Run!!!
Get to the choppa!!!
But what if there is no choppa?
- Hey SCC, remember how the City and Department were boasting about all the helicopters we’ll be having? Well that number is currently ZERO for the foreseeable future since the mechanics refuse to perform mandated maintenance. The last chopper ran out of air time tonight and now all our choppers are grounded
We can see the Department being forced to skimp on regularly scheduled check-ups, running parts and maintenance to the upper limits of their recommended use, kind of like people do with their cars - why change the oil at 3,000 miles when you can squeeze 5,000 out of it? And if you've gotten 5,000 miles, why not 6?
But at some point, you have a whole bunch of stuff that comes due at the same time, and a helicopter isn't a car. It's a machine operating hundreds or thousands of feet in the air. If something fails, it's a bit more serious than your car grinding to a halt.
So are we entering the summer months with no air support?
Labels: department issues, from the comments
posted by SCC at 12:05 AM
84 Comments:
Typical CPD bosses. No plans, no strategy and don’t really know what they are doing.
No money for helicopters, the Area 5 detective supervisors are making overtime for work not performed. FOIA request the supervisor OT.
Please don’t change your oil at 3k miles. Today’s formulation of oils and additives, even if not full synthetic can easily last until 5k miles. Thank you for listening to this public service announcement.
This stuff wouldnt happen at cook county department of corrections brother.
Aircraft mechanics (A&P and IA) are licensed by the FAA and they have to sign off on as to the aircraft being airworthy. A pilot who flies an un-airworthy aircraft can lose his pilot certificate. A mechanic who falsifies the aircraft logbooks can lose his license and be charged criminally. I speculate that this is a money issue. The city is not willing to spend the bucks to keep the aircraft airworthy. Repairs to the turbine engine and gearbox and rotor can be really expensive and I mean really expensive. There are really strict rules as to the amount a time a component can have before repair/rebuild/replace is necessary. A complicated repair or rebuild usually means the parts are sent back to a specialized firm which has the skill and experience to do that type of work.
If the dept allow any of the helo's to fly without proper service and something go wrong who will be held accountable?
In a real city, they'd quickly lease enough to just get by.
But I don't know any real cities anymore.
“…the mechanics refuse to perform mandated maintenance.”
Joe, change the oil on that bird over there.
Not today, I’m just not in the mood.
OK
What’s the rest of the story?
Did the city higher unqualified mechanics who don’t know the difference between a helicopter and a garbage truck?
Does the Alderman’s brother-in-law not want to get his fingernails dirty?
Helicopters are a bunch of parts flying in close formation. And those parts are being shaken loose every second the machine is on. IF they are well maintained, figure a crew of four working for four hours for every 25 hours of flight time.
Can you say Detroit?
does that mean 10-1 tony is heading back to 008 ?
A Blackhawk pilot told me once, it's 5000 parts flying in close formation. For every hour of flight 10 hours of maintenance. Run of the mill bell 206s aren't as bad but whirlybird maintenance is not for the faint of heart. This slipshod hillbilly broke ass city can't afford anything new or complicated see cfd and cpd. Fleets a political joke. I wouldn't let city mechanics work on my lawnmower. You get the government you deserve, get a hot air balloon or some kids with a drone. Chicago is too stupid for flying machines.
This is Chicago...
wheels fall off fire trucks.....so what's your point....
more illegals will solve this, they pay taxes.
Sorry. Had to spend the money on Mayor Bitches $3000 suits ya'll. More important.
Good, all they do is call out stolen cars.
I haven't seen one land at the Marine unit or fly by the pier in forever.
What will the 60 Adam units do now ? send them back to the districts of assignment , send the detectives on the team back to the area they came from . They’re useless without the chopper
I used to hate when the helicopter would come on the zone. They love to broadcast where the offenders are going, even though we aren’t supposed to or allowed to chase them. Of course coppers listen to the choppa, and go toward the bad guy and start chasing. Then you get stuck with a cluster fuck.
This is 100% accurate. The helicopters are grounded due to maintenance people refusing to work on the helicopters. We have a total of 3 helicopters two new and one old. They are all out of flying time and need maintenance but the ground crews refuse to do the maintenance. We were told no more helicopters until further notice and it’s getting warm out there.
Call Jiffy Lube.
The chopper is performing a chase when the suspect looks up and sees they are being followed. Why are the choppers not being held accountable by COPA? The street copper would get huge suspension days for the same chase.
Any info about the violent death of a horse in the mounted unit?
I'd say that's a design and not a feature. Who knows what Talley relative might be caught by it.
Damm he’s still around. Remember him in 008. God help us.
Maybe if they would stop flying over their house in Beverly 2 times a day for an hour that would reduce some wear and tear. No wonder it’s been so quiet lately.
