Any word on how the tenders are going? Apparently the new operator is supposed to start at the end of January 2011. I hope they have ordered the aircraft.
SN

Anyone know the rough delivery time of a 200. Do they still make the Cargo door model?

What about the pc-12? Im sure the wait would be a lot less than a new King Air.

New King Air, approximately 12-18 months. Yes they still make the cargo door models.

New PC-12, not entirely sure, but pre GFC it was about 2 years.

morno

RE Aircraft:

I think there will be lifeport equipped aircraft used, until the "new" ones arrive. Are the "new" ones really new, or just low time? And how many hours is low time?

RE Crew:

Can anyone offer information here now, about what Careflight proposes to pay it's fixed wing pilots? I know some who have been "interviewed", but no information on pay?!

Ditto for what sort of hours/working conditions they intend to put in place. Some of the nurses have told me that nursing staff levels will be FAR below what they are now, so it's a fair bet that the intent may also be to reduce pilot numbers too, with a FMRS system that will be, ah, not too compatible with a life outside of work, for those who partake. :ouch:

This could of course be untrue, but again, there is no information so far, from this prospective employer - even to those who have expressed interest! :confused:

CR

Apparently Beach cant supply within 18 months, Pilatus can do the Platypus in 12. Surely common sense will prevail. A/C will be new new I reckon. No one seems to be playing around trying to source good low timers in numbers any more.

Edit: Conditions, remember they have to crew it yet. Good crew don't come cheap these days and they'll suffer if they recruit and pay poorly.

SN

The contract has allowance for airframes up to 8 yrs old.
We are dealing with NT Heath and the NT Govt.
Please tighten your seat belts and hang the heck on!

I hope the crewing is not based on selling ICUS to newbies, as has been done in N.T. by at least one company.

Want to state a rumour Bushy?
Are you talking an Aeromed operator....?

Bloody oath! :ouch:

For ICUS, you still need captains anyway... :D

I reckon I'd want MORE to supervise another low time driver in that operation, than I would to just do it myself!

CR

Any news yet boys, must be getting close to an announcement?

The RFDS National Head Office is banging on about the RFDS being one entity in the not to distant future. Perhaps they should have used the best they have from each section to tender for this gig, its a big tender providing both nurses and doctors. Right up the RFDS's alley. If they don't win this contract it says something about their resource management in my opinion. Its time to move on and create a national structure thats competitive in the future, otherwise they will be left behind.
SN

Soup Nazi
Couldn't agree more , it should be one enity but unfortunetly the ego's within management that exist with in each section won't allow this to happen.
You wouldn't be able to bring them all together and put them in the same room with each other.

The Dog:=

Everything in place for start of the six month interim contract?

A couple of interesting articles in this months Australian Aviation about the contract and who is tendering etc.

What's the bet in Thursday's Nanny Territory news, a front page story about Careflight and their "new" Kingairs saving some poor souls life with an epic flight, which will give the Nanny Territory government a warm feeling and everone lives happily ever after?

Note term "new" is used loosely and does imply that the said B200 were built in this decade.

Any truth in the rumour Careflight will attend a letter openibg along as the media are present?

A few experts on Pprune like to bag Pearl, but at least the guys got the job done over the years without too many dramas, incidents etc.

Hope the new contracter can do likewise!

What are the B200's callsign's?

Hearing that the Careflight b200's still dont have an MEL.
How do you provide a 24 hour service from remote locations without on site engineers and no MEL???
Hearing that long hours are being worked, longer than reasonable and that A/c are carrying openly groundable defects because no MEL relief.

MEL issues....
 

Well its pretty simple isn`t it - you dont fly the thing if its not MEL and thats cause it will end up being AOG!!! You dont want to be sitting down with the CASA ramp guys explaining this one do you, Hmmm???

These experienced aeromed pilots and crew can`t be replaced that easily, can they?

Of course - this is a rumour site after all.....:hmm:

No headlines in NT News about sick kiddy being saved or little old ladies being helped across the road by Careflight pilots or doctors?

