P2+ prepares to land in the United Kingdom. Photographer: Kevin Donnegan

A police MD530F hovers above a river bed in Erbil, Iraq. Photographer: Gabriel Fest.

8 | heliweb magazine

#helipix A PHI H135 sits atop UMMC Hospital pad awaiting its next mission. Photographer: James Hershman.

VH-PVD of the Victoria Police Air Wing sits awating weather to clear as a rainbow appears. Photographer: Alex Barron June 2017 | 9

www.maunaloahelicopters.com | 808-334-0234 16 | heliweb magazine

䄀甀最甀猀琀 ㈀ ㄀㔀 ㌀| 17 June 2017

COLUMN

PUBLISHER

From the Desk Of...

Two Years and Counting Another ALEA conference looms in the not too distant future for those in the airborne law enforcement community and those attending to market their products at the show, This years show, in Reno, Nevada, will also be the celebration of two years since I took over ownership of Heliweb Magazine.

To say it has been an easy two years would be lying. It has not been easy... at all. But heading into this years ALEA show, I am more excited than ever. I enjoy this show the most due to its slower pace (hands up those that feel like they never accomplish anything at Heli-Expo because they are so busy!) and the fact that the majority of those in attendance are my brothers and sisters in law enforcement.

I do miss the adrenaline rush of being on a hot call or the feeling of quiet satisfaction you get knowing that you helped someone out of a bad situation or made a difference in someones life.

For the person you are rushing to help, their reason for summoning the police could also be the worst moment of their lives to date, be it a domestic violence call or a car accident.

That being said, I don’t miss the late nights, missed birthdays, Christmases, visits to the emergency room to get stitched up after not seeing an offender coming from behind with a baseball bat (yes, that really happened, I have the scars to prove it in my scalp!)

I am sure reading this, there are a few of you out there jokingly saying to yourself “well, that explains a lot!” and to a degree you might be right.

Taking over a magazine and transforming it from a “somewhat read” to a “must read” does take a certain level of insanity to decide you are going to take on, especially with

18 | heliweb magazine

competitors that have over a decade head start on you. Well, I knew that going in, and none of it deterred me.

Call it insanity, or call it being driven to succeed, but I took on this task knowing the risks and what it would take. I knew that it would try to break me and likely there would be several people along the way that would try to do the same.

Well, it sure happened, and continues to on occasion, but if there is one thing I know how to do, its to get back up and try again after being knocked down. Sometimes just coming back to the task for my own benefit and to prove to myself that I could do it.

Most when I tell them that 24 months ago I left the ALEA conference with three weeks to put together a magazine that “I would want to read.”

I started almost two years ago with a trunk full of magazines and a vision to shape a magazine that would get back to the grass roots of the industry and tell stories people wanted to read about technology, new helicopter developments, but most of all, to highlight those quiet achievers in the industry that deserve recognition and to try even in our small way to give back to the industry and impact the safe operation of helicopters around the world.

I took that vision to the amazing group of people I get to call friends and asked for help to try and make that happen. One issue at a time.

Well, here we are two years later, and on reflecting on how far we have come in that short space of time, I am amazed. You can have all the vision in the world, but if you

can’t motivate anyone to help you realize that dream, then you are dead in the water.

I am fortunate enough to be surrounded by a talented team of people that help in any way possible, no matter what the next problem we have to overcome is.

As I write this, one of my team is calling vendors in an effort to solve a problem we have. Trying to make sure all of the things we have planned for the show go off without a hitch. Without any discussion, he took the initiative to solve a problem and that is the kind of all star that everyone wants to have around.

The list would be long if I thanked everyone by name, but we would not be here today and be moving like a freight train gaining market share at an unheard of rate, if not for our team of professionals that are the best in the industry when it comes to web, photography, journalism and all the other roles that make our magazine resonate with the industry.

We started out by looking where others didn’t and finding stories where others can’t because we have a genuine interest in doing things the right way, being professional and approaching each story on its merits, not by how much money we think we can make out of it. Because of that, we continue to gain followers and readership at a rapid rate. Proof positive that doing the right thing or “doing good things for good people” as I say to my staff - eventually pays off! See you at the show!

Ryan Mason Publisher & Editor

Ryan has worked in the aviation media field for the last nine years. Providing video, photographic and written content for U.S and international aviation publications. Also a former police officer, Ryan has written for numerous law enforcement publications, specializing in technology, tactics, police equipment and airborne law enforcement. Ryan purchased heliweb with a goal of providing real stories on real issues in the industry and giving back to the industry through efforts to promote safety in helicopter operations.

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COLUMN

FLIGHT TRAINING

Straight & Level

Choosing the Right Instructor It is not easy matching up well with your flight instructor in trying to get the right fit.

There are so many dynamics in human relations that there are bound to be disagreements and misunderstandings. The instructor is typically terribly underpaid and works long hours at a very stressful job.

Instructors can be some of the most amazing humans on the planet with skills in psychology, flying, teaching methods, and humor.

Some flight schools will assign their students to an instructor, giving you little choice in the matter unless you specify that you have an issue or want to make sure you have the right fit.

The flight school banking on the little background knowledge they may have of the incoming student to try to find a good match.

A match may be made through any number of connections that they think may make you and a particular instructor a good fit. A common background or interests that can help spark a positive learning environment is sometimes a good start, and hopefully, your flight school takes the time to ask you for more information about you than just the method of payment you will be using.

Other times flight schools may have one instructor who has an open schedule and assign that instructor based purely on convenience.

You may find that a good instructor is often already booked out for their entire day well in advance, so you may get assigned to an instructor who only has one other student or none at all.

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Do you ever eat at a restaurant without any customers? I am usually very cautious about that and often choose to eat somewhere else. Just like asking yourself the question of “why aren’t there any other customers eating here?” The same should go for flight schools.

A longer serving instructor with few if any students, is the restaurant with no customers. You might ask more senior students about this or inquire with management about the instructor in question.

The person may not be a bad trainer; it could be the circumstances. Maybe they just graduated a few students and have an open schedule.

This is a good sign. However, just like an empty restaurant, do your research. The internet has a lot of answers for restaurants with sites like Yelp that can help you. So too, there are sites, forums and Facebook groups that can give you access to former students that may have trained there and have an opinion on a particular instructor. Take it all with a grain of salt, but it is better than flying blind.

When you begin taking lessons, it should not take long to figure out if you have a good fit with an instructor.

Is the learning enjoyable and are lessons being taught efficiently?

Are you getting positive feedback and constructive criticisms to help you grow? Do they over control the helicopter so you do not know if it is you or them that has control of the

ship? Those questions should be answered quickly to help you decide if you have a good fit.

So what do you do when you feel the learning environment is not a positive one, or you feel like you are being extorted for your ability to pay for flight time?

One thing is for sure; you have options. Don’t be afraid to request a change of instructor. A flight school should have an open environment that encourages the communication of concerns without fear of repercussion.

I would not try to change instructors often but when there are obvious shortfalls in the instructor change it up. Seek out something better for yourself.

If an instructor seems difficult to work with, then you probably should try some self-evaluation to see if it is you causing the problem. Are you trusting in the instruction, the instructor, and the school, or have you built up a defensive perimeter around your brain so that nobody is allowed in?

A little self-evaluation may help you uncover what about the program of instruction is not working. Ask for advice from others who have completed a flight training course, as they could be a great resource.

Becoming a pilot is a tremendous journey. Enjoy the learning and the freedom gained through the process.

Drive your education to success, know yourself, and don’t waste time on an instructor that wastes your time.

Ben Fouts is a career helicopter pilot, business owner, successful entrepreneur, and passionate flight instructor. In addition to his role as an FAA Designated Pilot Examiner — a position he’s held for fifteen years, since he was just twenty-four years old — he is the owner of Mauna Loa Helicopters, operating three bases in Hawaii and one in Alabama.

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COLUMN

SAFETY

United States Helicopter Safety Team

400 Feet and Below For many years, we helicopter pilots enjoyed almost exclusive use of the airspace, except around airports, but not anymore. The proliferation of radio-controlled quad-rotor drones has had a profound effect on our perspective of control.

Over the years we have always had to share the space with kites, model airplanes, and birds. Risk wise, the bird population appears to be on the rise and reflects in the yearly bird strike reports. Also, a plethora of antenna towers, power lines, trees, and buildings all lie below 400 feet. It is not a friendly environment in which to operate, and admittedly, drones add an increased level of risk.

So how serious is the drone problem? It depends on whom you talk to. If you believe the drone sales figures, there should be drones littering the skies.

Realistically, attrition is a great hunter of drones, and that is speaking from experience. To get a more accurate picture, it is best to ignore sales figures. Most drones used by inexperienced operators crash very quickly and end up sitting on a shelf in the garage.

The Department of Transportation (DOT), specifically the FAA, in late 2015 cited a collection of 764 “drone sightings” to justify a quick implementation of a new drone registration regulation.

The reports understandably got the attention of members of Congress.

Several members immediately opined to the press that it was not a question of if, but when a drone brings down an airliner, two years later, thankfully, we have not seen that take place.

Panic notwithstanding, the Academy of Model Aeronautics reviewed those reports and discovered that only 27 contained the explicit notation of a near miss or near

22 | heliweb magazine

collision (or NMAC in FAA reporting speak). Moreover, in only 10 or those reports, did pilots have to take any evasive action. The rest of the reports were primarily sightings or alleged sightings of drones operating legally below 400’ AGL (not within the vicinity of an airport). Pilots did not even report many of these alleged sightings.

The requirements pushed out quickly for drones registered, required each to have an FAA issued number to identify it put on the body of the drone to assist in identifying owners of drones that operate in an unsafe manner.

I challenge any aircraft pilot traveling between 100 and 230 knots to read the tiny numbers on a drone in the split second it occupies their vision.

Attaching an ID on a drone will only help the FAA identify the culprit that causes the first (and yet to occur) collision between a manned aircraft and a drone.

Couple that with the fact that this is a user installed number that could be written in black marker, hardly useful in a situation that may involve jet fuel.

That said, any hobby or profession has its share of bad apples. There are two types of drone operators causing problems: 1) those that try to fly as high as they can with no regard for the 400’ AGL rule, and; 2) those that choose to fly near busy airports or in restricted airspace.

These FAA rule and policy violators, will not likely rush out to register their drones if they intend on operating however they choose, without regard for regulations.

The registration of over one million drones, however, is now a moot point. John A. Taylor, a model aircraft enthusiast, and insurance lawyer, recently challenged the DOT’s drone registration in federal court and won.

The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the registration rule, as it applies to model aircraft, violates Section 336 of the FAA Modernization and Reform Act of 2012.

That statute prohibits the FAA “from promulgating any rule or regulation regarding model aircraft.” Therefore, until Congress drafts new legislation changing this law, the FAA cannot force hobbyists to register their RC aircraft.

Will the Taylor decision also affect the FAA’s ability to enforce airspace violations, especially if the hobbyist is not creating a hazard to manned aircraft? I believe it will. Enforcement of regulations directed at errant drone operators is spotty at best.

The FAA received numerous allegations about the flamboyant YouTube technology promoter, Casey Neistat, flying drones for commercial purposes in controlled airspace over New York City.

Nearly every case was dismissed because of a lack of evidence. Despite actual videos that show Neistat flying the drones, FAA policy requires another form of proof to support enforcement action (specifically, an eye witness). Casey now admits he is on notice and has since ceased flying in the city.

The rules are clear for commercial operators, but the rules for hobbyists are still, well, up in the air - so to speak. Only time will tell.

Mark Colborn is a Senior Corporal and Instructor Pilot for the Dallas Police Department Helicopter Unit, Colborn is also a retired Chief Warrant Officer Four (CW4) and former UH-60L Blackhawk Standardization Instructor Pilot and Safety Officer for the Texas Army National Guard. Frequently sought out due to his aviation knowledge, Colborn also writes for multiple publications and is a member of the USHST Join Helicopter Safety Analysis Team (JHSAT.)

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COLUMN

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April/May 2017 | 25 June 2017 | 25

HELINEWS

HAMILTON COUNTY SHERIFF, OHIO BEGINS MD HELICOPTERS E TO F CONVERSION OF AIR UNIT On July 06, 2017, MD Helicopters announced that the Hamilton County (Ohio) Sheriff’s Office MD 500E helicopter would be upgraded to an FAA certified MD 530F under an agreement between the two. Under this MD exclusive conversion program, the department’s current 500E will be overhauled and re-certifed in a time period of less than 12 weeks.

said Nick Nenadovic, Vice President Aftermarket and Customer Support for MD Helicopters, Inc. “In just a few weeks, a proven E-model is converted into what is essentially a new, factorybuilt, FAA-certified F-model; returning to service stronger, faster and more capable of executing their missions than ever before.”

This “E to F conversion” offers increased hot weather performance as well as improved range and flight time. The upgrades in the overhaul include a more powerful RR-250-C30 turbine engine that will be replacing the Rolls Royce 250-C20B along with an additional Fargo Auxiliary Fuel Tank. The blades and stabilizers also get changed and a Garmin G500H dual screen electronic flight display is also installed.

This overhaul is completed at MD Helicopters manufacturing facility and completions center in Mesa, Arizona.

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office has operated this MD 500E since 1989, where it serves alongside a MD 520N in their aviation unit.

“For more than a decade, our exclusive E-to-F conversion program has been an outstanding way for E-model operators to affordably upgrade the capability of their aircraft with minimal downtime,”

“For almost 30 years the Aviation Unit has been an essential ‘eye-in-the-sky’

for our HCSO; providing support to ground patrol officers in the execution of pursuits, surveillance, and search and rescue missions,” said Sheriff Jim Neil, Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office.

“This aircraft has flown nearly 10,000 hours in service of the citizens of Hamilton County and the surrounding region. We look forward to welcoming Air Unit 1 home later this summer as a greatly enhanced resource, and to continuing our legacy of providing exceptional public safety to our citizens.”

The Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office is responsible for providing primary airborne law enforcement support to more than eight hundred thousand residents and two hundred and forty square miles of Hamilton County of Ohio, as well as the nine surrounding counties in the Greater Cincinnati area.

ONE YEAR AFTER FATAL CRASH, THE BELL 525 RELENTLESS RETURNS TO TESTING On July 7, 2017, Bell Helicopter announced in a very brief press release sent to industry media outlets that the Bell 525 Relentless program has finally returned to flight status as the team at Bell resumed full scale test flight activity upon receiving an experimental certificate renewal from the Federal Aviation Administration for the aircraft.

“Today we have resumed a key element of the Bell 525 program,” said Mitch Snyder, president and CEO. “Bell Helicopter has worked with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and FAA since the accident and we are confident in the resumption of flight test activity.”

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“The team is focused on certification in 2018 and we are committed to bringing this innovative and high-performing helicopter to market,” added Snyder.

The news of the resumption of flight testing was announced one year and a day after the crash of one of the 525 Relentless test aircraft. The accident claiming the life of two test pilots aboard the flight test vehicle. The flight where disaster struck, occurring during a test flight, within an hour of takeoff from the Bell Helicopter Xworx facility in Arlington, Texas.

