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The Baxter County Quorum Court voted 10-1 Tuesday to table a plan that would have sent a deputy to flight school to become the next pilot for the sheriff’s office helicopter program, pushing the decision to January and into the hands of the incoming sheriff.
The vote followed more than an hour of debate that dominated the June 2 meeting. At its center was the future of an aviation program Sheriff John Montgomery called one of the most valuable assets the county owns.
Montgomery brought the proposal forward as an ordinance renaming the Aviation Reserve Fund to the Aviation Fund and moving $46,000 into it for the 2026 budget. He told the court the program faces a problem it can no longer put off.
Longtime volunteer pilot Benny Magness is retiring. The office has spent more than a year looking for a replacement and come up empty.
“We have a problem, and that’s why I’m here tonight,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery, who leaves office Jan. 1 after 22 years, acknowledged he is a lame duck and could coast through his final seven months. He told the court he would not, saying he intends to finish a slate of projects, including the helicopter program, while the department is still under his control rather than leave them for his successor.
A 42-year program, and federal aircraft on loan
The sheriff’s aviation unit has flown for 42 years. Montgomery told the court it was the first law enforcement helicopter in Arkansas, predating the state police by a decade.
He said the program has located lost children, found wandering dementia patients, tracked fugitives and escaped inmates, and recovered bodies from area rivers and lakes. The unit also assists other counties.
The county does not own its two flyable helicopters or roughly a quarter-million dollars in spare parts, Montgomery said. The federal government owns the aircraft, and he warned the equipment could be reclaimed once it is no longer in use.
“When they’re gone, they’re gone,” he said.
The plan and the contract
Montgomery and Magness settled on a fix about a year ago. The office would send a deputy with an interest in aviation to flight school, then keep Magness on to train him in the county’s aircraft until he is proficient.
The deputy is Austin Morrison, who works in support services and already handles helicopter parts. Montgomery said Morrison has been with the office nearly 10 years and is a local who is not likely to leave.
The training would run an estimated $25,000 to $30,000 at a school in Springdale and take about six to eight weeks, Montgomery said. To protect the county, a contract drawn up by Roger Morgan requires Morrison to repay the cost on a sliding scale if he leaves within three years. He would owe $30,000 in the first year, $20,000 in the second and $10,000 in the third, and would have to repay the money if he is fired for cause or leaves for another agency or private work.
The funding would come from a fund built with insurance money, not taxes. Montgomery said the county settled with an insurance company for $100,000 after a car crashed into a helicopter several years ago. After one repair, the balance sits at about $92,000.
“I would be lobbying and arguing that this is a very good expense of tax dollars, but it’s not, it’s insurance money,” Montgomery told the court.
Justices of the peace question safety and cost
Several members pushed back. Justice of the Peace Dirk Waldrop, a fixed-wing pilot, said the bigger issue was liability, not training time.
Waldrop noted the Federal Aviation Administration does not require a license to fly a law enforcement helicopter, and that Magness is not a certified flight instructor. He asked what the county would face if a new pilot went down.
“What concerns me outside of liability and the insurance is, if there is an incident or an accident and the helicopter goes down somewhere in a school, a park, a neighborhood, what is the county’s liability?” Waldrop said.
He also raised maintenance. The two helicopters are Bell OH-58 models with Rolls-Royce turbine engines, kept up by two retired mechanics who work largely for free but take contract jobs out of state. He warned a turbine or hot-section inspection could run $25,000 to $30,000 plus parts, with aviation fuel near $8 a gallon, enough to drain the fund quickly.
“Everything in aviation is expensive,” Waldrop said. “Anything that you budget for, you can at least double it.”
Justice of the Peace Eddie Griffin, who is also Mountain Home’s police chief, said the source of the money did not matter. He argued the contract set no repayment schedule, meaning Morrison could owe $30,000 but pay it back slowly over many years.
“The fact that it’s not tax dollars is irrelevant,” he said. “That money still belongs to all the citizens of the county.”
The drone question
Part of the debate turned to whether a drone could do the same work for less. The sheriff’s office is adding a drone funded with $26,000 from the Baxter County Sheriff’s Foundation, due to ship this week.
Several members said unmanned aircraft are where law enforcement is heading. House made the case most directly, saying drones are spreading fast in other departments and steadily getting cheaper to field.
“I personally think a drone,” House said. “If you look at other cities, they’re all going drones. Drones are getting to be more and more popular because they can get down and dirty. They can feel the heat.”
House said she still wanted to keep the helicopter for now but expected the aircraft would eventually be phased out because they are expensive to fly and maintain. The argument carries weight heading into the next administration. Hollingsworth campaigned on creating a drone unit for the office.
Magness and Montgomery countered that a drone cannot replace a manned helicopter. They said a helicopter can fly low and fast over long pursuits, does not run out of signal range the way a drone can and uses its noise to keep fugitives pinned down, while a drone’s quiet makes it better suited to surveillance.
