Difficult night

Aztec Driver

Line Up and Wait
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Bryon
Was called out on Thursday night for a multiple leg surgical team flight. As is usually the case, the times and locations kept changing. I had worked my "real" job all day and was relaxing at home in the early evening when the call came in. They couldn't tell us exactly when, and the plane needed fueled and readied, so I just headed for the airport and got things ready and waited...and waited...

At 2330, they said probably about two hours and the departure was now SBY, since GED was too low to get in. So, at around 0130, I leave for SBY. Upon landing I learned that it will not be until 0245. Oh well, I can just rest here until they get here.

Apparently, a person passed away and they were "harvesting" multiple organs and transporting them all to several different places. A
Lear jet was sitting there, waiting for the heart and accompanying surgical team to take them to PHL. I was waiting for the lungs and the accompanying person, also to transport to PHL. Then I was to return to SBY to pick up another organ and transport it to IPT. At least, that was the plan.

Just before the Lear pilot left, he said, "oh, you have the lady who can't stand prop planes, good luck with that." Great, another scared doctor on the plane. The last one wanted to get out immediately after takeoff.

Along about 0345, the ambulance arrives, and out pops a woman looking around. When she sees the plane she has to get in, she screams and curses that "she cannot fly in one of those little prop planes, they can't even see in this weather." She gets on her cell phone and starts screaming at whoever would listen, not making a move to enter the plane. The ambulance techs just sit there wondering what to do with the cooler chest and the other stuff. After a while I just get everything loaded up and she finally gets aboard.

I attempt to give her the preflight briefing, but she is too busy yelling at her phone. She says "these planes can't fly in this weather, it's not a safe airplane, it's too small, it can't fit the cooler chest, I hope it crashes so my family can sue everybody...yada yada yada..." I simply told her that if it weren't a safe plane, I would not be flying in it, and I will do everything in my power to make certain it doesn't crash. She reiterated the "I hope we crash" phrase again. Wow, the Lear pilots weren't kidding.

I give her a smooth and uneventful flight to PHL. On approach, The Lear pilots came up on frequency saying, "Wow, you managed to get her on the plane." That was truly comical. She disembarks and pretty much disappears. A call came in while I was in the FBO for me from the coordinator of the flight apologizing for the lady. Apparently he had already heard from her supervisor, who, I am told, told her she certainly had a choice. She could get on the plane or she was fired. Vindication, yes.

Back to SBY to pick up the last container. I land, taxi back and meet the same ambulance drivers, who were really wondering how the flight went. After picking up the package I taxiied to the hold short line. Just s I stopped the airplane shuddered. I thought, "that did not feel right." I prepared for takeoff, and then taxiied forward a little and immediately knew what was wrong. Dang it, flat tire. Great, what a pleasant day this has been.

Got my boss to fly down with a tire and mechanic and take the container to its destination and we proceed to repair the tire and head home in the now spotty moderate to heavy rain, as we had taken just enough time for the front to come upon us.

Managed to get home around 1000 and do a little more work in the real job until finally getting to bed again around 1400. The few catnaps here and there kept me going. That, and the fact that I am always awake and alert when flying.
 
Nice work.

That threaten to sue BS might have made me cancel or kick her out. Why was she needed? It's not like an organ needs medical attention.... Does it?


-Jim
 
That was a tough day, this Bud is for you!

Remember when John Wayne would just ***** slap hysterical women? :lol: You don't see that in the movies anymore.
 
Wow man, kudos to you man, I was flying out of KUNV that night at around 2300 local, and the weather was crappier than I care to mention, ceiling of 200' and 1/4 vis. I hope the weather wasn't that bad over in delaware and philly. If it was, god bless ya, man!
 
I hope your "real job" is sleep-testing mattresses.

dtuuri
 
Nice work.

That threaten to sue BS might have made me cancel or kick her out. Why was she needed? It's not like an organ needs medical attention.... Does it?

As I understand it, the team that harvests the organs goes with them to install them in the new body.

Actually, I'm surprised you got a call for that. I thought all the contracts for those were jets. Sounds like a not fun trip.
 
Depends which organ it is. Oddly enough, a heart, as important as it is, just gets dumped in a picnic cooler. Things like kidneys, etc.. require more elaborate preservative members during transport.

The key primarily in a lot of these transports is to start the recipients operation in a proper schedule for the arrival of the new organ.
 
Sounds like that doctor watched too much Grey's Anatomy!
 
Makes me glad I fly for pleasure and not work.

