Medevac Fixed-Wing

[ALK2MT]

Are there any fixed-wing medevac pilots on here? Thanks.

[500and2]

everyone else must be at home sleeping......

I just started flying medevac in AK. Great for family time, no complaints so far.

If anyone is in ANC I've got plenty of spare time for coffee/lunch.

Cheers,

500and2

[Texasspilot]

im flying a King air 90 fixed wing medivac

[TaterSalad]

King Air 200 and Citation Ultra air ambulance pilot here.......watcha need?

[FlaZoomie]

Lifeguard Lear 25 and 35 driver here.

[newty]

If you guys don't mind I have a few questions. First for you 500 and 2 who are you flying for? Equipment and Times? Equip and times goes for anyone ele who will answer. I'm fling a pa31 freight job. just started have about 150 pa31 1500 tt just wondering where my future may lead and the medevac stuff looks like a very good path. For anyone who really feels up to it a relative payscale would be great information. Feel free to PM me. Thanks in advance

[Texasspilot]

Originally Posted by newty

If you guys don't mind I have a few questions. First for you 500 and 2 who are you flying for? Equipment and Times? Equip and times goes for anyone ele who will answer. I'm fling a pa31 freight job. just started have about 150 pa31 1500 tt just wondering where my future may lead and the medevac stuff looks like a very good path. For anyone who really feels up to it a relative payscale would be great information. Feel free to PM me. Thanks in advance

2000-2500 with 500 or more multi seem to be standard for KingAir 90 stuff.

Pay varies from mid 40's to 60's depending on experience from what i've seen.

My schedule is 12 or 10on 6off, lots of places are 7on 7off or even 4on 4off.

[TaterSalad]

Already mentioned the equipment for my job, though I left a few out. We've got 3 King Air 200's, a Citation V and an Ultra. I got lucky as far as times go, the chief flight instructor at my flight school was also a pilot at Medcenter. He got me an interview there at about 1500tt, and around 350 multi, 100 or so turbine multi. I'm told I was the last to get hired with times that low, and they're going to be looking closer to the 2000-2500 mark, with turbine experience from here out (very much like what Texasspilot said above). Our schedule is a bit different than his though. We work 3-5 days on (7a-7p), then have 3-5 days off, then 3 nights (7p-7a) on and repeat. I'd agree with the payscales mentioned above, depending on equipment flown. It's not the easiest job in terms of the schedule (switching nights to days and back is tough), and it's not exactly "cushy".......lots of nights spent waiting 2 hrs on the ramp while the nurses go to the hospital because it's 3am and the FBO is closed, etc. But I think it's more rewarding than dropping the boss off at HXD to play golf.

[Texasspilot]

yah i guess i should have added our schedule when on is 7-7. and we switch every time nights to days or vica-versa

[towhook]

When you are on duty are you just carrying a beeper ready to report? If so how long do you have to report? How much of your on duty time are you actually on the road?

What is a typical day like?

[Keebler]

Hey Tex,

So how are you liking the new job? How's it compare to the freight gig? I'm still finishing up the commercial ticket up in Denton. Got to fly in to Amarillo on the ice/snow last weekend. Man you can pivot a Seneca with assymetric thrust and full breaks on an icy ramp like you wouldn't believe.

[newty]

Thanks for the responses. A 7 on 7 off schedule sounds fantastic and I don't mind the nights, Texaspilot did you have turbine time to get in the kingair? I am pretty mich committed to my friegt job for about another 9 months, at the end of that commitment I should be around 2200tt and 800-900 multi with alot of actual but I have no prospects of any turbine time. Starting as the low guy at another friegt job and spending another year trying to work into the turbines doesn't sound real appealing but I guess I will do what I have to.

[Texasspilot]

I actually enjoy my new job. Theres allot of comradery *sp* between the pilots and med-crew. The freight gig was allot of fun but for different reasons. That job was fun learning how to fly and doing it all by yourself. This job seems fun because we have a purpose and everyone has a good time and really strives to do the best they can.

We actually have a base here(its the old firehouse) with four bedrooms, kitchen, living room etc.. that we stay at during our 12hours. We try and be in the air within 15 minutes of getting a call.

Our days kinda vary with how much we fly. Yesterday all i did was show up at 7...go to my room and slept till noon, cooked some lunch and played video games tell it was time to go.

Today we wen't and trained some new medcrew on the airplane.