Supporters who have worked with both described the tools as complementary rather than interchangeable. They noted the Arkansas State Police run drones for special operations but still keep a helicopter for the work a drone cannot do.
Griffin, who said he has flown on the aircraft many times, backed that up while still pressing his concerns. He described the work as far more demanding than it looks.
“I’ve flown on that helicopter, and it’s not like you see on TV,” Griffin said. “You’re down at treetop level, and if things go wrong, there’s not much room for error.”
As Magness had put it to one member, a drone is not a helicopter.
Sheriff-elect raises strong reservations
Sheriff-elect Mark Hollingsworth, who takes office Jan. 1, told the court his main concern is safety and that he could not support the appropriation. The retired Arkansas State Police major won the Republican runoff in March and faces no opposition in November.
Hollingsworth said he had spoken with aviation contacts who warned of a steep learning curve moving a pilot from a piston-engine Robinson into a turbine OH-58. He said insurers often want about 2,000 hours of flight time, and likely 1,000 hours in that airframe, before covering a pilot.
He said the program’s forward-looking infrared camera is inoperable, another expense, and that he wants to step back and evaluate the entire operation before anyone flies.
“I’m a huge advocate of this helicopter. I’ve seen it do some really good things,” Hollingsworth said. “But I’m not for this appropriation going through because of the safety issue.”
He said his sharpest worry was putting an inexperienced pilot into a turbine aircraft. “I think we’re putting somebody, we’re almost setting them up for failure,” he said. He told the court that if the appropriation passed Tuesday, he could not support it after Jan. 1.
The reservations put the sheriff-elect at odds with the sitting sheriff over a program Hollingsworth will inherit. Montgomery told the court the ordinance was set for last month’s meeting, but that he held it back a month at Hollingsworth’s request so the incoming sheriff could research the issue and attend. Montgomery said he did so expecting Hollingsworth to contact him if he had concerns, and that he reached out the prior Thursday and heard nothing until Hollingsworth voiced his opposition at the meeting.
Montgomery pressed the time-sensitive nature of the plan. He said Morrison needs to be trained while Magness is still available to mentor him, and that the alternative is risking the loss of a pilot and, in turn, the federally owned aircraft.
The exchange grew pointed. “I am disappointed in one thing, and that is Mark,” Montgomery said. “You gave me your word if you had any issues with the helicopter whatsoever, you would contact me. And I reached out to you last Thursday, and you never said a word until tonight.”
County Judge Kevin Litty cut off that line of discussion. “Sheriff, with all due respect, let’s not go there,” Litty said, steering the court back to the vote.
Magness takes the microphone
Montgomery deferred repeatedly to Magness, telling the court no one is more qualified to speak on the program. Magness was called to the microphone and answered members’ questions on maintenance and training before making his own case.
He walked the court through the inspection schedule and pushed back on the idea that the aircraft are poorly kept. He said the FAA reviews the office’s records even though it has no authority over the unit.
“FAA, although they have no jurisdiction over law enforcement helicopters, they do go out and review our maintenance logs,” Magness said, adding that a recent review found the office’s records more than adequate.
Magness, who has flown for the office since 1984 and is paid a nominal $25 a year, said the most important thing is keeping a pilot with local ties, because too many trained pilots come and go. He said he started with 60 hours of flight time and learned on the job, no different from what Morrison faces now.
“The most important thing for me is to have somebody hometown, somebody got ties to the sheriff’s office,” Magness said. “I’m willing to help as long as this sheriff asks me to stay, because the helicopter is too important.”
He told members he still passes his flight physicals and has no eyesight problems, but was candid about the clock. “I’m not gonna be around forever,” he said.
A search that came up empty
Montgomery said the office has searched for more than a year for an experienced pilot, including retired and former military pilots, without success. Airport director Taylor Carmichael offered to ask among his contacts, including retired medevac pilots now flying fixed-wing aircraft.
Montgomery added that the White County sheriff, a certified helicopter instructor, and the Benton County Sheriff’s Office have both offered to help train Morrison. He pressed the court for an up-or-down vote, saying time was short to get Morrison trained while Magness is still available.
He told members the effort had cost him personally and gained him nothing. “This has been nothing but a headache for me,” Montgomery said. “I got a pilot till the end of the year. I don’t have anything to gain personally. We have a problem, and we come up with a way to solve this problem.”
Montgomery returned a final time to the source of the money, saying no tax dollars were at stake. “It is insurance money. It is not tax money,” he said. “We’re not putting any tax dollars at risk here, and I say that because to me, it’s important.”
Instead, Waldrop moved to table the ordinance until the court’s January meeting, giving the incoming sheriff time to review the program. The motion passed 10-1.
The fund rename and appropriation now wait until January. The sheriff’s office will continue operating the helicopter under its existing $19,000 budget line through the rest of the year.
