Air Ambulance: Fixed Wing Question

Dan Krans

Filing Flight Plan
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dankrans
Hi all!

I had a question that hopefully an air ambulance pilot could answer. I’m looking into moving into the field and was seeing that the schedule is typically 7/7. It seems that the most common circumstance is being in some sort of local base for those 7 days on. Is it ever the case that you are able to be on standby at your own (local) home for those 7 days on waiting for a call? Thanks for reading!
 
Yeah, if you live VERY close to the airport.

When I did air ambulance we had to be within 15 minutes to the airport. But I worked for a family owned company.
 
We do the same 7/7 schedule in rotor wing and non of us are “on call” for anything during our week off. Med crews and mechs are sometimes on call but not the pilots.

I suppose it’s possible to put a pilot on call if they volunteer but I’ve never heard of anyone doing that. It really goes down the road of company policies and state mandatory overtime laws. Where I work, I’ve never been forced to work on my 7 off. I could be out of town traveling for my entire 7 off if I wanted to.
 
I think the question/answers are getting conflated. It appears what the OP is asking is can he wait for the call to launch, from his own home during his duty periods, like an airline reserve long/short call guy (United NA, field standby isn't just for regionals holla! I keed I keed). This as opposed to hanging out at the hangar, physically tethered to the airplane.

TL;DR: Post #2 gave the answer. It's gonna depend on the call-to-wheelsup requirements the company sets forth. To belabor the point, it appears that is short enough that you can't really do it from your home unless your house is literally across the street from the airport fence. I don't think any operator is going to sweat you if your house is literally across the fence, unless it's a toxic operation (of which I'm told they're plenty unfortunately, in 135).

long sidedrift:

Doing the cursory search when I was looking into fw-EMS for a post mil career, it appears most operators either require you to navel-gaze at the hangar all 12 hours on, or they provide a crackhouse close enough to the airport that it satisfies the launch callout window. This isn't the airlines sitting short-call (usually 2-hour callout), it's EMS. Airplane is cocked-on at the start of the shift and you're launching within XX minutes. I don't personally understand why fixed wing has to be treated like alert aircraft (I'd figure RW is where that makes more sense given the patient condition), but it is what it is.

Some outfits provide housing accommodations for your week on, depending on how hard it is to staff the location in question. As you probably already know, the snag with fixed wing EMS is, the locations are not desirable in general. That's what ruined it for me with the weef. Big trauma hospitals (wife's RN, refuses to work clinic/9-5 jobs, type A opportunity costs...and let me minimize this window...lol) are in nice to live areas (according to her anyways), so living in proverbial Garden City, KS ain't gonna cut it for me to have a single-pilot job (my vocational preference) where I get paid not for what I do, but for what I'm capable of doing.

The other thing you're gonna find out is that some outfits do entertain floaters (commuters) on a 14/14 basis, again when locations are undesirable/harder to fill. Seldom will you find them on a 7/7 basis since the company-paid commuting costs the incur in order to attract you, don't pencil out for them on a 7/7 basis. Talking to all the good EMS folks I've had the opportunity to seek mentorship on this topic through the years, the prevalence of commuting/floaters taking these jobs is pretty low, and usually higher turnover (usually done to get on the company, waiting for your desired base to open up, or quit if it gets too long and no movement).

At any rate, on those they obviously provide local housing for you, as a stipulated non-local. But again, at that point you're no different than a straight 135 homebasing-commuter guy gone two weeks from the house; hell 121 has you seeing you own home more often than that on a 7 day revolving basis; i.e. defeats the purpose of going EMS for the homestead in the first place, as @Velocity173 would quickly point out to you.

Most people wouldn't make housing decisions for an EMS job, just like people are told not to do the same with fickle regional airline domiciles. But if you're already established in the town regardless of the job being there, congratulations on hitting the lottery. We have a similar saying in the Guard/Reserves. Airline, guard, family: pick two because you can't have three (co-located). In reality some people do have three, and those guys hit the lotto. Then there are a cohort much more common, where they have two. Last is the poor saps that have none of the three co-located. Those are guys who usually struggle, and the ones management (lord knows we don't have 'leadership' in team DoD these days) is always having to deal with. I don't envy that latter setup. I'd personally quit flying before straining myself just to satisfy 3 separate entities' demands. It's hard enough being married to one woman, never mind having the equivalent of three....*checks siiiiiix again* :D

Good luck!
 
I think the question/answers are getting conflated. It appears what the OP is asking is can he wait for the call to launch, from his own home during his duty periods, like an airline reserve long/short call guy (United NA, field standby isn't just for regionals holla! I keed I keed). This as opposed to hanging out at the hangar, physically tethered to the airplane.

