The Carson City Sheriff’s Office Aero Squadron was founded on 13, April 1966 during a meeting where the founding members voted on and ratified both a Constitution and By-Laws for the association. This meeting was the result of several organizational meetings between the founding members and Sheriff Bob Humphrey, who as Carson City’s only ‘flying’ Sheriff, had conceived the idea of the ‘Squadron’ in late 1965 to assist his office in both search & rescue of lost or people in distress in the surrounding mountainous areas of then Ormsby County.

The mission of the Carson City Sheriff’s Aero Squadron remains the same as it has been since the beginning:

• To extend all possible service to the Sheriff of Carson City and the community of Carson City whenever called upon to do so.

• To stand ready to serve whenever required.

• To cooperate with the FAA in the best interest of flying.

• To promote social relationships among the members of this association

• To promote the science of flying and related activities with special regard to furthering safe flying by its members and other fliers of the aviation community.

Our membership is limited to 20 active members in order to preserve the integrity of our missions. All members of the Carson City Sheriff’s Aero Squadron are volunteers. They donate their time, aircraft and professional skills when requested by the Sheriff for the benefit of the community. Many members are former military, airline, charter and air ambulance pilots and many still maintain current FAA Flight Instructor ratings.

Our volunteers have now donated a total of more than 28,300 personal man-hours, flown over 400 air missions and logged more than 950 flight hours for the Sheriff and Community from 1966 to present (1, December 2025).

Our flight missions have varied over the years, but typical missions today include search (in primary support of our Search & Rescue & Mounted Unit volunteer units), prisoner transport, aerial communications and surveillance. Although many community activities were impacted by the global Covid-19 pandemic, the squadron had maintained the ability to respond to any emergency during this time.

The squadron has established training requirements based on the FAA ‘WINGS’ program. WINGS training is augmented by training derived from the Civil Air Patrol Mountain Search Pilot Course Guide. The squadron has several pilots who have met those training requirements and are ready to fly at a moment’s notice.

The mission of the Aero Squadron requires that the squadron respond rapidly to a call by the Sheriff’s Office Communications Center. There have been times when the Aero Squadron has had aircraft with both pilot and observer in the air within 15 minutes of a request by the Sheriff or dispatch.

The Carson City Sheriff’s Office Aero Squadron is proud to continue supporting the Carson City Sheriff’s Office, the community of Carson City and the State of Nevada when called upon.

For more information about volunteering with us, please contact Volunteer Coordinator Robert Rikalo at (775) 283-7810 or RRikalo@CarsonCity.Gov