Oklahoma Highway Patrol replacing older aircraft

Tuesday, November 22nd 2005, 5:28 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) The Oklahoma Highway Patrol is replacing some of its older aircraft to make sure that troopers, who do traffic control and illegal drug searches from the air, are flying in airplanes that are no more than 10 years old.

Maj. Mike Grimes says the patrol currently has 9 single-engine Cessna 182s, ranging from 1971 to 1999 models. There also is a twin-engine airplane used to fly state officials and members of the state Public Safety Department's administration, and there are plans to buy a second twin-engine plane.

Grimes, who recently won an award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police for his efforts to improve the aviation division, said 10 years is an appropriate length of service for airplanes used by the patrol.

``We fly each of those aircraft about 400 hours a year,'' Grimes said.

On any day, at least one of the single-engine airplanes, which are stationed across the state, is in the air, Grimes said. The aircraft division also has two Bell OH-58 helicopters, Grimes said.

Oklahoma City and Tulsa law enforcement have their own helicopters, but that ``leaves basically 75 other counties that have to rely on the Oklahoma Highway Patrol for aerial support,'' said Grimes.

The helicopters and the twin-engine airplane are kept at Wiley Post Airport in Oklahoma City.

The aircraft division has a staff of 16 and all but two _ a mechanic and a secretary _ are pilots. Each pilot flies about 400 hours a year. Grimes wants to add another mechanic and will try to get funding in next year's budget.

The airplanes and helicopters are used mostly to help search for illegal drug operations, to conduct manhunts or search-and-rescue operations and to assist other agencies, he said.

A heavy use of the single-engine airplanes is traffic enforcement, Grimes said.

``It's very effective for us,'' he said. ``It's not just speed enforcement that they're able to do from the aircraft. They're able to watch for erratic drivers; they're able to watch for following too close.''

Grimes said Oklahoma started its aircraft division in 1953 and was one of the first states to do speed control from the sky.

Two pilots have been killed in the line of duty. One died in 1978 while flying a low-level search for drug activity along a riverbank, hitting a power line. In 1990, a helicopter pilot struck a power line 300 feet off the ground during a marijuana eradication mission.

``Doing search operations, doing criminal manhunt operations, our aircraft are required to work low-level, and consequently, we operate under some adverse conditions and it does increase our risk,'' Grimes said. ``But because of the training and the way we maintain our aircraft, we really have a very good safety record for the amount of hours we fly.''