TL;DR: Post #2 gave the answer. It's gonna depend on the call-to-wheelsup requirements the company sets forth. To belabor the point, it appears that is short enough that you can't really do it from your home unless your house is literally across the street from the airport fence. I don't think any operator is going to sweat you if your house is literally across the fence, unless it's a toxic operation (of which I'm told they're plenty unfortunately, in 135).

long sidedrift:

Doing the cursory search when I was looking into fw-EMS for a post mil career, it appears most operators either require you to navel-gaze at the hangar all 12 hours on, or they provide a crackhouse close enough to the airport that it satisfies the launch callout window. This isn't the airlines sitting short-call (usually 2-hour callout), it's EMS. Airplane is cocked-on at the start of the shift and you're launching within XX minutes. I don't personally understand why fixed wing has to be treated like alert aircraft (I'd figure RW is where that makes more sense given the patient condition), but it is what it is.

Some outfits provide housing accommodations for your week on, depending on how hard it is to staff the location in question. As you probably already know, the snag with fixed wing EMS is, the locations are not desirable in general. That's what ruined it for me with the weef. Big trauma hospitals (wife's RN, refuses to work clinic/9-5 jobs, type A opportunity costs...and let me minimize this window...lol) are in nice to live areas (according to her anyways), so living in proverbial Garden City, KS ain't gonna cut it for me to have a single-pilot job (my vocational preference) where I get paid not for what I do, but for what I'm capable of doing.

The other thing you're gonna find out is that some outfits do entertain floaters (commuters) on a 14/14 basis, again when locations are undesirable/harder to fill. Seldom will you find them on a 7/7 basis since the company-paid commuting costs the incur in order to attract you, don't pencil out for them on a 7/7 basis. Talking to all the good EMS folks I've had the opportunity to seek mentorship on this topic through the years, the prevalence of commuting/floaters taking these jobs is pretty low, and usually higher turnover (usually done to get on the company, waiting for your desired base to open up, or quit if it gets too long and no movement).

At any rate, on those they obviously provide local housing for you, as a stipulated non-local. But again, at that point you're no different than a straight 135 homebasing-commuter guy gone two weeks from the house; hell 121 has you seeing you own home more often than that on a 7 day revolving basis; i.e. defeats the purpose of going EMS for the homestead in the first place, as @Velocity173 would quickly point out to you.

Most people wouldn't make housing decisions for an EMS job, just like people are told not to do the same with fickle regional airline domiciles. But if you're already established in the town regardless of the job being there, congratulations on hitting the lottery. We have a similar saying in the Guard/Reserves. Airline, guard, family: pick two because you can't have three (co-located). In reality some people do have three, and those guys hit the lotto. Then there are a cohort much more common, where they have two. Last is the poor saps that have none of the three co-located. Those are guys who usually struggle, and the ones management (lord knows we don't have 'leadership' in team DoD these days) is always having to deal with. I don't envy that latter setup. I'd personally quit flying before straining myself just to satisfy 3 separate entities' demands. It's hard enough being married to one woman, never mind having the equivalent of three....*checks siiiiiix again* :D

Good luck!

Oops, my bad. I miss read thinking they were referring to being on call on their week off. Interesting question though and one I honestly never thought about.

I suppose if you lived close enough, management would let you stay home and wait for a call. Might be some workman’s comp issues with being on the clock but not at the base. Might be some base security (keeping eye on aircraft) requirements as well. Obviously still have to come in and preflight before leaving to go home. That could be a cush setup but I also think one would really not want to be around their med crew to want to be on standby at home.
 
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Is it ever the case that you are able to be on standby at your own (local) home for those 7 days on waiting for a call?
In my experience, it depends on the operator and contract type. Where there were contractual dispatch minimums the flight crews were housed in a facility either on airport or close. Only the on schedule mechanics could remain off-premises. On fixed-wing ops that didn't have full time med-crews or other type arrangements then there were other options but subjective to the base. This info is a bit dated but with current state of the industry, this could be a positive discussion point on your part. Good luck.
 
they start reading books and 4 years later it's anarchy around here I tell ya.... shhhee- gotta go! :D

Hahaha! Now you've done it - I'm gonna have to log out and delete my browser history. Might as well nuke my laptop while I'm at it - it's the only way to be sure. ;)
 
Hahaha! Now you've done it - I'm gonna have to log out and delete my browser history. Might as well nuke my laptop while I'm at it - it's the only way to be sure. ;)
alien-sygourney-weaver.gif
 
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