Look at me!

Bonanzaman

Bonanzaman

Well-Known Member
I am the Captain now!

I have been a King Air 350 FO for the last year and a half and was just hired as a c90 captain for an air ambulance company. I would really appreciate stories and experiences from those in the air ambo world, especially those flying similar equipment. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.
 
Bonanzaman said:
I am the Captain now!

I have been a King Air 350 FO for the last year and a half and was just hired as a c90 captain for an air ambulance company. I would really appreciate stories and experiences from those in the air ambo world, especially those flying similar equipment. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.
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A lot depends on who you work for and what your schedule is.
 
Bonanzaman said:
I am the Captain now!

I have been a King Air 350 FO for the last year and a half and was just hired as a c90 captain for an air ambulance company. I would really appreciate stories and experiences from those in the air ambo world, especially those flying similar equipment. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.
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Did you respond to the mailer they sent out?
 
hotice said:
A lot depends on who you work for and what your schedule is.
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I work for a small company out here in Texas and my schedule is 14/14. I just finished IOE last week. What I learned in the week that it took to complete IOE was to expect to be bored and then get a call right as I'm doing something.lol
 
Bonanzaman said:
I work for a small company out here in Texas and my schedule is 14/14. I just finished IOE last week. What I learned in the week that it took to complete IOE was to expect to be bored and then get a call right as I'm doing something.lol
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The most important thing to know when flying air ambulance is to build a good relationship with the and crew. Keep them happy. Their life is in your hands. They are A or have red personalities. You need to be confident in your decisions. They want to know what is going on with wx and stuff. If they are uncomfortable about something. Take it serious and resolve their concerns. Here we have a saying "3 to go and 1 to say no." If one of the members of the crew doesn't like something, we don't go.
 
Bonanzaman said:
I am the Captain now!

I have been a King Air 350 FO for the last year and a half and was just hired as a c90 captain for an air ambulance company. I would really appreciate stories and experiences from those in the air ambo world, especially those flying similar equipment. Any other advice is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...
I did air ambulance in a Citation Ultra...
Buy one of these..
upload_2016-4-20_17-50-50.jpeg
 
Read my sig. Prepare to wait forever for the phone call to go, only to watch the helos fly in the nice daytime weather. You will fly in a lot of crap weather, in the middle of the night, with older equipment, by yourself. When the temp/dew point spread reaches around 2* spread (helos start turning down flights) around 2am, which coincidently will be the time you will be called. I had waaaay more night time flying than daytime. Remember, the door is only so wide, and no matter what the company says, you cannot fit anyone over 400lbs through that door. (You'll get that call a lot.) That being said, your (mine were at least) dispatchers have no clue or formal training in aviation weather. They are only medical dispatch,so when they are being "pushy", stand your ground. Hospitals will shop around for whomever can get that patient out the fastest and will push your dispatch to make quick calls. Make a note of the places you go, with the FBO door codes so you don't have to sleep in the plane at night when you're waiting on your crew to return, it gets hot and muggy and isn't that comfortable.
 
hotice said:
The most important thing to know when flying air ambulance is to build a good relationship with the and crew. Keep them happy. Their life is in your hands. They are A or have red personalities. You need to be confident in your decisions. They want to know what is going on with wx and stuff. If they are uncomfortable about something. Take it serious and resolve their concerns. Here we have a saying "3 to go and 1 to say no." If one of the members of the crew doesn't like something, we don't go.
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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.
 
bkey79 said:
Read my sig. Prepare to wait forever for the phone call to go, only to watch the helos fly in the nice daytime weather. You will fly in a lot of crap weather, in the middle of the night, with older equipment, by yourself. When the temp/dew point spread reaches around 2* spread (helos start turning down flights) around 2am, which coincidently will be the time you will be called. I had waaaay more night time flying than daytime. Remember, the door is only so wide, and no matter what the company says, you cannot fit anyone over 400lbs through that door. (You'll get that call a lot.) That being said, your (mine were at least) dispatchers have no clue or formal training in aviation weather. They are only medical dispatch,so when they are being "pushy", stand your ground. Hospitals will shop around for whomever can get that patient out the fastest and will push your dispatch to make quick calls. Make a note of the places you go, with the FBO door codes so you don't have to sleep in the plane at night when you're waiting on your crew to return, it gets hot and muggy and isn't that comfortable.
Click to expand...

Thank you for commenting. I just started my first night shift last night. Went to bed around midnight and got the call at 3. It was definitely an awesome learning experience going from a peaceful slumber to a go/no-go decision followed by night IFR and a couple approaches. This was very different from the average day at my last job, it's more challenging but I definitely feel like I'm going to learn more over the next couple of months than I have in the last year. I am definitely in older equipment.

So far I've lucked out with the dispatchers I've dealt with. There's been zero pressure and last night was a simple, "Hey I just wanted to see if you could accept this flight."
 
Bonanzaman said:
Thank you for commenting. I just started my first night shift last night. Went to bed around midnight and got the call at 3. It was definitely an awesome learning experience going from a peaceful slumber to a go/no-go decision followed by night IFR and a couple approaches. This was very different from the average day at my last job, it's more challenging but I definitely feel like I'm going to learn more over the next couple of months than I have in the last year. I am definitely in older equipment.

So far I've lucked out with the dispatchers I've dealt with. There's been zero pressure and last night was a simple, "Hey I just wanted to see if you could accept this flight."
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Ask away anytime. I just left Eaglemed a couple months ago, was based in San Marcos. Our dispatchers were never pushy, but we sometimes had to justify why we were turning a flight down. I learned more about flying in that short time I was there than just about any other place combined. Scared myself a few times, but wouldn't trade any of that time for anything. You'll end up learning what that little C90 is (ans isn't) capable of! Luckily we usually had newer C90Bs running in our rotation.
 
Bonanzaman said:
Thank you for commenting. I just started my first night shift last night. Went to bed around midnight and got the call at 3. It was definitely an awesome learning experience going from a peaceful slumber to a go/no-go decision followed by night IFR and a couple approaches. This was very different from the average day at my last job, it's more challenging but I definitely feel like I'm going to learn more over the next couple of months than I have in the last year. I am definitely in older equipment."
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That sums it up.
 
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