[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ma'am I like put it down is this [Music] [Applause] a [Music] [Music] weather's getting better [Music] and nothing showing up on the radar currently here show overcast nothing in the state concern no concerns [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] all right today we're going to talk about the helicopter that the Oxford Police Department Aviation support unit flies we have two of them today we're going to talk about the MD helicopters 530f model you may recognize a helicopter like this from the Magnum PI TV show back in the day uh this one's specially equipped for the police support mission that we fly um around not just for the city of Oxford but for this entire region of uh part of Alabama so we'll start at the nose uh this is obviously the nose or the front of the helicopter this is an air Inlet to provide fresh air for the helicopter this a lot of people tend to think it might be like a gun or something like that but this is a uh it's a P2 tube that provides Ram air for our instruments like our in indicated air speed indicator uh which tells us how fast we're flying through the air uh moving to this side of the helicopter um skids common thing um doors open this helicopter is configured for the pilot on the left side and the Tactical flight officer or as we call it the TFO in the right seat and we'll talk about what's inside the helicopter here in just a second um so this is the crew cabin we'll start talking about um actually speaker right here is for a public address system that we use the Tactical flight officer or the flight crew can talk about uh broadcast out it's a speaker really um broadcast to the citizens that we're flying over that we're looking for a missing person or a suspect at large we can ask for the citizens or civilians assistance with calling 911 if they see the person we're looking for um it's actually quite effective tool for us uh moving back towards the helicopter this is I say this is our money maker because this is our camera system this one is made by tadine Fleer uh there are other manufacturers for it but this is the camera we use um I it kind of looks like the Star Wars robots but on the back you have three different cameras on board you have a high definition color camera you have an infrared camera and a low light camera system as well as Ser uh different infrared lasers that we use for range detecting and uh geop pointing um so the way this works is we have a hand controller that the TFO uses inside we input an address that we received from police Communications and when they hit enter that this camera will turn and look at that spot geost stabilized and it's rock solid on the ground um I have experienced using this same camera from flying at night 7,000 ft up and watching someone walking down the street and without missing the beat um moving back here is the uh tracka systems Spotlight that we use on board the the uh helicopter obviously only going to use it at night because it's a spotlight that also has different filters on it like an infrared filter that can be used with night vision goggles either from the air crew because we'll fly with night vision goggle sometimes or uh our SWAT ESU officers other units that have uh for red goggles on uh they can see the light shining as well so moving back we have the crew back seat really that's for extra passengers if we happen to fly with um we'll talk about that a little bit more two different fuel cells an auxiliary tank and a main fuel tank um single turban engine back here uh some helicopters using in law enforcement we'll have multiple engines we only have one cuz it's it's this helicopter is very efficient and safe and flight this is a great platform for our mission which is Patrol support as we move back through the helicopter um tail section this is the tail rotor this provides counter torque to the main rotor system um so this keeps us helps keep us flying straight whereas that one that helicopter is really what gets us off the ground and flying forward so this keeps us straight and in control back to this is the exhaust for the single turban engine that we were talking about earlier more skids in the back seat here we actually do have it equipped where we could carry a rifle on board if we were so inclined for uh very specific missions it's not a regular occurrence but we have that capability to secure a a long gun back there if if we wanted to uh moving up to the pilot side of the helicopter so in the pilot side we have the same controls are on both sides the helicopter can be flown from both sides of the helicopter and we do train our tactical flight officers to be able to fly in a uh emergency situation but the pilot in command or the helicopter flies on this side we have the collective the cyclic and the um the pedals um that any helicopter has um some of the equipment that we fly with our personal uh protection equipment or PBE uh we all wear uh flame resistant flight suits we have a two-piece flight suit that we use um it's to protect us in the event of a fire um some of the other equipment we have flame resistant gloves that we wear and then my flight helmet that we wear um the crew up front's required to wear a helmet like this this is made by Gentex um helicopter specific uh flight helmet uh it's not a motorcycle helmet Helmet or a jet fighter helmet or anything it's to provide us protection in the event of a hard Landing or an accident in the helicopter um dual visor face mask all for impact protection um and for consistent uh consistent and safe operations we always use checklist for our operation for flying uh