Mans Best Friend: Take a scenic photo tour in the Husky A-1

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June, 2011

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>>> Transport Medicine:

A Team to Save Lives

An inside look at the dedicated crews of Canadas Ornge Air

>>> Aviation Advocacy:

Saving Strips
John McKenna and the Recreational Aviation Foundation >>> AirVenture Backstory: >>> Destination Reports:

Little Big City

EAAs Dick Knapinski explains Oshkosh city management

Summer Travel
A few great places to point your airplane

Joe Clark: The flight of instructors | Aviation WX: Whats with our weather? Vincent Lambercy: Fly TWEET OR POST TO YOUR FRIENDS THAT YOURE ENJOYING AIRPLANISTA SoCal, part 2 with Jet-A in a Reims F172 | Chef Stuart Stein: RIGHT NOW! 1

>>> Transport Medicine

A Team to Save Lives

When a call comes in to an air ambulance operation, seconds count, and you need to the have finest equipment ready to launch quickly. And when the mission is critical, having exceptional people on the job is vital to saving lives.

It takes

By Jean Marcellin, Special to Airplanista Magazine In Timmons, Ontario, Canada, a young boy suffers very serious internal injuries after a collision with a car. Firefighters and paramedics rescue the boy after he becomes pinned underneath the vehicle and immediately begins transporting him to a Toronto area hospital eight hours away for treatment. Not long after the rescue, the phone rings throughout the whole hangar at the base of Ornge Air...dispatch has a call for the team. As a First Officer on a Pilatus PC-12NG for Ornge Air the aviation division of Ornge Transport Medicine I was standing by that day. When the call came in, we pilots werent given any information about the patients condition, our job was to determine whether it was safe to fly to our destination and, if so, to accept the call. Within 10 minutes, we informed the Ornge Communications Officer that the weather in Toronto was sufficient for our mission and gave her our verdict: the trip was a go.

As the ambulance carrying the boy made its way to the airport, the Ornge Communications Centre informed us of their progress to ensure that we would be ready to leave as quickly as possible. Upon landing, my Captain and I waited in anxious silence to hear the sirens of the ambulance speeding up the airports road. I got pulled out of my own thoughts by my Captains voice: There he is he announced in a calm voice. The six-year-old boy, barely visible in the stretcher, was being wheeled towards the plane by our two paramedics, flanked by the boys parents. As we took off and settled into our flight routine, the conversation inevitably drifted towards the heartbroken family members we had just left behind, the mother who had accompanied us, and the most precious cargo I have ever had to carry - the broken body of a six-year-old child fighting for survival. A beautiful sunset welcomed us as we landed in Toronto, but the uplifting sight was muted by the arrival of a land ambulance that came to pick up our patient and carry him on the last leg of his transport to the Pediatric Trauma Centre. The day was over

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for us...but we would be prepared tomorrow to fly another leg and fight for another life. After graduating from flight school with a fresh multi-engine/IFR/commercial rating, I spent the next two years flying charters all across North America, learning the ropes of IFR flying. After almost two years at Ornge Air, and with almost 1,000 hours on the PC12-NG, Im getting ready to earn my stripes as a Captain. Although I have thoroughly enjoyed every single moment flying the airplane, working with Ornge Air meant moving my young family to the northern Ontario community of Timmins, an eight-hour drive north of Toronto. But I am one of the luckiest men in the world...my wife fully supported me as we moved from the Greater Toronto Area to a small mining city of 45,000. Despite the challenges of living far away from relatives, the satisfaction of working for Ornge Air far surpasses the compromises Ive made for my career. Day in and day out, my coworkers and I are on standby, ready to respond to the needs of the communities around us. We stay prepared to help people in their hour of need, helping them fight for survival. While the job can be pressure-packed and loaded with stressful moments, seeing a parents grateful smile as we carry their young child to safety reminds me, every day, why I fly these missions. The history of the air ambulance industry transport medicine as it is called today dates back to the late 1800s when hot-air balloons were used during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870 to transport wounded French soldiers out of Paris. In 1917, the first officially recorded flight of an air ambulance flight took place in Turkey. A British soldier was transported from the battlefield to the nearest hospital, reducing a trip that would have taken days to just a 45-minute flight. With this, the air ambulance industry was born. The first North American civil air ambulance operation began in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan, and in 1977, the Ontario Air Ambulance Service, a flight paramedic program, began with a single rotorwing aircraft. Today, this program has developed beyond providing air ambulance services into one of the largest and most sophisticated medical transport programs in North America: Ornge. As a vital part of the medical system, the not-for-

profit Ornge provides sophisticated medical transport for very ill and critically injured patients, both in the air and on the ground. The challenges are varied in a province 1,076,395 km in total area the size of France, Spain, and the Netherlands combined. Ornges helicopters, fixed wing aircraft and land vehicles have the medical capabilities of mobile hospitals and handle over 21,000 transports every year. While most of our calls are for inter-facility transports, the most noticeable ones are scene calls, where transport medicine paramedics respond to the scene of accidents or injuries and airlift the patient to a trauma hospital. Such an intricate organization requires extremely dedicated personnel and resources to support its operations. One of the two main front-line resources used by Ornge Air are 10 medically-equipped Pilatus PC-12NGs. The challenges that we have to face are many, but the two major ones are distance and weather. While many other countries and services use the King Air as their main work horse, Ornge Air chose to acquire a new fleet of PC-12s in 2009 for two main reasons, reliability and range. The Pilatus can cover up to 2,200 NM without a fuel stop and allows us to provide an unprecedented continuity of care to the vast province of Ontario. The avionics package available on the new NG version of the legendary PC-12 also provides pilots with constant situational awareness, enabling higher safety standards for the crews and patients. Ornge Air has enjoyed a favorable relationship with Pilatus, the worlds leading manufacturer of single-engine turboprop aircraft. In January, 2011, the Ornge Foundation received a donation of over $343,000 from Pilatus, to be used in Ornges Academy of Transport Medicine (ATM) to support the simulation program. The valuable nature of training that simulators provide is imperative and essential, said Thomas Bosshard, President and CEO of Pilatus Business Aircraft Ltd. We are very impressed with Ornges constant efforts to be as up-to-date as possible with the latest medical technologies in order to provide the best possible care for their patients. The rotor-wing component of Ornge Airs aerial resources include 10 AgustaWestland AW139s. These state-of-the-art helicopters were chosen as part of an initiative to counter the weather challenges

