What is the best/most practical Air Ambulance (light/midsize)?

[paulhoat]

Taking into account the following:

Crew working space
Patient comfort
Range
Flying hour cost
Ability to loading a stretcher

I am thinking a Lear 35/36 or a Hawker 800, are there any others like a CJ3?

I guess Learjets are most commonly modified, are there others?

Thanks

[anchorriver]

I used to fly Cessna-421 for the ops in the US. Back then, Golden Eagle was the airplane of their choice. After 2 of our planes had crashed after take-off(no serious injury involved), however, the company decided to get rid of the piston-engined Cessna and bought King Air C-90. To me, C-421 was a sweet airplane to fly over he Rockies, alone in the cockpit, fly as high as FL260 (or 290, don't even remeber now...). Sometimes it scared me a bit after turning off the boost pump at high altitude though. I miss those days in the air ambulance business. Can hardly wait for my 60th B-day to get back to the real flying.

Safe flight,

AR

[SNS3Guppy]

That really depends upon what you're trying to do, and where you're trying to do it. A King Air 200 is very hard to beat for an air ambulance platform. If you're going a long distance then a Lear is fine, but also considerably more expensive to operate and maintain, and is further unable to operate many of the places that the King Air can fly.

I've operated turbojet (including LR35), turboprop, and piston equipment on ambulance operations, including some very rural operations, and of all the aircraft I've used, the BE-200 is probably the best all-around suited to general ambulance work.

If it's a long flight or a time-critical flight such as organ harvest work, then a lear works well, though a Lear isn't the most comfortable for long distance travel, either. If you're using short or rough fields, though, the Lear isn't your best option.

[Dream Land]

We used the MU-2 Marquise and the LR jet, both very capable and good on maintenance.

[ferrydude]

Hard to beat the Westwind series in this application

[900expilot]

The PC-12.

[Stuck_in_an_ATR]

Awesome plane, capable of operating from short/unpaved fields, yet with a decent cruise speed/range, having a spacious cabin, good reliability and economy. IMHO ideal a/c for Air Ambulance. Not in Europe though, as EASA doesn't allow singles for commercial transport (w@nkers!) :eek:

The outfit I used to fly for now uses 2 Piaggio Avantis and are quite happy with them - no soft field capability, but the cruise speed is superb (for a turboprop). It all boils down how you want to use the aircraft...