before we start before we take off before we land and as we land we use a system checklist to make sure we're consistent and operating the helicopter safely and according to the manufacturer so these doors all all four of the doors of the helicopter can come off if we want for comfort the good thing about this specific helicopter is it has air conditioning so we can stay cool year round um and also protect us from the wind um unlike our other helicopter no air conditioning but we could take the doors off and it just looks cooler as well so um we move these helicopters in out of the hanger uh using the helor system so that's a question we get quite a bit is how do the helicopters get in and out of the hanger we use these yellow lifts to hydraulically lift the helicopter and move it and it can either be by one person or two and gets us in and out of the hel uh in and out of the hanger um safely call XR one tonight [Music] yeah it needs to be facing backwards it needs to be facing backwards the opening backwards like this yes correct uh so we currently wear a face mask on our flight helmets I haven't always had to do that I was um flying for San Diego PD back in the day you know last year it's actually two or three years ago now I had an incident at night while I while I was flying um I was the pilot of the helicopter my partner I had a tactical flight officer with me and we were it was nighttime so dark over the city and going about 85 knots 85 90 mil per hour about 1,000 ft above the ground and um pretty much straight and level had a great view of the city and heard a huge thump and it sounded like it was above and behind me and first thing every pilot does is when we have an incident like this um we aviate we continue flying the helicopter as much as we can with whatever controls we still have so my first priority was to monitor the instruments and make sure they were operating properly um make sure that the aircraft was still flying safely and try and figure out at that point how severe that noise was that was behind me because up and behind me is the transmission the rotor blades the engine every every part that I need to continue flying is right there so but at that same time I heard the thump the flight controls were fine everything was handling perfectly with the helicopter except for I had felt something hit my shin on my flight suit uh right in front of my my foot and I was feeling a breeze down there and all of that wasn't making any sense to me um my partner at the time he looked over he was to my left he looked over and saw blood streaming down the side of the helicopter outside on the glass and he immediately re recognized that we had had a bird strike he said we had a bird strike are you okay and I was fine I was that really helped clarify a lot of things for me so um I confirmed that the helicopter and controls and everything responded appropriately and at that point we were maybe 5 miles away from the airport we uh ceased any kind of Patrol flight at that point and our priority was to maintain altitude and air speed and get back to the airport um with being prepared for if anything gets worse or any kind of uh vibrations in the controls or anything um gets worse than we're going to land in a in a park or wherever we need to safely um we were able to continue on we landed at the airport back at our Hangar and the we had radioed our dispatcher as well as our partner that was still at The Hanger and uh they came out to meet us they acknowledged that we had had a bird strike but they didn't know how severe it was and neither did we honestly other than aircraft was flying fine we had had air bird strikes in the past but not to this extent so as we landed our chief pilot who was our partner that day he came out to give us fuel as he usually does and uh he saw a seagull hanging out the front of the helicopter um still stuck in the plastic nose and it was just feathers and blood and guts with a big probably um I don't know 18 square inch hole in the front of the helicopter um there was also in the back window left rear window of the helicopter was shattered with more blood and guts so we were once we the helicopter was secured we had to figure out how we had what looked like an entrance and an exit of a bird strike and after a little bit of um investigation we learned that we had hit two seagulls at the exact same time and probably the loud thump that I heard was the seagull hitting the left rear window and breaking that um other than that it it significant I don't know significant but pretty serious um damage to the aircraft which we didn't we couldn't fly that anymore so we put out the back um the backup helicopter and uh we were back in service except for that helicopter needed some repairs had that uh seagull been up another foot above where he impacted it probably would have been into my face which would have made me incapacitated and required my partner to continue flying however we needed to to get me some medical [Music] attention pedals are centered heater is closed rer breake is stowed [ __ ] switches are set F shut off is in batter is on [Music] all right generator is off start [Music] timer here we go [Music] [Music] a oil pressure is good caution warning lights are out except for that which is good engine idling good B are centered needles are married up minute you just tell me when for [Music] that all right leader tracks for Flight of the day put the heater on for ryzen to that is good anti ice R little bit coolo heat riseon a little bit [Music] good all right before takeoff RPM 99% check check ction War lights out out instruments in green check check cabin secured