"What have we here? The police appear to have themselves and RV!" - Die Hard

The New Mexico State Police recently upgraded their helicopter. The new model, an Agusta 109, can hold eight people, has a cruising speed fully loaded of 160mph, and generally kicks ass. Here's a picture of the actual bird in flight [the picture caption says November 2000, but they only just bought it and that's definitely the new one].

The NMSP use their helicopter for two things. The first is to transport the Governor around, hence the all-leather interior [not kidding]. The second is to assist in search & rescue missions. For this reason, we took our team down to the hangar last night and had an orientation meeting with one of the pilots. He walked us around the bird and demonstrated some of the basic features. We had a long talk about safety hazards when dealing with helicopters and what sort of space he needed us to make ready in the field for a landing zone.

Unlike the late Angel 1 [clipped a hanger door and was destroyed earlier this year], 606 is not equipped to carry a litter. Its primary role for search & rescue will be as a spotter. And to that end, the pilot needs a second person onboard to handle the observing duties. His job is to keep the helicopter on course and out of the trees. The observer does all the actual searching.

As members of a certified NM search & rescue team, we will have the opportunity to ride in 606 as spotters should the need arise at a future search. Although this is usually a busy time for the team, we haven't had a search in a couple months. And that's a good thing. But the team sure is itching to get out and try out some of our new gear and maybe some of us will get to ride in 606.