My dad was a trainman for 33 years. Started as a brakeman, finished as a conductor. Virtually all freight service. Riding trains seems like fun until you have to put a boxcar back on the tracks. At night. In the snow.
 
I hope once you were gear up she had settled down. I'd talk with her supervisor and tell him what she said about hoping to crash so she could sue. Granted when people are stressed they might say extravagant things but that choice of words is telling about her personality and I sure would want her to have a serious come to Jesus talk before she got back on my plane.

A quick snap out of it slap sounds appropos
 
Sounds like a job very well done. Shoulda taken your hands off the controls and told her "your airplane........I thought you wanted to crash, no!?" Wait...guess you can't do that in a professional setting :)
 
Thanks for taking the time to tell the story. You must have nerves of steel and no need for sleep!
 
Well done man...nothing like a difficult pax to boot...I'd say after that behavior, she deserves to be "fired" as a customer
 
Actually, I'm surprised you got a call for that. I thought all the contracts for those were jets. Sounds like a not fun trip.

Not always. Organs for transplant (live organs) are very time sensitive. Given the chance we try to perform those cases in the same hospital. i.e Donor and recipient in the same hospital.

Hearts are the most time sensitive. After crossclamp, we have 4 hours for reperfusion. If we are faced with transporting the organ, we typically fly it to the airport via lifeflight, or ground transport via ambulance and get it onto a jet ASAP simply because speed=time.

Most organs are one wet ice and placed in several layers of containers before being placed into portable igloo coolers.

Kidneys require being placed into "kidney pumps" to prolong function. These pumps, called beans since they do have some resemblance to kidney beans, keep the kidney viable for several days. Because of this we can send a kidney to anywhere a kidney is needed in the country. A team member travels with the bean at all times to ensure the pumps are functioning correctly. These are mostly ground transported in company SUVs. However, we do fly these as well if we need to go out of state.

We also harvest tissue often used in elective surgery. These are most often tendons, bone and skin. We have a small window, often 15 hours or less after "last time known alive" to harvest these tissues. In cases like these we may also take the heart, but not for live placement. The heart will be harvested for the valves. These valves can be used for transplant at a much later date after they have been properly processed. That processing is done in a lab. We have 72 hours after "last know time alive" to have the heart at the lab for valve harvest and processing.

In such cases it is not uncommon to ship the heart via ground (FedEx), or if time is an issue and the 72 hour window is tight, we may hire a driver to drive it across the state to the lab. Often a member of the harvest team may choose to drive the heart personally.

When my team goes out for a recovery it may take up to 8 hours in the OR to complete the harvest. It is not uncommon to have several back to back cases at opposite ends of the state. I tell my new members to not put themselves on the schedule for more days than they are able to stay awake, because it will happen.

Most of us have other day jobs. The vast majority of us do this work for very personal reasons.
 
I hope once you were gear up she had settled down. I'd talk with her supervisor and tell him what she said about hoping to crash so she could sue. Granted when people are stressed they might say extravagant things but that choice of words is telling about her personality and I sure would want her to have a serious come to Jesus talk before she got back on my plane.

A quick snap out of it slap sounds appropos

It sounds like she got some of that, but if there was a way of making it go back up the food chain in a manner that doesn't risk not getting the contract again, I agree it would be worthwhile. I've never had a passenger that bad, but in the kind of flying I do I also have the luxury of telling anyone I don't like to **** off.

Sounds like a job very well done. Shoulda taken your hands off the controls and told her "your airplane........I thought you wanted to crash, no!?" Wait...guess you can't do that in a professional setting :)

In this situation, I think Bryon did exactly what he should have. Acted professional and made sure that she had no reason for complaint that was even halfway legitimate. Given the nature of what's going on and the fact that it was a charter, it is best to be professional at all times.

There are certain situations where you can mess with the passengers when they get rude, but you have to know who you're dealing with and the circumstances. For example, my wife was once flying some oil workers off-shore (they were flying with her company, and had no say in the matter whatsoever). One worker looked at her and said "I ain't never flown with a girl pilot before." Her response "Well at least I won't be afraid to stop and ask for directions."

As luck would have it, they had to make an unscheduled stop at another rig to pick up some people. So she left the co-pilot up front, and went back to guide the passengers in. In doing so, she tapped the worker and whispered to him "I'll be right back after I find out where we are and which way to where we're going."

:D

Not always. Organs for transplant (live organs) are very time sensitive. Given the chance we try to perform those cases in the same hospital. i.e Donor and recipient in the same hospital.