So does anyone know why Careflight were chosen to caretake the show till the contract is awarded?
SN

Word is that the Nt Government have extended the decision date by a further 3 months.
I guess this will also allow them time to organise an MEL for the fleet!
apart from a faintly disbeliving comment, I'm suprised that no one is saying anythng about the potential horror story unfolding - a 24 hour medical service, operating from remote locations with no engineering support, inexperienced pilots and no MEL.

Well Wally here is available for consultancy work should they want expert advice:ok:

'PW' no body wants to say such things so we shall pray for all concerned:)


Wmk2

If there is single grain of truth in delaying the tender for 3 months, it becomes clear that Careflight is the winner. The NTG is clearly giving them a trial run.

OR ...
 

or perhaps all of the tenders received are over the NTG budget hence the NTG are on the back foot scratching heads and wondering WTF to do next!! :ugh:

Oi, Voice (G'day), how'd you become so cynical 'bout he NTG? ;) :p

soo what are the Pearl Airmed Pilots up to they gone across?

Clarrie my dear!! LOOONG time .. better Q may be not how, but perhaps when. Or even better, why?

Pindan Warrior:
Can you possibly expand a bit on this statement? "Word is" - that's pretty general, I'm quite interested to know about the bona fides of your statement (and I mean that in a reliability sense, not an honesty sense) :ok:

pa60ops
Mate (and I'm sure you know this) all over the country there are aircraft flying with defects that have not been recorded - either intentionally or otherwise. Now I'm NOT saying Careflight are doing this, but I am saying that in each and every instance it should be stopped. Hopefully (but I don't hold my breath) the "CASA ramp guys" will do that, and hopefully pilots will not participate in that sort of thing (back to my perfect world now, bye ;) )

The Voice:
Ah, I've seen this before - "The Voice" appears out of nowhere, and makes a statement of great insight, that hits it right on the head! (In my opinion anyway) :D
Perhaps others have thought it, and he's the first to post it!

CR

The NT government (actually DHF, Department of Health and Families) have written to all the bidders, advising them that there will be a further three month delay.

Extremely unlikely. So if they don't like them, do they install someone else and give them a three month trial as well?

The far more likely explanation for the delay would have to be along the lines proposed by The Voice. That is, that everybody's bids are way more than what the NTG had earmarked.

Can the NTG afford 4-5 new King Airs (or PC-12s)? No way. Given the (tiny) size of the NT economy, about 1 new turboprop would be all they could afford!

To me, it seems highly plausible that the reason for the delay up to now, (and this extension to the delay) is because the NTG is waiting for an answer from the federal government on funding assistance.

The federal government has just "changed", as we all know, and now there is an election in the wings. How else do you explain that the NTG somehow knows that this decision will take a further three months?

Some have gone across (about 3-4, I believe). The majority haven't.

Fifty
Not so sure about that one. Given we are looking at a federal election some time soon, any small swing in government in the NT could prove most advantageous to one particular operator in the arena. If this is correct, the longer this process takes the better (for them), and then we may well see who is in who's pockets and just who is touching their toes :=

DD

after following this thread for a while now I have come to the knowlegde alot of people have different opinions on everything which is what makes aviation so much fun!
The extension of the trial is probably the NTG shock at how much it actually costs to operate 4 new or revised nearly new aircraft.
Years ago when the now ex contrator to the government went in and said these aircraft are old and we highly recommend new/newer airframes with newer avionincs the NTG went we can't afford that!
What sthe next best thing????
The NT has some of the worst weather conditions in OZ a lot of unprepared strips and alot of icing conditions just have a look at the fuseales of the now defunct airframes. Aircraft get used and abused day in and day out.
the aircraft were sent in to what I recall a 'D' check but as the first a/c ate away a fair chunk of the budget and also the available down time to do all the mods the work packages were scaled down. I mean the depth of the work required was lowered, They did a good job for the time and resources given.
The biggest problem they had with the aircraft was the avionics, old wiring, and hard to get spares stuff that you just can't have sitting there all the time. Even if you had 1 sometimes you needed 4, thats just the way the game goes.
To hear the current operator doesn't even have an MEL how are they operating?
mind you aircon, pressurisation and wx are all groundable defects regardless of MEL or not.
But hey lets not forget why the contract was removed from the contractor failure to fly in and out of Katherine with a wallaby issue, how many people have hit someting of that size before?
It's not a nice feeling imagine hitting one on t/o or landing, i have seen the damage done by such an animal and larger on a king air and lets just say they both lost! The a/c does fly again but...
We all want to play with new and modern a/c and peoples passions are always great to see. It pleases me to know that the great Aussie rivalary goes far beyond the holden ford arguement!
Aeroplanes cost millions of dollars both in there standard fitout and as aeromed aircraft go in there highly modified status.
Who wants to spend millions of dollars on something that the client doesn't want to pay for.
In business they teach you many things don't over capitalise never do anything the customer doesnt want, and always try to over achieve with the resources you have. Make the customer happy but rememebr not to send yourself broke doing it.

