Arizona Department of Public Safety awards Priority 1 Air Rescue a five-year contract

The contract between Priority 1 Air Rescue (P1AR) and Arizona Department of Safety (AZDPS) is for the delivery of initial to advanced-level synthetic and live flight training for all AZDPS Bell 429 search and rescue (SAR) pilots, hoist system operators, and paramedic rescue specialists.

The initial phase of the training will be conducted at the P1AR Search and Rescue Tactical Training Academy (SART/TAC). It will begin with instructor-led ground school and synthetic training utilizing P1AR’s advanced aircrew mission simulators (AAMS) and hoist procedural towers (HPTs).

P1AR SAR instructors will then travel to the various AZDPS aviation facility locations to conduct the second phase of hoist training. The second phase will include conducting the live flight component, including basic hoist operations, helicopter swiftwater rescue, vertical surface/cliff rescue and advanced NVG SAR mission, before progressing to scenario-based training in both day and night environments.

P1AR’s Director of Training, Jason Schelin, said: “We are honored to have been selected by the AZDPS to support their wide variety of lifesaving air ambulance and SAR missions throughout the state of Arizona.

“P1AR has provided synthetic mission training since 2012 and live flight mission training for over 25 years. Conducting the initial phase of the ‘blended’ program with synthetic mission training utilizing our AAMS and HPT before their live flight phase significantly increases safety and student performance while providing our students a more comprehensive and progressive ‘crawl, walk, run’ paced course of learning.”

This comes after P1AR announced last year that it had been awarded a multi-year contract by the French Ministry of Armed Forces command to provide virtual SAR, tactical, aerial use of force/gunnery, and night vision imaging systems (NVIS) simulation and training support services.