Hearts are the most time sensitive. After crossclamp, we have 4 hours for reperfusion. If we are faced with transporting the organ, we typically fly it to the airport via lifeflight, or ground transport via ambulance and get it onto a jet ASAP simply because speed=time.

Most organs are one wet ice and placed in several layers of containers before being placed into portable igloo coolers.

Kidneys require being placed into "kidney pumps" to prolong function. These pumps, called beans since they do have some resemblance to kidney beans, keep the kidney viable for several days. Because of this we can send a kidney to anywhere a kidney is needed in the country. A team member travels with the bean at all times to ensure the pumps are functioning correctly. These are mostly ground transported in company SUVs. However, we do fly these as well if we need to go out of state.

We also harvest tissue often used in elective surgery. These are most often tendons, bone and skin. We have a small window, often 15 hours or less after "last time known alive" to harvest these tissues. In cases like these we may also take the heart, but not for live placement. The heart will be harvested for the valves. These valves can be used for transplant at a much later date after they have been properly processed. That processing is done in a lab. We have 72 hours after "last know time alive" to have the heart at the lab for valve harvest and processing.

In such cases it is not uncommon to ship the heart via ground (FedEx), or if time is an issue and the 72 hour window is tight, we may hire a driver to drive it across the state to the lab. Often a member of the harvest team may choose to drive the heart personally.

When my team goes out for a recovery it may take up to 8 hours in the OR to complete the harvest. It is not uncommon to have several back to back cases at opposite ends of the state. I tell my new members to not put themselves on the schedule for more days than they are able to stay awake, because it will happen.

Most of us have other day jobs. The vast majority of us do this work for very personal reasons.

Allen, thank you for that detailed summary. I had no idea the details of what went into organ transplants and the time requirements involved. That makes sense now that you explain it. In reality, the difference between a Lear and an Aerostar from Maryland to PHL is only a few minutes, but I didn't know how sensitive those minutes were or were not.

Flying organs is something I've wanted to do since I started flying. I pretty much figured that flying pistons it was outside of the realm of possibility, but might be worth another look.
 
Flying organs is something I've wanted to do since I started flying. I pretty much figured that flying pistons it was outside of the realm of possibility, but might be worth another look.

You are living the dream. The company uses a couple of vendors for our flight needs. Most often it has more to do with seating capacity. We fly the bulk of the surgical team in to do the harvest. If time allows, we try to arrange for the organs and recipients to be geographically close. Often times if faster to fly a heart by lifeflight direct from one hospital to the other and bypass the ground/airport leg.

Keep at it. And I am sorry you had to deal with the drama queen. That sort of BS is not tolerated on my team. Well handled on your part.
 
Congrats to the OP for their dedication to saving another human life...:yes::yes:..

Now................... If both organs were going to the same airport... Why didn't the main dispatcher just send a bigger plane to carry both organs and transplant teams ????:dunno::dunno:..
 
Now................... If both organs were going to the same airport... Why didn't the main dispatcher just send a bigger plane to carry both organs and transplant teams

That I cannot help you with. I do not deal with that part of the process.
 
I think that with any dream job, we have to face occasional nightmares. Glad you didn't lose your cool. I would have struggled with that.

Keep up the good work.
 
You are living the dream. The company uses a couple of vendors for our flight needs. Most often it has more to do with seating capacity. We fly the bulk of the surgical team in to do the harvest. If time allows, we try to arrange for the organs and recipients to be geographically close. Often times if faster to fly a heart by lifeflight direct from one hospital to the other and bypass the ground/airport leg.

Keep at it. And I am sorry you had to deal with the drama queen. That sort of BS is not tolerated on my team. Well handled on your part.

Was Bryon, not me. I'm just the wanna-be organ pilot. :)
 
I think that with any dream job, we have to face occasional nightmares. Glad you didn't lose your cool. I would have struggled with that.

Keep up the good work.

I would have gone all Harrison Ford and been like "Get off my plane"

And then terrorist punch the annoying doctor into the night sky - also like Harrison Ford.
 
What is the safety record or light piston twins in part 135 service ?

While the behavior of this pax was unacceptable, she was correct on the facts. The company I work for doesn't allow pax on personal aircraft or part. 135 in anything below twin turboprop (they rather have us drive 12hrs cumulatively than having one of us in a Seneca for 3hrs flight time, go figure).
 
What is the safety record or light piston twins in part 135 service ?

While the behavior of this pax was unacceptable, she was correct on the facts. The company I work for doesn't allow pax on personal aircraft or part. 135 in anything below twin turboprop (they rather have us drive 12hrs cumulatively than having one of us in a Seneca for 3hrs flight time, go figure).