While only a preliminary report has been released in the 525 crash by the National

Transportation Safety Board, preliminary reports indicated the main rotor striking both the front passenger cabin and shearing the tail, as the helicopter to break up mid-flight. The crash spreading debris over a large area as parts of the aircraft came to rest in a field approximately 54 miles from the Xworx facility, northwest of Italy, Texas. A small farming community located in the southern portion of Ellis County at 11:45am on July 6th 2016.

The Bell 525 Relentless was first announced at Heli-Expo 2012, as the world’s first fly-by-wire commercial helicopter, designed to operate safely and reliably in austere environments while minimizing pilot workload.

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June 2017 | 27

HELINEWS

LAS VEGAS METROPOLITAN POLICE TAKES DELIVERY OF NEW H145 HELICOPTER In a deal rumored to have cost $9.6 million dollars, the Las Vegas Metorpolitan Police Department received their air units new H145 this month.

the city government, making its first appearance on the show floor of the Airbus Helicopters booth at HAI 2017 in Dallas and completing delivery this week.

The H145 will replace the cities ageing military surplus UH-1H rescue helicopter, adding modern functionality to the unit that performs dozens of rescues in the area each year.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Search and Rescue Team is made up of part civilian volunteer crew members and part sworn law enforcement personnel and previously operated two 1973 Bell UH-1H Huey’s that had begun to show their age in recent years.

Heliweb Magazine learned through sources that the highly anticipated H145 ordered by the Las Vegas Metro Police Aviation Unit was officially accepted recently and will be making its way back from the Airbus Helicopters facility in Grand Prairie, Texas to its home in Las Vegas.

The helicopter purchase was approved in March of 2016 by

28 | heliweb magazine

The departments aviation unit that maintains, flies and provides crews for the aircraft also operates several MD helicopters models in a law enforcement capacity for patrol work.

While military surplus helicopters have served a number of aviation units for many years, the 1973 models of the Las Vegas Metro Police were starting

to show general deterioration from many years of service that became costly to maintain at the same time that parts for the over 50 year old airframes were becoming harder and harder to obtain.

The police departments financed the purchase of the helicopter from the sale of an older patrol helicopter and also used funds gained from a lawsuit in which they were successful plaintiffs that netted the agency several million dollars.

The twin engine H-145 will suit the demands of the hot and high environment that they operate in constantly, regularly performing rescues in nearby Red Rock Canyon.

The helicopter has been fitted with a winch system that will enable the departments Search and Rescue team to continue providing their valued service to the community.

SWISS ROTOR SOLUTIONS ANNOUNCES A S - 3 5 0 M A X I M U M P I L OT V I E W K I T Swiss Rotor Solutions, based in Zweisimmen, Switzerland announced in early July that the company’s Maximum Pilot View Kit has been released for Airbus Helicopters H125.

Swiss Rotor Solutions Maximum Pilot View Kit also recently received Supplemental Type Certification from the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) validation is expected to close shortly. The Maximum Pilot View Kit revolutionizes pilot visibility and operational safety via a completely new design, states the company, providing the pilot with an uninhibited field of view below and to the right hand side of the aircraft.

The modification adds a new single piece bubble door to the aircraft,

that offers a significant increase in lateral visibility, and pilot headroom when leaning to the right, even when wearing a helmet. A large lower viewing aperture and transparent fuselage window fairing significantly increases the vertical field of view forward, aft and directly underneath the aircraft by a factor of ten, compared to existing solutions.

The company’s Maximum Pilot View Kit is also said to dramatically improve the capability and safety to perform demanding operations such as sling loading, fire-fighting, SAR/ EMS, confined area operations, aerial survey, seismic, law enforcement and any other tasks performed in close proximity to terrain, obstacles and ground crews or when operating at remote landing sites.

AeroBrigham LLC out of Decatur TX will offer complete turn key installations of the Maximum Pilot View Kit to the US Law Enforcement Community and undertake the continued airworthiness of the unique structural modification requirements.

Designed specifically for the H125/ AS350 helicopter, the structural modification kit comprises two main pieces, with the new door accompanied by the lower vertical window assembly and associated floor and fuselage insert/frame.

To date, Swiss Rotor Solutions has already completed 9 Maximum Pilot View Kit installations on EASA registered AS350 / H125 and 28 Maximum Pilot View Kits are also on order for European aircraft.

June 2017 | 29

HELINEWS

NEAR MISS WITH DRONE IN AUSTRALIA AND GROUNDING OF FIRE FIGHTING HELICOPTERS LATEST IN DRONE INCIDENTS Story by Colt Roy

A helicopter carrying five passengers in Australia on a sightseeing flight along Sydney’s northern beached missed a drone operating less than ten feet below the altitude of the helicopter as it flew over the drone flew in the opposite direction of the helicopter on the same heading on July 8th, 2017, sparking renewed calls for increased penalties in relation to the unsafe operation of drones in Australia.

In footage released to Australian Television network 7 News, Sydney, footage captured by the pilot’s forward facing camera spots a DJI Phantom drone flying less than ten feet under the helicopter.

Appearing first a small dot that quickly gets bigger on screen as the drone passes directly under the nose of the helicopter less than 10 feet below.

“This is a big, big wake up call to anyone flying drones. It’s their responsibility to follow the rules at all times” said Peter Gibson, a representative for Australia’s Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) in relation to Sunday’s incident in an interview with Channel 7 Sydney.

CASA, Australia’s aviation watchdog only has the regulatory power to fine owners and operators of drones that fly them in an unsafe manner. Fines issued by CASA for violations can range from $900 to $9000 AUD ($7000 USD) although the regulatory body has issued few fines thus far.

Westpac rescue helicopters in numerous locations around Australia have reported to CASA several occurrences over the last six months where helicopters involved in emergency transportation have had to divert or take evasive action to avoid careless drone operators – one of which was flying at over a thousand feet on March 26th 30 | heliweb magazine

of this year, forcing the helicopter to take evasive action to avoid a collision with a drone flying at 1000 feet.

In stark contrast to the light touch of Australian regulatory authorities, a 54-year-old Arizona man, identified as Gene Alan Carpenter of Prescott; was arrested and charged with 14 felonies after his alleged unauthorized drone flights that violated the airspace of an existing TFR set up to protect aircraft involved in aerial firefighting operations.

Air attack units were supporting ground units fighting the Goodwin Fire when the unauthorized drone flights took place that led to the grounding of fourteen aircraft and the suspension of ground firefighting efforts due to the lack of aerial support, should firefighters become surrounded during firefighting efforts.

same county just fourteen miles south of the Goodwin fire where crews were grounded from this incident.

“The suspect in this case is alleged to have flown his drone between June 24th and 28th operating near the Goodwin Fire” said Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Dwight D’Evelyn.

A press release on the incident detailed an air attack pilot stating he saw a drone flying at his altitude that began circling his aircraft. This incident prompted an hour long grounding of all firefighting aircraft, and the subsequent halt of all ground based fire attack.

The alleged drone flights occurred in Yavapai County, Arizona, a location that is still remembered by firefighters across the nation due to a tragic event that occurred five years prior close to the location of this incident.

Police arrested Carpenter, 54, on Friday July 7th after a man matching his description was caught operating a drone near a white van. Police used photos from the drone that Carpenter had uploaded to his own website throughout the week to help identify him. During his arrest, police confiscated the drone for use as evidence. Carpenter is now facing one felony count of endangering an aircraft for each aircraft grounded as a result of his alleged actions.

It was in Yavapai County on June 30th, 2013, that 19 City of Prescott firefighters, members of the Granite Mountain Hotshots, made the ultimate sacrifice as they were overrun fighting the Yarnell Hill Fire in the

In 2016, Arizona passed SB1449, which makes unmanned flights illegal in areas that interfere with Law Enforcement or Firefighting operations or interferes with the operation of manned aircraft flight.

Photo by Jason Jorgensen

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO AIR GUARD GROUNDS 139 FLEET STATING GOVERNMENT CAN’T PAY $28.5M MAINTENANCE FEE TO COBHAM Photo & story by Ryan Mason

A change in government in 2015 has seen a dramatic shift in priorities for the small island nation as the once highly valued national security focused fleet of AW139s now sit idle along with crews that await missions they are no longer allowed to fly after a $200 Million TT(28,75 Million USD) maintenance payment to contractor Cobham Aviation became due.

The first payment due under the contract signed by the previous administration in Trinidad “too expensive.”

Since the inception of the ambitious national security program that would see the combining of the oil rich nation’s military aviation assets into a new military unit to provide helicopter based operations that support a multitude of missions including law enforcement, anti-terrorism, disaster relief, aerial firefighting, national defense duties, and air ambulance evacuations.

The Trinidad and Tobago Air Guard selected the AgustaWestland (now Leonardo Helicopters) AW139 in 2009 as the helicopter that would carry out their mission. The contract award also including the training of military officers with no prior aviation experience to become pilots in command of the AW139. The entire contract with AgustaWestland at the time stated as being valued at over $348 Million USD.

The contract further included the training and certification of TTAG’s maintenance personnel and rescue crewmen and also covered the operational management, maintenance costs and ongoing training for TTAG to eventually become a stand-alone operation. Becoming a stand alone operations is yet to happen, though originally projected to have become a self-sufficient operation by this time.

The AOC for the TTAG operation, along with the training needs of the agency was transferred to English company Cobham, who has now become the key focus of the Trinidadian government ire related to the ongoing costs of the program.

The latest payment due of $200 million TT (approximately $28.75 million USD) has been stalled by the Peoples National Movement Party cabinet that took power from the previous political party, the Peoples Partnership Coalition who were instrumental in the creation and ongoing political support for the much needed helicopter based national security operation.

The fleet of four helicopters operated by the award winning Air Guard was grounded as of July 3rd with the new government still to discuss the future of

TTAG’s helicopters at the Cabinet level.

Initial talks in Trinidad last week saw contractor Cobham volunteer to reduce the number of employees that provide service at the TTAG facility, although it is not known at this time what area the reduction in numbers will come from and what cost savings this will have for the Air Guard and TT Government in the long run.

“The government just could not afford that payment at this time, given the current economic climate. Today we took a decision at the level of the Cabinet that we are not in a position to pay $200 million to maintain our four Augusta helicopters for one year. We just can’t afford that and if we can’t afford it the helicopters will stay on the ground,” said Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley in a statement released to the media regarding the grounding of the nation’s only national defense assets.

Discussions on the future of the operation will likely continue for several weeks as the TT Government also decides if they continue using the helicopters for their intended role, or if the entire program that has served a benchmark for other nations may fold entirely, leaving national security missions a part of a past capability that may now be put in the hands of for profit

June 2017 | 31

HELINEWS

CHC ANNOUNCES MANAGEMENT BOARD CHANGES AS RESURGENCE EFFORT GATHERS MOMENTUM the company had completed one of the final steps in the company’s restructuring efforts, announcing the company’s final management board.

CHC made several appointment changes as the company moves forward to continue what has been a speedy rise back into the fold as a newer, asset light organization that has seen almost immediate success gaining several new contracts and renewals post restructuring.

Photo by Ryan Mason

CHC Group announced July 17th, that the company had finalized its management board appointments after completing its

financial restructuring earlier this year.

CHC Group announced July 17th that

“We’re are pleased to establish CHC Group’s new Board of Managers as we move past our restructuring and into a new era of serving our customers as a streamlined, more efficient partner,” said Karl Fessenden, President and CEO of CHC Helicopter.

“The leadership we have in place has decades of expertise in the aviation, energy and other related sectors and will provide valuable insights and perspectives as we continue to best align our business to the needs of our global customers and partners. I also want to thank Robert Del Genio, cofounder of CDG Group, and James F. Wilson, who both have resigned their board positions.

I can speak for everyone at CHC Group when I say we are grateful for their service and support while holding these positions.”

The Company’s updated sevenmember board was announced in a press release sent out early this morning that detailed the removal of two of the previous board members and the addition of two new board members that CHC believes will help them continue to grow post restructuring efforts.

32 | heliweb magazine

LIFE FLIGHT NETWORK TO OPEN BOZEMAN, MONTANA BASE WITH AW119Kx Life Flight Network continues rapid growth, expanding to provide air ambulance services in new Bozeman, Montana base with AW119Kx. Launching September 1st, 2017, there will be a new Life Flight Network base opening in Bozeman, Montana operating the AW119Kx. The new base which will be located at the Bozeman Yellowstone International Airport will be providing ICU level care provided by Paramedics, Flight Nurses, or Respiratory Therapists.

The reach of this new base will provide coverage for southern Montana and northern Wyoming.

“Whether a person has suffered a heart attack, stroke, or serious traumatic injury, every minute counts in the fight to save their life,” said Life Flight Network’s Chief Customer Officer Justin Dillingham.

“Opening a base in Bozeman means patients nearby can be flown to higher levels of care in significantly less time.”

He added, “As an in-network provider for both Blue Cross Blue Shield of Montana and PacificSource, we are a resource for hospitals and emergency responders to consider when there is a need for the

life-saving services we provide.”

Currently the Life Flight Network serves Montana from bases in Butte and Missoula, as well as from Idaho. Each of these bases has the ability to respond to locations that are more than 150 miles away.

The addition of this new base in Bozeman will further enhance the services available in southern Montana. Communities like Bozeman, Big Sky, Ennis, Ruby Valley, West Yellowstone, Livingston, Big Timber, and White Sulfur Springs will now have access to ICU-level care provided by an air medical service that is in-network for most Montanans covered by commercial insurance.

Life Flight opted for a Leonardo AW119Kx “Koala” helicopter to be housed at the new Bozeman base. The AW119Kx is at home in the high altitudes of Montana and thanks to its 230

gallon (870L) fuel capacity, which will be more than useful given the regions long distances between hospitals.

The AW119Kx is also configured to transport up to two patients at once. The company has continued rapid expansion in the Pacific Northwest in recent months, opening several bases and purchasing additional helicopters to staff each new location.

Life Flight stated that each new base creates about fifteen jobs and can contribute more than one million dollars annually to the local economy. The base will be staffed 24/7 with an ICU level nurse, a Paramedic or Respiratory Therapist and a pilot. The base will also employ two mechanics.

Photo by Allison Johnson

June 2017 | 33

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The new TB17 option’s internal heater is also stated to enhance functionality in cold temperatures as low as -40°C. The TB17 has a typical battery life of approximately eight years with minimal required maintenance (visual inspection and capacity check) every 2 years.

The new option is now available for all R66 helicopters from Robinson for $6,900.00

AUSTRALIAN AIA GROUP ADVOCATING FOR TILT ROTOR TRIALS FOR RURAL HEMS ROLE F o u n d e d i n 2 0 1 5 b y D r. P a u l Adams, a senior medical o f f i c e r, f o r m e r p a r a m e d i c and current physician with Queensland Health, Aeromedical Innovation Australasia (AIA) was incepted to improve patient care outcomes by accelerating the use of new aviation technology in the treatment and emergency air transport of patients. “ We a r e p r o m o t i n g a t r i a l for tiltrotor aeromedicine b a s e d a t We l l c a m p A i r p o r t i n B r i s b a n e ’s We s t , a n d i n r u r a l To o w o o m b a , a s t h e r e i s a n a p p e t i t e f o r t h i s t e c h n o l o g y, ” said Adams.

“Projections suggest we could transport an injured cattle farmer from a remote paddock i n S o u t h We s t Q u e e n s l a n d t o a Brisbane Hospital in half the time it currently takes by use o f t h i s m o d e r n t e c h n o l o g y.

