Airborne Law Enforcement Services

By not allowing pilots to perform the basic visual inspection portion of this AD as the AEC Service Bulletin does, will place a significant burden on our organization. We fly an average of 25 hours through the weekend, so the 15 hour repetitive requirement will necessitate having a mechanic drive miles to work on weekends to perform a five minute inspection. Is a negligible added safety margin, by only having mechanics perform the visual inspection, justified in this instance? The FAA has allowed pilots and mechanics to perform visual inspections on serveral other AD's that are similar in nature to this, on Eurocopter model helicopters, so as not to unnessarily burden the industry. Our pilots are well versed in the particular visual inspection involved and our comfortable with it. This is part of the daily preflight inspection on the helicopter that they have been doing for the last nine years.