When you get to 135 service, the safety record is actually quite good, even for piston aircraft. There's not a huge delta between pistons and turboprops. I forget the exact numbers, but I was looking at the data last week. Basically once you get out of private flights the safety jumps dramatically.

It's not surprising that overall 135 is good, even for pistons. Since the least reliable part of any plane is the pilot and 135 regs ensure the pilot is at least getting more training, you're well ahead. The maintenance side is debateable, but theoretically a 135 plane should be better maintained.

Either way, she was out of line. Her job involves flying on aircraft. If she doesn't like it, she should find a new job.

I would have gone all Harrison Ford and been like "Get off my plane"

And then terrorist punch the annoying doctor into the night sky - also like Harrison Ford.

I realize you're joking, but realize that in 135 service that is a really bad move for future employment.
 
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What is the safety record or light piston twins in part 135 service ?

While the behavior of this pax was unacceptable, she was correct on the facts. The company I work for doesn't allow pax on personal aircraft or part. 135 in anything below twin turboprop (they rather have us drive 12hrs cumulatively than having one of us in a Seneca for 3hrs flight time, go figure).

Your company deals from a position of profound ignorance (on this issue). I hope it is not pervasive in the operation!
 
Seems like she should have know that flying in airplanes was part of her job description...

I've never had anyone make a scene like that although I had a passenger get on then get off saying she didn't think she could do it. It was the mother of a child who was being transported a a patient. I was a little puzzled that the mom couldn't even shake her fear enough to ride along with her kid, but I guess some people have a pretty strong phobia. The med crew was happy she got off. They didn't want to have to deal with her if she panicked during the flight.
 
When you get to 135 service, the safety record is actually quite good, even for piston aircraft.

Yup, it's only 3 times the risk of fatality (0.5/100k) than a jet operation (0.14/100k). That's damn near perfect.

There's not a huge delta between pistons and turboprops.

They are pretty similar, with pistons actually coming out ahead according to the 2004-2007 data appended.

Interestingly, this data is all available in the NTSB raw data but doesn't get reported out as such by the NTSB.

It's not surprising that overall 135 is good, even for pistons. Since the least reliable part of any plane is the pilot and 135 regs ensure the pilot is at least getting more training, you're well ahead. The maintenance side is debateable, but theoretically a 135 plane should be better maintained.

135 does pretty well on the pilot side, a sizeable share (25% or so) is mechanical failure. This is very different from all other areas of GA, particularly 'personal flying' where is pretty lopsided towards pilot causes.

Either way, she was out of line. Her job involves flying on aircraft. If she doesn't like it, she should find a new job.

Mh, no.

I can completely see this from the other side. The work in transplant comes with a number of occupational risks, the biggest one is that of flying in small aircraft at all hours of day or night. Anyone who works in transplant (or medevac) knew people who got hurt or died in accidents related to the organ transports. Most of this dates back to the earlier days when hospitals did a lot of the transport in-house based on the 'doesn't Bill have a plane' concept. With most of transplant and fixed-wing ems having moved to part 135, things have gotten more standardized and safer, but still, relative to sitting on your porch having a cup of tea at 11pm (which would be the alternative to what she was asked to do), flying in little planes is dangerous. As Allen pointed out, doing transplant procurement is not something you do to get rich. If you made your participation in those flights contingent on them being performed in jets, and this is the second time the cheapskate coordinator has put you into one of those little propeller death-traps with only one pilot, you have every right to be livid. You are now in a situation that leaves no good alternatives. Refuse to get on on board and harm a recipient, get on board and potentially leave your kids without a mom. Now, from what was described she sounds like a piece of work, but I can't say that I haven't yelled at a person or two when it was necessary.

Btw. Georgetown,DE was mentioned as the originating point for this trip. From Georgetown to a place like HUP in downtown philly is 112 statute miles on the road. Googlemaps gives me 2hrs1min door-door. In a vehicle with emergency lights, like the local FDs command suburban, it is probably an hour 45. I am not sure that fixed-wing is much of a gain when looked at door-door. Helicopter would probably be the fastest, (but much more expensive) on that run.
 

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Mh, no.

