California Highway Patrol helicopter patrols North Coast skies

Chris Durant

Eureka Times-Standard

December 26, 2005

http://www.times-standard.com/local/ci_3344964

         

Donovan Geyer keeps an eye on the ridge line behind Murray Field as clouds and fog creep toward the runway.

 

"As long as I can see those mountains, I think we'll be OK," said Geyer, a California Highway Patrol flight officer and paramedic.

 

Geyer and his partner, Officer Pilot Shawn Bainbridge, have to get back to Redding but the encroaching weather might keep them in Humboldt County longer than they planned to be.

 

The helicopter they fly for the CHP is one of two out of the Redding office, which are also the only two helicopters used by law enforcement north of Chico.

 

There are 15 helicopters used by the agency statewide.

 

Geyer and Bainbridge patrol 13 counties from the sky. Everything from search and rescue, to medevacs, to officer air support, but not too much traffic.

 

"That's the primary role of our airplanes," Bainbridge said.

 

Two airplanes also fly out of the Redding office and there are 16 statewide.

 

Bainbridge has been flying helicopters for the CHP for four years. He got most of his previous helicopter experience flying the large, double-rotor CH-47 Chinook helicopters in the Army for 11 years.

 

"A big red barn in the sky," Bainbridge said.

 

Geyer has been with the CHP for three years and has been in its air program for two years.

 

Modern technology on their CHP helicopter allows them to monitor communications of the CHP and local agencies where they are patrolling as well as keep track of where they are and are going.

 

"Just like the GPS in your car," Bainbridge said.

 

It's also equipped with cameras and a spotlight that has 6,000,000 candle power.

 

"That's why it's called the 'Night Sun,'" Geyer said.

 

The light is used more to illuminate incident scenes than as a searchlight.

 

Bainbridge said he keeps the aircraft between 500 and 1,000 feet.

 

"If it gets too high, I'm no longer a tool," Bainbridge said.

 

Geyer started his CHP career in Oakland, where he spent more time in the air looking for crooks than for someone who might be injured.

 

"There's a lot more general law enforcement assistance in the metropolitan areas," Geyer said

 

Their current assignment finds them over remote areas looking for lost hikers or accident victims.

 

The aircraft is equipped with the same medical tools found in an ambulance and if need be can transport an injured person.

 

Sometimes while flying over the hills they stumble upon marijuana grows.

 

"They're really easy to spot in the fall because they're green and everything else on the side of the mountain is brown," Geyer said.

 

The officers get GPS coordinates and take pictures and forward the information to the local authorities. With the Campaign Against Marijuana Planting focusing on finding the grows, the CHP doesn't do that much specific marijuana investigations from the air, Geyer said.

 

Operating costs for the helicopter are estimated by Geyer to be between $1,200 and $1,400 per hour, including fuel.

 

The helicopter comes to Humboldt County a couple of times a month, but the weather has a lot to do with the specific timing.

 

Chris Durant is public safety, criminal courts and general assignment reporter. He can be reached at 441-0506 or cdurant@times-standard.com.