The sky is black and crickets are the only sound at 5 a.m. at Whiteman Airport in Pacoima, California, north of Los Angeles when Derek Bell steps out of his van and walks into an Angel City Air hangar. A faint scent of burning wood hints at his first assignment of the morning.
Fifty minutes later, after a briefing, dispatching his flight, and a meticulous preflight performed by LED flashlight, a faint streak of lighter blue outlines the eastern horizon as the veteran helicopter pilot lifts an AStar and hover taxis to the end of Runway 30. After making a call on the CTAF—the airport’s tower won’t open for hours—he turns smoothly onto the runway, dials in some power, and accelerates. Passing the tower, he begins to pull up hard on the collective and the helicopter climbs steeply. When it crosses the airport fence, the AStar—technically a Eurocopter AS350 B2 single-engine turbine helicopter, designed and manufactured in France by Aérospatiale (now Airbus Helicopters)—is 600 feet above the ground. Bell turns back over the airport on a tight downwind to keep noise over the airport until he’s at least 1,000 feet agl.
Bell isn’t showboating. The dramatic takeoff, which minimizes noise on the ground, is standard procedure for KNBC TV NewsChopper 4—and only one of the challenges for helicopter electronic news gathering (ENG) pilots in the Los Angeles Basin (see “Fighting Noise,” bottom).
Shortly after takeoff, photographer/reporter Meghan Reyes tells Bell from her work station in the back seat, “The assignment desk wants us to go to Wilmington—just like we thought.” A fire smoldering under a dock at the Port of Los Angeles in Wilmington, California, since last night was the source of the burning-wood odor that had drifted all the way to Whiteman, north of Burbank.
On station for a couple of live shots, Bell coordinates altitude separation with other news helicopters on the scene. Then the pair is dispatched to an accident snarling traffic on the 91 Freeway. Shortly they’re sent to the scene of some police activity near the port—then called off. Heading back toward Whiteman, airliners are lining up at Bob Hope Airport in Burbank, where a noise curfew prohibits takeoffs before 7 a.m., when Reyes hears about a police pursuit in Orange County and the AStar turns southeast. Over downtown L.A. they learn that chase has ended, and turn again for Whiteman.
It’s a typical morning’s “news cruise” for Bell, Reyes, and NewsChopper 4. They work for Angel City Air, a subsidiary of Welk Aviation. Although Bell has been flying NewsChopper 4 for only a year, he has flown news helicopters in Los Angeles for 18 years. A fixed-wing pilot since 1979, he went to Army flight school as reservist after college. After that he was a civilian flight instructor in airplanes, and flew charter and corporate jets. He was called to active duty in 1991 and flew Cobras in Desert Storm.
NewsChopper 4’s mission is to cover as much traffic as possible during the morning commute. “We also use it for breaking news—for example, if we have a fire, a flood, a chase, or something like this, we’ll break off from that traffic reporting and do that breaking news story,” Bell said. He and Reyes remain on call for breaking news until midafternoon, when a second shift goes on duty.
Most of the flight is spent at 1,000 feet agl—not only for noise considerations, but to provide options in case of a mechanical issue. Flying at “1,000 agl is where we feel most comfortable,” Bell said.
Another challenge is the L.A. Basin’s airspace, some of the most complex in the nation. The Los Angeles Terminal Area Chart includes one airport with Class B airspace, four with Class C, and numerous Class D facilities. “They’re all so close to each other, they get jumbled really, really quickly,” said Bell. At 110 KIAS, “you just can’t fly, report, and get someplace with the flight controls in your hand and a chart.” He has developed an encyclopedic knowledge of airspace boundaries and radio frequencies, as well as published transition routes. “It’s a necessity. But it’s not as difficult to do as you might think. You can commit quite a bit to memory, accurately and reliably.”
Although most flying is over a four-county area, news can take them farther. “I’ve flown as far north as Lompoc, south to the Mexican border—and I’ve flown east as far as the Colorado River,” Bell said.
Both Bell and Reyes stress the importance of teamwork—not just with each other, but with TV station employees on the ground. Reyes communicates with the station, and monitors a bank of police and fire department radio scanners. She updates Bell on which mountaintop microwave antenna is receiving NewsChopper 4’s video signal; he must orient the helicopter so that its skids or the camera housing don’t interfere with transmissions from the belly-mounted antenna.
Reyes started in radio broadcasting 21 years ago, and is a certificated fixed-wing pilot who flew as a radio traffic announcer from 1998 to 2012. She’s been on the helicopter crew about three years. Knowledge of the area is definitely an asset, she said, even with the help of a Thomas Guide atlas and moving maps. But there’s one sure-fire way to hone in on police activity. “You look for the police helicopter—then you can pinpoint it,” Reyes explained.
Despite the challenges, Bell and his coworkers love their jobs. He likes the variety of subject matter, never knowing what could happen on a given day. And Bell has had a catbird seat for countless news events that everyone else sees only on television.
One of his most memorable pursuit stories happened about 15 years ago. A parolee who had just been released from prison—for stealing delivery trucks—stole a 7-Up delivery truck. Careening around Los Angeles at high speeds, doors along the side of the truck were opening and closing as he rounded corners. “Sodas were flying out, and people were trying to dodge this thing, both on foot and in their vehicles. If it wasn’t so crazy, it would have been actually funny.” The truck got stuck in a cul-de-sac and the driver ran into a nearby apartment, jumped out a window, and landed in a tree—where he was apprehended by police.
Reyes was wrapping up some video one day when the assignment editor radioed about a police chase that had just broken off in the same area. “He was right under us—he drove right into our frame. When I saw this motorcyclist going 100-plus, I knew it was the guy,” she said. “The [assignment] desk was on the phone with the CHP office and told them we had a visual on the vehicle. What an adrenaline rush. That’s as close to being a cop as I’ll ever get.”
Bell was getting bounced around one very windy day when the other news helicopters stayed on the ground. Looking toward a stand of trees beside a railroad track, he noticed a big cloud of dust. “I thought to myself, ‘It is really windy down there.’” Bell maneuvered to take a closer look. “It was a Metrolink train that had actually just derailed, and the dust that I was seeing was the train hitting the dirt and kicking that dust up into the air. People were just starting to get out of the train.” Their video was broadcast live immediately. “It was an extraordinary stroke of luck on our part, being news gatherers, to see that thing almost happening.”
Such memories are great perks, as are the brilliant sunrises the crew sees most mornings. The biggest downside may be the lack of helicopter traffic reports while they’re driving to the airport.
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Making his own music
Entrepreneur follows his passion for flight
Larry Welk, founder and president of Welk Aviation, studied theater history when he was in school. “I hated it,” he said. “My family was in the entertainment business, and thought I would go into entertainment.” Welk—formally Lawrence Welk III—is a grandson of the well-known musician, band leader, and television host.
So he snuck away and took a job washing airplanes. “I loved it,” said Welk, who moved on to the Santa Monica line crew. Leveraging a discount on flying lessons, he earned his private pilot certificate in airplanes at age 19. “Shortly after that I made a deal with somebody to buy a Robinson trainer and lease it to a flight school.” Welk learned to fly helicopters, then became the photographer for a news pilot, standing on the skid with a camera on his shoulder. “On the way home I’d put the camera down and fly.” Later he became the pilot.
Eventually Welk started a helicopter service. “I saw the way the helicopters were starting to play in the TV business. I made it turnkey,” bundling the aircraft, pilots, camera systems, and camera operators. “Along the way I was taking all the flying I could get. I was such an aviation junkie, I felt I couldn’t get enough.”
Angel City Air is Welk Aviation’s electronic news gathering and aerial production subsidiary; Welk also owns Summit Helicopter, which does power line and construction work, and advanced training company Western Helicopters. Between them, he has almost 50 employees, 11 helicopters, and one airplane—a Piper Malibu operated primarily in support of the helicopters. —MC
Fighting noise
Best practices helping
Noise complaints have long been a challenge for helicopter operators in the Los Angeles Basin. “I think the biggest misconception people have out there is the mission of the helicopter,” said Larry Welk, president of Welk Aviation. “I hear them called ‘paparazzi helicopters.’ But a lot of times, it’s a different mission—a fire helicopter, a police helicopter, a medical helicopter flying organs from hospital to hospital.
“With the visibility of news helicopters, we remind our pilots regularly about noise. There’s no mistaking who TV helicopters are.” They don’t fly low, and they constrain takeoffs and landings so noise impacts are confined as much as possible to airport property, said Welk, who believes they’re often mistaken for a helicopter that passes after someone saw a distinctive network aircraft overhead.
In 2014, Congress passed legislation that requires the FAA to examine helicopter noise in the area and “make significant progress,” Welk said. “Helicopters are operated all over the world, and the fact that this is a Los Angeles-specific federal law does concern me.”
The agency’s solution, he said, is to continue working with pilot groups to come up with best practices. “There has been a tremendous amount of progress by the helicopter industry.” A noise monitoring and aircraft tracking system also is coming—and it’s being welcomed with open arms by the helicopter community, Welk said.—MC
Video Extra: Fly along on a news-gathering flight.
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