The EC120 B will replace the Alouette II as a training helicopter.

Interview with federal police commander Gunter Carloff, director of the German Federal Police aviation group.


What were the deciding factors for you in choosing the EC120 B?
Gunter Carloff : The EC120 B will replace the Alouette II, which has been in service as a training helicopter with the Federal Police and its predecessor, the Federal Border Police, for the past 45 years. Our choice was guided by several decisive criteria: the engines, the innovative technologies and technical maturity, the excellent visibility from the cabin, the ease of maintenance and the full autorotation capability that the EC120 B offers our pilots in their basic flight training, not to mention its commonality with the EC135 and the EC155. We shall receive a total of six EC120 Bs by February 2008. Together with our 42 EC135s, 20 EC155s and 20 Super Puma AS332 L1s, that will bring our helicopter fleet up to 88 Eurocopter aircraft in the next four years. The EC120 itself will go into service for basic flight training of BPOL and regional police force pilots by February 2008.
In future, all German police pilots will be trained at the same school in Hangelar near Bonn.

What about your other Eurocopter aircraft?
G.C. : Today we also took delivery of our 7th EC135 T2i at the Eurocopter site in Donauwörth; it will be followed by nine EC135s between now and March 2008. We use our EC135s, EC155s and Super Pumas to carry out all the missions for which the police are responsible: day and night surveillance of Germany’s external borders, pursuing gangs of smugglers and abductors with the aid of ultramodern airborne sensors, patrol flights over the Baltic and the North Sea – and over the Mediterranean during European Union operations –, carrying heads of state and other dignitaries as we did for the G8 summit in Heiligendamm recently, special transport missions, performing maritime and mountain rescue operations, fighting forest fires and evacuating the victims of floods or avalanches.
Considering the diversity of the missions we perform, the BPOL is one of the most versatile police forces that I know of.

What are Eurocopter’s advantages?
G.C. : In my opinion, Eurocopter products are of very high quality. The concept of helicopter families is convincing and economical. It was one of the deciding factors for us when we opted for the EC120 B. As far as service is concerned, there have already been some improvements, though more remains to be done.
But I’m sure Eurocopter will be able to act accordingly whenever improvements are necessary.