Does anyone fly a new Medevac Jet?
 

Just curious..... with old Lr's dominating the medevac field, if anyone worked for a company that flew new'ish equipment?

The initial costs are obviously more for new equipment, but so are ongoing mx problems for the older fleets?

Old lears are 1-2 mil........ semi-old Citation V's are 3-5 mil...... new Encore's are 12mil,etc.......

You can't beat the speed/operating costs of an old Lr35..... but when these a/c start to break do you start the cycle over again with another old Lr, or do you upgrade to something newer?

I guess, it's all about the $$$. If the medevac contract pays well, the company may have some room to upgrade the fleet.

Cheers,

500and2

We were thinking we'd be trading our 30-year old, 17,000-hour Lear 35s later this year for 12-year-old, 8,000-hour Lear 31s. The company that contracts us, though, is shutting down bases and reducing staffing, so that's not going to happen.

Ideally, I'd like to see Lear 45s with APUs. Not gonna happen, either. Not for another 10 years, probably, until the first 45s get to be 20 years old.

I have sondered if any of the new VLJ's could incorporate a wider door and perhaps be used for Medevac. An Eclipse, with a price of under $2 million could incorporate a stretcher, nurse/paramedic and two crew members. Increased efficiency would enable the medevacs to remain at the old Lear pricepoint for acquisition, probably lower insurance costs, and have improved operating costs (I think). My question is whether the speed/range would be a good value vs. a Used King Air on intermediate range medevac flights? Sorry if this is a stupid comment/question - but have been wondering for some time of this could be another use for a VLJ?

I would think at least on the Eclipse, it couldn't be done with a stretcher because of it's length. The Mustang, Phenom, and soon the PiperJet(Sources say 2011 though, ouch!) might as they should have a longer interior space. Although what would hurt the PJ over the others is insurance might not like single-engine, regardless how reliable it is.

I will check this out - the stretcher thing on the Eclipse.

Other than that, does my hypothesis make sense - ie the economics and operating costs being a superior value to the Medevac market?

Thanks for the reply

Eclipse
 

The Eclipse would be very difficult for Medavac, two pilots, nurse, stretcher and medical equipment ? The payload on the plane isn't very good not to mention a lot of bugs are not worked out ie in-op FMS, no known ice, in-op radar. The plane is way too small

We fly citation ultra's and King Air B200's The king air has more room for everyone. (pilots and Nurses) but the Citation is a lot easier to load/unload. We use the lifeport system, whch is the ideal way to handle patients. We have the wide clam-shell door which gives us a lot more room...

I would think there would be a lot of operators using the PC-12 with respect to the big cargo door and operating costs, but maybe the initial price would scare them away.

most insurance companies and people want 2 engines....

We fly a newer citation for Air Ambulance.... mid 70's CE500, S/N 347.... That's new... right? Its not over 10,000 hrs, yet, so c'mon. That's new. Anything younger than my personal airframe is new. Its cheap too. Don't fix anything, and it doesn't cost much. :eek: