Medical Helicopter Down

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specifically, it allows for one pilot to remain 'head down' on the  
instruments in the cockpit, while the other pilot is "Heads up" watching  outside.
 
VERY VERY important in marginal weather, at night, and during high hazard  
operations (landings, take offs, out of ground effect hover for hoist  
operations, pinnacle operations (roof top heliports), etc)
 
no, I never qualified to fly the things, but I spent a lot of time in the  
back seat, studied the appropriate "Dash 10" (pilot's manual) and learned a 
lot  from watching 'Old Vietnam Hands' teach young pilots how to stay alive 
in the  air.
 
ck
 
 
In a message dated 3/26/2010 12:25:52 Central Daylight Time,  
stephen.richey at gmail.com writes:

On Fri,  Mar 26, 2010 at 1:16 PM, Bjorn, Pret <pbjorn at emh.org> wrote:

>  We're flirting with the limits of my aeromedical expertise here; but  I'm
> doubtful that any of these factors are both a) independent root  causes
> of HEMS crashes and b) unsolvable by other or better means and  practices
> (instrumentation, night vision equipment, crew in the left  seat
> outbound, etc.).
>

Despite the fact that work  overload (which leads situations that result in
errors such as CFIT,  inadvertent descent, etc) and poor decision-making en
route (failure to  divert or abort the mission) are pretty common factors in
these  crashes?  Pret, I respect you but I think you're missing the  benefit
of having a second pilot.  It's far better than putting a  non-pilot rated
paramedic or nurse "in the left seat outbound".    There is a reason why 
most
first-world nations require or strongly  encourage commercial helicopter
operations hauling passengers to have two  pilots on board.   It is also the
reason why countries with far  more aggressive use of HEMS (Norway and
Germany come to mind) have fatal  crash rates that make ours the most 
pitiful
in the  world.


>
> I'm also no expert on our own HEMS service here  in Maine; but I have my
> doubts that LifeFlight -- one of the safest  and most celebrated services
> in the industry -- could financially  withstand such a mandate.
>

> I somehow doubt you'd be at all  surprised when your proposed solution
> effectively shuts down the  industry.
>
>
Not at all surprising, but then again, it really  isn't worth the cost we're
paying now in terms of lives lost.  The  easier solution is to switch to
fixed-wing which have a much better safety  margin and can be much more
safely operated single pilot in IFR conditions  .   Of course those HEMS
operators already running the BK-117 and  similar twin engine varieties 
would
not be effected that much by a dual  pilot standard.


-- 
Stephen Richey, CRT

"A man's moral  worth is established only at the point where he is ready to
give up his  life in defense of his convictions."- Henning von  Tresckow
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