FAA Issues New Rules For EMS Helos

[MightyGem]

Found this on another forum:
New FAA Rules on Air Ambulances Will Affect All Providers - Industry News - @ JEMS.com (http://www.jems.com/article/industry-news/new-faa-rules-air-ambulances-will-affect-1)

Hopefully it will improve the accident rate.

[ShyTorque]

Huge steps in the correct direction, quite radical.

[jayteeto]

My biggest surprise is that most of those things are not in place already?????

Well done FAA, why so long??

[Gordy]

Old news and already on hold by one year:

The FAA announced on Thursday 17th that it will grant helicopter operators an extra year to comply with the first requirements on the new helicopter safety rule, commonly referred to as the HEMS rule. The official announcement will be published in the Federal Register on Monday, April 21.

Originally set to take effect on April 22, 2014, the first requirements will now not take effect until April 22, 2015. The change comes in response to industry input and will allow the FAA to develop guidance documents that will allow for an orderly implementation.

The extension only affects those parts of the rule that were to go into effect next Tuesday. All other implementation dates remain the same.

There remain some portions of the rule that require additional clarification. HAI, AAMS, and AMOA will continue to press the FAA for the needed additional information in the coming months.

[alouette3]

Most of the rules have already been implemented and some of them (like mandating a rad alt) have been there for years.So,I am not exactly sure what the changes will accomplish ,right away.
The installation of HTAWS and FDM equipment might improve safety a bit.However, at least in my company,most of the fleet is already equipped with HTAWS.The brand new helicopters coming are being received with FDM already installed,especially the ones coming out of the Airbus (Eurocopter) stable.
If the FAA was really serious about change and improving safety they would push for revised reimbursement regulation.Right now, an operator in a clapped out Bell 206 with a hand held GPS gets exactly the same amunt of money per transport as a fully IFR EC145 operator,all other things being equal.Until that changes, nothing will change as all operators are engaged in a race to the bottom.
Alt3.

[satsuma]

Quite radical? Pretty basic I'd say.

Equip their helicopters with radio altimeters

Require that pilots are tested to handle flat-light, whiteout, and brownout conditions and demonstrate competency in recovery from an inadvertent encounter with instrument meteorological conditions.

Ensure pilots identify and document the highest obstacle along the planned route before departure.

Comply with Visual Flight Rules (VFR) weather minimums.

Conduct safety briefings or training for medical personnel.

[ShyTorque]

Satsuma, look up a few accident reports and see what has been happening thus far. USA operators have been allowed to send what have been essentially VFR aircraft on night IFR missions, relying on the skills and experience of the pilots. Elsewhere in the world regulations have been in place to disallow this. These regulations go beyond IFR requirements.

[satsuma]

Yes, agreed. Interestingly I can see no obvious reference to the use of NVD. Furthermore, to see that operators need regulatory direction in such fundamentals as providing a safety brief for those on board is though, quite startling.

[tottigol]

The truth is that the FAA is in the pockets of the aeromedical operators. All attempts to improve the safety of HEMS operations are useless for as long as the profit factor is not accounted. The American EMS model is flawed because it includes the paying customer in the safety decision- making loop.
The presence of such a customer is rendered evident by the clear cost cutting measure of utilizing VFR airframes with NO artificial stabilization, flown by pilots whose IFR flying skills are almost always limited to a checkride every six months in the best case.
Ironically enough, the programs that traditionally utilized complex IFR helicopters were those where the medical structure (hospital or medical organization), contracted out to a Pt135 operator. Those programs were set under siege by the so called Community Based type of operation, where an operator set its own network of cheap single engine VFR helicopters (often flown by pilots with commensurate experience) in locations that were designed to strangle the larger "Cadillac" type of operation. As a result, even the hospital based EMS programs were either forced out of business or had to degrade to fly less expensive equipment to be able to "rake" home the business.
The FAA was never involved in limiting this type of negative competition until the loss of life reached levels of stupidity seen only in bad comedy movies, even then, the measures (and mostly the time frame) "imposed" by the feds were only palliatives set in place to placate the general public, showing that the FAA does not really care to step in this minefield or that those various "safety" committees are really just a buch of smoke screens set to allow the Yugo operations to continue in their set ways.

[Boudreaux Bob]

look up a few accident reports and see what has been happening thus far. USA operators have been allowed to send what have been essentially VFR aircraft on night IFR missions

Prove that Statement please.

Show us where that "permission" came from and cite a reference that states one can use a VFR aircraft on a Night IFR flight.

Did VFR helicopters wind up in IMC Conditions at Night....absolutely.

Did the Operators exercise proper Operational Control of their Aircraft/Pilots.... No.

Did the FAA do what it should have all along to monitor and ensure compliance with the existing Rules and Regulations.....HELL NO!

Did the FAA heed NTSB Recommendations.....HELL NO!

Did Pilot's exercise exceedingly poor judgement in far too many occasions...Absolutely.

Were the Operators and FAA far too slow in adopting NVG's....for sure.

Check the Accident Rates for the past couple of Years and see the improvement over the bad Years and remember there are two "Bad Periods" for accidents.

Most Fatal Accidents today are not Weather Related but are for other causes.

Tottigol knows of what he speaks and is dead on as to the root cause of the problems.

Satsuma might look to cleaning his own house before he gets too vocal about the USA. You folks have your own problems right now.

[satsuma]

BB

Please don't let this degenerate into a transatlantic spat. There's really no need for lashing out in that manner. My comments were merely expressing astonishment that aspects of flying such as adhering to VFR weather minima and providing safety briefs need to be reinforced by the authorities - in any country, not just the States.

[jayteeto]

BB, a little bit is lost in translation between UK and US English. When he said "allowed to", I read that as "got away with", permission was not implied. Any improvement in ANY country has to be welcomed.

[alouette3]

We all love to hate the regulator and lay the blame at their feet.However, it is not all the FAA's fault.
This nation likes to call Govt. regulation and control overreach , socialism or at worst, communism.There is always a push back from "free enterprise" when a regulator tries to introduce a new rule.This is common to all industries and more so in the aviation industry because of the dual mandate of the FAA.
The rest of the story lies in the profit motive and everything hinges on that.Low salaries, bare bones training,cheapest possible equipment,degrading benefits are all a direct result of the corporations making big bucks for their stock holders and upper executive staff.The ratio of CEO's salary to a mid level employee's salary in the rest of the world is anywhere between 1: 8 to 1:25.In the US it is 1:400.That is only possible if they keep the FAA out and make safety a low priority.
After all, that was how the West was won.
I would challenge all my fellow Americans on this board to dispute what I just said.The sad irony is that they are all probably right wing to a fault and probably think I am a communist.
So,in short ,it is the culture,not the regulator. We have met the enemy and he is us.
Rant over.
Alt3.