Quote:
Police Pilots and IRs - The cops don't like IRs because they cost too much to get and to maintain so they make do without and pretend that inadvertant flight into IMC doesn't happen - despite one EC 135 drivers bad experience in Strathclyde a few years back.
...and the pilot of that aircraft had an instrument rating
- but just wasn't as current as most non-IR Police pilots are with the Auto-pilot!
If
we dual roled, we'd get nothing done properly - with the police kit aboard, there'd be no room/weight for HEMS equipment
AND a patient, unless the Police were happy with less than 60 mins endurance for their tasks . . . normally not enough.
Dual roling is effectively (I'd suggest) an interim or compromise solution in areas where they can't afford/justify both separately. If your (non-24 hour) Police operation flies 500-600 hours p.a., you might consider dual roling to improve resourse use - if you're working in the 900hrs+ area, you'd be run ragged in no time.
Skyhigh - the role & uses of a police helicopter have been explained very effectively by others (40 odd #47 / Helinut #52 / tigerfish #59 / Dr Bunsen) if you can't actually accept the answers from the "pp"s on this network, and others who obviously have a decent grasp of reality, don't ask the question. If you really want to waste money, suggest the helicopter swans around in the air for
6hrs per day (probably in the wrong place for any reactive job) & watch your taxes rise even more.
These machines are used most effectively as rapid,
reactive, response, or taking 12 mins to search a square mile of fields for the missing 82 yr old altzheimers patient, to direct a single officer to investigate possible "finds" (or even land themselves), rather than 400 man hours for ground officers to do the same. If you want your Police patrolling the streets nabbing hoodies (as the government does), don't get them to waste their time & your money doing jobs more suited to airborne technology & expertise.
If you're trying to wind professionals up, you've done a good job!
