Pima Sheriff's second Helio Turboprop Conversion, Tricycle Gear was added later.While fixed wing aircraft are undeniably the first police aircraft to take to the air, the helicopter has long since taken over as the preferred law enforcement aircraft of choice, for obvious reasons.  But is it smart to ignore the capabilities of some fixed wing aircraft as a primary patrol platform?  You might be surprised at what one Arizona Sheriff’s Department has been able to accomplish.   

In 1999 Sgt. Rick Pearson of the Pima County (AZ) Sheriff’s Department was tasked by his command to come up with a patrol support aircraft.  The only caveat was that it had to be cheaper to procure and operate than a traditional helicopter. 

Pearson almost immediately had an answer,  a fixed wing Helio Courier STOL aircraft.  Pearson had prior experience flying Helio airplanes and new that they had a stall speed in the high 20’s and could take off in 300’ with no head wind and at max gross weight.  Sgt. Pearson also knew that the Helio Courier had been used as a forward observation aircraft during the Vietnam era, and that hard points could be installed under the wings to mount a FLIR camera.  It was the perfect aircraft as far as he was concerned.

In 1999 the Pima County Sheriff’s Dept. purchased a 1974 model Helio Courier HT-295, and set about making the necessary upgrades to put it into service as a patrol support aircraft.  By early 2000 “Survey One” took to the air with a fresh coat of paint and a fresh engine overhaul.  It didn’t take long for the Pima County Sheriff’s Dept. to know that they had made the right decision going with the Helio Courier.  The aircraft flew an average of 5.5 hours a night, required little maintenance and had an operational cost of approximately $100 per hour. 

As great as this patrol aircraft was, the members of the Air Support Unit recognized that it could be better.  Over the next several years the Pima Sheriff’s Air Support Unit would convert this aircraft to a turboprop, then acquire a second Helio Courier and convert it as well.  This makes the Pima County Sheriff’s Department the owners of the only two Helio HT-420 aircraft in the entire country!

The turbine engine used for the conversion was the Rolls Royce C-20 with the B-17c turboprop conversion.  Now this was not the first time a Helio Courier had been converted to a turboprop.  A 1967 conversion “B-15” version of the engine resulted in 320 shaft horse power, but it actually underperformed the piston engine at higher altitudes.  The B-17c conversion results in 420 shaft horse power.

R.R. C-20 Turboprop engine being installed.So what kind of performance do they get with their turboprop Helio Courier?  How about a take off roll of 100’ at 87% torque, a landing roll of 50’,  a minimum forward air speed of about 30 knots IAS, 20 gallons per hour at loiter speed, and the ability to loiter for several hours longer than any LE pilot wants to stay in the air.  But there is more, at loiter speed (which is 70-80 kts) the prop only turns at about 1700 rpm resulting in little tip noise, and a very quiet aircraft above the city.  No who could use less noise complaints right?  Top speed for the aircraft is about 140-150 kias at 8500’ msl.

One of the first flights after the Turboprop Conversion.Both Helio Courier turboprops are outfitted with a FLIR Star Saffire III camera making them a true stand off “eye in the sky.”  Deputies in the cockpit of one of these aircraft are capable of monitoring a police call from several miles away, often without the bad guy or even the general public even knowing they are there. 

So what is the cost of such an aircraft?  Here are some numbers provided by Sgt. Pearson for their second aircraft.

Airframe:  $150,000
R.R. C-20 Turbine Engine:  $250,000
Total Conversion:  $450,000
FLIR Star Saffire Camera:  $450,000
Aero Computers Moving Map:  $100,000
Direct Operating Cost:  About $170 an hour. (about 1/3 of a Bell 206B3)

Sgt. Pearson notes that their program has been so successful, the budget for the Pima County Sheriff’s Air Support Unit was actually increased this year.  This is noteworthy in a time when many police air units are facing budget cuts.

