Patrol Altitude

[H2814D]

Just wondering what the most common patrol altitude is for the other Depts out there. Do you change the altitude for daytime and nightime flying? Also, it would help if you identified the helicopter your Dept uses for the patrol function.

[HeliMark]

We use 500' for patrol during the day, 800' for night (less noise for the public). If we are working a call, we have a base altitude of 300'. This is in an A-Star.

[Heloplt]

We use 500 feet both day and night, it keeps us below the inbound/outbound traffic from Tampa's class B as almost all of our operations are inside of the class B. We also don't have many towers in our area that come up to that altitude (thankfully). We have 3 407's and 2 OH-6's.

[helopilot2be]

We use 600 agl day and night.  Close to the B for BWI.  Oh-58's and 407.

Chief pilot says less bugs at 600 than 500.

[EAGLE1]

700 AGL day and 800 AGL night for patrol.  If we are working a call we will go down to 500-600 AGL day or night.  EC120B

[andyshanks]

1500 - 2000 AMSL (1000-1700 agl) for transit/patrol

will drop to about 5-700' for ops MD 902!

[Flying Bull]

Daytime - depending on the task - using tailwinds to get to the scene of action even up to 3.000 ft - or strong winds on the nose down to 100 ft to get there.

On the scene - what it requires - normal search around 300 ft - but to identify objects - treetoplevel - or even land and have a view.

Nighttime - different story

enroute normaly 1.000 ft ground - which makes sense with all the big powerlines and buildings around. On the scene after checking out the wires around 800 feet with the Bo 105, around 600 ft with the BK 117 for FLIR-operations.

But when light, weather and obstacles permit - even outside landings

 

Greetings "Flying Bull"

[BDR]

500' day 700'night,  as low as we need to on-scene day/night. During Kite season 700' day and 1000' night. Patrols over water depends on the moon.  R44

[Eric Hunt]

1000' day, 2000' night, drifting and waiting for action.

 

When the action is on, can go down to 500' day or 700' night. If the pilot can justify it to authorities later, he goes down to whatever height is needed to do the job. B206 and AS350.

[I Torque Too Much]

Our piece of string goes from 300ft AGL to 6000ft on the QNH depending on the tasking. Sometimes low and loud to make a point, but higher and higher for photos and surveillance. In general for 'normal' tasking we tend to work around the 700-1000ft level.

 

With EGKK and EGLL nearby we can find ourselves in some pretty busy airspace so tend to negotiate with ATC. EC135

 

ITTM