Virgin pilot under a little bit of pressure?

[markis10]

Tweet by a medivac pilot into Canberra

@BryceEngland15: Dear Virgin pilot who got antsy when the @SHSCHelicopter delayed your landing at Canberra. Our patient's day was way worse than yours. Jerk.

 

[anat0l]

Ah well, nothing like a bit of slagging over the ATC.

Big deal I guess unless the pilot was prepared to defy ATC orders and sequencing.

 

[straitman]

Tweet by a medivac pilot into Canberra

@BryceEngland15: Dear Virgin pilot who got antsy when the @SHSCHelicopter delayed your landing at Canberra. Our patient's day was way worse than yours. Jerk.

Like always there are two sides to the story and it would be nice to hear the other side.

If the help was category Med1 it would normally automatically have priority unless VA had an emergency.

 

[rogerkambah]

Tweet by a medivac pilot into Canberra

@BryceEngland15: Dear Virgin pilot who got antsy when the @SHSCHelicopter delayed your landing at Canberra. Our patient's day was way worse than yours. Jerk.

Any idea where the helo was tracking from. Assume he was on track to the pad at TCH, which is nowhere near CBR or RWY approaches.

 

[Boris spatsky]

No, he was departing from the Southcare helo base which is at Hume on the Monaro Hwy, to the south east, which cuts across extended centreline and the ILS track for runway 35 on Med1 status. Virgin landed shortly thereafter (an EMB190).

 

[rogerkambah]

No, he was departing from the Southcare helo base which is at Hume on the Monaro Hwy, to the south east, which cuts across extended centreline and the ILS track for runway 35 on Med1 status. Virgin landed shortly thereafter (an EMB190).

Oh, OK he was departing base to his pickup. They seem to often track over my house inbound from the south to TCH.

 

[DC3]

No explanation as to what this was really all about?

I googled antsy, as it's not a word that I have ever seen until today. It said "Reckless, fidgety, impatient".

I also googled Bryce England, and apart from calling another pilot a jerk, he does a lot of other twittering.

 

[Sprucegoose]

I wouldn't get concerned by all this hoo haa. Slow news day???

 

[openseat]

You would think that there would be other channels than twitter that might be more constructive.

 

[Boris spatsky]

No explanation as to what this was really all about?

I googled antsy, as it's not a word that I have ever seen until today. It said "Reckless, fidgety, impatient".

I also googled Bryce England, and apart from calling another pilot a jerk, he does a lot of other twittering.

Bryce flies the SnowyHydro rescue chopper (B412) in Canberra. Bit of a character, posts heaps of Twitter pics from the aircraft and has a good following - great exposure for their fundraising to keep the service going. As Med1 status, he has priority over RPT (unless they have declared an emergency) but it sounds like the VA guys weren't happy about a few minutes delay.

 

[harvyk]

Yeah, I've got a lot of respect for those SHSC Helicopter guys. They've done over 5,400 missions, inc one where a family member of mine was a recipient of...

 

[eastwest101]

No, he was departing from the Southcare helo base which is at Hume on the Monaro Hwy, to the south east, which cuts across extended centreline and the ILS track for runway 35 on Med1 status. Virgin landed shortly thereafter (an EMB190).

Just a little question if I may - I know that Helo base on the Monaro Highway is fairly recent, but wondering why it was:

a) built at all - when a perfectly good airport with much better facilities is only a few km away
b) allowed to be built in the path of the extended centreline of RWY35?

A question for the Canberra folk I guess, local politics or something?

 

[Wannabee]

I am not familiar with the base location or Canberra airspace but there are good reasons to not be located at an airport for an EMS helicopter

Cheaper rent - a lot of these operations are NGO's so every dollar counts

No movement charges

If you are located OCTA therefore no clearances are required which speeds up response times unless of course you are responding into controlled airspace. At least you can then get airborne and request a clearance. (Probably not applicable in example above)

No requirement to conform to airport procedures ie taxying to runway or helipad wasting valuable time.

You don't need airport facilities (except during poor weather and you need an instrument approach). Some hospitals have instrument approaches anyway

 

[Boris spatsky]

I would presume it is related to Terry Snow's exhorbitant charges for anything related to CBR airport. Only other permanently located recent commercial users are RAAF (govt pays), Brindabella (now defunct) and Corporate Air (moved facilities to Goulburn).

Pretty sure that basing there would be cost prohibitive for a charity.

 

[vertisol]

Read recently they are about to upgrade their base

 

[harvyk]

I drive past their base most mornings on my way into work. Personally I think it's a pretty logical place for it. It's out in the middle of no where so it doesn't disturb residents when it takes off / lands (except for the residents of the jail next door, but in SHSC's defense, they where there before the jail), but relatively close to the hospital via Monaro Hwy / Hindmarsh drive (prob 15 minutes, less if using lights and sirens) (I every so often see ambo's out there).

The two nearest suburbs are industrial suburbs with no actual housing, even the much talked about Tralee is still on the other side of Hume...

 

[Fruitcake]

Yeah, I've got a lot of respect for those SHSC Helicopter guys. They've done over 5,400 missions, inc one where a family member of mine was a recipient of...

I've got more respect for the Virgin people, they've done millions of missions and I've been a beneficiary of many of them .

 

[harvyk]

I've got more respect for the Virgin people, they've done millions of missions and I've been a beneficiary of many of them .

Yes, but I'd be willing to bet that your life was not literally dependent on any one of those flights. If you didn't make it to your destination I'd be willing to bet you would not literally have died?
In the case of my family member who needed the SHSC heli, her life was literally depending on that flight...

 

[Fruitcake]

If you didn't make it to your destination I'd be willing to bet you would not literally have died?

That would depend upon the nature of the event that caused the flight not to arrive at its destination!