Mission equipment locked and stowed uh secure over here cure here controls check response check Che good anti I as required not required all right we're good wind's pretty much out of there out of the West pick up and we'll just head on out I'll side step and kind of go out through the field like we usually [Music] do everything is looking good on the gauges going to go straight out over those power lines and go right over a pole bounds [Music] good beautiful all right we have no calls holding all right yeah you going to run a scenario sure let's go to this nothing's going on we practice of scenario of let's go to 6216 uh Shannon Brook first thing we usually do is put the address into the map it auto automatically SLS over to that the crew we figure out that it's uh east of us kind of over by CH Locka Park we just act like this would be a call for service say someone that's a resident someone's home and um for this scenario someone's pounding on the back door and if you hit the joystick it should go right to it I think yeah you're right oh my camera's not doing but it's okay I guess it's on there okay all right all right what was what was the call here uh residence uh mother and newborn child Home Alone someone's pounding on the back door no one's supposed to be there and four going about ground speed of about 99 milph about 600 ft above the ground we can zoom in on the area and the further out we might be able to catch a crime in progress um we can use the color camera the uh or any of the infrared cameras depending on whatever the environment calls for I guess while the TFO is trying to get a good image on uh of the target I'm I'm looking at the symbology on the display in order to make sure that we're going in the correct direction we're going to have a lot of tree coverage round okay I'm going to increase the altitude a little bit just to get us a maybe a better angle as we arrive about a half mile away I'm going to start a left turn so we can enter a right hand orbit so this is going to be a house right here it's going to be the house on this side of the road towards us okay great so I've got the uh coming up on the back side of the house right now uh I can see the back door no one's at the back door going to have a stairs going up there's going to be a separate door upstairs two vehicles on the driveway the garage door is open have a Chevy a gray Chevy Camaro inside the garage silver for Explorer outside and a silver or white sh Avalanche in the driveway as well update for the scenario is the husband just came home did a perimeter check of the house hasn't seen anyone but they're concerned about the trees behind the house all right so at this point they're concerned about trees we're going to try to go to try to go to ir and see if we can't get any hate signatures out here I'm not seeing any heat signatures that are standing out to me in the woods if you push down the one button yeah push that this one straight in histogram go to another one should be AAP do it again go to manual then you can adjust it there we go there you go the auto will give you a ENT one but we can usually dial that in a little bit really slow there we go there we go nice a lot better oh the lady just called back and said that they saw you know family raccoons or something running away so they can clear from the coal all [Music] right the good thing about doing practice on these scenarios is there's no stress to do it here right now and uh when that hot call comes out on you know when someone calls 911 um we're going to be that much more squared away and a natural movement in a good picture all right so right now we've got a violation of 50 canvas back [Music] drive but we're going to go aheading that way it's saying the a Mel is on scene the caller is not on scene uh but her 14-year-old daughter is it's going to be 21 South so start heading back towards uh 21 here all right back this way um 14e Luder is at home the mail on scene there's a protection order against so we're going to head that way and OverWatch correct I'm sorry yeah 21 South it's going to be it's going to be back over here on this side of the airport all right check the cad note so it says suspect is inside the house Unown weapons I'm going to let dispatch know we're on our way X everyone we 1084 to C back any vehicle description we should be looking for have nothing on the cad notes all right I'm familiar with this with this house and this call um if I remember correctly I believe the suspect is in a Toyota car and there's a Toyota I think we have a white Toyota in the driveway way all right I got it out the window uh I believe that's a Chrysler I'm not not exactly sure it's just a white car we do have a copy of that all right so this is the house it was the wrong one so we've got to thanks everyone we're 1081 that's Toyota car all right xray one be advised I'm familiar with this this house I believe the suspect drives a Toyota car there's a black Toyota Prius in the driveway careful 723 copy break 735 this is a 1097 we were 10 42 a couple weeks ago correct that's temp4 you just keep an eye on that Prius 10 all right so the officer that is 1084 to this scene we were out here a couple weeks ago um by the time we got on scene the suspect has already left so he's asking us to keep an eye on that vehicle because that's going to be the the suspect vehicle so if it leaves we're going to follow it okay I see about getting the license plate on it we'll drive to you zoom in anymore that's all I got we're not going to be able to get it looks like really only one way into the neighborhood huh uh there's two uh but as far as these houses back here correct