I can completely see this from the other side. The work in transplant comes with a number of occupational risks, the biggest one is that of flying in small aircraft at all hours of day or night. Anyone who works in transplant (or medevac) knew people who got hurt or died in accidents related to the organ transports. Most of this dates back to the earlier days when hospitals did a lot of the transport in-house based on the 'doesn't Bill have a plane' concept. With most of transplant and fixed-wing ems having moved to part 135, things have gotten more standardized and safer, but still, relative to sitting on your porch having a cup of tea at 11pm (which would be the alternative to what she was asked to do), flying in little planes is dangerous. As Allen pointed out, doing transplant procurement is not something you do to get rich. If you made your participation in those flights contingent on them being performed in jets, and this is the second time the cheapskate coordinator has put you into one of those little propeller death-traps with only one pilot, you have every right to be livid. You are now in a situation that leaves no good alternatives. Refuse to get on on board and harm a recipient, get on board and potentially leave your kids without a mom. Now, from what was described she sounds like a piece of work, but I can't say that I haven't yelled at a person or two when it was necessary.

Personally I don't care that she doesn't like it. It is still part of the job. If she doesn't like the job her coordinator does she can complain to the appropriate parties that they should change it. I understand a number of people don't like flying in small planes, but if that's the case they should structure their lives so they don't have to.

I do understand that she doesn't do it to get rich, but one needs to take this into account and decide whether they're willing to deal with the risks or not.

On my Canada veterinarian trips I've had a few people who expressed concern to the manager. Her response to them is "Grow a pair and deal with it." I also answer any safety questions in a professional manner and give them the best flight I know how. If they decide they don't want to go, they can always decide not to.
 
Ted, you don't want to do organ flying. It's worse than freight-doggin. It's freight doggin under impossible deadlines with all sorts of eople beeping you.

It's like doing Emergency Room call and NOTHING ELSE. NONE of the good stuff.
 
Would it be inaccurate or overly ironic to point out to the complaining passenger the transplant surgery being supported by the flight likely has a less desirable mortality rate than the flight?

I don't know if it's true, but would be an interesting fact to point out if so. I do realize they are totally unrelated comparisons other than the outcome of either can be death, but I'm sure such a statement would get their attention :)
 
Was called out on Thursday night for a multiple leg surgical team flight. ... I had worked my "real" job all day ...

Managed to get home around 1000 and do a little more work in the real job until finally getting to bed again around 1400. The few catnaps here and there kept me going. That, and the fact that I am always awake and alert when flying.
This doesn't sound like a legal operation, let alone a safe one. What time did (do?) your scheduled rest period(s) begin? You were working a "real" job during it?

dtuuri
 
This doesn't sound like a legal operation, let alone a safe one. What time did (do?) your scheduled rest period(s) begin? You were working a "real" job during it?
Pretty sure his "real" job is not with the 135 operator. The "rest" would have been the 10 hour period before he got called when he wasn't obligated to the 135 operator. This is a drawback of being on-demand. You could go days without having a flight but then the call comes at 10 pm when you have been up all day but technically "resting".
 
Pretty sure his "real" job is not with the 135 operator. The "rest" would have been the 10 hour period before he got called when he wasn't obligated to the 135 operator. This is a drawback of being on-demand. You could go days without having a flight but then the call comes at 10 pm when you have been up all day but technically "resting".
I know that's a commonly accepted practice, but it's absurd. The only way to be rested is to, well, rest. Working isn't rest. Neither is being awake most of the period. The OP might think he's "always alert when flying", but I know different. He needs real rest.

dtuuri
 
I know that's a commonly accepted practice, but it's absurd. The only way to be rested is to, well, rest. Working isn't rest. Neither is being awake most of the period. The OP might think he's "always alert when flying", but I know different. He needs real rest.
Tell me how you're going to rest in advance of something you don't know is going to happen at that time.
 
Tell me how you're going to rest in advance of something you don't know is going to happen at that time.
Easy. Schedule it for the hours you want to cover. You don't have to cover 24/7 with one pilot.

dtuuri
 
Easy. Schedule it for the hours you want to cover. You don't have to cover 24/7 with one pilot.
Even if you did it that way you can't force the pilot to sleep when off duty. You also need to double your staff which companies aren't going to do voluntarily unless forced by regulation. There is controversy about this in the 135 world which I am not going to get into but the fact is that it is legal as it stands.
 
Even if you did it that way you can't force the pilot to sleep when off duty.
You can force them to rest, i.e., not work.

You also need to double your staff which companies aren't going to do voluntarily unless forced by regulation.
Doubling isn't enough for 24/7 ops.

There is controversy about this in the 135 world which I am not going to get into but the fact is that it is legal as it stands.
FAR135.267(d) Each assignment under paragraph (b) of this section must provide for at least 10 consecutive hours of rest during the 24-hour period that precedes the planned completion time of the assignment.​
If you don't schedule it, you can't be reasonably assured it will occur. Just common sense.

dtuuri
 
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