Help in a hurry in high Uintahs? Looks like a job for Life Flight

By Heather Williams

May 24, 2005 | A woman had been thrown from her horse and needed help fast. Unfortunately, she's in the high Uintah Mountains and an ambulance can't get to her. That's where Life Flight came in.

Bill Butts was the pilot that went to pick up the woman. He said it was before they had hoisting capabilities, so he had to drop off a paramedic, and the paramedic hiked to the area of the injured woman and scouted a landing area. It was the smallest area he said he ever landed, in a forest at 11,000 feet.

"I've never really been frightened in an aircraft," Butts said. "There have been times that something really got my attention."

Butts was trained to fly helicopters in the Army. He pursued flying after he retired from the military, and has been with Life Flight for 15 years. He is no longer a rotor pilot, but is the director of operations.

Since he has been with Life Flight, they've gone from eight pilots, two helicopters and two airplanes; to 27 pilots, four helicopters and three airplanes.

Two helicopters are Agusta A109K2s, and the other two are Bell 407s. The airplanes are Raytheon King Air 200s. The Agusta's have a twin engine, while the Bells are single engine. The differences in the aircrafts allow flexibility, Butts said.

"The useful weight load for Augusta is not as large as for the Bell." Butts said. "The Bell is limited to usefulness with a mountain environment."

There is a learning curve for pilots, Butts said. As they acquire new aircraft, the pilots have to be aware of the differences. He said you have to have a heightened sense of awareness because switches are in different places.

"You have to reset your pilot clock," Butts said.

A rotor pilot works a 12-hour shift, either beginning at 7 a.m. or 7 p.m. Butts said an average day the shift will begin with a crew, usually made up of a pilot, a nurse and paramedic. The crew will sit down together for a briefing where the pilot will "set the stage for the day," said Butts.

Helicopter crews are stationed out of McKay Dee Hospital in Ogden, alternate between LDS Hospital and Primary Children's Medical Center in Salt Lake City, and Regional Valley Medical Center in Provo. There are specialty teams such as an adult team, a pediatric and newborn team.

Each pilot has a weather set at his station to determine the probability of flight for a particular day, or time of the day.

"It gives them a quick snapshot for the day," said Butts.

He said all helicopters fly with VFR, or Visual Flight Rules. This means they can only fly when the weather is good. The airplanes fly with IFR, or Instrument Flight Rules. This means they have a published list of procedures that must be performed before flight no matter what the weather may be. The airplanes are used less often, but can be just as effective when the distance to pick up a patient is 150 miles or more from the base of operations.

Kent Johnson, chief pilot at Life Flight, said that pilots must have 3,000 hours of total flight time. When hiring, they prefer the person has had quality night, mountain and single-pilot experience. He said a lot of applicants come from airlines. Some think they are comfortable flying alone, but find out that they're not, he said.

Johnson was civilian trained in fixed-wing flight in Provo, and did some corporate flying.

He said only one rotor-wing pilot at Life Flight was civilian trained, the rest were military. It is opposite for the airplane pilots. Only one was trained in the military; 12 out of 13 were civilian trained.

Some differences between an airplane and a helicopter transport. An airplane can travel in weather that a helicopter cannot. The King Airs can transport up to two people, while the helicopters are limited to one patient. A helicopter can land almost anywhere, while an airplane must land at an airport. An airplane pilot is on call for a 24 hour period several times a month, and a helicopter pilot has a few 12 hour shifts a week.

Whenever a pilot is faced with going to a destination they haven't been to before, Johnson said it's "not that big a deal."

"That's not uncommon. We have good documentation," he said.

No matter the destination, when a flight request comes in to Life Flight, each member of the crew gets a message sent to their beepers. Specific information gets sent to the nurse and the paramedic, but little information is given to the pilot.

"We need the pilot to remain objective and look at it from an operational side," Butts said.

"Safety is now emphasized so heavily that the pilot typically isn't informed of the nature of the missions. The medical staffers don't want him or her distracted from objectively evaluating flight conditions by an exceptionally poignant circumstance: Most specifically, a critically injured or ill child," according to The San Francisco Chronicle.

As a result, only the location and distance information is sent. Pilots should get to the point where they can say, "I'm comfortable saying no," Butts said.

Although pilots are free to say no to a mission based on weather and flight conditions, last year, there were still 3,700 patients transferred by the Utah fleet, according to Professional Pilot.

Sometimes you find yourself in a spot you've never been before, he said. "You hate to hear, 'I dodged a bullet,' or 'That was a close call' from a pilot," Butts said.

They will sit down with the pilot and find out why it was a close call. It may be due to a system or pilot deficiency. Either way they will try to fix it, he said.

To avoid these situations, fixed-wing pilots undergo annual training.

Rotor-wing pilots undergo in-house training several times a year.

Butts said pilots and crews go through briefing and training before every shift. Sometimes they do night-vision goggle training or hoist training.

"This is a great job, there's no question about it," Butts said. "We have the luxury of picking the cream of the crop."

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