all right yeah if if he tries to get out and leave the neighborhood he's he's going to be heading back south on canas back so we'll be able to we'll be able to pick him up pretty easily okay all right so I believe we've got a unit in the area so did have one arrival on see pretty soon all right yeah I got him pretty much 1:00 out there gotcha [Music] yep so as the officer shows up if this guy decides to run towards the backyard it'll be a southern direction right uh yes 7 you can 251 so at this point our officer on the ground has made contact with a suspect he's outside interviewing him now in the cover units arrive the cover units [Music] arrived 74 return new out of current restri it does show to have a protection order it covers the children for 45 days from May the first it doesn't show anything about the [Music] home okay so it appears the uh the protection from abuse order the residence was not named according to dispatch the the residence was not named on the protection from abuse order and the kids are only named for 45 days and that has expired so at this point there's there's really not much more our officers can do so the scene has been released and we provided OverWatch to make OverWatch to to make sure that cuz of the time we did not know that so if this guy was is to run or fight we could be overhead to watch this is I'm familiar with this this is going to be our victim here okay so what I'm going to do here I'm going to keep a pretty good field of view because I know um the victim and the suspect are not on very good terms right now so I just want to make sure the victim doesn't try to do anything [Music] awesome all right officers now back in [Music] service [Music] that's pretty good practice right there too well I seen them down there I said well there's some cows let me uh let me use them to practice we were talking about yesterday the the manual gain and and all that it's it this is really good practice for that yeah compared to what the camera wants to give you automatically they're just going to wash out that whole whole scene because it got a whole lot for them to identify s pretty good yeah that's a good image right there yeah that's really good get some fuel and gra lunch yeah I like that I'm really glad to see those cows and did that it really puts into perspective how much uh better you can manipulate the camera to be yes definitely [Music] check c one more time no calls we're good all right do the uh before landing check please all right before landing RPM 100% check check instruments and green check check cabin secured secure Mission equipment stowed sted Landing light on ph let dispatch know all right hey XR 1 106 andison airport reference for ref fuel 100 ft can't wait for you to get your license and buly me around maybe one day we'll see that be pretty cool I still got some time little bit I've been a member of an aviation unit for over uh just about 50 15 years now I started my career at a flight crew with San Diego Police Department in 2008 prior to that I was a patrol officer I loved hitting the streets being on patrol trying to chase down bad guys or helping the other officers chase them down get in Pursuits all the high-speed stuff you see on TV all the time I was fortunate to be picked up to for the air support unit for San Diego Police and I loved it I started off as a tactical flight officer and it was the it it still is one of the most mentally challenging jobs I've ever done um I did that for about 3 years solely as a tactical flight officer before they selected me to become a pilot those first few years in the air support unit actually I missed the work of the patrol officer quite a bit um they're the backbone of any law enforcement agency every other job on the on those departments is to support them and back them up um the patrol officer really is the backbone and when I went to air support I was no longer doing any Patrol work um kind of hit my identity I guess as a law enforcement officer um I felt less of a cop because I wasn't down there chasing people around anymore um and as a TFO you are really removed from the scene you get to go to all the hot calls and the Pursuits and chases and watching k9's chase people down um but you feel like less of a cop as a tactical flight officer I was selected to do that first then they trained me to become a helicopter pilot flying tactical missions and then I still maintain my tactical flight officer skills so I was at that point a dual roll uh member of the flight crew and here in Oxford we fly with a two-person crew as well we have a helicopter pilot and then the Tactical flight officer or TFO and it's the best seat in the house that the it's the best job I've ever had a lot of people think that flying the helicopter is is one it is it is a cool job it's a fun job it's challenging um but to me really the the best seat in the house is the that of the Tactical flight officer okay [Applause] oil level is good caps are secured that door is locked quick walk around sure we didn't lose or gain any parts good to go xray one 108 code [Music] one take before landing track pleas before landing RPM 100% check check instruments in green check Mission equipment sted sted Ling light off that's on all feeling pretty stable got the wires here 100 [Music] ft yeah feel pretty good I like it good there's a big one there it was we're a little bit heavier now a little bit heavier that's before Lun yeah x-ray one code two cool good F yeah that was a good play and you can turn your equipment [Music] on F sweat my ass yeah it's [Music] hot [Music] [Music] for [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music]