Wells Said with Sheriff Rick Wells
Jul 30, 2026 · 42 min · 12 segments
Ever wonder what our helicopters are doing when you see them flying overhead? In this episode of the *Wells Said* Podcast, Sheriff Rick Wells and Public Information Officer Randy Warren sit down with…
Ben SehorneGuest
Rick WellsHost
Randy WarrenHost
Being a law enforcement pilot, it's got to be a little different than being a commercial pilot, correct?
It gets to a point where you almost have to be able to fly the helicopter without thinking about flying the helicopter because your attentions are diverted so much, especially in high-stress situations like vehicle pursuit, a missing child, Alzheimer's patient, missing boater.
And you have to have the communication skills to... communicate with your TFO or tactical flight officer because the whole purpose is to set that person up in a position where they can do their job.
But you have to be able to fly the aircraft, communicate with them, communicate with air traffic control, as well as other aircraft.
And so you definitely get pulled in a lot of directions, and you have to be able to, like I said, be able to fly the helicopter without thinking about flying the helicopter.
So it definitely, especially, you know, depending on the type of calls, you know, we had one fairly recently where we ended up at MacDill Air Force Base.
talking to all the different air traffic controllers, flying in an unfamiliar area.
started out talking, you know, while we were talking to originally Albert Whedon, which is South St. Pete, They referred us over to Tampa.
Once we get a little bit farther north, we actually have to switch to another sector of Tampa.
And, of course, the runways at Tampa, they're landing aircraft over top of us while we're down chasing this car.
And even though the airspace for McDill is... a general airspace, you still want to be able to communicate with a military installation when you're flying over to the top.
Being a law enforcement pilot, it's got to be a little different than being a commercial pilot, correct?
It gets to a point where you almost have to be able to fly the helicopter without thinking about flying the helicopter because your attentions are diverted so much, especially in high-stress situations like vehicle pursuit, a missing child, Alzheimer's patient, missing boater.
And you have to have the communication skills to... communicate with your TFO or tactical flight officer because the whole purpose is to set that person up in a position where they can do their job.
But you have to be able to fly the aircraft, communicate with them, communicate with air traffic control, as well as other aircraft.
And so you definitely get pulled in a lot of directions, and you have to be able to, like I said, be able to fly the helicopter without thinking about flying the helicopter.
So it definitely, especially, you know, depending on the type of calls, you know, we had one fairly recently where we ended up at MacDill Air Force Base.
talking to all the different air traffic controllers, flying in an unfamiliar area.
started out talking, you know, while we were talking to originally Albert Whedon, which is South St. Pete, They referred us over to Tampa.
Once we get a little bit farther north, we actually have to switch to another sector of Tampa.
And, of course, the runways at Tampa, they're landing aircraft over top of us while we're down chasing this car.
And even though the airspace for McDill is... a general airspace, you still want to be able to communicate with a military installation when you're flying over to the top.
The rest of this transcript — segmented and speaker-labeled, so you land on the exact moment something was said
Search every transcript — by keyword, by phrase, or by meaning, across every show Radar indexes
Trends — what is surging across podcasts, measured against its own baseline
Alerts — when a name you follow appears in a newly indexed episode
No account is needed to search Radar.