The Pima County Sheriff’s Helio HT-420 aircraft are operated under “Public Use” aircraft rules.
While the aircraft may not be FAA certified, only factory parts were used in the conversion and FAA standards were followed as closely as possible. 

Any department or agency interested in acquiring and converting their own Helio aircraft for patrol can contact Sgt. Pearson if they have further questions.

rick.pearson@sheriff.pima.gov 

Police Helicopter Pilot.com would like to thank Sgt. Pearson for his cooperation, information and photos that made this article possible. 

All Pima Sheriff pilots are IFR Certified, and benefit from this all glass panel.

One of the main purpose of this site has always been to promote police aviation to the general public in a positive way.  In so doing I normally tend to avoid controversial subjects to the extent possible.  Not because I don’t want to take on a cause, but it just doesn’t play into the overall theme of the site. 

But every now and then something comes along that I just can’t turn a blind eye to.  Such is the case with a series of  rather silly, if not outright wacky videos on Youtube all about the Mesa Arizona Police Helicopter, Mesa Police Pilots, or the Mesa Police Air Support Unit.

In many ways this is an old story……as I will outline for you.  Why drag up old news right?  The problem is that while the story itself is somewhat stale, the videos live on in cyberspace ready to spring to life the moment someone does an internet search related to the Mesa Police Helicopter, or the Mesa Police Department’s Air Support Unit.  And since January of 2008, this often redundant series of videos has been viewed over 63,000 times, according to data from Youtube.   Some of the videos have since been reposted to other video sharing sites such as AOL video. 

And come to life they do with inflammatory titles such as;

“Mesa Police Helicopter Pilot Caught With Pants Down!”

“Mesa Police Helicopter Pilot Busted!!”

“Mesa Police Helicopter Pilot Caught Giving It Hard All on Tape!!”

“Mesa Helicopter Pilots Terrorize A Innocent Woman!”

And the list of titles goes on and on until it reaches  25. 

The purpose of this article is not to attack the author of these videos.  Rather it is to provide balance for anyone who is seeking legitimate information online about the Mesa Police Air Support Unit. 

Take for example the one title “Mesa Police Helicopter Pilot Caught With Pants Down!”  While used in a euphemistic fashion, it’s real purpose is to accuse and inflame.  When one clicks on the video however you get nothing more than 9 plus minutes of MD Helicopter rotor noise on four fixed cameras, and an occasional distant light from the helicopter.   It should be apparent to any observer (or listener) of the video that the helicopter is in a fairly wide orbit, as the rotor noise becomes louder and quieter depending on where the helicopter is at in the orbit.  No notable evidence of any wrongdoing and certainly nothing that rises to the euphemistic level of “getting caught with your pants down.”

The title “Mesa Police Helicopter Pilot Caught Giving It Hard.  All On Tape!”  makes one really begin to wonder about the author’s state of mind.  In this 4:56 second video you are treated to about 2 minutes of silence, 30 seconds of fairly close MD Helicopter rotor noise, and about 2 minutes of barely audible rotor noise, again on a split screen of 4 fixed cameras.  Not quite sure what the pilot was supposed to be “giving it hard” to. 

In at least one of the videos it appears the author is in his vehicle chasing the Mesa Police Helicopter through the city streets, while instructing and encouraging a child in the vehicle to get the helicopter on video. 

In order to have a better understanding of what is really going on here, we need to go back  to November of 2006.  A Mesa Police Helicopter and crew is working a police call which happens to put the helicopter in the same neighborhood as one David Degroote (about 37 at the time).  The police helicopter wasn’t on some run of the mill misdemeanor, but was actively involved in a search for suspects in the theft of a bank automated teller machine.  At least one of the crew members were wearing NVG goggles to aid in both the search and flight safety.  While in the area of the Degroote residence the helicopter and crew were hit with a high powered spot light, for approximately 30 seconds, (remember that NVGs amplify ambient light at anywhere between 10,000 and 40,000 times.)  A bright spotlight shining on the police helicopter at night time is absolutely disruptive, dangerous and without question rises to the level of interfering with a law enforcement officer in the performance of his duties. 

