Sheriff Seeks New Helicopter, Turboprop Plane for Patrol Fleet

RIVERSIDE (CNS) – Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco Tuesday will ask the Board of Supervisors to approve his plans to purchase a new helicopter and airplane for patrol and other deployments at a total cost of $18.46 million.

Bianco is seeking to add an Airbus AS350 helicopter and a Pilatus PC- 12 fixed-wing single-engine turboprop to the sheriff’s fleet, relying entirely on internal accounts to cover the amounts required to pay for the aircraft.

The price tag on the chopper is $7.72 million, and the Pilatus runs $10.74 million, according to sheriff’s documents posted to the board’s policy agenda for Tuesday.

Officials said the sheriff’s department currently operates a fleet of six Airbus helicopters and a piston-driven Cessna 182 Skylane. The choppers were manufactured between 2000 and 2020; the Cessna rolled off of the assembly line in 1974.

"With the addition of one AS350, the sheriff’s office will be able to provide uninterrupted patrol support for the east and west ends of the county day and night, seven days a week," according to a sheriff’s statement.

"The Pilatus will be available to fly investigators with time sensitive tasks in the most critical types of criminal investigations, be utilized in department extraditions, shuttle staff annually to complete jail inspections, aid transporting executive staff to required meetings in and out of county … provide high-altitude and high-tech search-and-rescue, provide specially trained and geared staff to respond quickly to critical incidents or mutual aid requests, and be a resource to other county departments with reduced travel time, reduced lodging, reduced per diem and allowing executive staff to be more available within the county," the agency stated.

Officials said that the C-182 cannot fulfill a number of preferred tasks due to its four-seat capacity, 161 mph top cruising speed and range limitation of 800 miles generally on two tanks of gas.

The Pilatus has a 2,071-mile range, max cruising speed of 330 mph and service ceiling of 30,000 feet. The plane is found in the high-end user market, including in some charter and executive fleets.

It was unclear whether sheriff’s officials performed a search of the secondary or pre-owned commercial aircraft market space to find less expensive alternatives.

The sheriff noted during fiscal year budget hearings last June that the aviation unit was encountering challenges covering all corners of the 7,208- square-mile county, suggesting a fleet expansion was necessary. He also has pointed out the need for expansion of correctional space. Only one-third of the Benoit Detention Center in Indio is in use due to staffing limitations. How much of the money that’s proposed for aeronautical purposes could be allocated for correctional hiring was unknown.

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