Air Services — A Snapshot of our people, places and equipment

A word from the Assistant Commissioner of Technical Operations...

The Air Services Branch of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is a fundamentally critical piece of operational infrastructure which supports police operations in every part of Canada. Air Services is one of nine branches which forms part of the RCMP’s Technical Operations.

Our mission is to research and develop technologies and provide the technical tools and expertise that enable front-line RCMP members and partners to:

• prevent and investigate crime;
• enforce the law;
• protect against terrorism; and
• operate in a safe and secure environment.

There can be no doubt that the Air Services Branch has fulfilled every part of this mission. We have highly-skilled pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs), a modernized and efficient fleet of aircraft, and active safety and training programs.

I am extremely proud of the accomplishments of the Air Services Branch in the post-September 11 world. They have responded well to new challenges such as a significant increase in the demand for services and the quick integration of new members and equipment.

This brochure is a snapshot of the work of our people, places and equipment within the RCMP’s Air Services. I commend them all for their work.

D.F. Gork
Assistant Commissioner, Technical Operations

Air Services takes flight...

RCMP Air Services got its start in April 1937, with four twin-engine bi-planes and eight regular member pilots. The planes, de Havilland Dragonflies with blue fuselages and yellow wings, were equipped with two-way radios and had a maximum range of more than 950 kilometres.

The new air section was temporarily housed in Downsview, Ontario. In July 1937, the Aviation Section moved to Moncton, New Brunswick.

Today, RCMP Air Services has a fleet of 33 operational aircraft, maintains 18 Air Sections and employs pilots, aircraft maintenance engineers, flight coordinators as well as purchasers, quality assurance and support personnel across the country.

RCMP Air Services...
efficient, economical, effective

Charting our course

The objective of the Air Services Branch is to provide a safe, effective and cost efficient air service to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in support of its role to maintain peace and security for our nation by:

• applying the highest principles of Aviation Safety;
• providing a professional and well trained team of pilots and
  technicians; and
• ensuring cost-effective use of available resources.

Core responsibilities and services provided by Air Services

Air Services is unique within the RCMP, effectively responding to policing and organizational needs by providing essential transport and operational support for the RCMP. With both fixed and rotary winged aircraft, skilled flight personnel and aircraft maintenance engineers strategically located across Canada, Air Services provides for a necessary fleet of law enforcement support aircraft.

Air Services supports police operations

Aircraft are used in providing for the diverse needs of police duties including:

• transporting operational personnel into remote locations to
  conduct investigations;
• transporting Emergency Response Teams (ERT) and Tactical
  Troop personnel to various sites;
• transporting prisoners to lock-up or correctional facilities;
• transporting personnel to locations in the northern
  hemisphere in support of international policing duties and
  missions;
• providing surveillance capabilities;
• providing search and rescue capabilities where and when
  required;
• ferrying household effects into northern postings and for
  administrative duties when there is a need to conduct
  reviews and inspections; and
• transporting administrative and operational personnel via
  day-to-day flights in support of police operations.

Do you know?

• All transport aircraft are dual-purpose and readily convertible from cargo to passenger and vice versa.
• In 2002-2003, a total of 27,865,246 passenger miles were flown over 21,871 hours.
• Since 2000, mileage and usage of planes has increased about 20 per cent and is expected to continue to rise.
• The oldest aircraft in the fleet is a 1971 Twin Otter currently stationed in Goose Bay, Labrador.
• The newest aircraft in the fleet are the AS 350B3 helicopter and the Avanti P180 turbo prop.
• There is a high degree of commonality among engines in the fleet. For example, 22 of the RCMP’s 33 aircraft contain the Canadian-built PT-6 engine.
• The average number of seats per aircraft is seven. Most of the aircraft can accommodate a fully loaded advance RCMP Emergency Response Team.
• The RCMP is one of the largest fleet operators in Canada.
• The RCMP operates single pilot IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) with the Pilatus PC-12.

The Faces of Air Services

Presently there are 72 pilots and 43 aircraft maintenance engineers within Air Services across Canada.

The flexibility in using a coordinated pool group of professional and well-trained pilots and technicians minimizes the effects of vacancies and produces an economic air support operation. The ultimate goal is to ensure a safe, effective and cost efficient air service to the RCMP.

In support of this goal, Air Services retains skilled individuals with expertise in the areas of flight coordination, safety, training, quality assurance, purchasing and administrative personnel.

Air Services training

Aircrew training

Air Services aircrew currently consist of experienced regular member and civilian member pilots and aircraft maintenance engineers (AMEs). All new hires are selected from a large pool of highly qualified and experienced industry pilots and AMEs. As a minimum, new hires must have at least 3,000 hours of relevant flying experience, or in the case of AMEs, five years of licenced aircraft maintenance experience.

All RCMP aircrew are expected to maintain a high degree of competency and professional knowledge. To accomplish this, our training program meets or exceeds industry standards in every respect. The high proficiency of RCMP pilots and maintenance engineers is critical to maintaining our excellent safety record.

In addition:

• Simulator and aircraft flight training must be completed on an annual basis on most aircraft types on which a pilot is qualified.
• After this training, pilots must pass various check rides with a certified check pilot on a recurring basis.
• As well, pilots are required to re-qualify on many individual ground school courses. This involves classroom instruction as well as re-qualification exams.
• Pilots must also undergo a thorough medical review every year (or six months depending on age) by a Canadian Aviation Medical Examiner.

Maintenance engineers are provided with initial training on all rotary and/or fixed wing aircraft as well as recurrent training as required. This includes avionics, engine maintenance, trouble-shooting and human factors related type courses.

