US EMS jobs, unaided night 500h requirement?
 

Looks like many US EMS company's are raised night time requirement for 500h unaided cumulative hours. Would it be possible that someone explain what means cumulative? Unaided is self explanatory; without NVG's. There are not so many pilots to meet these requirements?

Hostile:ok:

huh
 

where did you read this? it sounds like a rumor based on nothing. where in the world are you going to find any pilots with 500 hours of unaided night in helicopters. I have alot of unaided night but i flew for the airlines for 11 years. truly not the same.

Just go in etc. js firm job search and look around.

Are those requirements come from customers, obviously yes. I don't know is there any waiver policy to fill all these jobs. Safety is reason for all this, but 500h night is not all. In mountainous areas I can understand this very well, but still 500h!? How about increase of training, 2 pilot crews etc...

Hostile.

I have about 800 of my 2500 night hours as unaided. I was flying a lot of night time before NVG were widely fielded though.
I imagine the guys with the largest amount of unaided night helicopter time would be:
Law Enforcement
HEMS
ENG
Any of those could easily rack up 500 unaided night hours in a few years. LE and HEMS are quickly starting NVG programs, if they hadn't already in the past several years, so even those guys won't rack up unaided hours any more.

"Hostile"
Just reviewed the JS Firms' Helo EMS listings, and you misunderstand something, somewhere. REACH is the only operator requiring "Minimum 500 hours cumulative night experience required." Call and ask them directly about waivers, etc. Do you good two ways- you'll be more than an anonymous resume, and you'll get a better idea of the potential fit, job/you.

All the rest require night unaided 100 hours.

Devil49,

Reach had been requiring 500h for a long time and there is also Tri-State Careflight who requiring that 500.

But, my main question was; what is meaning of "cumulative" night hours?

Hostile:ok:

Again, best to ask the company, but I would take it to mean total. Not every HR rep is truly fluent in English.

I too would check with the company. However, if I were to venture a guess, they mean night time as PIC and SIC as opposed to only PIC time.But, that is just me.
And, yes, it is possible to come out of the Service (Army,Navy Coast Guard etc) with PIC+SIC >500 hours, night.In fact it is far more difficult to find an ex Army pilot with 200 hours unaided.Go figure.
Alt3.

Not so rare. I've just checked my own logbook, over 1150 night PIC.

Damn you guys, I've been fly EMS 5 years earlier and still have only 200h unaided night. Now, on my recent job I hardly get any. Maybe it is time to change it, if I would like to go back EMS, what I liked to do so much. But thanks for answers.

H.:ugh:

don't misunderstand
 

Of course there are hundreds if not thousands of helicopter pilots with 500 hours or more of night unaided flying. They are just not the types who are looking for a new flying job in any great numbers. Honestly, it takes years and years of flying to reach that milestone. If you have those kind of qualifications, good on you and I'm sure that any of these companies hiring with a 500 hour night unaided requirement would be thrilled to hear from you. In my opinion though, they will be looking long and hard for a pilot with that qualification as a new hire. Cheers

What I get out of those requirements is unaided night operations over tough terrain with no plans to get NVGs!

Grumpytroll,

Perhaps the reason they'll find it difficult to find someone with suitable qualifications is that sometimes "the requirement" is for someone beyond "the budget".

Similar to ShyTorque: about 800hr unaided (and 200hr NVG.)

But that was 9 years ago.

Since then UK HEMS with zero hrs night. Luxury!

What is night flying?

Sometimes, in this part of the world, there is a big round shiny yellow thing in the sky (no, not Crab), which lights things up a bit when it's not too cloudy.

When it's up there it's non-night flying. Night flying is the other times, minus half an hour at each end.

Hope that explains it.