In the coming weeks David Degroote would be arrested by the Mesa Police Department for shining the light at their Helicopter.  On 1-16-07 a criminal complaint was issued against Degroote for the misdemeanor charges of Endangerment, Disorderly Conduct and being a Criminal Nuisance.  At the time of his arrest and at the time the complaint was issued not one of  the 25 videos about the Mesa Police Helicopter or pilots had been uploaded to Youtube.  The 25 videos in question have all been posted under the Youtube user name of “justjumpnow.”

Let me pause here and say that Mr. Degroote could very well have had a legitimate noise complaint against the Mesa Police Helicopter.  Helicopters are admittedly noisy, and tend to annoy some people more than others.  Most law enforcement aviation units are well aware of the noise emitted by their helicopters and most take noise complaints from the public seriously.  Many law enforcement air support units go so far as to avoid noise sensitive areas all together when possible.  If Mr. Degroote did have a legitimate noise complaint in this case, it appears that he chose not to follow up on it in a professional and courteous manner and instead placed himself in a position of committing a criminal act. 

According to Degroote himself, on 12-6-06 (between the date of the alleged incident and the date the criminal complaint was issued) he filed an injunction [against harassment] against Officer David Dolenar Jr and the Mesa Police Department.  The injunction was never granted by the court.  However, on 2-1-07 Officer Dolenar filed an injunction to stop harassment, against David Degroote.  On 3-21-07 the injunction was issued by the court.  The court essentially agreed that Mr. Degroote was harassing Officer Dolenar.  (Source-  Letter published by the Degroote’s on the website Freedomsphoenix.com.)  I am intentionally not linking to the site, but it is there if you want to go searching for it.

One year later, in November of 2007 David Degroote was convicted of the misdemeanor charges of  Endangerment, Disorderly Conduct, and Criminal Nuisance, according to a story in the East Valley Tribune dated Nov 9 2007.  Degroote was ordered to serve 5 days in jail, with another 25 days suspended on the condition that he completes 3 years of probation and that he completes mandatory counseling. 

One of the videos posted by “justjumpnow” is of the local News 5 TV station doing a story about Degroote’s conviction and his ongoing feud with the Mesa Police Department.  Even while the story equally covers his conviction and his complaints, the video was titled “Mesa Police Illegal Helicopter Activity Revealed on News 5.”  Huh?

The first video about the Mesa Police Helicopter was not uploaded to Youtube until 1-14-08, after Degroote’s conviction and after he was ordered by the court to stop harassing Officer Dolenar.  The last video was uploaded on 9-1-08.  The on screen dates on the videos indicate that all but one of them was filmed in 2006 or 2007 with the vast majority being filmed in 2007.

Interestingly, there has been no activity and no logins by “justjumpnow” for over a year on his Youtube channel.  Perhaps this is due to the fact that Mr. Degroote remains on probation until around November of 2010.  If I had to guess I would guess that his Youtube activities were brought to the attention of his probation officer and or the judge, and he risked going back to jail if he continued, (pure speculation on my part.) 

Can a judge curtail someone’s freedom of speech in this manner while on probation.  Absolutely, by accepting probation in lieu of more jail time the defendant agrees to give up certain liberties, which can vary from case to case.  People routinely give up their 4th amendment rights to unreasonable search and seizure, (generally when on felony probation or when the crime involved a theft.)  It would be completely reasonable for the judge to prohibit Degroote from uploading inflammatory videos on Youtube, about the Mesa Police Helicopter, while he is on probation. 

I also noted that 9 of the videos were filmed on either 2-21-07 or 2-22-07 and some of them just before and just after midnight.  This would lead a normal person to believe that at least some of these 9 videos stem from one incident, or one radio call the Mesa Police Helicopter was involved in. 

So there you have it.  I will let you decide if Mr. Degroote and his family were targeted for harassment by the members of the Mesa Police Air Support Unit, or if Degroote embarked on a misguided campaign of filming and posting videos to Youtube as a way to get back at the police for his arrest and conviction. 

