July 2024. Blues Vol 40 No.7

members to schedule

members to schedule their own personal agenda and move from classroom to classroom, topic to topic as they desire. As in the past, should you need any assistance from APSA and the educational staff while you are there, we will maintain an office in the same area as all the classes and courses and will strive to be readily available. APSCON 2024 will once again have Tech Talks on the exhibit floor. These short tech talks are an ideal way to hear from exhibiting corporate members on the latest and greatest technology, training, equipment, or anything else they may want to share. Be sure to look for the schedule in your APSCON Program Guide, which will be distributed on site, for the list of classes and times. Our corporate members would appreciate your stopping by, and you are sure to get some very good information from them to take home. APSA provides some of the best training available to the public safety aviation community through a network of very skilled and experienced instructors. I know for me, personally, having been an APSA and ALEA member for several years, I often reached out to those instructors for advice or guidance. And it should come as no surprise, they were always willing to assist. So, make plans to attend as many of the sessions as possible and make new contacts. And don’t forget that this event brings in people from all over the states from various sectors we represent. Get to know them, make new contacts, or reconnect with an old one, because you never know when you’ll be tasked to start something new, purchase something or take over a program. Remember that someone has done it already and you could learn a lot from them. If you haven’t been to Houston, come join us, you won’t regret it. Awesome training, great food, great hotels and great company. Houston has it all! Check our website at www.publicsafetyaviation.org for updates and registration information. It is a very exciting time for APSA as we gear up for conference week. For me, I am excited to be helping to pull this awesome event together as the new Training Program Manager. I am simply just one cog in a giant wheel to make this event successful, but I am very happy to be doing my part. Many thanks to those who have helped to plan APSCON 2024 and thank you members for participating. See you in Houston! 10 AIR BEAT MAGAZINE l Conference Preview l 2024 114 The Blues - July ‘24

APSCON COURSES All of these conference courses will be held at the George R. Brown Convention Center. Airborne Thermographer Certification & IR Tactics Course Mon. July 29 – Wed. July 31 0800 - 1700 Daily Location: 370CF Tactical Flight Officer Course Mon. July 29 - Wed. July 31 0800 - 1700 Daily • Location: 372AD The Tactical Flight Officer Course is designed to provide aircrew members the tactical skills and information necessary to safely and successfully support ground units engaged in a variety of law enforcement missions. Although specifically designed for tactical flight officers, this course is applicable to pilots and crew members alike and it is also a valuable course for unit supervisors. Attendees will learn the elements of crew coordination, gain knowledge on how to set up a perimeter, direct the activities of ground units from the air, manage a vehicle pursuit and conduct a thermal imagery search using the latest in airborne tactics. Additionally, attendees will learn what specialized equipment is available and how to properly use the most common tools. This class is essential to the professional development of aviation law enforcement personnel and meets one of the requirements for TFO training related to accreditation. This course is sponsored by MD Helicopters, Inc. Maximum enrollment is 70. Cost: 5 members; 5 non-members Sponsored by Taught by Sponsored by industry experts with thousands of hours of actual experience. New for 2024, on Day 2, students will break out to their individual rotor- or fixed-wing track and receive instruction from rotor- or fixedwing specific instructors on techniques that are individual to the aircraft. Students return to continue learning together on Day 3. The course offers certification as an Airborne Thermographer to qualified students who attend all 24 hours of training, pass the written exam and demonstrate proficiency on the use of a static airborne thermal imagery system. The Airborne Thermographer Certification portion of the course is presented by Brian Spillane of Teledyne FLIR, who is a Certified Thermographer Instructor. Also included is an incident debrief hosted by Kris Kubasta, who won the APSA 2018 TFO Award for his role in handling a hostage taking and subsequent OIS in San Jose, CA. Kris will walk students through the incident and explain lessons learned in the critical incident aftermath. This course is an indepth study of airborne thermal imagery use in the areas of tactics, technology and theory. The course is sponsored by Teledyne FLIR and presented by Tactical Flying, Inc. Maximum enrollment is 65. Cost: 5 members; 5 non-members www.publicsafetyaviation.org l 11 The Blues - July ‘24 115