At last month’s Airborne Law Enforcement Association Expo in Phoenix, Ariz., Vertical caught up with Ed Van Winkle, law enforcement sales manager for Airbus Helicopters, Inc., to discuss the new AS350 B3e brought to the show by Oklahoma Department of Public Safety (DPS), and the manufacturer’s perspective on the airborne law enforcement market.
Van Winkle said the white, black and grey AStar was chosen by the Oklahoma DPS primarily for its multi-mission capabilities, its ability to cover a lot of space, and to allow for possible expansion into search-and-rescue mode. The helicopter is equipped with advanced mission equipment and avionics including a Wescam MX-10 imaging system, a Spectrolab SX-16 Nightsun searchlight with IFCO (in flight change over) lens, a Churchill Augmented Reality System moving map, and a Garmin G500H glass cockpit — all installed at Airbus Helicopter, Inc.’s completion facility in Grand Prairie, Texas.
“Our completions are just beyond compare,” he told Vertical. “We do, depending on the year, between five and 15 law enforcement completions in-house. . . . It’s one of our core competencies at Airbus Helicopters, and we’ve been extremely competitive in our pricing with the other vendors that also [offer] completions on our products.”
Van Winkle said that working with the aircraft’s manufacturer on the completion benefits the customer in several different ways. With all the modifications being done in-house, the customer walks away with their helicopter having written just one check, greatly simplifying what can often be a complicated procurement process. It also results in one warranty that will cover both airframe and completion. Van Winkle also explained that when a customer chooses to bring a green aircraft to a different company for completion, their warranty clock immediately starts ticking. While the completions are being performed over the course of several months, the warranty has already begun. Finally Van Winkle spoke of the quality of work performed at Airbus Helicopters, Inc.’s completions center.
“We are the most experienced completions center on our aircraft,” he said. “We know it better than anybody else and we’re very proud of that.
Looking towards the future, Van Winkle sees positive growth for the manufacturer in the airborne law enforcement market.
“I think that property values around the country are starting to increase, and of course, property values drive tax revenue, and that creates more money in government budgets,” he said. “Everyone is still guarded, but there was a three or four year period where the economy was not doing so well and agencies that needed aircraft did not buy them. So I think there’s a lot of pent-up demand that we’re starting to see.”
