FEAR as we know it is disappearing.

The board of Flathead Emergency Aviation Resources is in the process of finalizing a change of the organization’s name to Glacier Emergency Aviation Resources, or GEAR.

“We’re taking a whole new direction,” director Jordan White said Friday. “We’ve formally structured the helicopters under Two Bear Air as a company because that’s really the managing entity that’s providing the services and the aircraft. We split it off from Mike Goguen’s original company — Two Bear Management — and made it into its own company.”

White said Glacier Emergency Aviation Resources will be structured to facilitate the partnership that now exists between Two Bear Air and the Flathead County Sheriff’s Office.

It will also continue to function as a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization so that donations to the organization are tax-deductible. Money from donors will be used to cover specific safety and rescue equipment for volunteers and rescuers.

“We’ve found repeatedly that people we’ve flown and saved and work with want to give something back, want to contribute,” White said. “This way someone whose family was positively affected will have an opportunity to give something back to the program in a meaningful way that will contribute to the same services being available to a different family or victim in the future.”

The central functions of the organization will continue to be funded by Goguen, a Whitefish philanthropist.

The soon-to-be GEAR was founded in 2011 by White along with several others to provide aerial resources for search-and-rescue efforts and other limited purposes throughout the Flathead Valley and potentially beyond.

To fulfill those goals, the organization has been using a red, white and blue Bell 407 helicopter that previously belonged to Two Bear Management while awaiting delivery of a  new Bell 429 currently being built.

The arrival of the new helicopter has been delayed, however, due to technology control requirements of the U.S. government.

According to White, some of the equipment to be installed on the helicopter, such as thermal imaging equipment, may not be installed outside this country.

White and company initially had planned for all the equipment to be installed in Canada, but now it must be partially installed and the helicopter assembled and flown to the United States, where it will be disassembled and the remaining equipment installed.

The base price of the helicopter, before specialized rescue equipment, is roughly $5 million. It is now expected to be delivered sometime in early or mid-summer.

The organization has continued to assist local search and rescue efforts in the interim, most recently helping locating the body of a missing woman in Glacier National Park on Thursday.

Reporter Jesse Davis may be reached at 758-4441 or by email at jdavis@dailyinterlake.com.