Flying Fuzz

[Guest graunch1]

I see that Calgary just finished a lottery to get their 2nd copter. Edmonchuk has an EC120 and the horsemen have 5 or 6 350B3s and some L4s. Other than that, who else has police helicopters? I would assume that the Centre of the Universe must have a few and probably Montreal but there must be other cities with their own machines.

[Elvis]

Dont forget the OPP have a pair of 355 F2's

:elvis: :elvis:

[widgeon]

Securite de Quebec operate at least one 412. I think the OPP are the only F2R's ever made ( correct me if I am wrong ). Think it is Durham that have the 206.

[Rotorboy2]

Speaking of flying fuzz...

 

Does anyone know if the police aircraft are generally operated by civilians or are they police members as well?

[Elvis]

Most of the police operations I have seen the pilot was a police officer and the maintenace was either contracted to an AMO or the engineer was a non police officer employee.

 

The only place where they both were police officers was NYPD.

 

I am sure I will be corrected by somebody in the very near future. :shock: :shock:

 

:elvis: :elvis: :elvis:

[3BX2]

The RCMP had a strict policy to only hire ex-Police as pilots, as the work was so demanding, a civie pilot may not be able to do it ( read, old boys club, we only hire our own), they have since relaxed that policy, and will now hire civie pilots.

 

I've noticed that I've lost a lot of work to these new civie pilots recently, they are good, and will fly every RCMP task available...from A to Z, in any flyable weather condition.

I want them to go back to the old hiring policy, it was much better for us commercial operators ???

 

The smaller operations like Calgary and Edmonton tend to hire high time civies first. Those civie pilots seem to have mastered the "police type" flying with ease. Hmm? maybe it just isn't that demanding after all?

[Blackmac]

Do not quote moi, but I think the first province to operate police helicopters was Quebec.

 

They had civvie pilots, well qualified and there thinking was an actual cop type would become to involved in the chase and forget about flying the helicopter, ( like a PHD, tunnel vision).

 

Being of unsound mind and poor memory, I can remember what these guys (pilots) looked like, but what is there name(s)???

 

Cheers, Don, I think.

[LDP]

OPP pilots are all cops, I believe that they are made acting sargents as soon as they start flying (both fixed and rotary).

Most of the guys I know that are flying for the OPP were civillian pilot who then joined the force, many are high time. They did however after joining have to work the road for a while (couple of years or more) before a flying spot opened up.

[cap]

The policy that the RCMP started with was that civilian pilots were satisfactory. They leaned naturally towards ex-Members because they knew the routine that would "go down" in most cases. They then changed to Regular Members or Special Constables because there could be a situation that might arise where the escorting officer(s) might need assistance with the prisoner(s). It was therefore "legally safe" to have a Regular Member with the authority to do so. Otherwise, the civilian pilot left himself open to Assault and Battery charges if there was a "laying on of hands". I believe that you will find that this is the reason that most police forces have a Member as the pilot and steer away from the civilian pilot.

[Batfink]

3BX2,

 

The Edmonton Police Service only uses Police Member Pilots. It was a hotly debated topic a few years ago, but they have a hard and fast policy against Civie Pilots (currently...).