Adoption of such technology could also attract a stateof-the-art support facility required to service and o p e r a t e a n AW 6 0 9 t i l t r o t o r aircraft, which would potentially provide a larger scale economic impact in Australia,” he added.

P r o j e c t S k y w a l k e r, t h e A I A’ s s e c o n d p r o j e c t , i s investigating the capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles ( U AV ’ s ) t o s u p p o r t s a f e aeromedical response, assistance in clinical care d e l i v e r y, a n d s u p p o r t f o r t h e efficient transport of critical medical supplies.

Project Artemis is the third project backed by AIA, focusing on ensuring consistent, optimal and coordinated aeromedicine for children and infants t h r o u g h o u t A u s t r a l i a . D r.

Adams stated that the work being carried out by AIA is not meant to demean the current systems in place, but urge industry leaders

and the general public to seek improvement where early adoption of life-saving technology would provide consistent benefit to lifesaving efforts nationwide.

“Current aeromedical services do a fantastic job, but we should be looking towards the future for ways to improve effectiveness and efficiency t h r o u g h n e w t e c h n o l o g y, w e want Australia to become known as pioneers and innovators in this field by striving to champion new futures for rural and remote healthcare with integrity and c o l l a b o r a t i o n ,” stated Adams about the overall purpose of the missions undertaken by AIA. AIA is a registered Australian charity operating as independent facilitators, focused on patient-centric improvements to communities in rural and remote Australia.

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June 2017 | 35

How do you

CONNECT with social media?

Let’s face it, for good, bad or indifferent reasons; social media is here to stay for the foreseeable future. This is just a fact of doing business with the public, whether you are a business in a traditional sense, or a public service agency. Even if they had been slower to adopt it, many, if not most departments in the government have now adapted to this change in the interactive climate. So, why should smaller units within those departments do the same?

Simply put, for community support.

When it comes to Law Enforcement Aviation, there are relatively few units that use one or more of the social media “big three” to interact with the public. However, the still smaller percentage of units that “effectively” use Facebook, Twitter and/or Instagram are seeing welcome short term and encouraging long term benefits to doing so.

81 square miles. With a population of just over 300,000 people it is the largest city in the “Inland Empire” area of Southern California.

The neighboring city of Corona with a population of 157,000 also falls under RPD Air Support’s umbrella, as Corona and Riverside have a shared Air Support contract. For a unit with 11 people total (5 pilots, 3 TFOs, 2 Mechanics, 1 Sergeant) and three MD-500 series helicopters, covering both cities, plus augmenting additional public service agencies such as the Fire Department and even flying surveillance support for a statewide Narcotics Task Force is no simple task, but one that RPD Air Support performs brilliantly!

One unit that has seen great success in using Twitter to interact with the public and further “humanize the badge” while increasing awareness and support from the community is the Air Support Unit with Riverside Police Department.

For a unit so prominently overhead and in the public eye, it was only natural for the department to ask them to begin a separate social media account by which to interface directly with the public. Officer Jeff Ratkovich, the @RPDAir1 Twitter account admin, explains that; with so many people using social media to get their news and information these days, it just makes sense for law enforcement to follow that trend.

Nestled about 60mi east of Los Angeles, Riverside spans an area of about

This allows units to get information out to the community rapidly, which, when

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it comes to public safety issues can be lifesaving. He further describes that in their experience has also been a great tool to help solve crimes. With the ability to reach such a large audience, getting a suspect’s photo out to the audience has resulted in numerous crimes being solved with leads from social media followers.

Since its birth in 2014, over 1300 tweets ago, the Air Support unit’s @ RPDAir1 Twitter feed has grown into an account boasting over 2,200 followers and 2000 likes. Understanding that subscriber attention is key, Ratkovich set out from the beginning to build Air1’s brand on Twitter. ”I had never used Twitter prior to us launching our unit’s Twitter account, so there was definitely a learning curve.

I quickly realized we could share the work we do with our followers, who genuinely seem to be interested in seeing what a police helicopter crew does. Our followers are not just the local community, pretty much all of the local and Los Angeles media outlets and even a few celebrities follow us.

As a kid who grew up watching CHiP’s, you have no idea how excited I was when I got a Twitter notification that Erik Estrada was following us!”

While achieving those stats alone is not an easy task, the most intriguing part of this feat is the degree of positive public interaction that @RPDAir1 receives.

Engagement is quite literally, everything, in social media. It does not matter if you have an account with one million followers if no one is actually paying attention to and interacting with the messages you are sending. Thus, it’s no surprise that citizen engagement is central to any social media efforts, especially for Law Enforcement entities.

Through Twitter, Air-1 has been able to tell the story of their unit. Chronicling many of the things they do on a daily basis that aren’t necessarily worthy of a press release, but that are interesting and most importantly show public what their police helicopter is out there doing for the communities they are there to serve.

In addition to keeping the public informed of the work they do, some of the posts are more lighthearted

and illustrate the human side of law enforcement.

Ratkovich states; “We have pretty good senses of humor and like to share that and sometimes that even means laughing at ourselves. Obviously that is an important component to our department’s overall community based policing philosophy.“ This approach has garnered positive feedback from the department, the city and the community, and has served to bolster awareness and increased community support to build upon not only for the Air Support program but for the Police Department as a whole.

Riverside’s recipe for social media success is in no small part due to the dedication of all of the professionals involved at RPD Air Support, but also their attention back towards the pulse of the community. Whether the unit is assisting in vehicle pursuits, visiting children at local hospitals, or landing at the local mall to give the community and up close and personal view of the helicopters, RPD Air-1 realizes and

demonstrates, that at all times, they are ambassadors for the police department and for aviators as a whole.

Further keeping Air-1’s Twitter feed relevant to the current interests of the community, Ratkovich monitors certain civilian maintained community pages on Facebook. For instance, if members of the public are talking on the, ‘What is Going on in Riverside County’ page, asking what the helicopter is doing over a certain neighborhood earlier that day, Ratkovich does his best to mention the helicopter’s mission that day on the @RPDAir1 Twitter feed.

This not only provides transparency of operations with the communities they serve, but also engages the community in a timely manner on current events that members of the community are actively talking about.

This obviously does not mean that every action/mission is posted about at length, but enough of the unit’s duties are illustrated to satisfy the public’s curiosity while leaving them eager to see future postings.

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Photo by Jeff Ratkovich Photo by Andrea Kaus

Ratkovich recalls one instance in particular where a comment on the community’s Facebook page quickly led to a community relations activity success.

“A couple of years ago I saw a post on one of our local community pages on Facebook. Someone had commented about how Air-1 had flown over and waved at their kids, who were playing in the yard and how awesome they thought that was. A bunch of people commented about how they wished Air-1 would fly over and wave at them.

Of course this got me to thinking about my own childhood when the Sacramento County Sheriff’s helicopter flew over one day and I was jumping around waving wildly! I’ll never forget 38 | heliweb magazine

how excited I was when I saw the arm of the deputy waving to me from the open door of that Hughes 300!

I contacted the administrator for that page, who is staunch supporter of law enforcement and suggested we do something for the community who wants to get a wave from the police helicopter. We organized a day for everyone to come out to Mt. Rubidoux, which is a hill top park overlooking Downtown Riverside and the adjacent Ryan Bonaminio Park (Which is named for one of our officers killed in the line of duty in 2010). The turnout was amazing as several hundred people showed up.

Police Officers and Firefighters were on-hand at the park to interact with the

public and right at a predetermined time, Air-1 showed up and we waved at everyone. We spent several minutes making sure everyone got their wave, before returning to our patrol duties.

Later that day, I was sent a photo of a young boy waving to us from the top of Mt. Rubidoux as we departed.

It immediately took me back to that day in my backyard and brought a tear to my eye. I was later presented that photo, along with a close-up shot of me waving from the helicopter. Both of them sit on a shelf at the top of the stairs in my house and serve as a constant reminder to me, to always pay forward the gift that I was given so many years ago, by those two deputies in that helicopter.”

As is plain to see, the relationship between Air-1 and the community of Riverside, through the Twitter feed and community Facebook page is very much two way street.

About a year ago, Riverside PD along with the Air Support unit was looking for a missing child. Air-1 posted on Twitter that they were looking for the child, and the, ‘What is Going on in Riverside County’ page shared the post.

The child was then quickly located at a neighbor’s house after the neighbor saw the post and realized their own child was playing with the missing child! In fact, Ratkovich feels that utilizing the Twitter feed in the manner that they do, assists the unit every day, remarking; “It has been a really great tool for us to connect on a daily basis with our community, our department and our city. As a unit who tends to be secluded out at the hangar (or in the air), Twitter has given us the opportunity to keep our story out there and to show the value of what airborne law enforcement unit can bring not only to our department, but to our entire community.”

When asked what advice he has for other units wanting to capitalize of the lessons learned by Air-1’s success on Twitter. Ratkovich recommends that units really think of the messages they are trying to send, before posting them. Just as people could benefit their personal

social media accounts by choosing to send ‘the right message’ and not just jumping to post anything, unit messages deserve the same degree of thought.

Ratkovich also suggests trying to keep posts positive and balance them with both the work being done and some lighthearted things, like the funny stuff encountered during a shift or aerial photographs of the city, which provide a perspective that many viewers do not have the luxury of enjoying on their own, so they are always a big hit with their followers. Lastly, he would also like to give a reminder about posting accurate and factual information, serving to reiterate that once the information is sent out, it can’t be taken back and if the information is not correct, that can have negative effects.

As the future of society and social media continues to grow and to change, it is essential to remember to adapt and change, keeping pace with the times.

One way that Air-1 is looking towards the future, is by taking their successes on the third largest social media platform (Twitter) and applying a similar recipe to a soon to be created RPDAir-1 Facebook page.

Adding a presence on the largest social media network, with over 1.8 Billion users, will not only open the Air Support Unit to a much larger audience, but will also potentially allow them to interact

with the community in additional, enhanced ways, like Facebook Live Events. In addition to larger post sizes and the ability to include more photos, Facebook Live events could further serve to interface the public more directly with Air-1 much as some other units have had great success in doing (one example that readily comes to mind is the US Navy Blue Angels live streaming some flights).

With these interactive potentials in mind, Ratkovich gives examples such as a live tour of the Air Support hangar, and adds that he is discussing with the department’s Public Affairs Officer about the possibility of doing a virtual ridealong, so that the public can even have an opportunity to virtually join them in the cockpit.

No matter what the future holds for social media and units such as RPD Air Support, one thing remains clear.

The concise, directed efforts of a unit to reach out and share itself with its community through examples of its own humanity, while imparting operational awareness and lighthearted humor, can lead to further tangible rewards of daily support, in words and actions, by that community, as well as the support of the city and the department. Imbibing all involved, with a greater overall understanding and appreciation of the unit and its many contributions to the community it serves.

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Story and Images by

Tim Pruitt 40 | heliweb magazine

TRAINING IN TEXAS Multi Agency Swift Water Rescue Excercise Many Texans residing in the Texas Hill Country enjoy the beautiful vistas of rocky hillsides; small towns that often echo with the sounds of live music or quaint festivals, and hot summer days spent diving into spring-fed swimming holes or floating down iconic rivers.

Those same rivers can at a moment’s notice turn deadly as recently occurred in Arizona. Those rivers run through “Flash Flood Alley,” one of the most flood-prone regions in the United States.

Following the curve of the Balcones Escarpment through Texas from Waco south to Uvalde. Flash Flood Alley’s landscape, combined with the right mix of weather conditions can become deadly in a matter of minutes as winds howling through valleys and large amounts of rainfall combine to create an inland “Perfect Storm.”

As rescue and natural disaster responses play a larger and larger role in law enforcement in addition to traditional policing roles in Texas, many agencies employ helicopters to provide rapid response in situations such as flash flooding where seconds can often mean the difference between life and death as raging flood waters rise.

Many agencies in Texas have performed rescues of citizens who have been caught unprepared and

become trapped by rising flood waters over the years.

To maintain proficiency in these types of tasks, each agency routinely performs training with their crews in hoist rescue.

In April of 2017, several organizations including the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), Travis County STAR Flight, Texas Parks and Wildlife, and Texas Task Force 1 held a multi-agency search and rescue exercise in Bastrop County, Texas.

The mission intended to sharpen crews skills when responding flash flooding incidents, the combined training exercise allowing each agency to practice working within a multi-agency response scenario in the event of a mass casualty rescue situation.

The multi-agency exercise began a simulation reporting multiple victims stranded after a flooding event. The Incident Management Team began to relay information to air crews through a Texas DPS Pilatus PC-12 Spectre that flew overhead transmitting information in an airborne command and control role. Crews aboard the PC-12 directed each aircraft to the location requiring the most urgent responses while maintaining airborne separation of the responding helicopters.

Mass airborne response situations can cause confusion in the air for responding helicopters, such as the one simulated in this training event, and real world examples including the effort

mounted after Hurricane Katrina hit landfall in New Orleans, Louisiana.

The response in New Orleans was unplanned and would later become known as the largest mass airlift in United States history that would see hundreds of residents who failed to heed warnings to evacuate stranded on the rooftops of their homes as levees failed and New Orleans quickly went under water.

The role of the Texas DPS PC-12 is one that the teams involved agree, is an essential requirement for any mass airborne response.

Not just to assist in the delegation of the most urgent responses as information is received from the ground, but also ensuring distance is maintained between responding helicopters that allow crews to concentrate on mission responsibilities, safe in the knowledge that aircraft and crew above them keep them out of harm’s way.

Aircraft involved in the training exercise included an Airbus Helicopters EC145 and two H125s from DPS, an EC145 from Travis County STAR Flight and an H125 from Texas Parks and Wildlife that all take part in what has become a critical safety and training exercise for all agencies participating.

The types of rescues effected during flash flooding typically

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who played an active role as live victims for the training exercise providing the extra dose of realism that rescuing a dummy cannot replicate.

This type of hands on simulation gives air crews the practice needed to simulate many of the complexities that can occur in a real world rescue. The set missions also providing teams with the ability face some of the challenges encountered in a real world rescue attempt. The goal for each crew, to succeed in saving lives in a time-dependent rescue operation where seconds count while flying as safely as possible.

“These training opportunities allow the pilots and crew to get real-world experience of the rescue.” Said Jeff Fisher, a pilot for DPS. “The training has to be as realistic as possible without being unsafe. This allows the aircrews to put into practice working and communicating with the other agencies” he continued.

Many Texans residing in the Texas Hill Country enjoy the beautiful vistas of rocky hillsides; small towns that often echo with the sounds of live music or quaint festivals, and hot summer days spent diving into spring-fed swimming holes or floating down iconic rivers.

Those same rivers can turn deadly at a moment’s notice, as recently occurred in Arizona. Those rivers run through “Flash Flood Alley,” following the curve of the Balcones Escarpment through Texas from Waco south to Uvalde, one of the most flood-prone regions in the United States. Flash Flood Alley’s landscape, combined with the right mix of weather conditions can become deadly in a matter of minutes as winds howling through valleys and large amounts of rainfall 42 | heliweb magazine

combine to create an inland “Perfect Storm”.

