Howdy y'all
This thread is a good opportunity to say 'hi' and introduce myself.
I fly FW air ambulance for more than 10 years worldwide, so maybe I'll share my $.02:
EMS flying is no-nonsense, no-frill business. 90% of your flight time will be at night, in lousy weather (that's the time when they need you) and with plenty of the UN-expected:
- I've had to load a 400lbs patient on a door because stretcher was bending too much and the hospital hadn't a strecher big enough. Well, we had to duct-tape this poor guy onto the door to load him;
- some aircraft don't have a cargo door or a loading system for the sled (aka stretcher). So you need EVERY hands-on you can get at 3AM. Your cute flight paramedics ain't strong enough to get a 320lbs gozilla through the door and the mechanic locked away the key to the forklift.
- You patient unexpectedly wakes up (because meds wearing off), gets up, knocks down the flight medics and tries to open the door because he needs to get back to his trailer (double-wide). He forgot getting his dog inside.
- buy me a beer and I'll entertain you for the next 48 hours with stories
Most operator will fly 'single pilot' with 2 flight nurses/paramedics in King Airs (90 and/or 200). In average your pay is $100/flight-hour and $50/80 per diem if you are out-of-town. Most operators will offer a base salary (normally $1000/week with 10 hrs of flying), in a good month (spring break and summer-time with lots of drunks, over-dosed and freeway lunatics) you'll fly 60-80 hours/month. The rest of the year is about 20-40 hours/month.
You will be
on call. You have 45 min to 1 hour to get to the aircraft AND get all horses out of the barn (flight plan, clearance, pre-flight, chocks, ...). Remember:
- you do this all by yourself!
- At night! (FBO (if any) is closed, Twr is clsd, ...)
You typical load will be: 1 patient, 2 nurses, eventually a passenger (parent, when flying kid as patient) and ~200 lbs of medical gear.
So, now let's talk airplane: Most FW air ambulance provider run 401, 421 and King Airs. Well it doesn't make your night to get the above mentioned payload into a 421. IT JUST DOESN'T FIT and if it does, your tires will go flat. You are on these flights under critical W&B!!
Oh, did I mention that it will rain (eventually snow) and the weather will be lousy the least. Your flight is around 1 hour to 2 hours, depending on the trauma center you'll go and arrangements have been made. Peer pressure is immense (have-to-go-syndrome) from ALL participants in this gig!
Well, I am sure most of you get the picture by now: It is not that glamorous as it looks on TV
Well, now a few lines to your qualification:
you need to be nuts!
you need extraordinary judgment (comes with being nuts)
+ 2000TT
+ 200 turbine (King Air)
ATP
first class
special training part 135 for air ambulance
Jet operation is pretty much similar (just higher and narrower)
Most of your TT and certificates is dictated by INSURANCE! Also, if your operator is 135 single-pilot, you can't log any SIC time as long as you have NON-crew-members on your flight. It's a complex topic and a thread by itself.
Well, actually I just wanted to introduce myself:
Hi - Cheerio