VERTEX Tactical Aviation will be using TRU-SPEC apparel as it clear the Texas landscape of feral hogs.
“TRU-SPEC represents a perfect match for the extreme demands that we place on our apparel that we utilize during both our helicopter hog hunts and ground-based hog recovery operations,” states Mike Morgan, president of VERTEX Aviation Group.
“Our flight and ground crews are extremely hard on our gear, ” says Morgan. “On any given day, we can be running hogs out of high trees and triple canopy wood-lines into rougher terrain with rose thorn thickets where normal clothing gets torn to shreds.”
He says TRU-SPEC’s Tactical Response Uniforms and TRU-EXTREME uniforms answer all of his company’s requirements for clothing that can handle extreme environments and continue to stand up to their routine demands.
“Our flight crews normally wear Nomex flight suits,” says Morgan, “but they get ripped up when going through thorns to drag out a feral hog that has gone deep into the brush.”
TRU-SPEC’s XFIRE Tactical Response Uniform offers flight crews the fire protection of TRU-SPEC’s Interlock fabric, while still tough enough to transition from the helicopter to a ground environment without losing protection when working in heavy brush.
GearScout readers in Texas might be interested to know VERTEX is based at Hobby Airport in Houston and offers an Aerial Hunting Safety Course two weekends per month at a cost of $350 per attendee. Since beginning the program in June of 2011, more than 500 people have attended the course.
moreThe Aerial Hunting Safety Course is an all-day course with four hours of classroom instruction in the morning and hands-on live-fire training in the helicopter on an active range during the afternoon. Each class is limited to 12 people to keep the instruction more concentrated, resulting in more interaction and additional time for hands-on training. Depending on the location, VERTEX Tactical Aviation will travel with one of the aircraft to perform the classes for larger groups at remote locations when scheduling allows.
For those who have attended VERTEX’s Aerial Hunting Safety Course, helicopter hog hunts can be scheduled anywhere from Monday through Sunday, and in locations all over the state.
“We’ve proven to be quite capable at teaching our private hunters to become effective gunners in performing our depredation services,” says Morgan. “We’ve culled thousands of hogs since we began these services. One property area alone has resulted in over 500 hogs taken out since Jan 15th of this year. Our farmers love us.”
VERTEX Tactical Aviation says the state has the most feral hogs in the country, currently numbering about 3.2 million, which represents 50 percent of the total U.S. population of feral hogs. “Feral hogs cause in excess of $400 million dollars in economic and agricultural damage each year in Texas,” says Morgan. “Our company’s focus is to assist our farmers and landowners with the removal of this depredating species.”
VERTEX provides helicopter hog hunts where private hunters attend an Aerial Hunting Safety Course to learn how to shoot safely and effectively from a moving helicopter. The hunters then go out with VERTEX’s flight and ground crews to hunt the hogs. These hunts take place on private farm and ranch lands where property owners have requested VERTEX to remove the depredating hogs.
“These properties are composed of everything from woods to plowed fields to prairies covered in thorn thickets and over rivers, through the mud, and back and forth over and under barbed wire fences,” says Morgan. “Normal apparel just doesn’t stand up to our line of work. That’s why we partnered with TRU-SPEC. We started to use their gear, and it continued to stand up to our demands.”
“Our tactically inspired apparel fits the needs of their day-to-day operations, both in the field and in the office,” stated Darrell Jacks, TRU-SPEC VP of Marketing. “We know Mike and his team will put our products to the test and provide useful feedback to help enhance the TRU-SPEC brand.”
You can find out more about ATLANCO brands by visiting their website at www.atlanco.com, calling 800-241-9414 or emailing marketing@atlanco.com.
VERTEX Aviation Group is a full service helicopter company located at 8703 Telephone Rd. at Hobby Airport in Houston, Texas. They can be reached at (281) 616-5095 or you can visit their website at www.helicopterhuntingsafety.com or email them directly at info@vertex-avgroup.com