As rescue and natural disaster responses play a larger and larger role in law enforcement in addition to traditional policing roles in Texas, many agencies employ helicopters to provide rapid response in situations such as flash flooding where seconds can often mean the difference between life and death as raging flood waters rise. Many agencies in Texas have performed rescues of citizens involve victims located on top of vehicles, clinging to trees or sitting atop of structures trying to avoid rising water.

To realistically simulate rescues, the teams were assisted by recruits from the Austin Fire Department Academy,

Lessons learned from past training, and real world operations led to the creation of the Aircraft Operations Group (AOG) in Texas. The AOG as a group oversees the operational measures of a coordinated response to an event and allows exact location plotting during an operation to track the position of all aircraft involved in any response.

The command and control team are then able to send aircraft to where they are needed the most. If an airborne rescue was not able to be affected due to a hazard, that information is then updated in real time so as to not waste other air resources time by sending another aircraft to the same location.

Avoiding doubling up on resources in a rapidly developing crisis. This approach provides savings to not just the helicopter responding in air time but increases the safety of the entire response effort.

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#helipix

A Bundespolizei (German State Police) Airbus H155 and H225 arrive at an off site location for training. Photographer: Sarah Pfan 4646| |heliweb heliwebmagazine magazine

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Story by: Ryan Mason Images by: Ryan Mason & Kane Arlow

The Victoria Police Air Wing has saved countless lives over their decades of serving the people of Victoria, Australia.

Members of the unit at times risking their own lives in raging bushfires and mountainous oceans to rescue others.

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POLICE A I R

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Victoria Police is the primary law enforcement agency in the state of

Victoria, located in the nations south east. The State of Victoria was first established as a colony in 1851, forming the nation’s first collective police force shortly after in 1853 under the leadership of the first Australian Police Chief Commissioner William Mitchell.

operations in 1976, the air wing received its first pilot qualified to fly helicopters, which quickly led to Victoria police in 1977 conducting a six-week trial of using helicopters to assist routine police patrol operations. That six-week evaluation would shape the future of the Victoria Police Air Wing and lead the Air Wing on a path to the missions it provides today.

The State of Victoria covers 92,000 square miles a mostly rural landscape consisting of almost 92,000 square miles with a population of over six million people, of which almost 4.5 million live in the city and surrounding suburbs of the state capital, Melbourne.

Victoria Police’s airborne law enforcement efforts would also go on to become the benchmark for several other agencies that shaped their mission and vision from the example set by one of the first and most diversified airborne law enforcement operations in Australia.

Victoria Police enjoys one of the highest community confidence levels in the world, with more than 86% of Victorian residents feeling confident in contacting police.

Victorian residents surveyed during national census data collection in 2016, giving Victoria Police a 76.9% satisfaction rating regarding resident’s opinion of policing services in general.

AIR WING INCEPTION The Victoria Police Air Wing was officially formed in 1975 after members of the Victoria Police Aero Club were given the opportunity to demonstrate the value of airborne operations to Victoria Police administrators. The demonstration included then Chief Commissioner Reginald “Reg” Jackson.

Also present were Victoria Police assistant commissioners, and members of the Victorian government.

After the demonstration achieved initial approval to create an airborne law enforcement arm of the Victoria Police, the first operational flight of what was to become the Victoria Police Air Wing was completed on May 22nd, 1975.

The unit commenced operations with a single fixed wing Cessna 182, which over time was expanded to include several different twin engine planes including the Piper PA31 Navajo and Aero Commander 500S that was used for transporting Victoria Police members around the state.

Just a year after commencing 50 | heliweb magazine

In 1993 as the unit moved away from providing the transportation role started in the 1970s and transitioned into a group focused solely on law enforcement operations, the Air Wing moved to discontinue the use of fixed wing assets as helicopters began playing the primary role in airborne law enforcement operations around the world.

FLEET In 1978, the Air Wing began rotary wing operations through the lease of a Hughes 500D helicopter that was flown mainly at night to support ground operations for a year until the Chief Commissioner Mick Miller announced the purchase of a twin-engine Aérospatiale SA365C1 Dauphin helicopters registered as VHPVF, given the call sign “Air 490”. The Dauphin was the first Aérospatiale SA365 to be put into service in Australia, and due to its success in the role, led the Air Wing to purchase two additional SA365C1 Dauphin helicopters in 1986 from the Romanian government.

A single-engine Aérospatiale (now Airbus Helicopters) AS350B Squirrel was added to the fleet in 1988 to perform non-standard policing operations that included aerial observation duties and traffic patrols in country areas of Victoria.

Also, the AS350 served as the initial training aircraft for Victoria Police pilots before transitioning into the larger twin engine Dauphin.

Victoria Police opted to contract out the ownership and maintenance of the agencies helicopters. The agency selecting Lloyd Helicopters bid. Lloyd Helicopters was later acquired by global

helicopter operator CHC Helicopters, who now own and maintain each of the agencies current fleet of four helicopters. CHC in conjunction with Victoria Police began the process of replacing the Air Wing’s SA365C1 models in 2001 sticking with the airframe that had proven successful and replacing the current helicopters with two AS365N3 Dauphins. The air wing also replaced the remaining SA365C1 with another AS365N3 and an Airbus H135 T2+ to the fleet in 2009.

UPDATING FACILITIES Since its creation in 1977, the Victoria Police maintained operations from a pre world war two hangar on the northern edge of their base at Essendon Airport on the outskirts of the city of Melbourne. In 2009, Victoria Police in conjunction with the Metropolitan Ambulance service moved into a state of the art purpose built a facility at Essendon airport that would house both the Victoria Police Air Wing and Metropolitan Ambulance Service (MAS) air operations.

The Victoria Police Air Wing operated an air ambulance partnership with MAS until 2016, which tasked one of the Air Wing’s AS365N3 helicopters in a dual purpose role. The Dauphin used as an air ambulance was also able to carry out policing duties when not required to transport patients in need of care.

Increasing demand over the years would see the Dauphin, call sign Air 495 or “PVG” to Air Wing members who reference each aircraft by their tail numbers spend most of its time in the air ambulance role, performing more than 300 missions each year on behalf of MAS. Initially, the aircraft contracted by Victoria Police and was in blue colors with Ambulance on the top cowl. On contract renewal in 2009, it was then contracted by Ambulance Victoria which resulted in the repaint to red with the police then on the top cowl.

After over two decades of partnership, MAS contracted out their air ambulance duties in 2017 to Babcock Helicopters who absorbed the responsibilities once fulfilled by Victoria Police and now operate a fleet of AW139’s that are owned, piloted and maintained by

VICTORIA POLICE | 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES

Photo by Paul Finnegan/Wikicommons

Babcock while MAS provides staffing for critical care treatment and rescue crews. The Dauphin used for that role is now in the process of being absorbed back into the Air Wing fleet and used for police operations once again after the aircraft is reconfigured by CHC’s in house maintenance team to once again fly in a dedicated police role.

In 2016, Victoria Police Minister Lisa Neville announced that the Victorian Government had granted approval for the Air Wing to replace Victoria Police’s aging AS365 fleet.

The government is assigning a $63 million (AUD) budget for the purchase of replacement aircraft as part of a two billion dollar budget measure passed by the government aimed at improving Victoria Police operational capabilities.

The budget also includes funding to hire an unprecedented number of recruits, new training facilities, and upgrades to several hundred highway patrol vehicles that will see each fitted with Automatic Number Plate (license plate) Recognition (ANPR) systems.

“From the air, police do amazing work

to keep our community safe. That is why we are giving Victoria Police a state of the art Air Wing fleet to track criminals, respond to emergencies and support safer communities and ensure police have every resource they need to target crime and protect Victorians.”

No firm decision has yet been made by the Air Wing on what model helicopter will replace the workhorse Dauphin fleet, but the budget allocated also allows the Air Wing to purchase a fixed wing asset to provide and perform as an observation platform

SERVICE The Air Wing covers an impressive range of missions throughout the State of Victoria that sees the unit fly three thousand hours annually. Three hundred of those hours flown each year by the dedicated air ambulance helicopter before its discontinuation.

The Air Wing also dedicates substantial flight time to ensuring its pilots and crew are well prepared to respond to any incident. The Air Wing flying over 550

VH-PVG after completing decades of service as a dual role in an ambulance and police role, will be returned to its familiar blue and white scheme and resume a police only role.

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hours a year devoted to training that includes training with units that work in close collaboration with the Air Wing, including the Victoria Police Special Operations Group, Dog Squad, Water Police, and Search and Rescue Squads.

MISSIONS The Victoria Police Air Wing has assisted in saving the lives of many Victorian citizens over its almost forty years of operations responding to several thousand calls for service each year that range from search and rescue tasks, assistance in locating missing persons, and marine incidents that occur on vessels at sea or in Port Phillip Bay. 52 | heliweb magazine

The Air Wing also responds to missions dispatched through the National Search and Rescue Operations Center (AUSSAR) that number over 20 missions each year. Helicopters from Victoria Police are also asked to assist in missing aircraft searches several times a year on top of their regular day to day patrol work supporting ground units.

STAFFING Staffing a large operation like the Air Wing requires a small army of staff to ensure smooth day to day unit operations. Current management of the Air Wing is overseen by an Inspector assigned to manage the Air Wing,

several civilian administration staff, Senior Sergeants, and Sergeants that are qualified Tactical Flight Officers (TFO’s) that work operational shifts as part of the flight crew. The remainder of air wing staffing is made up of Senior Constables that form the flight crews of TFO’s and pilots. The Victoria Police Air Wing is also overseen by a Chief Pilot that also works in a functional role as a line pilot as well.

H IR IN G A N D Q UALI FI CATI ONS Victoria Police hires both internally and externally for pilot roles, due to the high qualification requirements, the

VICTORIA 40 YEARS YEARS OF OF SAVING SAVING LIVES LIVES VICTORIA POLICE POLICE || 40

“From the air, police do amazing work to keep our community safe.�

- Victoria Police Minister Lisa Neville majority of pilots that fly for Victoria Police are hired externally. The Air Wing has only one pilot that started his career as a general duties police officer, joining the Air Wing as a TFO later progressing into a pilot role. At present, there is only one career police member who is a pilot. Since 1998 there have been eight career police pilots including Chief Pilot.

All pilots with the Air Wing are required to meet minimums including a commercial helicopter pilot certificate, class 1 aviation medical and have at least 2000 flight hours in a helicopter with 1500 of those as a pilot in

command. Pilots are also required to have a command multi engine instrument rating in helicopters and several requirements specific to Australian CASA regulations that include a night VFR rating, hoist endorsement, and an NVG rating. Pilots are also required to be Australian residents or citizens.

Tactical Flight Officer candidates must be off probationary status (first two years of police service,) have excellent map reading and communications skills coupled with a sound knowledge of police operational tactics and strong

multitasking ability and be in excellent physical condition.

TRAINING Pilots joining the Air Wing from outside of Victoria Police are required to attend an abbreviated police academy course that equips them with basic policing skills in firearms, tactics, self-defense, and law, which upon completion, allows pilots to perform their duties as functioning police members in their operational pilot role.

The Air Wing sends pilots to Singapore as part of recurrent training to utilize a June 2017 | 53

full motion AS365 simulator, with the remainder of recurrent training and check rides completed in house using department aircraft.

During ongoing field training, Air Wing members will utilize the teams and equipment of specialized units that they work with regularly that include using the boats of the Water Police unit for marine scenario based training. This also includes working in rural mountainous terrain with Victoria Police Search and Rescue and in urban environments with the Special Operations Group (SOG.)

EQUIPMENT The four helicopters that serve Victoria are fitted with the most up to date equipment, sourced by Air Wing staff that strives to stay on the forefront of technology and allow members to carry out the many and varied missions completed each year by the Air Wing.

The Air Wing’s two primary police patrol aircraft, Polair 30 and 33, or PVD and PVH to unit members who identify each aircraft by tail numbers. Each operational helicopter is crewed by a pilot and two tactical flight officers on each flight.

TFO’s perform dual roles during each flight that can switch from the role of operating surveillance equipment on general policing roles and working as an extra set of eyes for the pilot in the front seat, to taking on the roles of rescue crew member and winch operator if dispatched to a search and rescue job.

Each of the four helicopters operated by Victoria Police can be fitted with a FLIR Star SAFIRE EO/IR camera mounted on the forward port side of the aircraft. The unit then feeds imagery to the rear seat TFO which also supplies the images simultaneously to a front TFO station in the copilot seat via dual 10.2 inch NVG compliant panel mounted Flight Display Systems screens featuring a custom designed, mounted Boland 15.6 inch NVG compliant LED touchscreen monitor.

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The FLIR Star SAFIRE can be operated in either the rear or the front TFO position. To manage the data requirements of the onboard EO/IR system, the Air Wing selected an Air Knight Digital HD recorder that records all recorded imagery via Secure Digital cards.

Victoria Police helicopters are often required to perform long distance flights to complete search and rescue operations and are also tasked with operating in urban areas that sometimes require precise positioning. The Air Wing uses the MissionMap System, designed and built by Sydney based Logimap. The MissionMap system with GPS assisted HD quality moving maps is also displayed on both front and rear TFO screens via a toggle switch that allows quick access to mapping and FLIR imagery as needed on board the helicopter.

Each helicopter is also equipped with a digital downlink transmitter that enables ground based resources and officers in the Victoria Police Flight Coordination Center to see live imagery of incidents, assisted at times by illumination provided by an onboard Specrolab Nitesun SX-16. The Air Wing performs rescue winching using a Goodrich Hoist system capable of performing winching tasks at up to 250 feet below the helicopter. The winch is capable of lifting a useful load of over 272 Kilograms (598.75lbs) which enables the Air wing to accommodate the majority of rescue cases they perform.

Each helicopter in the Air Wing fleet can perform in a search and rescue role statewide with the exception being the Airbus Helicopters H135, which was not fitted with a hoist due to the aircraft initially having a different mission profile than that of the Air Wing’s Dauphin fleet.

The H135 helicopter is however still used for Search and Rescue operations not likely to require extraction of a victim via hoist.

VH-PVG which was previously utilized for ambulance duties is undergoing a modification to return it to full police

configuration, Polair 35; the Air Wing’s third AS365 will also return to full-time search and rescue capability, further enhancing the existing capacity of the operation.

MAINTENANCE Maintenance of the Air Wing fleet is a fundamental component of Victoria Police’s strategy in providing the clock airborne law enforcement and search and rescue capabilities to the citizens of Victoria. Maintenance needs are carefully scheduled around the operational and training requirements of the Air Wing by CHC support staff that consists of a senior base engineer, two avionics engineers, five airframe engineers and two employees charged with maintaining the maintenance stores and safety equipment needs of the unit respectively.

S E A RC H A N D R ESCU E The state of Victoria boasts a temperate climate that attracts millions of visitors every year from both other states and international tourists. The state has many state parks and forests that feature varying elevations, walking tracks, and cliffs that make them a popular attraction for climbing enthusiasts and hikers alike. The state of Victoria also features hundreds of kilometers of pristine beaches and Port Phillip Bay directly south of the city of Melbourne that sees both commercial

VICTORIA POLICE | 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES

marine traffic into the Port of Melbourne and leisure craft that vary in size from small runabouts to large luxury mega yachts.