Orientation

A first-ever orientation course for Air Services employees was held at the RCMP’s Training Academy in Regina, Saskatchewan in November 2002. The course, presented to 23 civilian members (including pilots, avionic technicians and aircraft maintenance engineers), included lessons on ethics, code of conduct, the RCMP Act, dress and deportment, firearms training and compensation.

Air Services Flight Safety Program

Through its Flight Safety Program, Air Services ensures it maintains the highest safety standards in the aviation industry. In Air Services there is no greater resource than our people, and they are the key to a successful program. It is through their dedication and vigilance that incidents and potential hazards are reported to the Safety Officer who analyses all the documentation sent forth. From this information, the Safety Officer can identify potentially harmful situations and note the formation of trends.

It is impossible to eliminate all risk from our daily operations but it is possible through risk assessment and management to lower the risk to an acceptable level. By establishing risk profiles for our operations, we can educate our people on the hazards they may encounter and attempt to mitigate them with preventive measures.

Like most things in life, communication is the key to our success. With our Air Sections spread across the country, it is imperative we disseminate information in a timely manner. An effective program is proactive in nature and relies heavily on education as a preventive measure. Many say there are no new accidents, just repeats of ones we have seen before.

By taking the time to analyse our past incidents we can also lower the chance of repeat occurrences within our organization. Although difficult to self-judge and analyse, it is only by being truthful with oneself and sharing our lessons learned that we may one day save another’s life.

Fleet Modernization Plan: Keeping our fleet “evergreen”

The RCMP has adopted a Fleet Modernization Plan that is supported by Treasury Board and Public Works and Government Services Canada. New aircraft are obtained through the public Request for Proposals and bidding process and generally funded from internal allocations.

Fleet modernization implies a major purchasing activity with the consequent need for large amounts of capital: fleet evergreening is a systematic approach to modernization which acquires and retires aircraft on a planned life cycle. Cost, opportunity, service records, age and technology updates are key factors in the evergreen plan.

The backbone of the RCMP fleet is the single engine, seven- passenger Pilatus PC-12. Each aircraft is replaced after seven years (approximately 7,000 flight hours). Funds from the sale of RCMP aircraft are then reinvested into newer aircraft which allows the organization to take advantage of new technologies to ensure it has a more efficient, cost effective and safe fleet of aircraft to support police operations.

Helicopters are typically replaced every 15 years. In recent years, the RCMP has acquired the AS 350B3 helicopter which is an off-the-shelf model in service throughout the world. It has excellent power-to-weight ratios and is a significant improvement over the RCMP’s older models.

Fleet, facts and figures

The fleet is made up of 33 RCMP-owned aircraft including:

• 13 Pilatus PC-12 located in Yellowknife, London, Regina,
  Iqaluit, Prince Albert, Prince George, Moncton, Winnipeg,
  Vancouver, Edmonton (2), Montreal and Ottawa
• 4 Bell 206L helicopters located in Montreal, Kelowna,
  Comox and Edmonton
• 4 AS 350B3 helicopters located in Kamloops, Vancouver,
  London and Moncton
• 3 Caravan 208 located in Vancouver, Ottawa and Prince
  Rupert (float plane)
• 1 Cessna 182Q located in Winnipeg
• 1 Cessna U206G located in Vancouver
• 4 Cessna 210R located in Regina, London, Edmonton and
  Montreal
• 2 DH-6-300 Twin Otters located in Whitehorse and Goose
  Bay
• 1 Piaggio Avanti P180 located in Ottawa

Aircraft provide operational support to all RCMP personnel and are strategically located across Canada in the various Air Sections:

• Moncton
• Goose Bay
• Montréal
• Ottawa
• London
• Winnipeg
• Regina
• Prince Albert
• Edmonton
• Kamloops
• Kelowna
• Vancouver
• Comox
• Prince George
• Prince Rupert
• Yellowknife
• Whitehorse
• Iqaluit

Air Services, as a support function, is structured within the policy centre, Air Services Branch, located at Ottawa within Technical Operations. The policy centre is responsible for 18 individual Air Services Sections located across Canada servicing RCMP policing needs. All Air Section buildings are owned or leased by the RCMP with the Air Services Branch in Ottawa.

Fleet maintenance

All aircraft are maintained in accordance with the Canadian Aviation Regulations and are granted Certificates of Airworthiness by Transport Canada on an annual basis pursuant to an approved maintenance schedule for each aircraft. The Certificate of Airworthiness is not in force unless the aircraft has been maintained in accordance with its maintenance schedule. As a result, any aircraft would be deemed to be inoperative and not available for service unless there is adherence to the prescribed mandatory maintenance schedule.

As the policy centre, Air Services Branch in Ottawa offers support to RCMP Air Services Sections across Canada. It also completes heavy repair, design modifications and special equipment fit-up on selected aircraft.

The Branch monitors all maintenance and inspection requirements of each RCMP aircraft and their components, recurring Airworthiness Directives, Service Bulletins, overhauls, retirement items (cyclic and calendar occurrences) as well as scheduling of mandatory inspections.

Depending on the type of aircraft, maintenance is required based on the number of flying hours, a monthly or annual interval between scheduled maintenance or as a mandatory non-discretionary requirement by Transport Canada.

The convenience of flying Air Services

Air Services is able to accommodate the unique travel needs of RCMP members in ways that commercial airlines are not.

Operational Requirements	RCMP-owned	Commercial	Charter
Ability to carry firearms on board
Transportation of hazardous goods
Continuity of evidence
Ability to travel covertly
Flexibility of scheduling
Flexibility of routes
Ability to speak freely
Security of carry-on baggage

Source: Pony Express (September-October 2002)

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