It seems to this writer that Mr. Degroote could have avoided a lot of heartache by going into the police station and having a friendly chat with the person in charge of the air unit, instead of picking up a spotlight.  

As a young deputy I was getting my first opportunity to go for a flight in one of our ASTREA patrol helicopters.  The purpose of the flight was to get some aerial photos of a crime scene.  The pilot had landed in an open field near our semi-rural patrol station.  As the helicopter skids left the ground, the pilot started talking to me in a way that I thought was kind of strange.  It went something like "Ok a little left pedal, a little left cyclic, and we're going to go up and over those wires right there."  At the time I wasn't quite sure why he was telling me this, but I thought "OK".

If you were to climb in the back seat of one of our patrol helicopters today, and go on a patrol flight with us, you would here similar talk between the two crew members.  While we don't necessarily verbalize every control input, there are certain things that we do verbalize every time.  Flying over or in the area of high tension wires is one of those times.  When approaching wires, one member of the crew will call them out and the other member will acknowledge them.  It goes something like  this, "coming up on the wires", "got the wires".   You might also here "crossing on the pole", or like one of our pilots likes to say "adding a couple hundred extra feet for the wife & kids." 

What we are practicing here is basic CRM, "Cockpit Resource Management" or "Crew Resource Management" whichever term you prefer.  All pilots are familiar with the concept. 

For us, verbally calling out every set of high tension wires, every time we fly over or near them is part of a disciplined approach to identifying hazards to flight.  In addition it continuously reminds us where every set of high tension wires in the county are located, particularly along some of our standard flight paths.   

No one likes to talk about the mistakes of dead pilots.  But talk about them we must in order to learn and hopefully prevent ourselves from ever making the same fatal mistake(s).  The fiery crash of a Bell 206 helicopter with 4 souls on board, near Auberry Ca. earlier this month is a sad reminder of the dangers of high tension wires.  But there is a little more to this crash than simply flying along and not seeing the wires, or not knowing they were there.  One must read the NTSB preliminary report carefully to see what I am referring to.

wikimedia.org photoIn this case, "crossing on the pole" would almost assuredly have saved the lives of the pilot and the 3 Fish & Game wildlife biologist who were passengers on the helicopter.  If you can envision two towers with a span of high tension wires between them, you would see that the high tension wires have at least some droop to them.  The greater the span, the greater the droop.  But in this case there is a smaller lighter wire running from the top of each tower to the opposite tower.   These wires are often much harder to see, and do not have the same droop as the heavier wires.  In this case the Bell 206 came down a canyon in straight and level flight over the top of the drooped high tension wires, but apparently did not see the smaller ground wire running between the tops of the two towers.  There is little doubt as to what occurred as the crash was witnessed by two USFS law enforcement officers who were in the area. 

Every year in America you can count on one or two low flying helicopters, following freeways during bad weather and often at night, crashing into high tension power lines.  The result is always the same, a fiery crash onto the freeway. 

Whether you are an LE pilot, civilial pilot, future pilot, or even a passenger in a helicopter calling out wires, knowing their locations along your flight path, and even knowing a little bit about them may very well save your life one day. 

Remember, altitude is your friend & "got the wires."

For years now I have heard stories about one of our retired helicopter mechanics who was quite a unique character.  When he was not coming up with ingenious contraptions or fixes to helicopter mechanical problems, he would occasionally fire off a letter on issues that he believed should be corrected. 

Now anyone who works in or around helicopters knows that they are notorious for oil leaks.  We have all heard terms such as "operational seepage" or funny quips like "a helicopter is nothing more than a thousand spare parts flying in formation around an oil leak."  Well one day Bob finally had enough of the standard helicopter turbine engine oil leak and fired off the following letter, (recently dug out of an old file in the maintenance hangar).

XXXXXXXXX RotorCraft, Inc.