With the number of commercial vessels and pleasure craft that operate in the waterways of Victoria, and a constant flow of local residents and tourists that frequent inland areas for leisure activities - the Victoria Police Air Wing has a steady stream of search and rescue missions that can require response over water or land. standard Police configuration, the The VictoriaInPolice Air Wing are supported by a endurance can stretch governmentDauphin’s that appreciates the life saving role theytoplay and has consistently supported the Air Wing staying at the 2.5hrs but is a variable that fluctuates forefront of technology to aid their missions.

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The 1998 Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race saw the largest loss of life in any recorded sea race in Australian history, however, the total would have been much higher without the life saving rescues performed by a rescue contingent that numbered over 50 aircraft including five helicopters that winched over fifty people to safety from conditions some refer to as the “perfect storm� that occurred December 27th, 1998.

according to mission requirements. On occasions, Victoria Police is requested to assist yachts or boats in distress, sometimes over one hundred miles from the nearest coastline. Search, and rescue missions such as these are carefully planned out to ensure operations are conducted safely.

Inland search and rescue operations can quickly turn into overnight stays or tasks that require unit personnel remains in a location for several days at times, dependent on the severity of the situation or if inclement weather makes returning to base unsafe.

W H EN T R A I N I NG PAYS O FF Although the Victoria Police Air Wing has been involved in many notable rescues, none stand out more so than rescue operations conducted by officers from the Air Wing on December 27th and 28th, 1998 during the annual Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

As the afternoon shift crew started to settle in for their shift two days after Christmas that year the Air Wing operations center received a dispatch

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from the Australian Search and Rescue Center (AUS-SAR.) Minutes later, the on duty air crew were airborne and responding to an area off the coast of Mallacoota, a coastal town in the states east.

seas that almost turned the sea in the distance to white.

Rescue crewman David Key was at the time of the mission one of the longest serving and most experienced members of the Air Wing, having participated as either a rescue crewman or winch operator in over 800 rescues during his years with Victoria Police.

After refueling at the Mallacoota aerodrome, the crew was briefed by phone by AUSSAR that the situation had worsened as they were in flight and a massive rescue effort was being mounted to respond to 20 EPIRB activations within a 4000 nautical mile search area.

As the helicopter neared Mallacoota where they would stop for fuel, pilot Darryl Jones noted the rapidly deteriorating weather that was approaching cyclonic speeds of up to 80 knots on their tail and white caps on what appeared to be mountainous

Reports were now being received of at least ten yacht crew members in the water having been

The departing crew of Senior pilot Constables Darryl Jones, winch operator Barry Barclay and rescue crewman David Key had no idea that this mission would be one that no amount of training would prepare them for, and be a mission that all considered at several points during the rescue attempt, could be their last.

VICTORIA POLICE | 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES thrown overboard, and several yachts reported as already sunk during the race leg along the New South Wales and Victorian coastline. The rescue effort was soon to involve five helicopters, thirty-three fixed wing aircraft, one Navy vessel and several commercial ships in the vicinity that would work together to save the now dozens of stricken vessels caught in unheard of conditions that have not been seen since.

The immediate assignment given to the Victoria Police Air Wing was to respond 60 nautical miles from shore between Gabo Island and Mallacoota and rescue the four occupants of the yacht “VC Offshore Stand Aside.”

The team departed Mallacoota Aerodrome as pilot Senior Constable Jones noted a substantial speed increase via the helicopters speed gauge. The AS365 flown had a cruise speed of 120 knots. However, cyclone force tailwinds

in the area were recorded at 85 knots giving the helicopter a cruise speed en route to their assigned search area showing an indicated 205-knot ground speed.

The flight taking only ten minutes versus the thirty-minute flight time.

The conditions stated in an after action report detailed the weather conditions as “the worst conditions I have ever encountered due to the mountainous seas and ferocious winds” said Senior Constable Key, the rescue crewman on the flight in his statement of events.

Upon reaching their assigned search area, AUS-SAR diverted the Air Wing helicopter to search for the yachts “Sea-Anna” and “Business Post Naiad” which had both sent out mayday calls. A responding SouthCare Bell 412 was sent to the helicopters primary task where they rescued eight crew that abandoned the yacht VC Offshore Stand Aside.

The Victoria Police helicopter was also notified to search for the boat “Winston Churchill” in their search area as mayday calls began to stream into the AUS-SAR center faster than air assets could be assigned to look for them. After searching for the three vessels unsuccessfully for 15-20 minutes, AUS-SAR again reassigned the crew to respond to the yacht Kingurra who reported one of their crew members had been washed overboard after a wave hit the yacht. The situation made more urgent as reports relayed that the team member had slipped out of his safety harness and was now drifting further from the yacht with every passing minute, dressed in only long johns and a tee-shirt and had now been in the freezing water for almost forty minutes.

As the crew approached the last reported location of the Kingurra, the crew noted a red flare in the distance

Multi mission capability is the key to success for the Victoria Police Air Wing, who train their Tactical Flight Officers to perform whatever mission is required from a policing or rescue role.

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VICTORIA POLICE | 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES that quickly extinguished. This left pilot Darryl Jones to rely on his dead reckoning skills to continue towards their location with no visual references as ceilings ranged from 600-2000 feet, and sheet rain fell on the seas below that were described by the crew as literal moving mountains of water that ranged between 90 feet and 120 feet in size.

Senior Constable Jones established a hover as best he could at 100 feet from the sea below, coordinating with Senior Constable Barclay on how much winch line to deploy as Key was lowered for a rescue attempt of the missing crewman.

Several times Jones stated that he had to pull pitch to avoid waves that were approaching at eye level while hovering at 100 feet. The closest wave to the helicopter was recorded by the helicopter’s radio altimeter at less than 10 feet below the helicopter and over 120 feet in size, the equivalent of a four story building.

Several minutes later, the crew arrived overhead of the Kingurra and made contact with the skipper of the yacht who directed the helicopter to an area 600 meters (2000 feet) to the rear of the boat where their crewmember was last spotted.

Senior Constable Key surfaced and found himself right in front of American Kingurra crewman John Campbell. After fighting the waves and wrestling to get the rescue harness on the injured crewman who was too exhausted to assist Key, the two were being winched from the raging sea.

As the winch neared its end bringing the two close to the door of the helicopter, the winch froze less than a foot from the point where Senior Constable Barclay could pull the two into the aircraft. Sensing the exhaustion of the crew member and the potential risk of him falling back into the ocean, Senior Constable Barclay reached out of the helicopter attached to a rescue line and pulled Campbell into the aircraft. It would take a further six power cycle resets before the winch began to function correctly and Senior Constable Key could be brought back inside the helicopter.

The danger, however, for the crew and their rescued passenger was not over.

The extra time spent searching for other

missing yachts and the time dedicated to the search that required the helicopter to fly at a speed of over 100 knots just to stay over the rescue had burned more fuel than could have been forecast due to the “once in a lifetime” storm the crew was flying in. The rescue of Campbell had cost the team in fuel reserves, and it was now a game of chance as to if they would make it back to land or have to ditch the helicopter as they now battled the 85-knot headwinds to return to shore.

Senior Constable Jones started preparing the helicopter for a ditching and instructed the rear crew to position themselves by the door in case fuel reserves were exhausted, and a ditching was the only course of action. Jones noted during an interview several years later that in his head he had run the numbers every way he could and it appeared that unless the wind disappeared, that ditching was their only option and preparing the crew to survive was his priority.

Although he noted, he had planned to

By pure luck, Senior Constable Barclay spotted the crew member in the water and notified Jones to come back around to effect a rescue attempt. Senior Constable Key was then lowered into the raging sea below and was immediately hit by a wall of water that he estimates were 90 feet high and 35 feet thick that flipped him over in his buoyant state with his life vest. He then began tumbling him down the massive three story face of the wave that only stopped as he was submerged into the wave as the helicopter rescue cable stopped his fall.

Senior Constables Barclay and Jones then decided on trying to drag Key on the winch line towards the now flailing crewman that appeared to be at the end of his endurance fighting the mountainous seas.

After being hit by another wall of water,

LEFT: Victoria Police Air Wing members constantly train for situations that require extreme caution and good judgement. The Air Wing participates in over 500 airborne hours a year conducting training.

ABOVE: The command center of the Air Wing is where all search and rescue calls are dispatched from and where staff can monitor aircraft positions during a rescue, June 2017 | 59

ditch the helicopter in a way that gave his team and survivor the most likely chance of survival. Jones proposed to lower the chance of the blades striking the helicopter as they disintegrated on impact, which was also the scenario that was most likely to be one he would not survive.

As the two crew members in the rear of the helicopter tied themselves to their passenger to keep them together if a ditching occurred, Senior Constable Jones brought the helicopter’s power back to the lowest setting he could to try and conserve fuel. With 20 miles indicated remaining to their destination, and only 10 minutes of fuel on board, the wind that the helicopter had been battling the whole return journey disappeared in an instant.

The cliffs of Mallacoota became visible through the torrential rain and began blocking the ferocious winds that had so impeded their journey right as the 5 minutes until empty alarm sounded. Right as the helicopter reached land mass the

three minutes until empty alarm sounded as Senior Constable Jones nursed the helicopter to the staging area at the Mallacoota Community Center where he quickly put the aircraft on the ground just after 8 pm.

final crew member right as the Midnight Special sank beneath the surface and disappeared without a trace directly underneath the helicopter as the last crew member was pulled into the helicopter.

The crew noted that the helicopter powered down on its own a mere 40 seconds after touching down after complete exhaustion of the fuel reserves.

By the time the two crews that were sent to assist in what is now regarded as the largest scale maritime rescue operation in Australian history returned to their base in Essendon, the 1998 Sydney to Hobart yacht race had claimed the lives of six sailors and caused the sinking of five boats.

The crew of Air 490 that day went back out into similar conditions the next morning at 6 am after assisting other officers at the staging point for several more hours that evening and spending the night sleeping on the floor of the Mallacoota Police station.

The crew rescued four remaining crew members of the yacht “Midnight Special� after the SouthCare rescue helicopter reported it was at the maximum gross weight after picking up eight of the crew members. Senior Constable Key again returned to the heavy seas, completing the rescue of the fourth and

Only 44 out of a field of 115 starting participants completed the race. The ensuing rescue effort resulted in the airlift of 55 crew members from stricken yachts damaged by seas that were the biggest ever witnessed in Australia due to the development of a freak weather anomaly, a low-pressure system that developed and headed straight towards the race route. A weather phenomenon not usually seen in the hot summer months in Australian waters that have

Victoria Police fly many thousands of hours using both the Airbus AS365N3 and H135 performing police patrols, search and rescue and a long list of other missions to augment the efforts of officers on the ground.

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VICTORIA POLICE | 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES not been seen since the 1998 incident.

A Victoria Police Tactical Flight Officer prepares to take a position as a winch operator after the helicopter is dispatched to Bells Beach, on the Surf Coast of Victoria after reports of a surfer being swept out to sea by rough seas.

The Victoria Police Air Wing also completed two other sea rescues in similarly treacherous conditions in 2005 and 2013, both to rescue a solo yachtsmen that had suffered similar fates to those in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race.

Although the conditions that were not the same as those experienced in 1998, the rescues were similarly complex.

In their attempts to rescue both yachtsmen, being right on the edge of the distance they were able to respond safely to and with a tiny window in which to effect a rescue before having to return for fuel. Waves hit the 2005 incident requiring multiple winch attempts as the survivor and rescue crewman during extraction, one tossing the survivor back into the water.

The second 2013 rescue, again off the coast of Mallacoota in a similar location to that of the 1998 rescues saw the yachtsman desperate to escape his crippled yacht leap from the yacht on to the legs of the approaching rescue crewman still dangling above him in a desperate attempt to be saved. Both rescues were eventually successful, resulting in saving the life of each yacht captain.

INTO THE FIRE One of the most high profile incidents involving the Victoria Police Air Wing in recent years occurred on the 7th of February 2009, a day that was given the name “Black Saturday.� The

devastating fires that erupted across a large portion of Victoria were the most devastating to hit Victoria since the Ash Wednesday fires that took place on the 16th of February,1983. Those fires resulting in the deaths of 43 Victorians as 180 separate fires raged across the state fanned by winds reaching 68 miles per hour (110Km/h) and scorching temperatures common during the Victorian summer.

Black Saturday, would, however, prove to be far more deadly than the 1983 fires.

Resulting in over 400 fires across the state that took the lives of 173 Victorians and injuries to over 400 more, along with the loss of entire towns that were wiped out as the fire approached towns located at the bottom of hills that surrounded towns on all sides. The hills erupting in flames and approaching from all sides, trapping many as they tried to escape the flames that reached temperatures in places that imploded brick homes and melted the metal frames of cars where they sat.

The Police Air Wing as is the case with any large scale emergency were tasked with assisting in any way with rescues as people became trapped in their homes and businesses with no way to escape.

Some country residents are resorting to taking shelter in dams on their properties. Many hiding under fireproof

blankets for cover as fires raged above and around them, raising the temperature of the small dams substantially as the fires burned everything in their path.

The Air Wing was dispatched to one of the worst cut off areas in the town of Kinglake West, where it was reported that four people were trapped and believed cut off by fire and bushes that were exploding as the fires approached their location. The four individuals who called for help, a resident, and three friends, were trapped on Coombs Road, Kinglake West, where it would later be discovered as the fires were extinguished that 11 other people on the street had been trapped and perished in the flames.

As the Victoria Police helicopter approached the location of the call for help, the crew witnessed the home with fire sprinklers activated on the roof and fire approaching from the north west.

Key was lowered to the ground and was immediately approached by a female resident and her dog. Key spoke with her briefly and fitted her with a rescue strop.

She refused to leave without her dog, so Key picked up the dog and placed it between the two. While performing harness checks, the dog was spooked and escaped the pair.

Theher female again refusedfrom to leave without dog,

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again refused to leave without her dog, so Key disconnected both from the winch hook and the aircraft then cleared.

from above as smoke surrounded all of the vehicles, was able to drive himself and his grateful new friends to safety.

Their answer came just a minute later as the helicopter radioed Key to tell them to hurry up and get in their vehicles as they had spotted a small off road track that was as yet not surrounded by the inferno.

CONCLUSION

Those on the ground loaded up three vehicles and a horse trailer that was loaded with one resident’s horses and led by the helicopter that provided directions

No matter what mission they have been tasked with over the last 40 years, the Victoria Police Air Wing has responded with highly trained professionals that often risk their own lives in the performance of their duties as pilots, tactical flight officers, and rescue crew members for the people of Victoria that they serve.

The Victoria Police over the four decades of service the Air Wing has provided has shown a dedication to not only keeping the unit operational but to ensure that the Air Wing has the latest technology available to complete the diverse mission requirements that can change at a moment’s notice.

Entry into the unit is tough by design, as evidenced by the many hundreds of lives saved by unit members who regularly go above and beyond putting their lives on the line in service to their state and its residents.

LEFT TOP: Officers from the Air Wing can be required to perform th traditional role of a TFO or become a winch operator in a high angl rescue all in the same flight due to the diverse missions Victoria Po helicopters complete.

LEFT LOWER: A Victoria Police AS365 lands on the You Yang moun west of the state capital of Melbourne. Crews are regularly dispatch to locations like this to rescue injured hikers.

