Sheriff Shows Off Versatile New Helicopter

It was show and tell at Camarillo Airport Thursday as the Sheriff’s Department displayed its big, new toy--a Huey helicopter.

But this is no ordinary helicopter, deputies insisted. It’s the Batmobile of Ventura County law enforcement.

The 5,500-pound Huey flies at a top speed of 161 m.p.h. with the help of an 1,800-horsepower jet turbine engine and can carry up to nine people for as long as three hours on one tank of fuel.

“It’s the smoothest of the fleet,” Sheriff Larry Carpenter said. “It lifts the most, flies the highest and can hoist objects with a 200-foot cable.”

And as if the sheriff’s seal of approval wasn’t enough, the new helicopter swung into action.

It sliced, diced and julienned the air, whipping a small group of spectators with a whopping 40 m.p.h. of wind. Next, it hoisted a crew member off the Tarmac and into the hovering helicopter 15 feet above.

It then zoomed around menacingly, chasing invisible enemies, eventually coming to rest on the Tarmac to give photographers one more opportunity to capture its sleek blue and yellow metallic sheen.

Built in 1970, the sheriff’s new Huey UH1L Bell helicopter was first used by the Navy in Florida and China Lake for search and rescue operations. The Sheriff’s Department adopted the aging whirlybird in 1993 at no cost through a new federal surplus program, and spent the past two years rebuilding it bolt by bolt.

“It’s better than new,” Carpenter boasted. “We got a $3-million aircraft for less than $500,000.”

The Huey is one of four helicopters used by the Sheriff’s Department for drug interdiction, search and rescue, airlifting accident victims to hospitals, and brush fires.

The department wasted no time putting it into action two weeks ago when, on its first day of service, it was used to tame a brush fire in Ojai with its 340-gallon water tank and then aided police with a high-speed pursuit in Camarillo.

The helicopter is expected to be used on 300 missions a year at a cost of $600 an hour of flight time.