El Cajon, Ca. 92020

August 21, 2000

"Dear Folks:

This is in Reference to your expensive 250C20 series engines.  You are probably aware of the tendency of these engines to leak oil.  Much of our maintenance effort is spent on trying to fix these never ending leaks. 

I think I may have come upon a remedy for the above problem.  For about fifty years I have operated lawn mowers.  These mowers have a vertical shaft that drives a blade.  This mechanism is immersed in oil.  In spite of poor maintenance, sudden stoppage, over speeding (one turned so fast that it almost went into a hover), lack of oil, too much oil, and imbalance and out of track blades, etc.  I have yet to see a drop of oil on the surface where the machines were parked.  In light of the above I think you should either merge with Briggs & Stratton or hire one of their engineers. 

Respectfully,

Bob XXXXXXXXXX

P.S.  You might pass this on to MD Helicopters we have the same problem with their gear-boxes.  I'm sure they would be grateful."

See a copy of the original here.  I thought this letter was just too good not to share.

Utah Trooper Terry Mercer landed his Eurocopter AS 350 B2 Helicopter on this pinnacle a total of 11 times during the rescue of an injured hiker in Washington County Utah.When Utah State Trooper Terry Mercer landed his helicopter on this pinnacle back in August to rescue an injured hiker, he had no idea that it would turn into the story which it did.  Once the pictures started filtering out, they began to show up on every major news outlet in the country.  But now that things have settled down, I thought it would be a good time to ask Trooper Mercer a few questions of my own about this pretty incredible landing, or make that 11 landings. 

PHP (Police Helicopter Pilot.com): You are a former Navy Pilot right?  How many PIC hours do you have in helicopters?

Trooper Mercer:  Yes, as a former Navy Pilot I retired from the Navy with about 9000 hrs pretty evenly split between helo and fixed.   I was an H-3 pilot by trade and flew two tours off of USS John F Kennedy.  I ended up with just under 4500 hrs helo with about 3000 PIC.  When I went to the training command tour, helo consolidation for all the services up at Ft Rucker was being discussed, so no helo instructors were being sent to Pensacola.  I ended up going as a fixed instructor.  I feel this made me a better aviator, but I did miss out on the TH-57 (jet ranger) time. 

PHP:  How long have you been flying for Utah DPS?  Are you Sworn?  If so, did you work the streets prior to being transferred into the air unit?

Trooper Mercer:    When I retired I couldn't even get an interview with the light helo EMS outfits, so I ended up with the Patrol and drove the Highways of Utah for 8 yrs having a ball.  After 8 years the Aero Bureau finally had an opening.   I began flying an Army surplus Bell 58 in 2000.  Finally in preparation for the 2002 Winter Olympics we got the two Eurocopter Astar B-2's that we fly now.

PHP:  Had you completed an official Mountain Flying Course prior to this landing?

Trooper Mercer:     I was sent to Canada for Canadian Helo Mt Flying course and then when we obtained the B-2's myself and the other Helo pilot went back up for B-2 initial course.  Since then we go to Dallas for Eurocopter's factory school each year for refresher training.  We train each year in-house for an instrument flight and an altitude/external flight. 

PHP:  Does your unit routinely practice or do these types of pinnacle landings?

Trooper Mercer:  Pinnacles such as this are not specifically practiced, however the events of this morning are not everyday, but not uncommon either. 

PHP:  On your initial recon......did you pick out this LZ or did the ground rescuers pick it out and ask you to attempt a landing there?

Trooper Mercer:  I had looked at the pinnacle when I first got there, but decided the SAR team would be "ledged" out and have no access to the victim.  As I dropped the rope team up high one of the first team members had hiked to the victim and then explored out to the pinnacle and sort of goat-hopped out to it, showing me that they could get on and off of the pinnacle. 

PHP:  When you first looked at this LZ did you think for a minute that you would be able to successfully land there? 

Trooper Mercer:  A quick visual of the pinnacle and I knew that it was safe, doable, and the closest site possible.  It immediately changed the entire operation from a 1-1 1/2 day event to a 2-3 hr operation.     

