HEMS at night
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: UK
Age: 71
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EMSR22,
For many years NVG was not permitted by the UK CAA for police flying. I was not directly involved, but I believe that failure of the NVG system at critical points in flight was a major issue for the CAA. They have now been reassured, but I believe that they have particular requirements relating to power supplies etc.
Initially, NVG was permitted above a minimum height. After a period of operation, the approval to use NVG then gets extended to cover landing and take-off.
If pure HEMS at night starts up in the UK, it will be interesting to see whether the CAA is able to impose "extra" requirements over and above those to be mandated by EASA. I thought the whole point of THE DIRECTIVE was to have common standards, but we will have to wait and see.
For many years NVG was not permitted by the UK CAA for police flying. I was not directly involved, but I believe that failure of the NVG system at critical points in flight was a major issue for the CAA. They have now been reassured, but I believe that they have particular requirements relating to power supplies etc.
Initially, NVG was permitted above a minimum height. After a period of operation, the approval to use NVG then gets extended to cover landing and take-off.
If pure HEMS at night starts up in the UK, it will be interesting to see whether the CAA is able to impose "extra" requirements over and above those to be mandated by EASA. I thought the whole point of THE DIRECTIVE was to have common standards, but we will have to wait and see.
For a police/hems operator to be granted night time clearance in hems mode, the CAA consider the application on its merits. Obviously with single pilot ops, the 'other' person in the left hand seat would need to be a qualified HEMS member and also the terrain over which they would be flying would come under close scrutiny before approval is granted and it is this which would prevent some operations from being cleared to function as a hems operator at night under EASA regs.
EMSR22: A night time clearance by your national CAA must/should include duplex fail safe goggles. IE: The tubes each need their own light source totally independent of each other. And in addition, the weather limits/visual refs MUST allow for total goggle failure such that they can fall back on the normal VFR limits at night. Finally, there are two zones for NVG: above and below 500'. Transit under NVG and t/o and l/o. To obtain authorisation for the latter again requires a trial period above 500' before you can apply for <500. (In the UK).
Paulosaints - ridiculous comment "NVG make no difference". Either you have forgotten to turn them on, or you are not using them properly. They TRANSFORM night ops beyond recognition.
EMSR22: A night time clearance by your national CAA must/should include duplex fail safe goggles. IE: The tubes each need their own light source totally independent of each other. And in addition, the weather limits/visual refs MUST allow for total goggle failure such that they can fall back on the normal VFR limits at night. Finally, there are two zones for NVG: above and below 500'. Transit under NVG and t/o and l/o. To obtain authorisation for the latter again requires a trial period above 500' before you can apply for <500. (In the UK).
Paulosaints - ridiculous comment "NVG make no difference". Either you have forgotten to turn them on, or you are not using them properly. They TRANSFORM night ops beyond recognition.
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Portugal
Age: 45
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ridiculous comment "NVG make no difference". Either you have forgotten to turn them on, or you are not using them properly. They TRANSFORM night ops beyond recognition
There was no single mission canceled due to the fact that no nvg's were used. Maybe i expressed myself wrong, but we dont use NVG's for night ops, so no turn on or off problems.
But i do believe that they improve the safety, and TRANSFORM night ops beyond recognition.
Cheers.