Long time ago I was talking with a guy on the who used to be an army helicopter pilot about his experience. He stated he couldn’t understand how the city could afford to operate a fleet of helicopters. The most expensive piece of equipment to maintain. Just as a sideline at the time he was flying part time a medical helicopter for a local ambulance service. His insight was very informative. Finally I ask why he didn’t apply for CPD unit, he look at me and said he did. Was told he wasn’t qualified. He then just laughed. I hopefully wish he is enjoying his retirement he richly deserves it. Very interesting person.
There's gotta be a story behind this. Why do the "crews refuse to do the maintenance"? Aircraft are not fire trucks - you cross into serious lawsuit/Federal/FAA territory here with all the regulation. Maybe someone is being asked to take on a liability which they know more about than their city boss, who refuses to pay the funds actually necessary?...
Would love it if Chicago still had some real journalists to look into this.
Hey man please don’t disrespect the city mechanics. You don’t know how much shit gets fixed with the bare minimum.
The maintenance problem started when they didn’t tighten the nut holding the main rotor often referred to as the Oh Jesus nut.
more like 10k or 15k on a personal car that's driven right
“That is a lucid, intelligent, well-thought-out objection,” said Judge Chamberlain Haller…………….My Cousin Vinnie
10-1 Tony is a good guy, be nice! let me see you fly a plane and a helicopter, stroke!
So will the "Call for air support" answer to "next step" question in the future promotional exams be excluded now? lol
The Chicago police special functions has a Helicopter and Marine Unit that 6 helicopters and 6 boats. Currently 6 helicopters are not able to fly and two boats are functional. Helicopters are down due to scheduled maintenance and boats are not operable due to utter incompetence of 2fm maintaining the boats. One boat is from 1982 that should have been retired years ago. One boat has sat in dry dock for going on 3 years now not touching the water other than being rained on in a boat yard. Another boat is constantly down every other week for host of issues that never get fixed. Two smaller boats one of which you could swim faster than it moves in water and the other has been waiting on a part since march and is not usable. The only boat that reliably works is the smallest boat the city has which is basically useless except for the river. How do bosses still hold their jobs when shit like this goes on?
Bosses on the police department and bosses in 2fm should hold a job managing a Jiffy Lube.
Complete fucking joke 2nd for the largest police department in the country.
Bosses will still hold their sports and still be able to collect their pensions for utter incompetence
Blame it on fleet management, the bosses won’t pay the maintenance bills. The helicopter is critical from pursuits to searches they have really stepped up their game in recent years. Maybe cut some people from the mayors detail and pay the bills.
Indiana’s Lake county sheriff operates three helicopters which they routinely use to assist officers in chasing and capturing offenders. Chicago officers are forbidden from chasing anyone or even a loose dog without permission, so please explain to me why we need a helicopter.
Why are they refusing to work on them?
Love it. Cuz now we won’t have to listen to the Fly Boys call in bullshit hot cars all day. What kind of culpability do those clowns have for provoking and encouraging impressionable youngsters in the ground units to chase when something goes sideways and there’s a death or three related to “just following” these cars? I mean, did I miss something? Our vehicle chase policy is the most restrictive in the world. Does all that stop mattering when it’s called in from the air? Just so fuckin stupid. And speaking of stupid, a handful of years ago the Fly Boys were calling in an “erratic driver, up and down the sidewalks repeatedly, likely stolen, squad. Send some 011 district units”. What these brain dead morons couldn’t figure out is that it was a maintenance truck plowing snow in front of an old folks home. I shit you now. Keep the birds grounded forever, hell, they’re “down for weather” 90% of the time anyway. Sell them to another agency that’s actually allowed to be the police and put the cash into the pension fund.
There HAS to be more to this story! There HAS to be a reason the mechanics won't work on the choppers... "I don't wanna" doesn't cut it...
It’s all 2FM(Fleet and Facilities Managment ) . They have horribly mismanaged the helicopter fleet
Na, that foo wears indochino suits. Can tell from a mile away
2fm is horrible. Can’t fix a lawnmower
Why are the ground crews refusing to do maintenance?
Pretty simple, follow your vehicle's maintenance schedule.
You mean Lt TH will have to go to patrol?
Especially the short carjacking sgt
If I was a pilot, and I’m not, I would not fly anything the city lays claim too.
I can only imagine the DEI people the city hired to work on it.
Kudos to the mechanics for not certifying aircraft that are not up to standards. Now the real question is was this stuff budgeted for and who turned down these budget requests? Something that will never be answered because some merit promotion would have to be held accountable.
See the Chicago Fire Department for what happens when you don't spend the $$$ to maintain and replace equipment.
Time to put Rahm, Lightfoot and Conehead into a helicopter and give them an air tour far out into Lake Michigan. Hopefully the Coast Guard is equally strapped in maintenance on their equipment.
Maybe Oak Brook will let CPD borrow their new drones.
Along with midnight basketball!
This is probably a good thing. What normally happens is, Seagull-1 flys in, whips everyone up into a frenzy over what is often a straight steal. Radio traffic gets hysterical. Bad decisions are made. Cars crash. Balancing tests are not applied. Careers are destroyed…. And Seagull-1 flys back out to sea.
Can ISP provide Air Support?