PHP:  What was the worst part about landing on this particular pinnacle?

Trooper Mercer:  I shut down on the pinnacle on the first landing to evaluate the footprint.  The starts  were the worst as the ac sort of shifted weight as the blades began to swing. 

PHP:  Were all of the landings pretty much the same, or were some more difficult than others?

Trooper Mercer:  It was on that third landing that I got sloppy and landed about 15 inches back and so when Cory got out the aircraft sort of teetered back on the skids.  The U-tube footage is when I started it back up and was positioning it forward again.  That's why I was alone and landed about 4=5 times to sort of feel out the footprint and determine where I'd be the most solid. 

Trooper Mercer's third landing of his Utah DPS helicopter provided a little scare when it rocked back on it's heels after shutdown.

PHP:  It appears there is a sheer rock wall in front of you.  How far away was this wall, and did it actually help your landings as a hover reference?

Trooper Mercer:   Over all, the landings were very safe as I had almost 25-30 ft from the wall, so the  blade clearance was not a factor.  The boulders on the right of the aircraft were 3-4 feet below the blades so all I had to do was sit it down.  I thought I had about 18-24 inches fore and aft, but like I said after it teetered I narrowed it down to 4-6- inches fore/aft, but I had a good rock that I could put about 4 inches to the right and 2 inches forward of the right front skid tube and as long as I put it right there, the rest of the AC would obviously follow along.

PHP:  What was the elevation and were there any winds?

Trooper Mercer:  The altitude down there is about the lowest part of the state  (3600 at the site), so even though it was hot I had plenty of power and the wind was dead calm that morning so I had no excuse not to get it done..

PHP:  Was your TFO assisting with each landing by watching skids and talking you down?  Did you make some of these landings as the only person on board the helicopter?

Trooper Mercer:   On occasion during sling missions of marijuana we will use ground radio assistance to position the sling, but during missions like this we fly solo and we don't land where the pilot doesn't have safe clearance.  Our passengers are good SAR members so they help with clearances but the pilot is the final judge.  With just two full time and one part time AirMed pilot we are able to maintain currency and proficiency to a high degree.

PHP: I understand  you did 11 landings, what time frame was this over?   

Trooper Mercer:  I landed 11 times with the first 7 bringing in members 3 at a time with gear.  After taking the medic and victim to the hospital there was 16 people still up there.  I told them to have 2 people on each side of the landing site and load hot to get them off.  Like the professionals they are they were loaded with gear and buckled in about two min each time, so the last four landings were very quick down, load and go.  Like I indicated earlier without shutting down and starting it was really easy.  We originally spotted Jim (the victim) at 0820 and all persons were off the mountain and back at the Command Post by 1140 hours.

PHP:  Having never flown a Eurocopter, I hear they are kind of "squirrley" in ground effect.....would you agree and did this make these landings more difficult?

Trooper Mercer:  The B-2 is called the Ecureuil which means squirrel  in French.  When you hover at 2-4 ft it is "squirrley" so the common tendency is to high hover at about 7-8 ft which smoothes it out a lot, but is not near as good if you have to do a hovering-auto.  Up there that day, the Pinnacle was so small that it really was pretty smooth all the way to the landing so ground effect was I believe, minimized.

Utah DPS Trooper Terry Mercer sits with his Eurocopter AS 350 B2 while victim is being packaged for transport.

PHP:  Thanks Trooper Mercer for taking the time to share your experiences with the readers of Police Helicopter Pilot.com

One of the freedoms of living in the greatest country on earth is the freedom to get out and enjoy the raw and rugged beauty of this United States of America.  Millions of people each year do exactly that, all across the country.  When things go wrong, and some times they do, it is nice to know there are professionals such as Trooper Mercer and the Washington County (Utah) Sheriff Search and Rescue ready to take the call. 

You can see all of the pictures from this rescue by clicking on the above link to the Washington County SAR site.