[sweeper22]

I'll have to pass this along to my brother. He's a Naval flight instructor, EP3 flight commander.

I've heard a few crazy stories. When he was in flight school (Pensacola or Corpus Christi), a brand new student and instructor flew into a vulture (in a T-6 I think) which shattered the front of the cockpit. Instructor gets KO'd by the impacting bird, everything's a bloody feathery mess, and the student is just circling for a while hoping instructor wakes up...because he doesn't know how to land the plane.

[ScottA]

One of the benefits here in midwest, pretty much everything outside of the cities and towns can double as an emergency landing area.

[Vincine]

We used to have a real small helicopter for our local Lifeflight. It only had sitting room for two pilots and the flight nurse. The rest of the space held medical equipment.

The patients were loaded into a 3 or 4 foot diameter ‘cubby hole’ the through the doors at the helicopter’s rear. It had four SHORT blades and could land in a couple of adjacent parking spaces if needed. I haven’t seen it for a while. Mostly now I see Bells. I wonder if the rear access was considered just too dangerous with a running tail rotor.

[Vikingdad]

Originally Posted by Vincine

We used to have a real small helicopter for our local Lifeflight. It only had sitting room for two pilots and the flight nurse. The rest of the space held medical equipment.

The patients were loaded into a 3 or 4 foot diameter ‘cubby hole’ the through the doors at the helicopter’s it’s rear. It had four SHORT blades and could land in a couple of adjacent parking spaces if needed. I haven’t seen it for a while. Mostly now I see Bells. I wonder if the rear access was considered just too dangerous with a running tail rotor.

Sounds like a Messerschmitt BO-105. http://www.flixxy.com/bo105-helicopter-aerobatics.htm

[Vincine]

Originally Posted by Vikingdad

Sounds like a Messerschmitt BO-105. http://www.flixxy.com/bo105-helicopter-aerobatics.htm

I think that’s the one, except ours was mostly painted yellow, and although the landscape looks the same, our pilots don’t fly like that, usually.

I once handled safety at a sawmill. The trip from the sawmill to the nearest level 1 care hospital normally takes 2.5 hours by ambulance, and that includes having the Lake Champlain Ferry waiting for us at the dock.

Because we were a sawmill, we (me) could order a launch directly without going through Emergency Services. We (me again) trained & rehearsed how to call for a launch, select & set up landing zone, etc. The flight took 18 minutes from closed hatch in the log yard, to the victim on the OR table in Burlington. It gave us 42 minutes of the golden hour left, but that was with loading the victim hot, daylight, fair weather, balls to the wall flying.

Nice helicopter.

[Vikingdad]

Originally Posted by Vincine

I think that’s the one, except ours was mostly painted yellow, and although the landscape looks the same, our pilots don’t fly like that, usually.

I once handled safety at a sawmill. The trip from the sawmill to the nearest level 1 care hospital normally takes 2.5 hours by ambulance, and that includes having the Lake Champlain Ferry waiting for us at the dock.

Because we were a sawmill, we (me) could order a launch directly without going through emergency services. We (me again) trained & rehearsed how to call for a launch, select & set up landing zone, etc. The flight took 18 minutes from closed hatch in the log yard, to the victim on the OR table in Burlington. It gave us 42 minutes of the golden hour left, but that was with loading the victim hot, daylight, fair weather, balls to the wall flying.

Nice helicopter.

We have some of the Messerschmitts as medevac units around here. Calstar uses them. The pilots like them, that's for sure.

[WebleyFosbery38]

Thats nuts stuff! I think I will stick with earth bound piloting, HMMWVs may not go as fast but they dont often fall out of the sky either! When we were taking the Light Leaders Course in the early 90's at Fort Drum, we went on simulated combat Flights in Huey's, only thing holding us in was that little flippy buckle. Made me a bit nervous when he would tip it up on its side on a hard bank full throttle. Skimming the lake was wild, the skids were inches from the water at a full clip then he hit the end and pulled it nearly straight up then banked it left leaving me looking straight down at the ground! My stomach is still in that lake!

I did like Rappelling from Choppers, that was a blast, dope on a rope!.

[Vincine]

Originally Posted by Vincine

. . . The flight took 18 minutes from closed hatch in the log yard, to the victim on the OR table in Burlington. It gave us 42 minutes of the golden hour left, but that was with loading the victim hot, daylight, fair weather, balls to the wall flying. . .

I forgot to include the 15 minutes from the hanger to the sawmill, so we really only had 27 minutes left of the golden hour. Thankfully I never had an event that called for a Lifeflight launch. Mostly Lifeflights are used to transport victims AFTER they had been stabilized at our local hospital, a much smaller facility.