Wiltshire Air Ambulance more woes.
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Sorry but you’re either part of the charity, naive or a member of the public hoping their donation has not been abused. HEMS charities are riddled with self serving, greedy and sometimes fraudulent activities by board members. Wasteage, back handers, dodgy deals abound. While the pilots are amongst the highest qualified but poorest paid in Europe, on and offshore. Third party providers continue to keep wages down as do directly employing charities using the old ‘poor us’ excuses whilst spending ever increasing amounts on ‘centres of excellence’ (they can’t all be) and larger less suitable aircraft increasingly unable to land in urban confined areas. And it’s this amazing bias in spending that needs to be investigated nationwide. Which board members have their fingers in places they shouldn’t. Have ‘anonymous’ donations been used to guarantee building contracts, this would be fraud surely. Is having an aoc controlled by a board member necessary when several existing aoc’s with appropriate approvals offered to provide their assistance both in the past and recently? The cloak of charity being abused. Of course nobody dare ask any questions. How could you, we’re saving lives here. Doesn’t mean you can break laws, on numerous levels. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
Sorry but you’re either part of the charity, naive or a member of the public hoping their donation has not been abused. HEMS charities are riddled with self serving, greedy and sometimes fraudulent activities by board members. Wasteage, back handers, dodgy deals abound. While the pilots are amongst the highest qualified but poorest paid in Europe, on and offshore. Third party providers continue to keep wages down as do directly employing charities using the old ‘poor us’ excuses whilst spending ever increasing amounts on ‘centres of excellence’ (they can’t all be) and larger less suitable aircraft increasingly unable to land in urban confined areas. And it’s this amazing bias in spending that needs to be investigated nationwide. Which board members have their fingers in places they shouldn’t. Have ‘anonymous’ donations been used to guarantee building contracts, this would be fraud surely. Is having an aoc controlled by a board member necessary when several existing aoc’s with appropriate approvals offered to provide their assistance both in the past and recently? The cloak of charity being abused. Of course nobody dare ask any questions. How could you, we’re saving lives here. Doesn’t mean you can break laws, on numerous levels. Something is rotten in the state of Denmark.
The only rumbles / concerns we heard of or questioned is the Children’s AA or TheAA over recent years...as it’s been discussed here and even on BBc1 7 o clock One Show ( thousands spent on having Strictly Come Dancing judges teaching dancing to the staff of said charity outside Rugby one Xmas and one volunteer or member of public saying their methods of muscling in on fundraising could else to disaster).
cheers
They were warned and didn't listen. The CAA weren't happy about granting Heli Charter's AOC the required permissions, in fact withdrew it on occasion. A company who let everyone down running the major golf event at Sandwich, but the biggest crook in the house bailed months ago taking the Bell dealership with him. Sadly he's still sliming his way round in a 429/505 trying to blag it like he did on a PPL doing 'experience' flights for so many years.
I’m not batting for Bell ( even though one has a soft heart for their legacy Uh-1/ 204/5/212/412/Yankee) but hope sincerely it’s not going to be the end of Bell 429 as HEMS in U.K...
cheers and Happy New Year.
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While the pilots are amongst the highest qualified but poorest paid in Europe, on and offshore.
When the Offshore market recovers, prepare for a pilot exodus.
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Just like the post re Specialists continual advertising on the 2019 jobs thread. They just don’t get it. But have been told.... yet refuse to pay anything like the going rate.
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The 902 has proven itself an excellent safe & capable hems aircraft over the last decade or so, but the more space you provide the more kit/people they will add. It’s hard to go ‘back’ to a 902 once crews have got used to carrying an extra crew member and additional kit. The 429 is perhaps a marginal step up from a 207 engined 902 at best - it uses the same engines! It’s essentially a more expensive slightly larger 902. If you’re going to spend the extra money you may as well get a 145/169 and reap the real benefits of additional power and space.
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And it just gets better.....
https://www.spirefm.co.uk/news/local...pounds-a-year/
So having spanked £5m on a facility clearly not worth £5m and insisted on having own aoc, hows that process going..., now those with their hands in the till see another avenue....?
https://www.spirefm.co.uk/news/local...pounds-a-year/
So having spanked £5m on a facility clearly not worth £5m and insisted on having own aoc, hows that process going..., now those with their hands in the till see another avenue....?
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Join Date: Mar 2006
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The woes at the Wilts Air Ambulance made the front page of our local rag this week. Seems there are still problems with the AOC certification.
https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/new...g-certificate/
https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/new...air-ambulance/.
The comments make interesting reading too.
https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/new...g-certificate/
https://www.wiltshiretimes.co.uk/new...air-ambulance/.
The comments make interesting reading too.
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Join Date: Jul 2018
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Nothing surprises me anymore with this outfit. A press release back in January told us that the granting of their AOC was imminent and yet 10 months down the line it's still not happened. They trot out the same PR response everytime " We're continuing to respond with our RRV's"
I dread to think what their balance sheet is looking like, they've been funding 2 aircraft during the majority of that period and only delivering a very limited service. It'd be interesting to divde the charity's total costs with the number of incidents attended to provide a cost per incident figure - I shudder to think what that would be!!
We all know that the CAA would only resist or delay issuing an AOC if there were issues with the operation that still needed resolving - the CAA is a first class regulator and if they see fit not to issue an AOC there'll be a very good reason why.
I dread to think what their balance sheet is looking like, they've been funding 2 aircraft during the majority of that period and only delivering a very limited service. It'd be interesting to divde the charity's total costs with the number of incidents attended to provide a cost per incident figure - I shudder to think what that would be!!
We all know that the CAA would only resist or delay issuing an AOC if there were issues with the operation that still needed resolving - the CAA is a first class regulator and if they see fit not to issue an AOC there'll be a very good reason why.
As a (small) supporter of this charity I feel the CAA & the charity should issue a statement stating why the AOC remains delayed, as stated (I am in the aviation business) there must be problems.
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I know it's a few months old, but this report, especially paragraph 4, if true doesn't cover the charity in glory. The Tail Rotor incident mentioned here is currently the subject of an AAIB investigation.
https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/wilt...five-weeks-on/
https://www.wiltshire999s.co.uk/wilt...five-weeks-on/