Falcon One-Zero：ミッション遂行への歩み

I was honestly really nervous because it's one thing to want to start an air unit, and then when they say, "Okay, we're starting an air unit, so get started," you're like, "Uh-oh, careful what you wish for." He's stopping right by the taco truck and right underneath the tree there.

Dan, let me first congratulate you and the Stockton Police Department on the incredible success, really, of starting a new police aviation unit. Looking back, five years later now, summarize that success for us. Was it worth it, and why?

Well, yes. Thank you. It was absolutely worth it, and it's hard to put into words, I'll be honest with you. I had such a great team of people helping me. It certainly wasn't me by myself. To go through the stress of trying to conquer something as big as that, and then to have it turn out as a success, was just an amazing feeling. I was so proud of everybody that was involved, as well as the air unit and the aircraft and just everything that we've done throughout the last five years. It's pretty amazing.

Maybe give us an example of the greatest hurdle you faced. Maybe we can even tie into what advice would you give that new startup unit today, as they face those hurdles.

There's quite a few. Some of the major ones were trying to figure out what aircraft was going to fit our needs, trying to educate the administration to what it takes to put together an air unit, what it takes to run an air unit, because it's not the same as any other unit. Budgeting, obviously, is always the tough one. Some amazing companies come in and give us some grants to be able to get us some really big equipment that we needed that was super important.

You just kind of keep tackling one after the next. And having a lot of really good advice from other air units was instrumental in helping us get through those tough spots. And so then when I see other units getting ready to start up and asking questions, I stop what I'm doing, and go do the same thing and pay that back, just like it was done for me.

When you were going through that process, Dan, and defining your mission, so to speak—to lead to that aircraft selection and those configuration questions—walk us through that process.

Information that was given to us from other air agencies was, like you said, defining your mission, and then finding an aircraft that suits that. Because obviously, you could find something that has way more than what your mission requires. And so it's nice to have more than you need, but are you in a position where you can afford that, especially starting up a brand-new unit?

So defining our mission was strictly going to be patrol. There's not any tactical inserts of officers. There's no search and rescues, hoist, or external load requirements. It's strictly patrol—getting to the scene first, getting the information to the other patrol officers. And so then we take that information, and then start finding the aircraft to fit those needs.

Selecting an aircraft was very stressful because I knew if I made the wrong decision, it could affect the future of this whole program before it even starts. And honestly, the 505 wasn't on my radar. Then Bell brought the 505 out and wanted us to fly it, and so I was kind of reluctant to do it, but I did it anyway. It was literally one flight in that airframe, and I knew. I immediately told the lieutenant, I said, "This is the aircraft that we need." What it has, the equipment that it has, for the cost, its abilities—it does everything that we need it to do.

I thought that a brand-new aircraft would also be good, being that it has a warranty, and any kind of unforeseen things are going to be taken care of. In the beginning, I can't have any unscheduled maintenance pop up and the aircraft be down for a month when we're just starting out. People aren't going to understand that. And that's going to be detrimental to the program starting.

So I knew everything in its infancy and in its first stages of life, everything's got to be on point. Everything's got to be perfect, and everything's got to be just lined up just right. And every day is like a job interview, trying to keep your job. And we got to prove why we belong here, and we should be here, why they should spend that money on us.