On the days we fly allot we usually will either leave here to pick someone up in some small town and then fly them wherever they need to go. Theres usually about an hour of downtime at each stop so the medcrew can go and get the patient. After the final dropoff we'll usually go grab some food(we get per diem every patient trip to eat with) then fly home.

I've had days where the previous crew filed the flight plan while we were comin into work and we left as soon as we got there in the morning and didn't make it back tell 7 or 8 at night and other days where i haven't done a damn thing.

I kinda enjoy not knowing exactly where i'll be heading and what to expect that day.


I did have about 300hours turbine time when i got hired but it was all a year or so before i got this job. I was told one of the main reasons they liked my resume is because of my 135 freight time and that my experience with the weather and the ability to deal with changing circumstances. It was actually kinda weird to see my resume among stacks of guys with 5-10,000TT and some with previous king air time.

Keeb, i'll probably be back in dfw around the 6th...shoot me a pm around then and we'll meet up for a beer if you want. Our plane got stuck in Wichita a week ago saturday because of all the snow and ice. I think we ended up getting like 6or 7 inches up this way....makes me wish i still had my Jeep!

[Keebler]

Will do. You weren't in KAUS last night around midnight were you. I was trying to get out of there to get back to N. Texas. They were loading a patient on a Kigair over at Signature. I think it had a kangaroo on the tail. Anyhow, a beer or two sounds good. I'll get you a PM sometime next week.

[Texasspilot]

no...thats the childrens hospital of dallas.


interestingly enough called....the kangaroo crew.

[IdahoBoy]

Newty-

Just read all the threads here-thought I'd add my .02. I just got hired flying Charter/Air Ambulance. I'm about 2200/ 1000 multi and 300 Turbine(All King air time). We will fly King Air 90's and 200's. My pay will be in the mid 30's, ok for my area- not stellar but I'm relatively low-time and still need to prove myself- plus the company has to invest some training in me. Schedule will not be what most of these other guys have- We are a smaller op so lots of on-call with a few hard days off during the week. What they told me they liked about me was I could fly the airplane, My single-pilot 135 freight time (this new job is mostly single pilot flying) and my turbine time. I am one of the lowest-time pilots to be hired in quite a while- and I don't consider myself, by any means, any more than average in flying skill. I got the job because I have a basic set of skills and knowledge, more importantly, I knew someone and timing was key as well.
As far as insurance goes- It seems as if most of these operators have more leeway with their underwriters- if they have a long and GOOD track record with their insurer, they can often-times get low-timers approved.

-Hope that helps.

[Pilatapus]

New around here and just found this, so I will resurect this and add what I can. Flying a PC-12. Part 135. Some hospitals have own 135 certificate and some use a vendors like Corporate Jets (CJ Systems), Air Methods, PHI, Omniflight... hospital and vendor owned both have their plus and minuses. Work 12 hr. shifts at a hangar. Home at least 10 hours a day or night. 5 on 5 off split between days and nights. Some trading to get a certain day off. Single pilot IFR so previous freight flying was a plus. Had 0 turbine time at hire. Fly average of 30-40 hrs. a month so not a real timebuilder. Slow turnover of fixed wing pilots. I want to say around 45k to start. Good aircraft. No real questioning for turning down flight. Some places require pilots to meet CAMTS (spoken as cames)(try camts.org) minimums which I believe is 3000tt. I won't venture a guess on the other numbers. Good people to work with. Sometimes fly all shift long and sometimes do nothing, so you will have to sleep during the day occasionally. Help load and unload sometimes 20lb. kids and sometimes 400lb. persons. Occasionally will fly with a mask because of patient having a nasty respitory problem. Things get interesting shooting an approach down low to an unfamiliar airport in the middle of the night.

Sorry for all the rambling but this is how it came pouring out of my head at 0300. There are plenty of websites out there for air ambulances. Try http://www.flightweb.com/index.php and http://www.nemspa.org/index2.php
those will get you started.

[ALK2MT]

Thank you for your thread revival. I would love to get on with a medevac someday but I still have low time.

[Okie_Pilot]

Thanks for the thread guys.

I took a XC to KHOT a couple of weeks ago and seen the air medevac place on the field and got me thinking about maybe flying medevac. I'm still a long ways away, but it seems like a nice job.

A couple of questions. If you work 7-7, what happens if you get a call at 6:00 for a 2-hour flight, a 20 minute wait, and the 2 hour flight back? You were suppose to get off at 7:00 but never did till 10:30. So do you get overtime for the 3 1/2 hours? Do you still come in at 7 the next morning?

Thanks guys,
--Okie_Pilot