[FedCom] ROSS 361 in Atlanta

[A10382]

Both the federal gov't and many state police operations have gone to fixed
wing aircraft for cost savings....

This will never eliminate the helicopter, as it does some things very well
that a fixed wing just cannot do - like land on a roof top.

A typical turbine (jet engine) helicopter costs a few million AND a few
hundred per hour to operate.
A typical recip (piston engine) helicopter costs a few hundred thousand and
about $150 per hour to operate.
A Cessna 182 costs under $200,000 and about $75 per hour to operate.  With
'low speed' mods it can fly very well down to 40 knots (into a 20 knot wind,
that's 20 knots of groundspeed) making it a fairly good observation
platforms.  There are also a number of purpose built observation fixed wing
airplanes, with large bubble canopies and the ability to carry FLIR and
stabilized cameras - great and cheap surveillance platforms...

I had flown an old Cessna L-19 (the 'bird-dog') a number of years ago, that
was still controllable at 30 mph.  Flying into a 30 mph wind, you could
literally hover...

Some (but far from all) of the state owned C-172's and C-182's have an 'N'
number suffix of 'SP' - for State Police (i,e,; N123SP).  On the air, this
would be called something like "November One Two Three Sierra Pappa".  Local
controllers quickly become familiar with the call signs and do not need any
call sign modifiers to know it's a law enforcement op.  They're used for
everything from surveillance to prisoner and witness transportation.  For
trips under 800 miles, it's much cheaper then sending two guys on a
commercial flight to pick up a prisoner.

73
Frank

 ._._.
----- Original Message -----
From: "rod jones" <rj_721@yahoo.com>
To: "FedCom" <fedcom@mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 1:32 PM
Subject: [FedCom] ROSS 361 in Atlanta


> Yesterday heard ROSS 361 with Atlanta Approach, id'ing as a Cessna 182,
going "on station", then a
> little later 166.975 came active with encrypted comms (this is a known FBI
surveillance freq in
> Atlanta). Didn't hear any other known FBI used freq active, but did hear
ROSS 361 with Atlanta
> Approach most of the morning coordinating movements, and 166.975 was
active most of the morning as
> well.
>
> Rod
> Metro Atlanta
>
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