ARSs Oregon facility. There, students enjoy the convenience of full service on-site accommodations, including housing, cooking, and laundry facilities (meals are also catered daily).The facilitys beautiful mountain setting offers a diverse operational environment, providing students a variety of real world challenges from flying in mountain environments, to conducting operations around tall timber or heavy foliage canopy, or over flat and moving water.In addition, portions of the facility itself have been developed with structures that can be utilized for flight and tactical training objectives, such as a tall helicopter operations tower, complete with balconies and windows. Other structures representing rooftops were built low to the ground, and are used for practicing helicopter insertions via fast-rope or rappel, or human extractions by hoist or short-haul.Pilots can hone their precision flying skills by performing toe-in, one-skid, and hover operations, or they can fly beyond the developed facility and train among the more challenging natural terrain, which reaches up to 6,000 feet in elevation.We may not understand all of the nuances of their team, their culture, [or] their response area theyre the best ones to do that, said Cockell. We just guide them through the process to create a safe program, fulfilling their goals and objectives within their budget, and [provide] a realistic approach to their response needs. Air-One Emergency Response Coalition, a multi-jurisdictional air support unit serving Illinois and southern Wisconsin, is a long-term ARS customer. The coalition operates 12 helicopters, and relies on ARS for instruction and operational guidance for its multi-mission program. ARS brings professional training, buttressed by a steadfast and unwavering commitment to safety, said Dan Bitton, Air-Ones commander. They are not just a contractor; they are truly our training partners, with our best interest in the forefront.ARS is scheduled to provide Air-One with a number of external load courses this year, including cargo, advanced HEC, and Bambi Bucket, as well as initial and recurrent hoist operations. We know these are dangerous operations, and it is incumbent on me, as the unit commander, to mitigate risk to the fullest extent possible, said Bitton. The discipline in making the commitment to retain a SAR [search-and-rescue] subject matter expert is no different to me than the mandate to retain the manufacturer Bell Helicopter as our pilot training subject matter expert.On the Hawaiian island of Kauai, ARS maintains a regular training schedule for personnel from the islands police and fire departments, who share the use of a single MD 530F to perform two distinctly different missions. Kauai is known for its dramatic, steep and wildly rugged terrain, providing an alluring draw for outdoor adventure seekers as well as illegal marijuana grows. Both agencies have long used short-haul for the high volume of technical rescues they are required to perform, as well as for the ongoing marijuana eradication efforts throughout the entire island chain. ARS understands that nobody knows the challenges that we face better than us, said Daniel Oliveira, operations sergeant in charge of Hawaiis domestic cannabis eradication/suppression program (DCE/SP). They arent there to try and change anything about our program. They are truly there