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Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Future Flight Crew...



Meet Elizabeth Lawson, who will someday perform that procedure in the air.. Welcome to the show Elizabeth, we are glad you are here...

New Bill For EMS...

Click here to access...

Wounded War Veteran Becomes Medevac Pilot...

This Is A Wonderful Story. I Salute You Sir (click here)

For the men and women who still bear the wounds of war, it can be a rough road back to civilian life. "CBS This Morning" contributor Lee Woodruff reports on one Iraq War veteran who found his way.

A Visit with MedFlight Of Ohio.. by Matt Echelberry at limaohio.com

“We care for each other here. You’re here as much as you’re at home,” Woody Shubert commented. He is a paramedic who has been working in the air transport business for three decades, and with MedFlight since the company started in 1995.



Click here for the story...


Tuesday, May 27, 2014

Hard Landing for West Michigan AirCare...


No known injuries thankfully. The report references landing gear.

Bent helicopters can be fixed...

To read more click here.

Monday, May 26, 2014

For Memorial Day. A Reposting of "Lunch Date."

It’s 60 degrees in Kabul………
If you’ve flown aircraft in combat you know there’s nothing like it.  
There’s no training that can prepare you for it psychologically and physically, 
there’s nothing an IP can tell you or a vet can pass along in a war story that 
prepares you for the first time the rounds hit the aircraft or the corkscrew 
comes your way.  As much as we know this, we know we have it easy, as long 
as the motors still work we can leave, but the guys on the ground don’t always 
have that option. 
There are a lot of guys and gals on the ground right now a long way from the 
barbecue, for them and for all those who have gone before them a 
Memorial Day salute and thanks…..
Le pas requosta (Courtesy "In on 2")


He flew back into that dark hell of dust and dirt 

and blood.

Lunch Date

It is easy to forget what is going on "over there" as we all grind through these
"tough economic times" and worry about the future of health care or our job or whatever.

A couple of weeks ago, I had lunch 3 other 160th Flight Leads. One currently serving,
three retired. I work for EMS brand Y (as in Why did they do That?). Another fellow
just took a job with Hermann in Houston. Yet another fellow is going to be a missionary
in a foreign land. The active duty guy wants to work in our area when he retires, and
hence keeps the communication open. So we have lunch when he is stateside.

So we are sitting there at the Macaroni Grill on a regular day when I ask him about a
recent mission in which his chalk two aircraft crashed on departure from a "warm"
landing zone. The gist - people were shooting and they were leaving and there was
no support anywhere nearby. The zone was typically dusty as all get out, and a 47
really pumps it up. On departure chalk two crashed. Americans died. My buddy in the
lead aircraft had to make a decision.

Leave or land.

He says at the lunch table, "I had to go back and look for survivors, any man here would
have done the same."
I appreciate his faith but can't help wondering how I would have acted. In my nine years
in the seat, I did trash one perfectly good MH-47 under fire, but never had to make a
decision like that. After 12 years flying in the "real world" I am also more cynical, more
jaded, more aware that it's really all about money here in the U S of A.

He flew back into that dark hell of dust and dirt and blood. They trust the the velocity
vector and the acceleration cursor more now-days than we did when I did it. He landed
on his system, and did the right thing. And found out the bad news.

Apparently the military isn't quite so generous with awards these days. For what he and
his crew did, I would recommend the Medal. He didn't die. We'll see.

So I am sitting there and I can feel the karma flowing out across the table. I am not a big
karma guy, but I don't know how else to describe it. Honor? Integrity? Do those words still
matter in our country? I sit up a little straighter. I hold my head a little higher. I feel
somehow - for just a few moments - elevated. I tell him that.

It's the only award I have to offer.


NTSB Blames Maintenance For Helicopter Crash...

"For 3 days before the accident flight, the helicopter was parked outside without its engine cover installed and was exposed to light drizzle, rain, mist, and fog. The engine inlet cover was installed the day before the accident at an unknown time. The helicopter remained outside and exposed to freezing temperatures throughout the night until 2 hours before the flight," the NTSB concluded.