Any air ambulance pilots on here?

Murdoughnut · November 9th, 2007, 09:30

Air ambulance (fixed wing) is something that really interests me as a career. I like the schedule they work and I think it would be a really rewarding/interesting line of work. I know you don't build a lot of time, but I was wondering what people thought of it as a career. Anyone have any insight on this field?

Thanks!

TFaudree_ERAU · November 9th, 2007, 09:38

I know a guy that flies a Citation II (I think) on Air Ambulance flights out of Winchester, VA. I can put you in touch. Also, MedCenter Air out of CLT is a pretty reputable company. As a matter of fact, one of their pilots assisted in the development of a King Air 200 add-on for Flight Simulator. To get in touch with him, you can go over to the product discussion forum, register, and look up the username BeachAV8R.

P.S. Sorry about your baseball team's new image.

Murdoughnut · November 9th, 2007, 09:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by TFaudree_ERAU

I know a guy that flies a Citation II (I think) on Air Ambulance flights out of Winchester, VA. I can put you in touch. Also, MedCenter Air out of CLT is a pretty reputable company. As a matter of fact, one of their pilots assisted in the development of a King Air 200 add-on for Flight Simulator. To get in touch with him, you can go over to the product discussion forum, register, and look up the username BeachAV8R.

P.S. Sorry about your baseball team's new image.

Thanks man - I'll check out that site. Too bad you weren't in town a couple of months ago - I landed some sweet exec seats for a Ray's game - leather seats behind the 1B dugout, all you could eat buffet, all you could drink beer and wine. A good time was had by all.

Hope the job is still going good - post us some new pics sometime. You guys ever get authorization to go over FL290?

Cessnaflyer · November 9th, 2007, 10:23

IIRC Tatersalad here is a pilot for the company in NC. This is something I would like to do also.

jrh · November 9th, 2007, 10:29

A friend of mine from college is a King Air 200 air ambulance pilot based in the Denver area. He loves it. Of course, he used to be a captain at Great Lakes, so maybe he was just happy to get out of there, I dunno

He's a really friendly guy. Let me know if you'd like his e-mail address.

jtrain609 · November 9th, 2007, 10:35

I'd love to fly an Air Ambulance King Air around out west when I hit the minimums.

jml2992 · November 9th, 2007, 12:35

You can always check out AirMed in HNL. They seem to hire a lot of folks. No beni's though.

gomntwins · November 9th, 2007, 12:52

I know a number of air ambulance pilots who fly kingairs... doesn't sound like my thing personally, but somebody has to do it. The perks are the good pay (somewhere around 60 starting) and good schedule for them. The companys that I know of run a 7 on 7 off type of schedule with 12 hours on call for the 7 on. I'm not sure how long they spend at the airport weekly... but I know friday and saturday nights are the busiest with drunk people doing stupid things.

The bad: I've heard the stories of the things they've seen. I couldn't do it. They help load the patient and I you see a lot of screwed up stuff. Everything you can imagine you see. Horror movie types of things. Once you're in the plane you're solely in charge of flying, but the screams from the back can be quite disheartening... and when the screams stop and everything gets quiet you usually know what has happened.

It needs to be done, but I think it takes the right type of person to do it. Not for everybody from what I've heard.

Pietrantonio · November 9th, 2007, 13:05

I'm a ramp agent at Wilson Air Center CLT, and we do a lot of services for Carolina Med and their aircraft. They have two King Air B200's and two Citation Ultras. If you need anything, I'm sure I can find out some info for you. Let me know, always here to help.

Murdoughnut · November 9th, 2007, 13:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by gomntwins

I know a number of air ambulance pilots who fly kingairs... doesn't sound like my thing personally, but somebody has to do it. The perks are the good pay (somewhere around 60 starting) and good schedule for them. The companys that I know of run a 7 on 7 off type of schedule with 12 hours on call for the 7 on. I'm not sure how long they spend at the airport weekly... but I know friday and saturday nights are the busiest with drunk people doing stupid things.

The bad: I've heard the stories of the things they've seen. I couldn't do it. They help load the patient and I you see a lot of screwed up stuff. Everything you can imagine you see. Horror movie types of things. Once you're in the plane you're solely in charge of flying, but the screams from the back can be quite disheartening... and when the screams stop and everything gets quiet you usually know what has happened.

It needs to be done, but I think it takes the right type of person to do it. Not for everybody from what I've heard.

Thanks guys, I appreciate all of the help. The firefighter style schedule is what mostly attracts me to it. I would gladly trade 9-5 Mon-Fri for a week on/week off. I'm sure you do see some pretty awful stuff, though for sure.

E6BAV8R · November 9th, 2007, 14:12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Cessnaflyer

IIRC Tatersalad here is a pilot for the company in NC. This is something I would like to do also.

Yes. Tatersalad flies for MedCenter out of North Carolina on the King Air B200 and Citation.

For the King Air B200 for flight simulator that ERAU mentioned, Tater flies with the guy that helped create it (And yes, the B200 in FS is THAT good.)

scflyin · November 9th, 2007, 16:44

CMC in charlotte flies king air's and citation's. My roomie flies for them. They have something like a five day on, five day off schedule. It switches between morning and nights. Sometimes they fly a lot, sometimes they don't. I don't think they are hiring anyone right now.

