Police Helicopter Pilot
Highflier Graham Wayman joined the military after leaving school because he wanted to become a pilot. Twenty-three years on, he flies a helicopter for the police’s Air Operations Unit, responding to emergencies and gathering evidence for criminal investigations.
Captain Graham Wayman finds his role with the Air Operations Unit extremely rewarding. Not least because each day is different.
The unit often uses the mantra: “failing to plan is planning to fail”. Indeed, the old Scout motto, “be prepared”, is essential advice for Graham and the rest of his team, whose roles are about as far as it gets from a nine-to-five office job.
One day they could be carrying out counter terrorism checks. The next they could be searching for a missing person, assisting with a medical emergency or flying to a crime scene.
The advantage of operating a helicopter is that it can cover a far larger geographical area than bobbies on the ground. On average it takes 12 minutes to search a square mile in a helicopter but 450 personnel-hours on the ground.
So using the Air Operations Unit can save time and money and ensure better results in certain situations.
Eye in the sky
Based at RAF Wyton near Huntingdon, the Air Operations Unit is the police force’s eye in the sky. The unit primarily covers Cambridgeshire but also has a special agreement to help police forces in Suffolk and Essex when needed.
The Wyton-based team’s MD902 helicopter, also known as an Explorer, is used to provide aerial support to police using airborne technologies. It’s Graham’s job to fly the helicopter to the scene, while his crew of two air observers patrol the area from the aircraft, taking aerial photographs if necessary.
It’s very much a team effort, says Graham, who joined the unit in February 2008.
“There’s no point me taking the aircraft out on my own because I’m not doing anything. If I’m not there it can’t go. We’re all part of the bigger jigsaw. We all have got to be there to make it work.”
A natural progression
Moving from the military to the police was a natural progression, Graham says.
Originally from Dorset and now living in Suffolk, Graham started off his flying career as an air crewman observer – or navigator – for the army, a role with limited flying ability.
He served as a co-pilot for five years before doing a pilot’s course in 1994. In his own time he gained a Airline Transport Pilot License Helicopter (ATPLH) and became a fully-fledged civilian helicopter pilot. Before leaving the army, he worked as a flying instructor at its training base in Salisbury.
Graham says: “My current role is a natural progression from military flying because it’s flying with a purpose. The charter world is perhaps not really the cup of tea of someone who’s spent years in the military.”
An exciting job
Compared to military flying, operating the Air Support Unit’s helicopter is relatively straightforward – but it can be thrilling nonetheless, Graham says.
“It can get exciting when you’re out chasing something in poor weather at night. That’s when you have to lean back on experience and hopefully some skill.”
He particularly enjoys being involved in pursuits because that’s when his skills get challenged the most.
“When I’m doing a pursuit my flying has to be spot on to put the air observers in the exact position for their job to be good. If I get it wrong, we’ll lose the person on the ground. There is a little bit of adrenaline involved. There’s a real purpose to what we do. It’s very interesting and rewarding.”
A rewarding job
Being part of the Air Support Unit isn’t just exciting – it’s also incredibly fulfilling, Graham says.
“Every day I’m coming into work, I’m not coming into work to do something that’s got nothing to do with me like in the military, sweeping hangars for example, that sort of stuff. When I come to work here, I get the aircraft ready, I get the aircraft out. When we go to a job, I have to fly out to the job. That’s the key to it – you’re going out to a job, not just flying for the sake of flying. I’m very, very conscious of the fact that we operate as a team.”
He enjoys the camaraderie involved in being part of the unit. The team keep up their spirits with banter and food, often working through the night.
Fearless flying
Although being a pilot carries some risks, Graham says neither he nor his family fear for his safety.
“I’ve been flying for 19 years now so if they were worried, they’d have worried themselves into a grave by now.”
He has lots of faith in the aircraft he’s operating and the state-of-the-art technology surrounding it, as well as in his abilities and those of his team.
Flying a helicopter is much more challenging than flying a plane – and Graham’s never been particularly interested in the latter.
He jokes: “Fixed-wing pilots don’t fly a helicopter because they can’t, helicopter pilots don’t fly fixed-wing because they don’t want to.”
The Air Operations Unit
Graham is one of three pilots working for the Air Operations Unit from its Cambridgeshire base. There are also 10 air observers working in shifts from Wyton airfield.
The unit deals with numerous incidents. Some are planned, like taking photographs to be used as evidence in criminal investigations, doing counter terrorism checks or police surveillance.
Others are unplanned, such as conducting searches for missing people or responding to emergencies.
Responding to emergencies
The Air Operations Unit operates under a special agreement with MAGPAS, a charity providing pre-hospital critical care.
Based in St Ives, MAGPAS is made up of volunteers who are doctors and paramedics. They’re dedicated to saving lives and reducing suffering for patients at the scenes of serious incidents.
In emergencies a pilot from the Air Operations Unit can airlift a patient and a MAGPAS doctor to hospital.
Aerial policing
In the year to April 2008, the Air Operations Unit responded to 1914 incidents involving 1136 flights across Cambridgeshire, Suffolk, Norfolk and Essex. They carried out 741 hours and 49 minutes of flying time, just under half of which were at night.
The operations resulted in 153 direct arrests – meaning that the crew either found the suspects or were responsible for their capture. The Air Operations Unit also helped with 41 other arrests.
During that period they located 15 missing people and 38 stolen vehicles and recovered property worth £381,430.
The decision to deploy
The Air Operations Unit must decide that it’s legal and safe for the helicopter to fly before it’s deployed to a job.
According to police guidelines, deployment should take place when there’s an immediate threat to life or of serious public disorder.
The crew are also instructed to fly when there’s an incident of “terrorism or national importance” or when deployment will lead to the immediate prevention or detection of crime. They should also be used when there’s a need to gather evidence to prevent, detect or avert serious public disorder or help solve a crime.
Joining the team
Anyone considering a career with the Air Operations Unit must enjoy working with others, Graham says.
“The most important quality you need to work here is you’ve got to be a team player. You’re at the back of Wyton airfield in a little hut and if you’re not a team player, it’s just not going to work. In the aircraft you need three people. You can’t have two-and-a-half.”