July 15 was my birthday, and this year I received the coolest birthday present ever-- the opportunity to go on a 90 minute patrol with the Detroit Police Department's Aeronautical Services Division over the city.
The Detroit Police Department maintains three Aerospatiale A-Star Turbojet helicopters that fly patrols over the city everday in two shifts. One helicopter at a time is usually flying, and is crewed by a pilot and an observer.
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| 1973 Bell antique used for training | 1985 Aerospatiale A-Star | Don't move, this is the police |
During the preflight check by Officer Clark, I inspected the Nite Sun, a very powerful light mounted under the ship, and controlled by a joystick inside the chopper.
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| Getting a ticket for doing 130 in a 45mph zone | This flashlight takes 320 D-Cell batteries | Caution, direct observation may cause injury |
We put on our headsets for inflight communication (helicopters are extremely noisy), and headed north out of Detroit City Airport where the Aeronautical Services Division is headquartered.
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| Officer Bill Haddas | Shelly to tower, come in tower | Houston, we have a problem |
One of the easiest things to see from the air is a fire, and there just happened to be one burning in Highland Park as we ascended to cruising altitude (about 1200 feet).
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| At first we thought it was a house | But it turned out to be a garage | Fire trucks couldn't get back there, and it burned to the ground |
We also got a look at the path of destruction caused by the tornadoes of a couple weeks ago. Since we were at altitude, detailed looks at the damage on each house does not show up well in these pictures. What is evident though, is the path of destruction through a neighborhood as the tornadoes blew up three house, skipped over two, then destroyed three more on their way through.
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| The pile of junk at top right used to be a house | Notice the debris scattered left to the highway | The tornado moved from right to left through here |
After the fire and the tour of storm damage, we went sightseeing around the city.
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| Detroit skyline | Ambassador bridge | The Ren Cen |
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| The General Motors complex | Tiger Stadium | The Detroit Yacht club on Belle Isle |
After sightseeing a call came over the police radio of a hold up alarm at a Mobil station on Eight Mile Road. The pilot turned us around and flew us to the scene at nearly 140 mph. We were the first unit on the scene and circled until two ground units arrived. It was a false alarm. A little while later the LoJack system in the ship lit up, and we tracked a stolen vehicle to the Seven Mile and Livernois area. We circled the area for a while and they radioed for a ground unit to pinpoint the stolen car.
By now it was time to come down (riding around in the back of a helicopter, in choppy air, for 90 minutes makes you want to burp, or worse). So we headed back to City Airport where Bill landed the ship on a tiny wheeled platform to be refueled and prepped for the next patrol.
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| They land on these wheeled platforms to move the helicopters in and out of the hanger | We konked the cops on the head and tried to fly away, but I couldn't find the gas pedal |
