The San Antonio Police Helicopter Detail, known as Blue Eagle, has responsibilities that extend beyond only policing San Antonio city. Its varied missions require a range of capabilities and to meet its needs, the unit is re-equipping its fleet to field a single type; the Airbus H125/AS350-B3.

The San Antonio Police Department first established its helicopter detail in 1971. Over the subsequent years, the unit progressed from the original Hughes 300s to a Hughes 500 and then to the turbine-powered Schweizer 333. More recently, an AS350-B3 was acquired in 2007, supplemented by a pair of new EC120s in 2014 and a third EC120 example in 2016. The EC120s replaced the 333s, and they are, in turn, now being replaced by new Airbus H125s. These are larger, more powerful and capable machines necessary to fulfil the wide range of missions that the unit undertakes, many of which the EC120 is simply incapable of conducting. The unit’s third H125 will arrive in December this year, and the fourth and final example is due for a 2026 delivery, at which time the last EC120 will be disposed.

Garret Hunter, the helicopter detail’s CFI said, “Our primary function is police calls and someone is here 24/7, handling patrol needs for the county.” Shifts are ten hours with the daylight shift working from 0600 to 1600, the evening shift from 1600 to 0200, and the flex shift covering the 0200 to 0600 period. The flex shift is covered by officers from the day and evening shifts, who adjust their start times to incorporate the flex period. “With the staff we have, ten-hour shifts are the only way to have 24/7 coverage and still be able to have three days off.” pilot Clint Tiller added. Shifts are permanent and allocated by preference on a seniority basis. Crews do not alternate between day and night shifts, so the same members fly with each other all the time, and this familiarity develops a cohesive and efficient crew dynamic. While the night shift crews may have less experience, the CFIs ensure that all teams maintain the same high safety standards, with strict oversight that promotes safe, disciplined flying across the board.

Over the past few years, the unit has consistently averaged around 3,300 flight hours annually, approximately nine hours in the air each day—demonstrating a level of activity that surpasses many other police aviation units. The city itself covers around 400 square miles, with the rest of Bexar County adding another 800 square miles. Not only does the unit cover Bexar County, under an agreement with AACOG, it also provides aviation support for all surrounding counties that do not field their own police air units. “It’s hard for the other counties in a way,” commented Tiller, “If we’re engaged in another county and we get a call from a patrol in our area, we have to leave the first call to attend in our own county because supporting our own units is our number one priority, it’s our bread and butter.”

125 Advantage

Unlike the EC120s, the H125s have the space and performance to be hoist-equipped, and the unit can conduct hoist rescues anywhere in the state of Texas if called. “They’ve gone all the way to the Rio Grande at Del Rio in the past,” Hunter advised. “For special op’s where assets are needed, it goes through the chain of command and as long as we’ve got a helicopter and crew to cover the city, we can go and do those other missions. That could be the hoisting, firefighting or assisting our SWAT team.” On normal patrol, operations are usually conducted below 2,000ft AMSL (1,000ft AGL), remaining under the deck of ATC’s controlled airspace. Surveillance is commonly conducted relatively high at around 3,000 or 4,000ft. Missing person searches during daylight are typically around 500ft AGL to maintain clearer visual observation. At night the altitude is higher to take advantage of a much broader field of view with the EO/IO camera suite. “That lets us see much more with the thermal and also gives us more time to react if something goes wrong,” agreed the pilots.

The H125s are well-equipped for the unit’s varied mission set and boast a Goodrich rescue hoist, Shotover augmented reality and mapping system, Macro Blue 17” monitors, downlink, video switching unit, Technisonic 9100 radio set for communication with other agencies and a searchlight that can be slaved to the Wescam MX-10 EO/IO camera turret. Although the camera is not used a great deal during the initial stages of daylight searches, the instructors stated that new crewmembers are all trained to use the cameras extensively to establish competence, familiarity and confidence with the equipment. Additional equipment installed by the department includes external cargo mounts and the fast-rope system from Tyler Systems, plus Bambi buckets – including the new Max’ variant that permits control of the volume of water dumped.

Maintenance Fit

Although the timeframe covering the delivery of the unit’s four H125s means that there are some differences in technology between aircraft, standardization is a key component in increasing safety. Adam Garcia, the department’s Helicopter Maintenance Supervisor, went over the specification line-by-line with Airbus and Metro Aviation to ensure that all four examples have the radios, switches and avionics in exactly the same places. Garcia also stressed that the new aircraft registrations reflect the department’s desire to show recognition of the sacrifices made by its police officers, as the new aircraft are each registered with the last three digits of a fallen officer’s badge number and their initials.

Garcia explained that from its inception in 1971, the department contracted out all its aircraft maintenance. He joined the contracting company in 2004 after finishing a 22-year military career that included time as crew chief on OH58s and extensive stints with the 160th SOAR on MH-6 Little Birds and lastly with the 101st Airborne. He immediately recognized that employing its own engineering and maintenance personnel would be a much less expensive option for the city, so when the maintenance contract ended in early 2006, he was approached by the then-unit supervisor David Torres to take up one of two newly created maintenance positions, he accepted and has been with the department ever since.