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VICTORIA POLICE | 40 YEARS OF SAVING LIVES RIGHT TOP: A birds eye view of Melbourne’s City from aboard one of the Air Wing’s AS365N3 helicopters as it captures imagery from its FLIR STAR Safire unit of the crowds below.

MIDDLE: Victoria Police Air Wing members are required to be in peak physical fitness due to the many search and rescue operations they attend each year.

RIGHT LOWER: The Victoria Police Air Wing operates out of state of the art facilities at Essendon Airport in the western suburbs outside of Melbourne.

he le olice

ntains hed

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Mesa Police Aviation have been fortunate that as the city has grown, so too has the aviation assets in their agency to cater to the population growth.

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HELI ART | MARC VEENENDAAL

SAN DIEGO SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT

Bell 205A - N549RL Dedicated to Deputy Rocky Laws EOW 7/6/2010

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Arizona DPS

Story and Images by Mark Bennett

PUBLIC SAFETY 6666| |heliweb heliwebmagazine magazine

Answering the call since 1962

“Courteous Vigilance� in the skies above the Grand Canyon State.

July 2017 | 67

HISTORY

Over the years the role of statewide law enforcement was passed to a number of different agencies, each focused on their own areas of responsibility — the Arizona Highway Patrol, Law Enforcement Division of the Department of Liquor Licenses and Control, and the Narcotics Division of the Department of Law.

Arizona is barely a hundred years old as a state. Law enforcement emerged from the Cowboys of centuries past, the likes of which include Burt Mossman and Wyatt Earp. Maybe you have never heard of Mossman, but his story figured large in the territory, before and after In 1969 each state-wide agency statehood, and helped shape what has become the Arizona Department was combined to become what is now the Arizona Department of of Public Safety.

Public Safety(AZDPS). Since their inception in 1969, AZDPS has further Like Earp, Burt Mossman spent time expanded their responsibilities to on both sides of the law, his time cover not just law enforcement, on the wrong side, however, was attributed more to a Mexican Captain but also operational and technical assistance to local and other Arizona who lost a duel with Mossman, state governmental agencies. This ending up shot in the process. That included scientific analysis, criminal event sent Mossman to a Mexican jail, from which he escaped to return information systems, statewide communications and, through their to the Arizona Territory. aviation unit, official transportation, aerial enforcement support, Mossman was later named the emergency response, and search & Sheriff of Navajo County, where in rescue duties.

1901 he became the first captain of the newly re-established Arizona In the last year, the state’s Rangers. (The original organization Department of Transportation’s had grown out of a militia formed in 1882.) Mossman, his two successors, aviation unit was also consolidated into the AZDPS aviation unit, bringing and their men succeeded in ridding with them additional assets and the state of large outlaw gangs, yet, missions. Still on the horizon for the territorial legislature disbanded AZDPS is the potential to bring the Rangers in 1909. On Valentine’s another government agency into Day 1912, Arizona became part of the Union as the final addition to the their operation as talks continue on a merger that would see the Arizona contiguous United States.

Department of Forestry combine their aviation department into the AZDPS Aviation Bureau, although nothing is finalized currently.

What is now the Aviation Bureau, was formed in 1962 with a single fixed-wing aircraft transitioning into becoming Arizona’s first statewide aerial search & rescue unit. In 1974, the Aviation Bureau also became the first statewide operation in Arizona.

Experience in Vietnam had shown the value of aviation to affect a search and rescue role, as at the time, much of Arizona remained unpopulated and without roads.

The advantages of air support were quickly realized and adopted.

PRESENT DAY Currently, the AZDPS Aviation Bureau operates five Bell 407 helicopters flown by sixteen pilots. The mission 68 | heliweb magazine

profiles and operational demands mean that prospective pilots must have at least 2,000 hours as PIC with a minimum of 1,000 turbine hours for eligibility. Currently, the average new hire comes in with 4,000 hours PIC. Pilots are also required to hold a commercial license and instrument rating, with preference given to those with NVG, mountain, and vertical reference experience.

Pilots seeking consideration must pass an initial pre-hire day/night check ride, similar to an FAA Part 135 check ride. If hired, the pilot will then face up to sixteen weeks of training that focuses not just on flying, but the wide range of mission profiles, protocols, procedures, and expectations of the Arizona DPS. New pilots are also required to attend Bell Helicopter OEM training in the 407 and, once assigned, will also complete annual OEM training in Texas. Additionally, pilots must maintain currency in vertical reference, short haul, NVG, and mountain flying.

New hires come aboard as civilians but are given the option to obtain sworn status, and most current pilots are, indeed, sworn Troopers, bringing its own set of compulsory recurrent schooling, including weapons training.

DPS Trooper-paramedics, of which there are currently nineteen serving the Aviation Bureau, are required to have three years of Highway Patrol experience before being assigned to aviation. When initially assigned to aviation they face a 16–20week training regimen that covers all mission profiles and concludes with a series of staged scenarios, recreating actual missions with external agencies and field actors playing their roles.

The Trooper-paramedic must also remain current and certified in their rescue and paramedic roles throughout their time. These certifications include Emergency Medical Technician-Paramedic, Advanced Life Support, Pediatric Life Support, Rope Rescue Technician, and Swift Water Rescue Technician.

Additionally, rescue paramedics are required to certify in CPR, Helicopter

Underwater Evacuation, obtain an FAA Class III medical, and other noncertificated recurrent training.

Since troopers also function as tactical flight officers, they are required to be sworn law enforcement and maintain currencies of their primary role in addition to flight requirements. Pilots and paramedics, alike, are full-time employees, though part-time assignments are considered on a case-by-case basis usually reserved for former full-time crew members.

The chief pilot of the unit is Trooper Cliff Brunsting, who retired from Army Aviation after 21 years and joined DPS in 1991. The chief paramedic, Dan Millon, joined DPS in 1999 after working as a paramedic in the private sector.

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The five Air Rescue helicopters are based in four locations around the state: Tucson, Phoenix, Flagstaff, and Kingman, with the fifth Bell 407 acting as a relief aircraft that can be stationed at any base as their primary aircraft is taken in for scheduled maintenance.

Maintenance tasks are typically performed at the aviation unit headquarters located at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport.

The Aviation Bureau Bell 407’s feature Rolls-Royce M250-C47B engines fitted with the VIP upgrade kit to assist with better hot & high performance, a must have in Arizona where mountains climb to over 12,000 feet, and temperatures can top 120 °F regularly. The engines are also protected by Donaldson IBF and

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IVF barrier filtration systems which, in addition to filtering out airborne contaminants, further contribute to greater available power and higher margins.

AZDPS 407’s are also equipped with a Spectrolab SX-5 searchlight, IAI TAMAM POP200 or POP300 FLIR units (captured to a Stark DVR if desired), Onboard Systems cargo hooks, and they can carry an SEI Bambi bucket if required for fire fighting if necessary.

The avionics suite onboard each of the helicopters features an ASU designed NVG compatible avionics package featuring a Garmin GNS 530 and 430 GPS. Although used in a multi-mission capability, AZDPS helicopters are all equipped to

provide complete medical care onboard in addition to their policing and search and rescue capabilities.

Each helicopter carries a Zoll heart monitor/defibrillator, oxygen, suction, fittings for hanging intravenous fluids and, critical in the desert, air conditioning; fitted by Paravion Technology in two aircraft and

by Air Comm in the other three.

Quality Aviation Services, a division of Evergreen, completed the first medical interior for AZDPS, while the subsequent four were completed by what is now Paradigm Aerospace.

The aircraft and their equipment are maintained by three maintenance technicians led by Aircraft Maintenance Supervisor Dave Taylor who came to the AZDPS as an independent contractor in 1986,

becoming a direct employee in 1996, having now been with the agency in both capacities for over thirty years.

AZDPS Rescue aircraft cover a state that covers nearly 114,000 square miles and is the sixth largest state in the nation, with a population of approximately seven million people.

From the agencies four bases, AZDPS crews can conduct search & rescue missions, day or night.

The unit staff has developed over the years a wide-ranging expertise level that is maintained by practical application and continuous training completed with other rescue professionals and SAR volunteers around the state. Crews also train regularly for toe-in, one-skid, and hovering ingress and egress, critical skills in a state with Arizona’s terrain.

In addition to rescue missions, the unit is called on to transport necessary materials, photograph accident scenes, support law enforcement ground units, survey disasters, or carry maintenance crews to remote locations on mountain tops. This last task can turn an otherwise 2-hour drive, including time spent crawling up rough dirt forestry roads, into a 35-minute hop.

Arizona DPS aircraft are often called out by other law enforcement

agencies or government entities around the state to assist them in various other missions too diverse to list.

SAFETY All pilots and crew of each helicopter are required to use a Flight Risk Assessment Tool for daily shift analysis and, as needed, an assessment tool for specific mission analysis as they arise. Post-mission reports are studied and discussed by all in the unit to evaluate any lessons learned and how they can continue to look for safer ways of doing the job they do.

Moreover, beyond these simple efforts, underlying all their missions is a culture of, and focus on safety.

Starting at the top of the units food chain, all the way down, the group follows established rules and regulations created by the Airborne Law Enforcement Association (ALEA) and evaluated by the Public Safety Aviation Accreditation Commission (PSAAC.)

of “Safety First/Mission Second.”

Yes, crews see themselves in the business of responding to emergency situations, but never want the emergency they respond to become their emergency, creating a second need for rescue where the rescuer then becomes the one in need of rescue.

Crews have it drilled into them from the top down, that the right decision may require them to say, “no, we cannot help you.” All troopers assigned to the unit are dedicated professionals eager to perform to their best abilities, but not at the expense of the safety of the aircraft or other crew members.

Whether helping enforce laws, hauling a stranded person out of peril, delivering medicine to a community cut off by flooding, or lifting a pregnant woman from the depths of the Grand Canyon, it is what they always train for, and it is what each appears born to do.

AZDPS is currently seeking accreditation in all three fields: public safety, search and rescue, and fire. Before attaining those goals, the AZDPS Aviation Bureau seeks to instill in all staff a mindset July 2017 | 71

MISSION REPORT : Four Peaks Arizona Department of Public Safety Aviation Bureau

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Four Peaks is a mountain ridge that rises on the horizon northeast of Scottsdale, Arizona. Over 7,500 feet at its highest, the dirt roads along its base are not particularly rugged, but their paths twist among canyons, ravines, and dry riverbeds. The mountain is high enough to keep its snowy mantle well into March and even later among the shadows on the northern slopes. The peaks are a billboard for the rugged beauty of the state.

A single mother, only 22 at the time, had gone out with a friend for an all too rare night out at a local Phoenix area bar.

The night starting out as a good time for the young mother before a series of mistakes and bad judgment resulted in a potentially fatal mistake that could have been her last.

After the bars had closed, the young mother and a friend had driven away from the city, seeking the solitude of the area around Four Peaks Mountain.

The two females who had been drinking wanted a chance to see starlight rather than streetlights and feel a breeze rather than heat rising from asphalt. The two friends laughing and joking as they drove further from civilization.

As the city faded into the distance, so too did cellular service from all but one cell

tower. The truck the two were in became stuck, and rather than get it unstuck; they decided to have some fun right there.

The friend who had a firearm in the truck gave it to the young mother, who had never even held a gun before.

The young woman, having no idea of the force needed to pull the trigger due to her inexperience with firearms and in her inebriated state, pulled the trigger, managing to discharge a .45 caliber round directly into her own leg‌while nowhere close to help.

The friend called for help, but while they could speak to the dispatcher, their remote location prevented triangulation so neither they nor those who would come to their rescue, knew exactly where they were. It was nearly four in the morning, and neither had paid enough attention to give dispatchers a good enough description of where they turned off the highway. It was now 4 am as the young mother began to bleed heavily.

The call was made to Central Air Rescue at 04:15, giving a rough location of the two friends. An AZDPS 407 was quickly launched and by 04:27 crews had begun their search.

It had been nearly an hour since the round had torn through her thigh and,

though it missed a major artery, she had lost much blood. Weak, alcohol further dimming her instincts, she made a call to her father, thinking it may be her last chance as she sat on the edge of losing consciousness. AZDPS was able to locate the pair at 04:45, but as the helicopter landed the young mother was barely conscious from loss of blood.

Fortunately for her, the terrain and vegetation were not dense in the area they sat, and the helicopter was able to land not far from the pair. Trooperparamedic Dan Millon raced to the girl while the pilot, Trooper Cliff Brunsting, secured the aircraft and readied it for transporting the injured woman. Millon stopped the blood loss from the wound and began pushing fluids. Her condition improved over the next twenty minutes and, with assistance from ground EMS units able to locate the scene due to the arrival of the helicopter, assisted in treating the patient and loading her in the aircraft before she was transported to a Scottsdale hospital for surgery on her selfinflicted gunshot wound.

She was released after a week and has since fully recovered. A traumatic event that without the assistance provided by the helicopters of the Arizona Department of Public Safety may have ended with a far less satisfying ending.

The night started out as a good time for the young mother, before a series of mistakes and bad judgment resulted in a potentially fatal mistake that without the arrival of an Arizona DPS helicopter, could have been her last.

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Los Angeles COUNTY FIRE 74 | heliweb magazine

Story and Images by

Scott Dworkin July June 2017 | 75

At close to 4,100 square miles, Los Angeles County, California is one of the largest counties in the United States. The Los Angeles County Fire Department provides fire protection and emergency medical services to over 10 million residents who reside in the unincorporated sections of Los Angeles County. That are includes 88 cities, and close to 80 miles of coastline of the Pacific Ocean and the nearby islands of Santa Catalina and San Clemente. This territory accounts for almost 30 percent of the regions residents.

L.A. County Fire, which numbers close to 5000 total personnel utilizes a wide array of advanced fire apparatus and lifesaving equipment to protect and serve its citizens, including eight helicopters as part of the Departments Air Operations Section that are available 24/7 for missions including aerial firefighting and search and rescue.

HISTORY L.A. County’s Air Operations Section was formed in 1957 with a single pilot and mechanic. The early operation flew one Bell 47 helicopter capable of dropping 100 gallons of water.

Today’s Air Operations Section is headquartered and located at Barton

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Heliport at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, California. Air Operations is headed by a Battalion Chief, and three Fire Captains that support day to day operations. The unit is staffed by 12 pilots that are augmented on duty in the air by 18 qualified aircrew Firefighter/Paramedics.

to allow crews to find hot spots during a fire from the air that are not able to be seen with the naked eye. These devices are used to direct target water or retardant drops on fires and also assist in strategic direction for fire crews on the ground to make sure hot spots do not reignite or spread.

The L.A. County Barton Heliport is staffed by 17 full time mechanics that maintain the Departments fleet of helicopters which currently consists of three Sikorsky S-70 Firehawks, (Copters 15, 16 and 19), and five Bell 412’s, (Copters 11, 12, 14, 17 and 18).

Capable of transporting up to 13 (3 crew and 10 passengers) and fitted with a 1,000 US gallon (3,800 L) tank, the S-70 Firehawk is arguably one of the most effective aerial firefighting and rescue tools available anywhere in the world. Los Angeles County took delivery of its first two Firehawk helicopters in 2001 to better serve the emergency needs in the sprawling metro area. The County was the first local government agency in the world to purchase this type aircraft.

