Articles for category Safety
|
May
25
2012
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
Helicopter emergency medical services (HEMS) provide life-saving transports for the critically ill or injured. However, the rising number of U.S. HEMS accidents over the past decade is cause for serious questions as to their operational safety. For this reason a national effort is underway to reduce HEMS accidents.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety
|
Jun
15
2011
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
By Matt Zuccaro -I am sure most of you are familiar with the various accident reduction efforts within the industry—be they Helicopter Association International, FAA, the International Helicopter Safety Team, Tour Operators Program of Safety, Airborne Law Enforcement Association or the European Helicopter Safety Team. The basic premise of these efforts is to reduce the number of accidents that occur within the helicopter community—either the aggregate number or those that involve fatalities.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety
|
Apr
14
2011
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
By Bill Winn - The sound of thunder on the near horizon can herald hope or fear, depending on whether you are a drought-stricken farmer or a Golden Retriever with a serious phobia of both the boom and flash of lightening. My dog Max literally climbs into bed between me and Joyce during every thunderstorm, and lies there shivering uncontrollably until the storm has passed. It's like having one of those vibrating beds you find in cheap motels.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety
Regulatory
|
Mar
23
2011
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
Night flight usage and technology have grown exponentially in the past few years and the dilemma from FAA mandate to have a minimum of 2 crewmembers for NVG flight operations below 300’ AGL has evolved as well. There are two general sides taken in this discussion. The first is the belief that NVG operations can be conducted safely with only the pilot using NVGs, while others believe that NVG flight operations below 300’ AGL is a multi-crew task. Each side of the discussion believes the alternative to be undesirable. In this article, we will take an objective look at this issue.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Training
Safety
|
Feb
09
2011
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
Actually “we” probably do…or at least one or two of us need a little firmer guidance from the FAA and/or our operator. When I started flying patients in dire need about forty-one years ago we had very few restrictions. Of course, it was a combat zone and we were very young and bold. Many years later after losing far too many friends who bravely pushed into the jaws of death, even in peacetime, it is clear to me that one doesn’t become “old and bold” unless we restrict ourselves and exercise restraint and good judgment on every single flight, no matter how critical. It has also become clear to me that a few of our peers need adult supervision from time to time.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety
|
Jan
26
2011
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
This is a preliminary report of a survey completed by 568 active helicopter EMS pilots in September and October of 2010. The solicitation to pilots to participate in this survey included the following introductory statement:
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety
Regulatory
Helicopter Sectors
|
Nov
29
2010
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
GOMER: Working in the Gulf of Mexico - Part 2
Article, Photos, & Video by Lyn Burks
In my experience, if you would like to see how serious a helicopter operator is about safety, then look no further than its new hire or recurrent pilot training programs. On one hand, there are programs which barely meet the FAA minimums, with their training program loosely packaged between the covers of Part 135 Operations Specifications. On the other, there are operators who go beyond the OpSpecs and fill the training “tool box” with innovative techniques and dedicated people.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Career Development
Becoming A Pilot
Safety
Helicopter Sectors
|
Nov
09
2010
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
Having been invited in to conduct a week’s worth of program evaluation and EVS training by Wojciech Wozniczka, the LPR Deputy Technical Director. I had the sincere pleasure to work with this tremendously professional EMS group based out of Warsaw, Poland which had been founded in 2000. The LPR was a result of the consolidation of several independent EMS units to form a single state (country) medical service with the ability to coordinate all care from one single location.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety
|
Jul
06
2010
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
It wasn’t too many years ago that most helicopter operators in the US conducting EMS operations would hire a pilot, then in company training validate that pilot to commercial standards per the Federal Aviation Regulations, and quickly send him to a field base to conduct EMS operations for a customer without so much as telling him what the EMS mission he was about to perform was all about. It wasn’t a FAA requirement to train to the mission, but it was a requirement to train the pilot to operate the aircraft safely while conducting the mission, whatever that mission might be. That is where a major problem lied and many operators didn’t realize it was an issue that needed to be dealt with.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Training
Safety
Helicopter Sectors
|
Jun
02
2010
|
|
Posted by Admin
|
|
By Rex Alexander - There are few things in our industry that will generate more emotion and controversy or have people taking sides faster than the topic of hot loading patients. Having been a pilot in the air medical business for 14 years, I have had the opportunity to see the good, the bad, and the ugly from both sides of this issue several hundred times over.
[Read More...]
Categories:
Safety