N549RL - San Diego Sheriff Department Copter 11 - Next Fire Helicopter in 2015

[Brian]

County to buy third Sheriff's helicopter
Copter will be able to fight fires, perform rescues

County supervisors on approved the purchase of a third Sheriff’s Department firefighting helicopter at a cost of $5.2 million.
http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2014/sep ... -wildfire/

For the next fire helicopter

N549RL - SD Sheriff Copter 11
Reserved Date: 11/05/2014
Reserving Party Name: SAN DIEGO COUNTY SHERIFFS DEPARTMENT
Mode-S Code: A6FADD
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry ... txt=N549RL

[Brian]

Coming soon in few months(Fall,2015)

Serial Number: 30215
Manufacturer Name: BELL
Model: 205A-1
Year built: 1975
Certificate Issue Date: 7/16/2015
N549RL
http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry ... txt=N549RL

Older Registration for the helicopter:
Bell 205A-1 30215 - N59607,C-GAHM
http://www.rotorspot.nl/product/b205.php

MARK - REG - MFG - MODEL - SERIAL - COFR_ISSUE OWNER
GAHM 3 BELL TEXTRON - USA 205A 1 30215 2015-04-22 EAGLE COPTERS LTD. (http://www.eaglecopters.com)
The history of the helicopter owners:
Alpine Helicopters Ltd
Eagle Copters Maintenance Ltd
Heli-Max Limited/Heli-Max Limitee
Ultra Helicopters Ltd
Eagle Copters Ltd
Great Slave Helicopters Ltd
http://wwwapps.tc.gc.ca/Saf-Sec-Sur/2/C ... desc&rfr2=

2003 photo of the helicopter.
http://jetphotos.net/showphotos.php?regsearch=C-GAHM
http://www.helionline.ch/Fotos/c-gahm.jpg

1980 photo in the Alpine Helicopters colors
http://abpic.co.uk/photo/1477266/

Looks like it flew for this company in Canada.
http://www.discoveryair.com/operating-c ... e-services
http://www.gsheli.com

[HughesMDflyer4]

I'm really surprised to see that someone else follows the status of our department's fleet. Thanks for posting these details!

I'm curious to see what designation it gets (following the pattern of 10 and 12, perhaps either 11 or 14?) and what color the horizontal stabilizer gets. On 10 and 12, having the color variation makes it easy to distinguish between the two when they're flying over.

[RescueKujo]

was part of a tour this weekend at Ramona Air Attack Base, and I asked about the new copter. Per the Cal Fire Aviation Chief, the copter should be here in a couple of weeks, and will be designated Copter 11.

[HughesMDflyer4]

Just found this. Appears to be the first photo on the web of N549RL:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/wee_in_yy ... otostream/

Looks really sleek with the FastFin tail!

[Brian]

Thanks for the update.

Screenshot of the FlightAware page. The helicopter equipped with ADS-B Transponder.

N549RL-FlightAware.jpg (202.21 KiB) Viewed 12964 times

N549RL-Sept24-FlightAware-.jpg (85.18 KiB) Viewed 12964 times

[Brian]

It's in the United States now.
Landed at the Great Falls international Airport in Montana.

28-Sep-2015 Calgary Int'l (CYYC) to MT Great Falls Intl (KGTF)
N549RL departed Calgary Int'l (CYYC) at 08:00 MDT
N549RL arrived at Great Falls Intl (KGTF) at 10:06 MDT

[HughesMDflyer4]

Sweet!

Where on FlightAware are you finding this? It's still only showing me a single 6 minute flight for N549RL. Is it a paid feature only or something?

[Brian]

N549RL departed Great Falls Intl (KGTF) at 11:26 MDT enroute to .... landed at Idaho Falls Rgnl (KIDA) at 13:34 MDT

N549RL-LeavingKGTF.jpg (32.29 KiB) Viewed 12912 times

N549RL-LeavingGreatFalls-FR24.jpg (139.2 KiB) Viewed 12907 times

N549RL made it to Las Vegas!

N549RL-KIDA-KVGT-Route.jpg (62.47 KiB) Viewed 12873 times

You can watch FR24 play-back. It will go out of range in those first few states due to flying at lower altitude.
http://www.flightradar24.com/data/airplanes/N549RL
http://www.flightradar24.com/N549RL/

This link will only show N549RL (When it's flying)
http://www.flightradar24.com/simple_ind ... ign=N549RL

Some ADS-B aircraft don't have filed flight plans. So it won't show up on the basic flightaware website.

It's part of the "Enterprise" subscriber account.
https://flightaware.com/commercial/premium/

Users sending ADS-B data to FlightAware will see live (non-delayed) data, see their data highlighted on FlightAware tracklogs, see additional information on ADS-B from elsewhere, receive custom statistics and more information on ADS-B sites around the world. As a thank you for your contribution, FlightAware offers a free Enterprise Account (USD$89.95/mo value) to users who share their data with us.
https://flightaware.com/adsb/faq#benefits_me

[HughesMDflyer4]

Thanks for the details about FlightAware and Flightradar24.

While watching flightradar24.com, I made an educated guess as to what airport it was approaching earlier as it neared Vegas and listened on liveatc.net. My guess ended up being correct and I heard the initial contact with the tower. It's archived here: (begins at 20:12) http://archive-server.liveatc.net/kvgt/ ... -0030Z.mp3

It really is awesome what tools us aviation enthusiasts have to track aircraft.

Not sure what time they'll be departing tomorrow, but I'm hoping to tune in again as they near KSEE.