EQUIPMENT The unit’s helicopters are all multi mission capable and can be configured for fire, emergency medical services and search and rescue missions as needed. Each are equipped with fixed water drop tanks for aerial firefighting and hoists for search and rescue operations as well as provisions to carry swift water rescue teams and their associated equipment. Additionally, all of the Air Operations helicopters utilize 30 million candle power Spectrolab SX16 Nite Sun searchlights no assist in night operations. The helicopters are equipped with specialized infrared scanning devices and monitors which

HELICOPTER OPERATIONS L.A County Fire acquired their third S-70 in 2005. A fast and highly maneuverable derivate of the UH60 Blackhawk helicopter found in service with various militaries around the world, these helicopters provide Los Angeles County with advanced technology fire-fighting and paramedic capabilities. The Firehawk derivative includes specific firefighting and

EMS support equipment, specialized medical service interiors for evacuation of patients, multi mission capable avionics, night vision device capable avionics and is fitted with landing gear extensions to clear the added belly tank underneath the helicopter.

The Firehawk has the ability to drop water or fire suppressant material accurately over a target area. Once at a water source the aircrew have flexible options for refilling the water tank. The helicopter can land next to the source while water is pumped aboard via a connector on the side of the tank or it can hover directly over any water source, and water can be pumped aboard through a 3.6m-long snorkel hose, both options at a rate of 1000 gallons a minute. The tank also contains a 115 litre foam reservoir.

Foam can be mixed with the water during flight at whatever concentration is required. With its powerful twin General Electric (GE) T700 engines it can rapidly transit to and from a water source and back to the fire area in mere minutes. Additionally, because of the immense power provided by the

GE engines the helicopter is capable of doing very heavy long line hoists, even at higher altitudes where most helicopters would struggle.

The Air Operations’ five Bell 412 can each transport up to 10 (2 crew and 8 passengers) and are fitted with a 360 US gallons (1,400 L) tank. Two of the 412s are the HP version which is powered by the Pratt & Whitney PT6T-3BE engine, with an improved transmission over the original 412 model, with the other three being the newer Bell 412EP version, powered by the Pratt & Whitney PT6T-3D engines, featuring a dual digital automatic flight control system.

Both variants of the 412 utilize a composite four blade main rotor system. Similar to the Firehawk, the 412 is capable of fulfilling the multimission role of medical response and transport, technical rescue, personnel transport and aerial firefighting. The 412 can ferry and insert a crew of eight wildland firefighters rapidly to the frontlines and features an average fill time for 360-gallon onboard tank of only one minute, making the average turn-around time on drops a quick five

minutes, including fill time, making the 412 a strong asset during a firefight with each of the county’s Bell 412 helicopters able to deliver over 4,000 gallons of fire suppression material per hour, which in many cases exceeds the performance of larger, fixed-wing air tankers.

In addition to its own fleet of aircraft, the county leases at least two Bombardier CL-415 air tankers, commonly known as Super Scoopers, from Quebec, Canada during the active wildfire season in Southern California, typically September through January. The amphibious aircraft are capable of landing in the nearby Pacific Ocean or any large body of water and “scooping” up to 1,600 gallons of water from the surface giving them the ability to stay airborne and relatively close the scene of the wildfire for an extended period of time providing there is a large enough water source nearby.

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located throughout the County, however the aircraft provides the flexibility to use any water source as long as it has the required room to land and then take off. The County also leases at least one Erickson Air-Crane S-64F that can hold 2,650 gallons of water or retardant, also based at Van Nuys, to augment its fleet of helicopters.

COUNTY OPERATIONS The mission of covering such a large area, from the Pacific Ocean in the west to the highest mountains in the Angeles National Forest at over 10,000 feet, out to the remotest parts of the local Southern California desert in the east provides Air Operations with a multitude of calls on a daily basis that range anywhere from vehicle accidents that require an aeromedical evacuation flight to a local trauma center, to lost or injured hikers in the hills all the way to fighting the largest brushfires.

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Because of the vast distances involved the unit forward deploys a minimum two helicopters and aircrew daily to locations strategically spread across the county. These locations are the North Operations (NCAS) at Fire Station 129 in Lancaster, the East Operations (ECAS) at Bracket Air Field, in LaVerne, and depending on fire conditions a third location, the Central Operations (WCAS) at Fire Camp 8 in Malibu is used. These forward deployed locations are designed to provide expedited EMS and Firefighting service in remote locations and areas without available nearby Trauma Centers.

By using these forward deployed locations, once dispatched, helicopters typically arrive on scene within 10-15 minutes. L.A. County Fire also utilize over 100 pre-determined helispot landing areas spread throughout the county that hold a water supply, typically a hydrant, so that a team on the ground can forward deploy to the helispot, set up for the

helicopter, where the pilot can then land, refill and quickly be airborne and back on the fire line.

HIRING AND TRAINING With the demanding and varied missions flown by the county, to be accepted for employment by the Air Operations Section is no easy task.

Pilots who apply typically will have thousands of hours of experience in rotorcraft. The department will only consider pilots that have experience flying in all types of environments and conditions, given what they will likely experience flying for Los Angeles County.

If a prospective pilot’s application is accepted, the department will then send applicants through a sixmonth probation/training period, this includes initial training at Flight Safety International on the Bell 412. If an applicant has prior Sikorsky S-70/UH60 military experience, those applicants may also attend the S-70 initial course

also at Flight Safety during that first six months. If they do not have prior UH-60 experience, the initial transition training will take place in that aircraft after the six-month probation is completed.

employee. Once the probation period is complete, the pilot then will receive further training, including more advanced training in EMT skills and annual 412 and S-70 refresher training.

The first six months are typically devoted to transitioning the new pilot to the department’s multi-mission roles of firefighting, search and rescue, and emergency medical calls. This transition includes each pilot obtaining an EMT-I certificate, Incident Command System training, wildland fire behavior training, night vision goggle training, and training specific to the County Fire Department.

Pilots also receive mission training in hoist, short-haul, and swift-water and blue water rescues as well as external load, large animal rescue, helitorch, and unaided/aided (NVG) flight training.

Consistent and continual training, even for the most veteran pilot and aircrews is paramount at Air Operations, as many of the pilots expressed that they will see things on flights every week that they may have not seen before.

As the department hires only experienced pilots, the initial transition period flights are mostly designed to introduce new pilots to the agency to the surrounding area, airspace, mission specific requirements with the existing flight crews, maintenance, and support personnel. Finally, an evaluation flight with one of the unit’s senior pilots is the final step in the probation period before the new hire pilot becomes a permanent

A snapshot look into some of the statistical data from the unit bears out the diversity of calls, as last year Air Operations responded to over 1000 emergency medical service calls, and over 280 fire calls alone resulting in over 700,000 gallons of water and foam dropped. The aircrews also conducted close to 100 hoist rescues throughout the County.

MUTUAL AID The assets of LA County Air are also routinely called by other agencies in the local area for support on various calls, especially on large brush fires as part of the mutual aid system in place. The mutual aid system was established to provide assistance to jurisdictions in nearby counties and throughout the state, when the size of a major emergency exceeds the control capabilities of a local fire department. This system can be activated for such things as major wild fires, earthquakes, and large scale hazardous materials emergencies.

The air assets from LA County Fire are always in high demand and requested by mutual aid incident commanders and the air unit may respond several times per month during fire season as part of this system. All of this makes Los Angeles County’s Air Operations the largest, and busiest multi-mission Fire Department aviation program in the United States.

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FLYING LONG LINE RESCUE Story and Images by

Eric Lian

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The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Henry 1 helicopter takes long lining seriously as their loads are often human cargo.

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Henry 1, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Bell 407 completes long line rescues regularly around the coastline of Sonoma County that features terrain as seen. Photo by Eric Lian.

Historically, external load rescues were thought impossible by all but large military helicopters. Carrying a pilot, co-pilot, flight engineer/hoist operator, and rescue crewman, military pilots hovered their helicopters over targets using the earth’s horizon as a reference to level the aircraft’s attitude. Pilots received audible positioning cues from the hoist operator in the rear of the aircraft. The hoist operator lowered a rescue crewman down a cable to the victim and hoisted them and their victim back to the safety of the helicopter.

There was plenty of power, and you could carry all of the equipment and personnel you needed.

The question law enforcement operators like the fledgling Sonoma County Sheriff helicopter unit faced in the mid-70s was how could a light law enforcement helicopter; too small and underpowered for hoisting operations, participate and add value in the rescue arena? The reason for the question was not trivial or self-serving.

There were a countless number of ways for people to get themselves into serious trouble within the 1,768 square 82 | heliweb magazine

miles of mountainous forest, narrow river canyons, and steep coastal cliffs bordered by the world’s largest ocean in Sonoma County.

The same diverse environment that attracted people to live in the area and visit from around the world could also become a life threatening incident quickly if they were careless or just plain unlucky. Most rescues in Sonoma County involved non-injured persons who become lost, stuck in steep terrain or in water and are unable to make it back to shore. Some occurred on the decks of incapacitated watercraft or involved injured persons who had become stuck in an area of difficult or treacherous terrain.

Without helicopters and crews available that possessed advanced capabilities, the responsibility rescues most often fell to ground crews.This required extended response times, risked injury to firefighters and other ground personnel in dangerous terrain, much equipment, and sometimes several hours spent effecting a rescue.

The initial method of helicopter rescue

in Sonoma County was borrowed from the military, using a Hughes 500 and a Billy Pugh net on a short line with an observer directing the pilot while watching the victim in need of rescue. Rescues were accomplished without the victim being accompanied, but there were grave and valid concerns about allowing civilians with no prior training to self-rescue by climbing into an open net or basket or correctly getting into a horse collar. That, coupled with the liability and those who needed rescue but were incapable of saving themselves changed things over time.

When the program transitioned to Bell aircraft in the 1980s, hoisting operations were still too heavy for the type of aircraft being flown and the hoist too expensive for the department to afford when faced with the initial cost of the aircraft. The transition to long line rescue introduced the use of a 35-foot long line attached to a rescuer that they would meet up with at the scene. However, this still required an observer to keep an eye on the rescuer and the victim to position the pilot while the pilot maintained the visual reference on the horizon.

The theory of how rescues could be accomplished without a hoist or an observer was first proposed in 1984 by Tom McConnel, the unit’s second civilian pilot. McConnel had come to the group with an extensive background in flying fire suppression, power line maintenance work and was also a former Vietnam combat pilot. His solution was to institute long line rescue by vertical reference, a technique he was very familiar with and used in commercial operations before joining the unit.

Flying by vertical reference, a pilot can effectively maneuver the helicopter with an external load without an observer had several advantages.

The weight of the aircraft without an observer reduced weight, thereby allowing greater lifting capacity. Two rescuers could also be placed on the ground instead of one if this method was adopted, which also proved to be more useful in treating, stabilizing, and packaging patients for transport when responding to medical emergencies.

“Grab and go” rescues of uninjured persons would also be executed more efficiently as the pilot would not have

to rely on audible queues from an observer. One other critical advantage seen as a plus to this type of unique rescue method is that the aircraft would spend less time in the dead man’s curve without having to hover in place to complete a hoisting evolution to pick up the patient.

As the department’s decision makers became more comfortable with the idea of long line rescue under McConnel’s tutelage, McConnel phased the observer out of the cockpit and increased the length of the regular long line from 50 to 75, and then to 100 feet.

The primary caveat with this solution to have pilots who already had lots of experience in long line work; the kind of experience you could only get doing utility work, slinging 8 hours a day, five days a week for a few years. Adding to that, the ability to handle the fact that you were now slinging human cargo and not pieces of equipment.

Law enforcement agencies typically train officers who have worked the street for several years on the ground before being moved into a position to be a pilot after serving a period as a TFO usually. It is very rare still today to see agencies hire career pilots externally and then train them to be officers, There are a few agencies in the United States who will hire external pilot candidates with lots of experience, but generally, this is why many organizations prefer hoists.

Hoisting does not require a pilot to have long line or vertical reference experience.

Paul Bradley, Sonoma County Sheriff’s Chief pilot, sees many pilots come through the employment door looking for a chance to fly for the unit.

Minimum requirements are 2,000 hours of turbine PIC time, which includes 300 hours of mountain flying, 100 hours of night flying, and 200 hours of precision vertical reference

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long line flying. While the majority of applicants exceed those qualifications on paper, some factors turn the employment door into a revolving one.

The first is a series of deceptively simple scenarios demonstrating the finer aspects of a typical rescue. If necessary, Bradley may spend 30 minutes or so familiarize an applicant with the Bell 407 by letting them fly around to get comfortable with the machine before flying back to the hangar. On landing, a 200-pound concrete block is connected to a 100-foot long line which in turn, is connected to the dual hook system.

That concrete block is the ‘live load’ and is instructed to be treated as such at all times throughout the mission.

On lift off, Bradley in the left seat instructs to fly to the far side of the airport where four, three-foot diameter circles are painted on a level slab of concrete fifty feet apart. The first scenario is to make an initial approach to the circles, and place the load in the first circle, pick it up and place the load in the second circle, pick it up and position the load in the third circle, and then finish with the fourth circle.

While placing the load inside the circle is ideal, exact placement is secondary to aircraft control, and how comfortable the applicant looks performing the task. Bradley will know pretty quickly whether they exaggerated their experience on their resume or if they misunderstood what precision vertical reference flying is.

“One of the biggest problems we see,” Bradley explains, “is a pilot who is uncomfortable performing the task will put a death-grip on the controls and over-control the aircraft. Moreover, when they over-control, it causes the aircraft to act as a pendulum, and the load begins to swing out of control, meaning they are flying the load, not the aircraft”.

“A typical real-world situation we face all of the time,” Bradley continues, “is inserting a rescuer through a narrow 84 | heliweb magazine

clearing in a tall canopy of trees to get to our target. Sometimes the rescuer will push off on branches to clear the way down causing them to swing. If we were to fly the load to correct for that swing, we would end flying into the trees surrounding us. What we do instead is continue to keep the aircraft stabilized, and the swinging corrects itself very quickly”.

The next scenario starts with the load in a spot and Bradley instructing the candidate to pick up the load and fly to an area three or four hundred yards ahead. The candidate pilot is then asked to place the load on the spot, and then take it up again only to back up to where they started. Again, aircraft handling is being assessed; are they too slow, too fast, are they glancing at their gauges, do they know how to stop the aircraft when it is backing up?

“We have had to fail some applicants because every time they lift the load, their heads are back inside the cockpit. That may be fine for lifting

air conditioners and flying a long distance, but we are not doing that.

We fly relatively short distances keeping the rescuer about 10 feet off the ground, react to the rise and fall of the terrain, and adjust for obstacles.

To do that, your head needs to be out of the door with your eyes on the load through the entire evolution”, said Bradley.

Another scenario tests how applicants operate around trees by attempting to place the load between 60-foot trees with the 100-foot long line; close enough to move the trees around in the rotor wash, but not so close that any need to recover is more than a slight pull on the collective.

The final scenario is to hold the load no higher than six feet off the ground - without touching the ground - within the boundary of a 10-foot circle for two minutes. It sounds simple, but for some, it becomes the longest two minutes of their lives.

“We have high standards, but we are not looking for reasons to fail people,” said Bradley. “We are looking for the potential that tells us, yes; this pilot obviously knows their stuff. Even if they did not get the load perfectly into the circles, or had a good shot at the trees, but didn’t quite make it all the way in, we can clean that up with some training. If the aircraft was under control the entire time and they had a great attitude, we are willing to work with them”.

