AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2024 - 71

Seventy-seven years later, the ASRU continues
to support Orange County Sheriff's Department
and neighboring law enforcement agencies through
search and rescue support, aerial surveillance,
radio communications, VIP and prisoner transport,
extradition, and more.
The all-volunteer squadron has about 32 reserve
deputy sheriffs and professional service responders.
The reserve deputies are sworn peace officers with
a gun and a badge, non-sworn professional service
responders, and observers. All ASRU members are volunteers
who donate hundreds of hours per year to the
department, the county, and citizens of Orange County.
Volunteer pilots
Many of the deputy sheriffs and professional service
responders are instrument-rated commercial pilots
or higher with backgrounds in airline, corporate,
or military flying. Many own or have access to the
aircraft used for ASRU missions. All sworn reserve
deputies must go through
a background check and
reserve police academy, and
to fly, all pilot volunteers
must pass the unit's training
and certification process.
Tim Reynolds, professional service responder
pilot and retired airline captain, has been
volunteering with the ASRU for 18 years and has been
involved in prisoner, detective, and deputy transport,
and flying radio repeaters in the Daher Kodiak 100.
In 2006, he transported detectives to El Paso, Texas,
to pick up a child who had been kidnapped and taken
to Mexico.
" With Orange County sheriff's, you do some
unique things, go to very unique places. When time is
critical that's when they call us. My job is to fly; I don't
carry a gun, I don't have a badge, I fly the airplane. "
Gary Stone, a professional service responder with
Those interested
can learn more
at ocsheriff.gov.
the Aero Squadron, is a former professional pilot
and works as a video producer. Looking for more
opportunities to fly, Stone was introduced to the unit
six years ago. As a professional service responder, he
flies in support of the unit participating in training,
fire, and flood watch missions in his 1972 Cessna 210
that he's owned for almost 30 years.
The unit's commander, Reserve Lt. Steve Brown,
a captain at Southwest Airlines, learned of the ASRU
from an article in The Orange County Register.
" I started flying when I was 19 and got my private
pilot rating when I was 20, " Brown said. " Like most
pilots after my first flight, I was pretty much hooked,
and I just had that love and passion for aviation.
I am fortunate that I get to kind of do both sides in
Volunteer pilot Gary Stone wipes down his Cessna 210 that
he uses for personal and ASRU missions.
professional aviation with Southwest and this with the
sheriff's department. "
" I was 20 at the time, and they said, 'Well you got
to be 21 to be a reserve deputy,' so I waited, got my
instrument rating, at the time you had to have a private
and instrument rating, and I came back, applied, and
then about a year and a half later I got on to the unit, I
have been doing this now for almost 32 years. "
The squadron's fleet are all privately owned and
run the gamut from single-engine fixed-wing piston
aircraft like the Cessna 172 and 206 to turboprop
single- and twin-engine aircraft like the Kodiak and
Cessna 310 and 414 and even business class jets. All
costs associated with ownership and maintenance
of the aircraft are paid for by the owner, and the
department shares the fuel costs with the owner.
Having a roster of mission-specific fixed-wing
aircraft ready at a moment's notice means the
department and county can operate in and out of more
rural areas; support search and rescue, firefighting,
fire, and flood watch operations; provide surveillance
for pre-warrants, SWAT raids, drug interdiction; and
even transport high-risk prisoners. Privately owned
transportation also allows all law enforcement officers
to carry weapons on board, except pepper spray (for
obvious reasons).
It's often much safer to transport high-profile
criminals via private aircraft than to transport them
via commercial airline or a van that could become
the target of a breakout. Over the years, the ASRU has
been part of multiple high-profile prisoner transport
missions that include flying death row inmates from
San Quentin prison and even transporting witnesses
to testify against Charles Manson in the early 1970s.
AOPA PILOT / December 2024
71
http://www.ocsheriff.gov
AOPA Pilot Magazine - December 2024

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