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INTERACTIVE VIDEO

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encountered in northern operations because AW139s are capable and certified to fly in known icing conditions. They also provide enough power to allow the team to respond to scene calls on hot summer days when engine performance is critical. Like any other company in the world, Ornges foundation and core strength lies with its people. At the core of the organization, both in the air and on the ground is a team of two highly trained paramedics on every Ornge vehicle. Paramedics are supported by a dedicated team of communications officers, maintenance engineers and with the exception of critical care land ambulances pilots, who allow them full readiness and dispatch capabilities when the call comes. The almost 200 flight paramedics employed by Ornge Air are all hired based not only on their technical experience, but also on their personal passion for working with people. Once hired by Ornge Air,

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paramedics undergo highly specialized training that provides them with the specialized skills and knowledge needed to transport critically ill and injured patients. Paramedic training is a rigorous process, and critical care flight paramedics undergo more intense training than other first responders. It can take up to 10 years from initial schooling for paramedics to achieve critical care certification. The other half of an Ornge Air response team consists of the pilots. Growth estimates project that by the end of 2012, Ornge Air will employ roughly 150 pilots and 50 professional maintenance engineers. To be considered for a Captain position, applicants require 2,000 hours total time and 500 hours PIC, while the minimum time for First Officers is 500 hours total time. However, Ornge Air is not your every-day job. Every pilot (including First Officers) hired undergoes week-long simulator training related to either the

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Cant miss them in the sky: Ornge Air paints everything in their aviation fleet the same electric shade

of orange, not only for branding purposes but also to enhance visibility in high traffic situations. Shown is one of their 10 PC-12NGs.

PC-12NG or AW139. After about a month of additional training, both in ground school and in flight, they are released for online duty, completing a 100 hour line indoctrination with experienced Captains. Similar to the paramedics, every pilot is selected not only based on their technical abilities, but also on their interpersonal skills and ability to work as a team in high-stress situations. Finally, Ornge Air could not operate without a team of highly trained auxiliary personnel. With our own communications officers, maintenance engineers, trainers and dedicated management staff, Ornge Air is able to operate a self-contained transport medicine service that is able to respond to patients needs around the clock every day. The medical interiors of both the PC-12s and AW139s have been designed by Ornge Air doctors and paramedics specifically for our operations, and provide the same level of care as intensive care units

(ICUs). The teamwork and equipment of the aerial fleet can be demonstrated by reading the story of seven-year-old Victoria Wilson. Tori was playing in the schoolyard when she knocked heads with another child, bouncing back and crashing into a jungle gym. What seemed like a normal playground accident was diagnosed as a concussion in the emergency room: however, upon realizing that blood was pooling in her brain, doctors knew that Tori was in a critical state, requiring specialized treatment only available at a pediatric hospital. Ornge Air paramedics Marcie Beaudoin, Patrick Auger, and pediatric paramedic John Holbrook flew Tori to the Childrens Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), stabilizing her en route. Upon her arrival, Tori underwent emergency brain surgery to remove a 4-inch blood clot that was causing her to suffer ministrokes. Her parents, Roger and Susie Wilson, were told that their daughters outlook was bleak; however

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reasons. Among them are the helicopters proven operational envelope in high/hot conditions, and the models certification for flight into known icing conditions.

Performance makes the difference: Ornge Air flies the AgustaWestland AW139 for many

our team members fought for their patient, and upon arriving at CHEO Tori was already prepped and ready for her emergency surgery. Tori survived her ordeal, and after two emergency operations on her brain, she is recovering at home. Susie and Roger point to Ornge Air as a critical link in Toris survival: They were amazing and understanding, very knowledgeable; they really knew what they were doing! We are both so very thankful that Tori was prepped for surgery in the helicopter. We believe that this is a key factor in her survival! The transport medicine system in Ontario is set up in such a way that patients who are residents of the province are transported without any direct cost to them. The day-to-day operational costs of providing transport medicine services to Ontario are provided for through a performance agreement with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.

But as a not-for-profit operation, Ornge has created a Foundation to raise money for capital equipment, research and development and training. I am delighted to tell you that the six-year-old boy from Timmons and Tori Wilson both lived and recovered from their near-fatal accidents. However, as much as I would like to deny it, the reality is that despite our readiness, our resources and our passion, not every patient can be saved. But you have to remember that it is a collaborative spirit and a compassionate heart that makes us who we are as air transport medicine professionals, and we are proud of it. Challenges remain, and Ornge is working every day towards pushing forward the innovations and initiatives that will allow us, one day, to say: We did it...we saved a life. Every time. Every flight. A

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