What are ISP Air Assets?
Now, now… let’s not get all jealous because the detectives are “investigating” their cases. Most are making north of $250k and a few have hit $300k @ year. Overtime is healthy in the D-unit.
Now go back to your beat car and handle that job kid😂
I’m glad the maintenance crews are being responsible and refuse to commit shortcuts to put a 3000-pound vehicle full of kerosene over our family and friends heads that may or may not have worn-out gears and loose bolts. Why fly overused aircraft? Just so the white-shirts and HQ can say our dept isn’t defunded and have helos just like every other big city dept? At least someone in our city takes their job seriously.
Can I put my drone up and start calling out descriptions and directions of Coneheads Tahoe?
Retired guy here.
Maybe the old one is janky, but what about the new ones? Why would the mechanics refuse to work in those? What's the real story?
Serious question: how the hell do you refuse to do your job and get away with it?
Last I knew, at least till 2023, the maintenance was contracted out to Gary Jet Center. I know the kid they had there was smart and a great mechanic. They have to get inspected every 100 hrs of flight time...that inspection takes about a week and the aircraft is returned to service, if nothing major is found wrong, otherwise it could take additional days to weeks for parts and repairs before it is released to service. The dept has a Bell 206L4 model and a 206B3 model. The new one with the dark blue paint job is a Bell 429.
Before they got the 429...usually what would happen was one of the 206s would come in for it's inspection and if all went well, it would be released...just in time for the other 206 to need it's inspection. And this cycle (usually about a week to 10 days) would repeat as long as nothing major broke.
CPD needs to take a page from Lake Co., Indiana sheriff Oscar Martinez...his dept. supports I think 6 helicopters now. So, if he can do it on a budget a fraction of the city's budget...why can't the city...oh yeah, I remember, somebody's pockets have to be greased along the way.
How about the department not paying their bill to cellebrite. And now cellebrite has shut off their service. Their program is used to forensically extract data from electronic devices such as cellphones, tablets and computers. This program assisted in expediting investigations and provided a necessary step for the courts. Now we have to go back to turn over the electronics to the Feds and request that they do the forensic examination and extraction, maybe they will get around to it in 3 years
Your numbers are off
Your numbers are off
Some community policing Sgt made just over 400k in one year. The majority of it while sitting at home. IG??
Fleet facilities is not authorizing the mechanics to perform the work. Remember they handle all the city vehicles.
The issue aint the mechanics..... the issue is caused by fleet / facility who wont allow the mechanics to do the work because the 2fm supes are your classic chicago competent employeees.
429 flew from Plymouth, Indiana municipal airport to Gary and just landed. Saw it on flightradar24.com
This city, county, state and country is a joke. Nobody is doing their job and laziness has taken over. Waste of money everywhere.
Thanks, that was hilarious!
CPD partnered with CCSPD in a joint venture to operate the helicopters.
Where does Darts portion of responsibility lie?
Old pilot hanger joke...what keeps an airplane in the sky? ......money.
Would it help if the Keesing Bandit designed new Flight Suits? And Designer Purses ( I mean Helmet Bags) and Designer Nomex Gloves?
Looking Good and Feeling Fabulous?
Nothing to see here, the Lt is trying to keep it hush hush as not to embarrass her clout.
Remember the only reason we received the helicopter was for the Olympic bid. We needed that and also part time HBT became SWAT as that was another requirement.
I checked flightrader24.com and it shows nothing and other flight trackers show no information, so I call BS.
^6/05/2025 09:36:11 AM
Yes but when a wheel falls off a fire truck the engineer just curbs the rig. When any part of the bird malfunctions, all aboard go to meet Jesus and do sell me the autorotation can land the bird safely non-sense. Only a mental, or a madman, or someone who has nothing to lose would fly city's helicopters!
Tony and the old guy were like starsky and hutch
The Lt is trying to keep it hush hush. She doesn’t want to embarrass her clout.
The helicopter never did shit when I was working. Overhead, making noise. No real help. The guy who was piloting it was a connected goof.
Have been well into Detroit of 1980s - 90s since cone head lame duck mayor stop taking care of all Chicagoans.. LOL now Orvis leaving Mag Mile
Typical usual, the marine unit is still operating one of their vessels that was built in 1981 and hasn’t had it’s mandatory 5 year Coast Guard Survey in over 10 years. The vessel shouldn’t even be in service and it still is with only about 30% of its original engine horsepower. The moron Bernie at Fleet maintenance is a real lazy idiot !
914… a Wild beat for a Wild man!! 10-1 Tony! Lots of fun back in the day down in the courts.
Bernie needs to retire he’s the cause of too many issues with the departments “fleet”
It said it is listed as military and government and I look at this radar enough to know thats the CPD chopper. I was reading this article and popped up the radar up and it was in the air heading west towards Gary, it shows the flight pattern when you click on it. I have no reason to make up BS and I just like looking at radar, weird hobby, I have time as I am retired. The site I listed is the best, I know it does not directly say CPD is the owner, it is unnamed.
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