TULSA, Okla. –
A Deep Legacy:
The current Osage SkyNews 6 HD is a Bell 505. Powered by the Safran Arrius 2R turbine engine and helps cover everything from severe weather and police chases to road construction and wildfires. But it’s not been the same chopper all these years. There have been four aircraft with the moniker of SkyNews6 since 2000. The previous version of Osage SkyNews 6 was actually damaged beyond repair during a tornado in 2023, but it wasn’t airborne at the time. The storm passed right through the hangar where the chopper was being housed.
Osage Skynews 6 was damaged during Wednesday night’s severe weather.
April 20, 2023 05:13 PM
1 min read
Built for News:
Bell 505s are built with special tech, especially for aerial coverage. The Garmin G1000H NXi glass avionics suite is a state-of-the-art flight deck for helicopter pilots and comes with synthetic vision technology, fully integrated touchscreen. The synthetic vision tech allows pilot Dustin Stone to see clearly in nighttime, fog, smoke, and other degraded visibility situations.
Zoom in from Miles Away:
One piece of special tech on SkyNews 6 is the camera. The Sony HDC-2500 camera, which can zoom on an object from roughly 13,000 feet, keeps our crew safe from storms and other risks. It is connected to a 5-axis gyro-stabilized camera system known as the HD Cineflex V14 gimbal, which means that there are a few angles that the SkyNews 6 can’t cover.
SkyNews6 Videos
February 2, 2020 12:06 PM
Be There in No Time:
Osage SkyNews HD has a maximum continuous horsepower of 459 and can hit speeds of 132 mph. It can also stay in the air for hours.
Wider Windshield:
The newest iteration of SkyNews 6 features a wider windshield than its predecessor, providing more visibility and giving our pilot a better sense of the scene below.
Piloted by a Pro:
Dustin Stone has been flying SkyNews6 for years and has been working as a News On 6 for almost 25 years. Before he took over the cockpit, Dustin worked as a camera operator in the back of the chopper for several years.