Are you having a lend or do you truly believe this?
Serious question.

The general public misunderstands the whole situation regarding the wallaby plague.

What a lot of people don't realise is that the ex contractor's hands were tied. Their insurance company refused to cover the aircraft flown into the strip unless the Wallaby situation was resolved. :ugh:

Added to this was the flying rate was far in excess of the contracted rate. This added to the fact that the NTG would only cough up for the cheap plane option spelt disaster.

Clearly the NTG has a lot to answer for in this whole :mad:fight. But what is the best defence? offence of course, make it seem that all the problems were that of the contractor and its aircraft.:=

Fact is this is an expensive game. If they want to do it properly with a view to the long term viability and cost savings then new airframes with consecutive serial numbers are the go. You can fly them hard for at least 12 years and drag them out for a few more if need be. Not to mention in this day and age the treveling public, who are paying the bills, expect a decent level of service and quality for their money.

When you start with used airframes you invariably get differences in equipment which creates stores costs and they are half worn out before you start. Add to this the cost of finding and checking them out, forget it. New is the go.
SN

Maxgrad:
I'll see you that and raise you one!!

The general public misunderstands the whole situation regarding the wallaby plague - because they are fed sh!t by the likes of the NT News, who in turn are fed sh!t by the Government who when it comes to spin make Shane Warne look like Trevor Chappell!

Why? Read Tric's post above - it's RIGHT ON THE MONEY ('scuse the pun!) :D

CR

what's new then?
 

so, here we are, 59 days sans NT Airmed as we knew it.

What's been happening then? I'll bet it hasn't been all smooth and happy flying. I'll even bet there's a certain association that MAY just be a tad more unhappy with the present 'service', let alone the staff at some remote communities that may just want to take back some of the criticism shovelled out at former staff ..

NO decision yet I see on the lucky preferred tenderer ..

BUT - lo and behold advertising by Careflight for staff - fixed wing drivers, nurses, logistics and admin staff - all on contract now until end of June 2011 (or longer - as per the add) ..

now, a cynic would say - "There's a surprise!" :sad:

Word is that CareFlight have (again) been knocked back for their AOC variation to include Kingair by CASA and are having to fully subcontract the owners of the aircraft, Austrasian Jet, to operate the service.
That will interest local aviation companies who are still owed a lot of money from the last time Ausjet were based in Darwin.
The myriad of snippets about mishaps and people dieing is growing into a really sad tale.

Rumour network I realise..... the word I am getting from the hangar floor is that all is going incredibly well.
Perhaps the engineers are getting better versed in the art of spin these days.

Hangar? What hangar?

sorry pilot forum.....your doing things a little different,- hanger.


;)

The Careflight operation in Darwin.

baron_beeza,

There was nothing wrong with your spelling. My comment was sarcastically pointing out that there is no hangar.

We obviously have different sources. Mine says they're doing it tough.

Gove base has been without its plane for 4-5 days now (due breakdowns of other aircraft). This would *never* have happened during the Pearl years.

Hanger didn't look quite right so I had to consult the AOED.

• Hanger: a person or thing that hangs.
• Hangar: a building with extensive floor area, for housing aircraft etc.

See Clarrie.. you DID know that..
That's why you had doubts about that 'e'.. :ok:

(Some things just STAY in them ole brain cells....)