You've seen many parts of our city from its perspective. Now, you can learn more about KHOU-TV 's most expensive piece of newsgathering equipment: AIR 11.
11 News uses AIR 11 to get to scenes quickly in Houston, which is spread out and notorious for traffic congestion. Plus, the helicopter can provide immediate live television feeds during emergencies and events such as fires, floods, and high speed chases.
HELICOPTER STATS:
AIR 11 is a 1996 Eurocopter AS350BA A-Star made in France. The helicopter, outfitted with the state of the art broadcast cameras and television equipment, costs $2.5 million.
KHOU's AIR 11 is one of the fastest TV news helicopters in Houston. It has a top speed of 178 mph, but when loaded with broadcast equipment, a pilot, and photographer, its top speed is lowered to 126 mph. Quick enough to zip the 50 miles from downtown Houston to Galveston Island in less than 20 minutes.
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News helicopters usually fly at an altitude of 500 to 1,000 feet off the ground. But AIR 11 has a service ceiling of 16,000 feet.
It's designed to carry five passengers including the pilot. But with the television equipment on board, only four people can ride.
AIR 11's maximum gross weight is 4,630 lbs. It carries 143 gallons of Jet-A fuel and is able to fly for 3 hours and 30 minutes.
KHOU leases AIR 11 from US Helicopters, Inc.
PILOTS:
A collection of experienced pilots fly Air 11. Mike Silman and Cory Frank are both Houston police officers assigned to HPD's Helicopter Patrol Division. Jim Lowery also joined the group. He retired from HPD's Helicopter Patrol Division. Backup pilots include: Scott Gee and Jimmy Coleman, with the Texas Department of Public Safety's Aviation Division (Houston).
MAINTENANCE:
Jon Rankin, owner of Rams Aviation, makes sure Air 11 stays in excellent flying condition.
PHOTOGRAPHER:
Air 11 photographer Steve Abrego was born and raised in the Heights and attended Davis High School. Steve worked for Metro Traffic Control for eights years where he watched Houston's traffic jams from the sky. He's been married to his wife Nancy for nearly 20 years. They have one daughter, Elizabeth, who is a senior at Reagan High School. His hobbies include shooting billiards, listening to country and Tejano music and his family.
HELICOPTER CAMERAS:
AIR 11 is outfitted with four cameras.
One is the size of a tube of lipstick and mounted on the tail of the helicopter shooting toward the front giving the point of view of the pilot.
A second camera sits in the back of the cabin looking over the pilot's shoulder.
The third camera is positioned on AIR 11's dashboard, which can show a reporter aboard if one is flying that day.
Finally, the most used camera in AIR 11 hangs outside on the front of the helicopter. It looks like a white ball but has a powerful zoom lens and gyro-stabilized FLIR UMIII- HD broadcast quality camera inside. The gyro-stabilization helps the picture you see on your television look steady by eliminating the helicopter's vibration. The FLIR UMIII- HD camera has a zoom ratio of 84 to 1. That means from 500 feet in the air, the camera can zoom in to read the numbers on a license plate.The camera was installed in December 2006 as part of the KHOU HD upgrade and provides true HD pictures.
The photographer, sitting in the back seat, remotely controls all of them and can switch between them choosing which image to send back to the station.
A microwave transmitter positioned on the belly of AIR 11 beams HD pictures back to KHOU-TV. It has transmitted live pictures from as far as 100 miles away.
When it's not flying over Houston and Southeast Texas, AIR 11 parks on a helipad on top of the station's studios at 1945 Allen Parkway, a mile west of the skyline.
At night the helicopter is kept in a hangar at Hooks Airport in Tomball. But it's always on call, 24-hours a day, seven days a week.
