Rescue 51/52

[mengcfs]

Hi all,
Can anyone tell me for sure how far our rescue choppers can fly South East of Adelaide in relation to fuel consumption.
Cheers, Adam

[JamesGar]

Working with Special Operations Team next week, so will endevour to find out. I know 51 has range of about 600km, but 52 is significantly shorter. It also depends heavily on the configurations, payload and number of occupant.

Also by December this year the contract will be changing to Australia Helicopters, from CHC. This will see 3 helicopter being run from West Beach Airport. The line up will be a BK-117 (Primarily for Sapol), a EC-130 (Bigger than current 52 but smaller than 51) Primarily for Medivac (with rear barn door strectcher access), and I think a Bell 412, same as 51 for rescue role. I think all will be winch capable.

[mattb]

The Bell 206 Longranger aircraft (52/53) based at West Beach have a range of 672 kilometres, leaving a 30 minute reserve of fuel. I guess that means they can fly about 335 kilometres and return. C.H.C. do have stocks of Jet A1 at most regional and many smaller airfileds throughout the state though.

As James mentioned, the amount of weight on board, weather conditions and also whether or not the aircrft is fitted with floats plays a significant role in determining the amount of fuel used.

[rescue5271]

Both rescue 51 / 52 come as far as Keith and that is it before they have to refuel would be nice if they could come all the way down south east would make retreivals a lot better and faster and the patient would only have to be loaded twice rather than 8 times under the present system....

[strikeathird]

Dont they have an LZ at Gambier??  Surprised they dont have a Chopper permanently there, with all the risks of injuries with the forresting etc.

Royal flying doctors could always come if there were a landing strip available.

[rescue5271]

RFDS do all transfers in the south east,but the day is coming that a chopper should be based here in the south east would make life so easy for us all. Not too sure if RFDS would land on roads up here due to trees to close hto roadway and there is always fog...

[mattb]

I Don't think the RFDS do many road landings. Generally they would only do it as a last resort out in the more remote areas (ie Nullarbor) and conditions have to be near perfect. Also someone has to go along and knock over all the white posts and signs along the length of highway to be used.

[strikeathird]

hahaha...  Would love to watch the person trying to kickover all the white posts before the plane comes barrelling in!!


Blinky, u mentione 8 times a patient needs to be transfered in the current system, why is that ?

[rescue5271]

Ok, in my area this is how it works, the patient is loaded into the ambulance,taken to the hosp unloaded,then reloaded when rfds gets here,is unload in adelaide,re loaded in adealide and the unloaded at the big flash city hospital..

Is this not to much mann handling???

[JamesGar]

Now we're dealing with a lot of health issues around the number of patient requiring transfer from region and rural areas of this state for medical treatment in Adelaide. If we were able to maintain adequate health services in rural and region SA you would have the manual handling problem of the huge number of transfers carried out by SAAS and RFDS every day.

As for basing helicopters in key regional locations around SA, would love to see that personal, but can't see it happening without significant private sector funding. It's been hard enough updating the current contract requirements between all service users of the helicopters! I'd love to see a long range aircraft (even a vertical take off, short landing rotating wing plane) at Port Augusta which could be mained with 2x intensive care paramedics and 2x rescue trained firefighter to cover the far north, west coast and flinders ranges. So you might be able to free someone from a MVA at Yalata an hour before the CFS arrives!

[oz fire]

hahaha...  Would love to watch the person trying to kickover all the white posts before the plane comes barrelling in!!

The RFDS in conjunction with government with support from the Divisional disaster committees have established a number of road strips across SA, where the posts have been placed out wider to allow landing. Coupled to that the planes that regularly service norther SA from Pt Augusta and Broken Hill often use make shift strips, roads, road sides, cleared paddocks, what ever is needed to get where the casualty is.

Interested on road landings - try the following link, page 12
http://www.flyingdoctor.org.au/Content/Attachment/rfds%20flyingdoc%20feb.pdf

Cheers

[rescue5271]

The problem here is that the chopper would have to refuel before going back to the city,Why not buy long range aircraft with large fuel tanks would make life alot easy for us all and any one that works in the medical area will tell you the faster and with out little movement you get to the bigger city hospital the better chance you have...

[strikeathird]

Chinook (Spelling)..  Would do the trick 

[rescue5271]

or a BLACKHAWK

[JamesGar]

Bigger doesn't necessarily mean better guys! Chinook and Blackhawks both have their limitations (including range) as well. Probably the most suitable helicopter for this state is the Eurocopter EC-145. This is a bigger machine than the BK117 and EC130 that is coming to SA, but a bit smaller than a Bell 412. The benefit of this aircraft is better layout options in the cabin and better loading options for a patient. Cost is a lot cheaper as well.

Any aircraft that is running around coastal SA should have autohover which basically means the pilot can put the chopper in this mode and it will stay in the exact point that you set it. A must for nightime/low light winching operation over water.

[oz fire]

James, are the EC145 the ones VIC Police and Queensland Rescue are using???

[JamesGar]

Vic Police have 2x Aerospatiale Dauphin SA 365C, twin engine aircraft which are also used for Air Ambulance Duties out of Essendon Airport, and there is Bell 412 at Ballarat or Bendigo (can't remeber which). Great helicopter, but limited distance range of only 150kms out and back. They also have a Squirel for Survailance Activities.

Qld Rescue have a number of different aircraft and providers up and down the coast. According to their website they have primarily 3 Bell 412's (Same as Rescue 51) AT Brisbane, Cairns, and Townsville. I don't know whether the Surf Life Savers use a Helicopter up there. Most of the SLSC Helicopter are the smaller BK117, which is what they use in Tasmania and NZ.

Some links below if interested

BK117 (What will end up being the primary medical and which helicopter)
http://www.eurocopter.com/site/FO/scripts/siteFO_contenu.php?lang=EN&noeu_id=40

EC145 (what I'd perfer over the BK117)
http://www.eurocopter.com/ec145/

EC130 (what is going to be the primary Police Helicopter, a very quiet machine!)
http://www.eurocopter.com/ec130/

Dauphne (Vic Police Aircraft)
http://www.eurocopter.com/site/FO/scripts/siteFO_contenu.php?arbo=2&noeu_id=87&lang=EN