The second mechanic left soon after and Garcia stepped up as the sole mechanic, and with dedication and resilience, took on the challenge of maintaining a demanding fleet of five Schweizer 333s. He now heads up a team of four mechanics looking after the unit’s H125s and EC120s. All the mechanics are Airbus school- and Safran engine- trained. The EC120 is still subject to a 12-yearly inspection and that was one factor in deciding to trade in the 120s and transition the entire fleet to the H125 airframe. Garcia observed that the EC120 is a very simple aircraft to work on and the H125 is not that much more difficult, with the two types having very similar systems and designs. He acknowledged, however, that the avionics technology is more advanced in the newer aircraft, and that will take some training and learning over time.

Garcia is complimentary of both Airbus and Safran’s tech’ rep’s and level of support, commenting, “The support from both has been excellent and we’re only now starting to see a little more difficulty in obtaining airframe parts for the EC120s. Not the engine though because that’s still in production and used in other types.” Due to a long lead-time on parts that are the shortage list, Garcia orders spare parts well in advance to minimize delays. Unlike the flight crew roster, mechanics work a straight 40-hour, Monday to Friday dayshift, although Garcia is on call for unscheduled outages that require urgent action outside those hours and can call in personnel to deal with those issues on paid overtime.

Proactive Patrols

One reason for the unit’s high annual tally of flight hours is that the crews do not have to wait for a call for assistance before launching. They routinely fly proactive patrol, seeing what they can find and assist on, monitoring the radios and responding to incoming calls on which they think they may be useful. One pilot pointed out that it was like operating a flying police car and Tiller commented, “If we are already airborne, we are much more of an advantage to our units on the ground because we take away the launch time that we’d have if we were sitting here at the office. From the time we get a call on the ground we can be downtown in about five minutes and that’s a quick start, but we try to explain to the officers on the ground and at the academy that it’s not like just jumping in a patrol car and starting the engine. There are things you have to do that you have to take your time with because this is such an easy engine to damage if you don’t start it the right way.” He noted that there have been starting incidents in the past and with a new Arriel-1D now costing over $US 1 million, correct starting procedure is rigorously adhered to.

Responding to an incident from proactive patrol can, however, create its own issues, particularly with the EC120s, as Hunter explained. “It’s a double-edged sword because especially in summer, we’re limited in the weight we can carry in the 120 so we can’t load it up with full fuel. If we’ve been flying on patrol for an hour, we only have 45 minutes of fuel remaining so if we get a call that’s going to keep us up for an hour, then we have to return for fuel.” On rare occasions, there may be another aircraft and crew that can launch to take over the call, but that is seldom the case as a shift usually has only one aircraft and crew available to fly.

Tiller highlighted that all unit crewmembers are dual-trained as pilots and observers, so pilot and observer will regularly alternate roles during a shift. An extra crew member is typically on duty to help maintain peak performance and balanced workloads during the 10-hour shifts. A major advantage of having everyone trained as both pilot and TFO is that it simplifies and minimizes the communication necessary between crewmembers when engaged on calls. Their policing experience and familiarity with the TFO functions enable the pilot to instinctively ‘fly the screen’ and put the aircraft where it needs to be without direction from the TFO, positioning it to enable him to operate effectively. “When piloting, you know exactly what that guy needs because you’ve worked that position before,” Hunter remarked, while Tiller commented, “You know you’ve got good chemistry if you can go pretty much the entire flight without having to talk.”

Variety

The range of missions provides variety for the crews, and Hunter commented that the hoist rescues can be particularly satisfying, flying and operating in challenging conditions to obtain a positive outcome for the rescued person. “One of our old pilots and I were involved in several pursuits that lasted around 40 minutes and they were really interesting,” recalled Tiller. The Department’s pursuit policy makes the helicopter even more of an asset as it is able to maintain observation of the suspect vehicle from altitude, usually without alerting the pursued vehicle of its presence.

Police First

 

Hunter pointed out that the detail’s members are all police officers first and foremost. “Whether you’re an officer driving a patrol car, doing detective work or flying a helicopter, you’re still a police officer.” Tiller has been on the force for 30 years and on the detail for 21. He agreed with Hunter, stating, “I joined to be a policeman and that was my number one goal. Being an aviator now is nice but I’m still a policeman at heart so being able to go out and help the officers on the ground from the air is great.” Another pilot commented, “We’ve got the best equipment in the market, the best aircraft in the market and we have more operational freedom than many police air units. That means we have to make good decisions and manage evolving situations, so we try to get people who have leadership qualities, and I think everybody on this unit has the capabilities necessary to be a supervisor and manage a unit.”

With regard to aircraft, the San Antonio unit is in the best shape it’s ever been. When the last EC120 is disposed of next year, the fleet will comprise four new or near-new examples of a modern, capable, well-equipped type that can easily fulfil every mission that the unit can be called on to conduct. Its personnel are all highly motivated, self-reliant, safety-conscious team players; otherwise, they do not last on the helicopter detail. Crews at many other agencies would be justifiably jealous.