However, doing well during the flight scenarios is just one factor in the acceptance process.

The department’s background investigation has also lost a few along the way. “We have had applicants who were so good in the long line scenarios, I thought I would have to step up my game, except they could not pass background,” said Bradley.

there may still be some other aspects that may make the applicant the wrong pilot for the job even after they have been hired. It is not enough to have solid vertical reference flying skills.

Rescue is only one part of the unit’s multi-mission role.

Through further off-airport training, Bradley has found that some applicants are too apprehensive landing on pinnacles or buildings, or come to realize they do not really like working around trees.

Others have

difficulty being a part of a regular team that includes a TFO and a paramedic or flying law enforcement or EMS profiles.

“We have had pilots who felt claustrophobic flying with the doors on,” laughs Bradley.

“It is better that we find those things out sooner than later.”

If applicants pass background,

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SONOMA COUNTY SHERIFF | FLYING LONG LINE RESCUE

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Rotorheads Jeff Ratkovich Story and Images by Jason Jorgensen

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PILOT PROFILE | Jeff Ratkovich Jeff Ratkovich grew up in the Sacramento area of Northern California. As is the story for so many aviators, after his father took him to his first air show at McClellan AFB, he was instantly hooked on all things aviation.

Growing up watching shows like Emergency and CHiPs, Ratkovich knew from a very young age that he wanted to be some type of first responder.

Both of his parents always supported and encouraged his dreams to fly and to serve in the military. Like so many young boys, he initially aspired to become a firefighter, which, is one of the reasons he would later join the US Army.

During his youth, Jeff further nourished his appetite for flight as a member of the Civil Air Patrol, an Auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force.

Mentioning one instance in particular when his mother watched from the base’s fence line as he and a friend floated on “Cloud Nine” back across the flight line of Mather AFB after being given a personalized tour of a, then new, B-1B bomber, which had just arrived as a static display for an air show, and received a scarf and unit patch from the aircraft’s Navigator, a memento which Ratkovich cherishes to this day.

He further recalls the numerous times in which his ever-supportive mother would make the detour to park the car along the fence while taking him to his CAP meetings at the base. He would stand by and watch the Hueys spoolup and take off on flights. "I would just stand there and watch them in awe, never realizing that one day I'd be doing that myself."

A close family friend, CW4 Michael Rominger, who was a Medevac pilot during the Vietnam War, would share stories of being a young pilot and flying into hot LZ’s to pick-up the wounded. Jeff would hang on his every word. While stories of being

shot down were terrifying, they never deterred the intrepid young Ratkovich; the stories merely fueled his motivation to become an Army Flight Medic.

SERVING HIS COUNTRY

Photo Courtesy: Jeff Ratkovich

A few years later he was, in fact, doing just that. After graduating high school, he began a new chapter in his life when he joined the California Army National Guard in 1992. Ratkovich served as a Flight Medic with the 126th Medical Company (Air Ambulance) at Mather Air Force Base in Sacramento, CA, until 1998. Ratkovich talks about how the Huey pilots were idols to him.

“They were mostly old Vietnam era pilots, you know, the kind of guys that strapped on a helicopter and really became part of the machine. To me, that’s what piloting is all about!”

Ratkovich served in a full-time status with the California Army National Guard’s Counterdrug Task Force as a medic on a tactical team, then later a flight medic,

for operations along the US/Mexico border. While with the task force, his team worked hand-in-hand with multiple law enforcement agencies.

It was his experiences there, which allowed him to see the many different career opportunities available in law enforcement.

After his initial term of service, Jeff took some time to obtain his A&P certificate and moved to Southern California.

After which, in 2001, while working for America West Airlines at LAX, he reenlisted in the California Army National Guard. This time, it was as a UH-60 helicopter mechanic. Ratkovich then served as a Crew Chief with B Company, 1st Battalion 140th Aviation Regiment, at Los Alamitos Army Airfield.

During this enlistment he deployed to support Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2004-2005, were he flew over 600 hours as a crew chief / door gunner.

As he’s being interviewed, Jeff happily rewinds his thoughts to an important time during his first enlistment. “While at Mather AFB, I had the opportunity to do a fly-along with one of my many mentors, Chuck Smith.” Smith was a pilot in the National Guard, and also a pilot with the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department. Ratkovich continues, “It was during this flight that I quickly realized that he (Smith) had what I would consider to be the best job in the world!”

Photo Courtesy: Jeff Ratkovich

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GETTING THE JOB

After returning home from Iraq, he was still feeling a strong desire to be a first responder. And now, armed with the knowledge of what the best job in the world is; Ratkovich began his research into where and how to make his ultimate dream of becoming a Police Pilot possible. When Jeff learned that Riverside Police Department trained their own pilots, he made the obvious choice and applied to Riverside. In fact, Riverside was the only department he applied to.

Ratkovich began his career with Riverside Police Department as a patrol officer. Knowing that it would increase his chances of being selected for the pilot trainee program, Jeff was happy to finally be in a financial position to finish his fixed wing private pilot’s license which he had started back in 1996 at the McClellan AFB Aero Club.

In 2009, he completed his training at California Aviation Services, located at the Riverside Municipal Airport.

Fortuitously, after just a couple of years as a patrol officer, Ratkovich was also assigned to be a Relief TFO with the RPD Air Support Unit.

Having spent the department’s minimum of five years as a Patrol Officer, Jeff now applied for, and was selected to become, a Pilot Trainee.

Through RPD Air Support’s in-house training, Ratkovich, a Pilot Trainee, began to get his helicopter add-on for his private pilot license and continued on to get his Helicopter Commercial and Instrument ratings. In the years following his becoming a Police Pilot, 90 | heliweb magazine

along with time in single engine Cessnas and Pipers, he has been racking up most of his nearly 3000hrs of flight time in RPD’s three MD-500s.

Considering that he has also accrued time in OH-58s, UH-1s and AS-350s, when asked which airframe is his favorite to fly, he quickly responds.

“The 500 is definitely my favorite.

They are extremely responsive and maneuverable, making them a real joy to fly. The 500 tends to be the one helicopter that’s on every pilot’s bucket list to fly, so I am grateful for the opportunity to fly one on a daily basis.”

T H E G R E AT E S T J O B I N T H E W O R L D

For Ratkovich being a pilot at RPD has been a “wonderful experience.” With only five pilots, three Tactical Flight Officers, two mechanics and a sergeant.

This incredibly tight-knit unit boasts loads of camaraderie, and a shared drive to provide the best support to the officers and detectives in the field, a fact that is appreciably noticed by the department as a whole.

In addition, RPD’s Air Support Unit also supports neighboring Corona Police Department through a contract for Riverside PD to provide Corona PD with Air Support Services. RPD Air Support

also plays a vital role in supporting a California State narcotics task-force by providing airborne surveillance.

All of this adds up to a small but busy Air Support Unit that is making a big difference across the region.

Most days Jeff and the rest of his unit fly routine patrol flights over the cities of Riverside and Corona. These flights can be anything from normal patrols to vehicle pursuits or searches for missing people. Some days they can find themselves assisting on a surveillance flight for the narcotics task force, or one of the other investigative teams. These flights are usually at high altitude and can take them all

over Southern California. They also support the Riverside Fire Department with potential fire fuel estimations, the sizing up of brush fires, or an occasional rescue. “You know you have the best job in the world when fire fighters get out of the helicopter saying; ‘You guys have the coolest job, ever’” There isn’t a whole lot that Ratkovich doesn’t like about the job. One thing that immediately comes to mind though, is when they can’t fly due to weather. Luckily, in the Inland Empire of California, there aren’t too many

PILOT PROFILE | Jeff Ratkovich of those days! His favorite part of the job, by far, is the knowledge that they help make their officers’ jobs on the ground a little easier and more importantly safer. This in turn, makes the communities a safer and better place for everyone’s families, including his own.

SERVING HIS HOMETOWN

and have to deal with the stress that puts on a family. “To say that I am blessed is an understatement!”

In addition to raising his own family in Riverside, Jeff also feels very fortunate to be such a wellreceived representative of the Police Department to the public.

Just about everyone (except maybe the bad guys) loves Riverside PD’s “Air-1” (referring to the unit’s call-sign).

Whether it’s returning a friendly wave from people on the ground below by beeping the MD-500e’s siren and waving out the open doorframe, or passing out some of the stickers he keeps in his flight suit’s pocket to excited children at his favorite Italian restaurant during lunch, Ratkovich truly loves being part of the community he serves.

Having had the honor of serving his country, Jeff now feels an incredible degree of pride and satisfaction to serve the public in his own, now, hometown. Many officers don’t live in the communities they serve.

However, Jeff, along with Jennifer, his wife of 18 years, and their two sons; Samuel and Perry, enjoy living in Riverside. Continuing the family tradition, just as his parents supported his dreams, Jeff and Jennifer support their boys’ dreams, including young Perry’s dreams of attending the USAF Academy in Colorado Springs, CO with the ultimate goal of becoming a pilot.

I N S P I R AT I O N A N D S K I L L

This carries though into running the unit’s twitter feed, which he expertly administers to keep the community informed and help the public feel a more “human connection” when it comes to the goings on with the Air Support Unit. @RPDAIR1 has built up quite the supportive following, one that very few other departments, even nationally, can rival, and that’s something most everyone in his hometown is proud of.

Many if not most aviators tend to be driven dreamers. Ratkovich for example states: “If you asked me 25 years ago if I thought I would be in this position, I would have laughed you out of the room. If you have a dream, stick to it and stay focused on it. It won’t happen overnight and may take years, or decades to realize, but it is so worth it. I am proof of that!”

To those who may be interested in having a future in Law Enforcement Aviation, he suggests to make sure that they are interested in being an Officer/ Deputy first. This is because, in many departments, there are no guarantees of being selected for a flying position and it may take many years before the opportunity presents itself. Another piece of advice he has, which he also feels is the best single bit of advice he has received is: “Never let your ego get you into a situation that your skills can’t get you out of.”

While talking about his family, Ratkovich simply beams, expressing great love, gratitude and pride.

“Jennifer and our boys have been there every step of the way. Enough can’t be said for a woman who remains so supportive after raising a family through a combat deployment, only then to become a police officer’s wife July 2017 | 91

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PILOT PROFILE | Jeff Ratkovich

“ Never let your ego get you into a situation that your skills can’t get you out of.”

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PRESENT AND FUTURE This piece of advice, and earlier examples of flying helicopters by becoming one with them, from his Dust-Off days’ mentors, served him well during a difficult pinnacle style rescue. A lone hiker had become physically over exerted and had lost her way on Sugarloaf Mountain. She managed to strand herself near, but not near enough, to the top of the moderately sized local mountain.

After arriving on the scene and communicating with the hiker via loudspeaker, Ratkovich quickly sized up the situation and the best course of action was decided to be his TFO, Sgt. Erik Lindgren, exiting the helicopter and helping the hiker get to a more accessible location. After deftly executing a hover-step onto a rock outcropping, Jeff maneuvered the helicopter into a position to help guide his TFO and the fatigued hiker to a better location.

After Erik’s arrival at the hiker’s position, taking into consideration the terrain and her uninjured but exhausted and disoriented condition, both Ratkovich and Lindgren decided that without the ability to get her down the mountain on foot or reach a large enough landing site, nor the ability to winch the weary woman up to the helicopter, Jeff would have to execute a one skid landing in order to get both his TFO and their “patient” to safety.

Ratkovich executed the landing with surgical precision and skill, the TFO then helped the woman onboard while members of the public watched in awe from homes below at the base of the mountain.

Once both were securely onboard, they flew her down the mountain to the base of the trail and the waiting medical personnel. After which, in true, Air-1 supportive fashion, many from around Riverside commented publically on the crew’s skill, quick thinking and heroism, accolades they well deserve!

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Jeff explains that RPD Air Support is evaluating the possibility of upgrading their fleet, which currently consists of three MD-500Es, each of which range in age from 34 years old to 9 years old.

In addition, the Air Support Unit is also presently upgrading the mapping they have been awarded. All of this adds up to an exciting time to be in the air unit, as this equipment is going to change the way they do business and make them much more effective assets and at the same time more cost effective.

Personally, in the near future, he wishes to complete additional flight ratings, and help expertly guide the unit into its bright future, and this is a task that he is uniquely prepared for.

Ratkovich’s experience from his days as a flight medic will lend itself well to this situation. This is due to the fact that during the years of his service, Medevac Units, while attached to an Aviation Regiment, were not utilized like the rest of the aviation units since they were medically oriented.

This meant that the Aviation Regiment didn’t really know what to do with

them. While they were truly medically oriented though, the medical side of the service did not really know what to do with them either, because they were an aviation asset.

Law Enforcement Aviation Units can, at times, encounter integration hiccups, similar to those had by the asymmetrically combined military units of years past. Armed with his prior service experiences, intelligence, dedication and an intrinsic understanding of the dichotomy inherent to Police Air Support, Ratkovich is well prepared to help guide the Riverside Air Support Unit into an ever brighter, more

PILOT PROFILE | Jeff Ratkovich multi-faceted future with enhanced capabilities over what is even possible today.

Further down the road, when it is then his turn to retire and hand over the reins at the police hangar, he definitely wants to continue his flying career.

During the next several years, he plans on completing his commercial and instrument fixed-wing and multi-engine ratings, making himself even more marketable in the private sector.

TO HIS MENTORS Over the course of getting to know him, it has become plain to see why Ratkovich came so highly recommended by such a trusted source, to be the subject of a pilot profile article. Behind great individuals are always other great people.

On the law enforcement aviation side, that would have to be Dave Mullins.

He was our senior pilot and CFI when I came into the unit and conducted all of my helicopter training. He was truly passionate about this job and passed that passion along to me.�

Along with his parents, his wife and sons, and the couple of aforementioned pilots, there are still several people to whom Jeff desires to express his gratitude to, for their time and mentoring over the years. To hear him tell it, it would take an entire book to name and thank everyone who he feels had a hand in supporting him and helping him become the remarkable person he is today.

Ratkovich now finds himself as an instructor and mentor, not only to his present Tactical Flight Officer, Mike Dillon and the other members of the unit, but also to those who will be coming to the unit in the future. Jeff is one of the senior pilots in the unit, and is currently working on completing his flight instructor ratings, which will then allow the unit to bring back, in-house helicopter pilot training, which he will be conducting.

When urged to keep it to just those who had influenced and mentored him as a pilot he replied with: “I was truly blessed to fly with so many talented people during my military career that it would be impossible to list them all here but, they were all mentors to me. Many, like Art Laguna, Chuck Smith, JC Dodd, Chris Good and Chris Trautwein, were truly exceptional pilots, who I always looked up to and who inspired me to be the best pilot I could be.

This important facet of training has been outsourced since the retirement of other key fellow Police Pilots in the department. Once he completes this, rest assured that his same professionalism, enthusiasm, pride and precision, will be imbued into a whole new set of RPD’s Air-1 pilots, ensuring that their department will continue to be one of the great opportunities in Law Enforcement Aviation in the Southern California region.

July 2017 | 95

Photo credit: Dan Megna, Mesa Police Aviation Unit. Mesa, AZ

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