New(?) Police chopper for SEQ

The average age of a taxi in Egypt is 32 years - so is the average age of the Queensland Police Helicopter fleet. If the $1M Police Chopper in SE QLD is 'New', then we can look forward to the 'new' police car fleet...

Police vehicles from 1979

It's about time South East Queensland got a Police chopper, but did they get a good deal?

The QLD Police have contracted Heliwest (WA) to provide a Bell 206L Longranger. The Longranger's registration is VH-ZHP, Serial number 45308.

Longranger Serial number 45308 was built by Bell Helicopters in the USA in 1979 & gained its worthiness certificate on 28 September 1979. Its first registration number was 'N2774V'.

Within 18 months of gaining air worthiness, on Wednesday 29 April 1981, 'N2774V'  crashed in Pearland, Texas (on its way to Freeport Tx) and sustained 'substantial damage'.

'N2774V' was repaired and returned to the skies. This is an image of it taken in 1998...

Around August 2007, the owners of 'N2774V' put her up for sale - the chopper was looking a bit tired by then after already 28 years of use...

on 22 July 2010, N2774V, Longranger Serial number 45308 was de-registered in the USA...

About a month later, around 30 August 2010, Longranger Serial number 45308, was registered by Helibits P/L in WA. Here it is in WA on 21 April 2011.