Murdoughnut · November 9th, 2007, 16:52

Quote:

Originally Posted by scflyin

CMC in charlotte flies king air's and citation's. My roomie flies for them. They have something like a five day on, five day off schedule. It switches between morning and nights. Sometimes they fly a lot, sometimes they don't. I don't think they are hiring anyone right now.

I just busted 107 hours, so I'm a little ways away from looking for a job just yet

wheelsup · November 9th, 2007, 17:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by gomntwins

The bad: I've heard the stories of the things they've seen. I couldn't do it. They help load the patient and I you see a lot of screwed up stuff. Everything you can imagine you see. Horror movie types of things. Once you're in the plane you're solely in charge of flying, but the screams from the back can be quite disheartening... and when the screams stop and everything gets quiet you usually know what has happened.

I think anyone considering such a job should really read this paragraph multiple, multiple times.

Air Ambulance certainly has it's high points - job stability, pay, etc. but I talked to a fellow who used to do it, he quit for the above reasons. He was getting more and more depressed after every sortie he just couldn't handle it.

Quote:

In fact, health care professions in general show a higher than average suicide rate. This is especially true of those in emergency services, EMTs and paramedics who respond to crisis calls.

source

Just something to consider.

flywithUS · November 9th, 2007, 17:13

Are they home everynight?

Texasspilot · November 9th, 2007, 19:08

I flew airam for the almost the last year. It was a great job. VERY VERY Rewarding. Pay was decent and schedule was ok. Most places do 7on7off with 12 hour shifts. Your 12 hours is usually at the airport. Our launch time was wheels up in less than 15 minutes from the time we got the call.

King air 90 which is a cool little plane in and out of small runways always in the worst of the weather be it storms or ice or heat or cold and the chance to get to really work with a team and have a mission was great. Unfortunatly the job was 400 miles from where I wanted to live and the commute wore on me. If it was closer to home I probably wouldn't have left that job.

The airam stuff in larger cities is usually pretty mundane hospital transfer stuff though my buddy does it for a childrens hospital and he says its pretty sad when your flying these kids home to spend there last few days alive with there families. Many companies operating small kingairs will have you based in BFE. My company did probably 50 percent scene flights and some of those were really hard to look at. Especially little kids in car or farm accidents.

I never had anybody die on my plane but they have died while loading or unloading. Ocassionaly you will have to help the medics during packaging the patient and maybe bagging them or applying pressure to certain areas while loading or unloading.

Its not a time building job. My buddies probably doin 200 hours a year. I was doing about 600.

tinman · November 9th, 2007, 20:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by jtrain609

I'd love to fly an Air Ambulance King Air around out west when I hit the minimums.

But you went from AMF to RJ's?

drummerboy · November 10th, 2007, 13:44

I know lots of guys that do it. Normally schedule is good, week on week off or similar. Pay and a/c are usually pretty good as well because it's all government contracts. The on call depends on the company. Some are sit at the airport, others are on a pager but you have to be airborne in 30 minutes.

Some people really like and do it forever. Typically you will not fly a lot, instead it's lots of sitting around waiting. You will see a lot of really disturbing things and have to live by a pager. For some people this is okay, I know that I never want to have to do it.

dingo222 · May 2nd, 2008, 20:05

time to bump the thread.... there were several ppl on the thread earlier that knew of air ambulance jobs open. Anything new? I'm interested and on the east coast right now. Thanks

JayAre · May 2nd, 2008, 21:07

deleted

FSIPILOT · May 2nd, 2008, 21:41

I did it, its sweet Lifegard gets direct everywhere!

FiveO · May 3rd, 2008, 21:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by FSIPILOT

I did it, its sweet Lifegard gets direct everywhere!

Especially when you guys go hauling out of FXE.

FSIPILOT · May 3rd, 2008, 23:34

Quote:

Originally Posted by FiveO

Especially when you guys go hauling out of FXE.

From a couple of people who know! ;-) I'm a local boy, I don't have any law enforcement friends down here yet, ;-) you a Hooters wings and beers fan?

FiveO · May 3rd, 2008, 23:48

Quote:

Originally Posted by FSIPILOT

From a couple of people who know! ;-) I'm a local boy, I don't have any law enforcement friends down here yet, ;-) you a Hooters wings and beers fan?

Hahahaha. I don't have any friends flying anything bigger than a Duchess so I think we can work something out.

Local boy here too.... Deerfield Beach.

skydog · May 4th, 2008, 10:51

On his days off, a former co-worker of mine flew helicopters for the guard, flying mostly medevac stuff. One thing he said was that he did NOT get involved with what was going on in the back. He did not want to know the patient, or what the injury/sickness was. He focused solely on flying. He didn't want his aeronautical decision making to be influenced or distracted.

It makes sense. Years ago, I read an article in Flying about a crash that involved a medevac helicopter. The pilot flew in weather he shouldn't have been flying in because, as we all would be, he was concerned for the patient. I can't remember if the helicopter was actually carrying a patient at the time or if it was enroute to the patient, but the everyone on board (may have just been the pilot) was killed.

Something to think about if medevac is your interest.