A higher power

Danette Goulet

They can cross the city in a single minute. They can clear the Plaza

with ease. They can travel at speeds up to 175 mph.

They are Huntington Beach Police Department’s helicopter division.

Formed in 1968, Huntington Beach had the first such helicopter program

in Orange County and the fifth in the United States, said Sgt. Tom

Arnold, supervisor of the division known as the Aero Unit.

Today, the department will dedicate the newest addition to its fleet,

an MD Model NOTAR, which two Police Department mechanics have spent six

months taking apart and rebuilding with all the latest police technology.

Although it will always be HB1 when in action, the helicopter will be

dubbed Sentinel.

The name was chosen from more than 300 essay contest entries written

by fourth- and fifth-grade Drug Abuse Resistance Education students in

Huntington Beach. Each contestant suggested a name and then wrote an

essay on why it should be named that, said Arnold, his hand resting on a

pile of worn, dogeared papers.

Jeffery Shenett, a fifth-grade student at Village View came up with

the name Sentinel.

Jeffery thought he waited a long time for this day, but his was a

short wait compared to those in the Aero Unit and the city.

Worth the price

“It’s an important arm of the police service that the city provides to

its citizens,� said Councilwoman Connie Boardman, who went out to visit

the helicopter division when the council approved the $1.1-million

expenditure in November.

“They make the whole force more efficient by being able to respond

quickly and spotting things you’d never see from the ground.�

An audit of the entire Police Department in 1995, found one helicopter

in the air was worth 13 men on the ground.

“It takes the average police officer 20 minutes to get a call -- to

drive there, access the situation and get back into action,� Arnold said.

“It takes us three minutes in the air.�

Sentinel is the third NOTAR, which means no tail rotor, in the fleet.

The absence of a tail rotor makes the helicopter much more quiet than its

predecessors -- something police officer pilots say they are very

concerned about.

“We’re very noise sensitive,� said Dan Catalano, a police officer

pilot with the unit for 12 years.

While the helicopter allows the Aero Unit to be first on scene 98% of

the time, it is often the first to depart once ground units have things

under control to “give residents a break,� they say.

During the day, they normally fly at about 700 feet and at night bring

it up to 800 or 900 feet, Arnold said. But pilots can take the small

light aircraft as low as they need to go to get the job done, he added.

“We’ve gone as low as 50 feet,� he said.

The observer in the in two-man crew can also see up to a mile away

using high-powered binoculars and other special equipment.

The buzz around town

The well-used, high-powered binoculars are just jazzy rims on this

souped-up sports car in the air.

After the department procured the no-frills helicopter in December,

two full-time Aero Unit mechanics went to work.

“It’s like a stripped car and we put everything in it,� Arnold said.

“We do all our own maintenance.�

Each helicopter has state of the art communication equipment, that

tunes in to the radio systems of the police, fire, lifeguards and Coast

Guard’s. These bands are regularly monitored and HB1 often assists.

During the day shift, police officer pilot partners Tim Lynn, who has

been on the force 11 years, and Rick McNaughton, 10 years, will listen to

the lifeguard and coast guard radios, as well as make passes over the

shoreline to watch for swimmers outside the surf zone or someone caught

in a riptide.

“We look for anyone who might be outside the surf zone and in trouble,

and we let the lifeguards know,� Lynn said, pointing out a man with a

body board floating in a riptide.

Aero units also often assist the fire department, arriving on scene

first, to offer firefighters a lay of the land and check the surrounding

area for roof fires.

When the sun goes down -- the big toys come out. Each unit is equipped

with a “night sun� -- a 50-million candle power spotlight that can be

used to illuminate an entire football field or be concentrated into a few

feet in diameter.

The helicopters are also equipped with Forward Looking Infra Red that

detects heat and lets him see in total darkness.

The infra red allows officers to search areas, such as Central Park,

at night, scan rooftops for suspects, detect a recently driven car, which

at night will often give a robber or burglar away.

“When a fire alarm goes off we can tell if there is extra heat and it

would be a fire or a false alarm,� Arnold said.

Each police officer pilot has a story or two to offer of a crime

solved using this technology and keen observation.

Arnold related a tale of catching a guy on the run by just his foot

sticking out into a gutter from under a car.

Catalano’s partner noticed an odd set of tire tracks using the infra

red at night to catch a couple of guys breaking into schools.

Just another busy day

Since the HB1 has been in the air, 14,183 arrests have been made and

13,051 tickets have been given.

In 2001 the Aero Unit issued 398 tickets, observed 1,028 for which

there was no ground unit close enough to write the ticket, made or

assisted in 231 felony arrests and 394 misdemeanor arrests.

But the statistic that they are most proud of, is that in 2001 they

responded to 1,028 calls saving 2,056 ground units from driving 30

minutes round trip to respond.

The Aero Unit consists of two full-time mechanics, Arnold, a part-time

secretary and three crews of two, who work 10-hour shifts, with five of

those hours in the air. While one two-hour stint may be spent patrolling

like a ground unit and catching speeders on Pacific Coast Highway,

another airborne session may be zipping all over the Huntington skyline.

* DANETTE GOULET is the city editor. She can be reached at (714)

965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .