Omaha Forums

Sad Day....

OPD Helicopter ‏@OPDABLE1
@OPDABLE1 will no longer be monitored, thanks to all the friends we've met the past few years and the continued support of #Opd tweeters

I always like Able1's tweets!

They tweeted this a few hours later:

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@OPDABLE1 wrote:Our Able 1 account will remain unmonitored until tomorrow (Feb. 11) pm. We are looking forward to resuming activity in the near future.

Wonder if the origional pilot that tweeted quit or something?

Brad wrote:Wonder if the origional pilot that tweeted quit or something?

That would be my guess. A social media lockdown on individual accounts for public relations or officer safety reasons also comes to mind, but I don't see any evidence of that.

A vehicle came over the border from Iowa on a high speed chase and Able1 is up following the guy who is now on foot, around Midtown Crossing.

Saw on Facebook that OPD Able 1 might move it’s operations from the North Omaha Airport to the Blair Airport. Anyone have any more details?

Brad wrote:Saw on Facebook that OPD Able 1 might move it’s operations from the North Omaha Airport to the Blair Airport. Anyone have any more details?

I know that one of the pilots lives in Blair. It makes more sense to me that they move to Millard or they could always build a hangar at the training academy on Rainwood

The residents around that training academy are huge NIMBY's. When a new outdoor gun range was proposed, they went as far as hiring an attorney to oppose it. I don't know how those complaints were resolved. I highly doubt that heliport would go in there without a fight.

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jessep28 wrote:The residents around that training academy are huge NIMBY's. When a new outdoor gun range was proposed, they went as far as hiring an attorney to oppose it. I don't know how those complaints were resolved. I highly doubt that heliport would go in there without a fight.

The only issue I see is that its outside Douglas County.

Other than that, its already an airport so they wouldn't even need to get public input. Also, its a busy airport so this wouldn't really add much additional noise. I see some decent sized jets up there from time to time.

My source told me that there was some discussion, but it probably won't happen

Did they say why they would want to move away from the North Omaha Airport? (3NO) Maybe they need a more extensive maintenance facility or a new larger hangar?

GetUrban wrote:Did they say why they would want to move away from the North Omaha Airport? (3NO) Maybe they need a more extensive maintenance facility or a new larger hangar?

The North Omaha airport is an absolute dump. The Blair airport is kind of nice. What more reason do they need.

GrandpaaSmucker wrote:

GetUrban wrote:Did they say why they would want to move away from the North Omaha Airport? (3NO) Maybe they need a more extensive maintenance facility or a new larger hangar?

The North Omaha airport is an absolute dump. The Blair airport is kind of nice. What more reason do they need.

How about proximity to Omaha? Blair airport is only about 8 miles northwest of 3NO though, roughly between 120th & 132nd.

I think the current location for the Omaha police helicopter is suitable. What I really want to see the police department do though is look into getting a new headquarters they could technically look at the Civic center site. Great place to build a state of the art police HQ and they could add business around it since the space is probably big enough for it. Though I highly doubt the police dept would go for that.

And now they get this:

Have had it confirmed by 2 Omaha Police Dept officials that Able 1 will indeed be moving to the Blair Airport although no time frame was given. The current hangar is literally falling apart. And they also intend on moving the outdoor shooting range from Elkhorn to the training facility in the near future.

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Wonder why Blair and not Millard?

bigredmed1 wrote: ↑Fri Jul 12, 2019 11:28 am Wonder why Blair and not Millard?

Presumably available hanger space, and probably more importantly from a community relationship standpoint not waking up people living on top of the airport in the middle of the night. Millard doesn't see all that much traffic at "odd" hours.

Omaha police will buy new (used) $2.7 million helicopter after losing two in crashes

https://www.omaha.com/news/local/omaha- ... a8815.html

Reece Ristau / World-Herald staff writer wrote:The City Council on Tuesday approved the purchase of a $2.7 million helicopter that city and Police Department leaders say is necessary to adequately police the city.

Reece Ristau / World-Herald staff writer wrote:The department most likely will search for a third helicopter, Peck told the council. Omaha had four police helicopters in the late 1990s; at least three are necessary, Peck said.

Peck said the helicopter won’t be in Omaha until the spring at the earliest.

Good move. The 407GX is a far more capable aircraft than the OH-58 and 206L-4 it is replacing.