Look at me!

[dustoff17]

Great advice here. Don't hesitate to stand your ground. It's O.K. to be selfish!!! If you think "self-preservation" surrounding every flight, you'll make sound decisions.

ALSO: Don't ask about the patient; don't know the age, family status, injury, etc. (if there is something you NEED to know about the patient, the med crew will tell you; i.e. pressurization). You want no more information about the patient than a 121 pilot should know about all of his passengers. Knowing too much tends to skew your decision making process. Especially the Go-NoGo decision. ALL you have are passengers........

Thanks for the words of wisdom/experience. I am still very new but seem to have good people working with me on the medical side. I'll keep your advice in mind in the future.

This is WAY more than advice. The Air Ambulance companies can find a pilot a lot easier than they can find qualified med crews; if you guys don't get along, you'll be the one looking for the job.

 

[Bonanzaman]

Great advice here. Don't hesitate to stand your ground. It's O.K. to be selfish!!! If you think "self-preservation" surrounding every flight, you'll make sound decisions.

ALSO: Don't ask about the patient; don't know the age, family status, injury, etc. (if there is something you NEED to know about the patient, the med crew will tell you; i.e. pressurization). You want no more information about the patient than a 121 pilot should know about all of his passengers. Knowing too much tends to skew your decision making process. Especially the Go-NoGo decision. ALL you have are passengers........


This is WAY more than advice. The Air Ambulance companies can find a pilot a lot easier than they can find qualified med crews; if you guys don't get along, you'll be the one looking for the job.

Thanks. I've had the other pilots I work with and am friends with give me the same advice and I made the decision before my first flight that the patients problems are not my problems. That first flight I put some pressure on myself to hurry and then remembered that I need to fly the same as I would with no one on board. My first priority is to operate safely, my second is to operate legally, after that is everything else.

Again guys, thanks to everyone contributing to this thread. There's an airline pilot sub forum, one for freight, one for corporate...not as much info out there for air ambulance pilots.