Agree Gomer,
The accident rate in the US has a surprising ripple effect through HEMS world wide, particularly amongst the general public, and even more specifically amongst the medical fraternity. I understand the prevalence of commercial operations, but I am putting across the idea that their customer - the medical professionals that get on board the helicopters - are the ones that will impact: not the federal government, and not us as a group of peers. We are too busy competing!
That is the experience in one of the states of Australia - Queensland: the paramedic union drove the up spec to twin engine IFR. The industry are still arguing that the job can be done in a Longranger and the regulators are not even seeing a risk. Such experiences are what has prompted me to suggest to you guys an avenue for influencing equipment and spec levels that does not rely on the federal government regulations, nor competitive pressures to keep it cheap. You should be concerned in the States with the momentum from that very same customer to stymie the use of HEMS. Get in first and suggest the standards to them: better to give them risk mitigation strategies like IFR, Twins, etc, etc than the current risk mitigation they are considering (stop night HEMS, restrict day HEMS).
Food for your thought.
PS: thanks Senior Pilot for the restoration
