Unreal heli rescue

[VentMonkey]

I hate to indulge but honestly, I don’t think it sounds too far fetched.

Public safety aviation in military equipment is still kind of the Wild West. It was much more so back in the 1980’s. The culture is very cowboy.

True statement. Our county’s fire department operates an old pair of retired vietnam helicopters.

One of the battalion chiefs in our area is also notorious for trying to land us at unattended L.Z. because “his guys” are always caught up in the rescues. Suffice it to say, he’s less than my favorite IC to deal with.

 

[CALEMT]

True statement. Our county’s fire department operates an old pair of retired vietnam helicopters.

Very true statement. We have the UH-1H's for helicopters/ helitack, S-2T's for tankers, and the OV-10's for air attack. Plus some C-130's that are currently being outfitted for tankers.

 

[DesertMedic66]

I hate to indulge but honestly, I don’t think it sounds too far fetched.

Public safety aviation in military equipment is still kind of the Wild West. It was much more so back in the 1980’s. The culture is very cowboy.

In some aspects yes. However when your main rotor blade makes contact with anything, that is an automatic land now and wait until it gets fully inspected. If you have a rotor blade fail during flight that is usually an automatic gravestone, especially if you only have 2 blades.

 

[FiremanMike]

To me, the question isn’t whether the flight could have happened.. I just don’t believe that he happened upon an injured person, McGuyver’d a c-collar, and initiated air transport while on vacation.

 

[CALEMT]

McGuyver’d a c-collar, and initiated air transport while on vacation.

Sounds like one of those special episodes of Emergency!

 

[RedBlanketRunner]

McGuyver’d a c-collar, and initiated air transport while on vacation.

Sounds like one of those special episodes of Emergency!

While I have never watched those emergency shows, now that you point it out, it certainly does come across as sounding ridiculous.
Searching my memory. The CHP was in charge of the scene and was obviously used to the response times way out on the boonies. An ambulance was requested as well.
Best to give my viewpoint. I was assigned by my vacation partner, a senior EMT, to become a human C collar. So that was my perspective throughout. The patient was furious and demanded repeatedly to leave him alone and stop holding his head. His friend, also some sort of medical professional was trying to get him to calm down. We fired a lot of questions at the patient and put together he had about a 30 second interval after impact that he did not recall. So an LOC. Didn't recall the pile in either.
Some time into the rescue CHP informed us we had CDF response. He conferred with my partner. Not sure of the decision and when but the ambulance was sent back. The jist of it was the ambulance was still a half hour away and we could hear the chopper.
Ah. A C collar was produced. One of those flimsy foam things. That was augmented. Some fancy creativity to keep the contraption from pressing on the FX area. Clavicle was visibly displaced. I remember thinking about why clavicles so often take the hit on bike accidents.
It had to have been CDF that had the collar. They also had a stokes. Wire basket without blankets. CHP and chopper tech assisted getting him into it. I was still a C collar and wasn't able to assist the lift. Used tape to immobilized his head to the basket.
When we got up to where the chopper was it looked sort of silly. Small tree branches were scattered all over the place, chopper pretty much filling the entire area. I remember looking up at the gap in the trees and wondering how in heck the pilot did it, Then he demonstrated as they went back up.

 

[RedBlanketRunner]

Something I would respectfully point out. To this day out in the boonies it's still not sunshine and roses. A close friend in S&R has around a 350 square mile patrol area that is vehicle inaccessible. Her med kit is what she is able to pack on her horse. Radio failure is normal. And there are a lot of rescuers out there wearing the same shoes. Up to 24 hour shifts and free form every inch of the way.

Additionally, it's easy to think from the viewpoint of a well financed response agency. Out to the tulips think VFDs with one paid person, financed by bake sales and charities, as the first responders and aux assist, bare bones ambulances still common.

 

[RedBlanketRunner]

And I'll give you another scenario that can be easily checked.
We relied heavily on air evac at one location. Our choppers were CGAS retirees from the Korean war. One attendant showed me a series of patched bullet holes along one side. It was by no means uncommon for us to see a chopper go out and come back on the back of a truck. Once one experienced a loss of power on lift off and avoided taking the roof off a neighboring physicians office by about a thick coat of paint. As big as those busses with blades were, they couldn't carry a large load of wet diapers. When they went out on nearby runs with a full load of fuel it was common they would have to leave the crew person on the ground to accomodate the weight of a medic and the patient. SERIOUSLY, research the wonderful days of air rescue and the history of CGAS equipment.
When they got those Dolphin choppers it was a major county wide celebration.

Tongue in cheek. The Coast Guard boats weren't any better off in those days. Their #1 patrol boat was a retired buoy tender for several years. As I recall a crewman told me it had a top speed of a little over 10 knots. Pursuit of drug runners was laughable. They they had augmentation of two other boats. Drug smugglers saw the old tender coming and blitzed out to sea only to discover the new ships, the Acushnet(sp?) and the Broadbill were sitting off shore waiting. Surprise, surprise.
Meth factories and pot farms were all over that area which made for the occasional interesting med call. See nothing, smell nothing, hear nothing, attend the patient and git.

 

[RedBlanketRunner]

And on a similar note. Man down on the beach. Cliff diver. Serious+. No way to gently get him back up to the road. Called for air evac. None available local. Requests went out to distant CGAS. One in the next state was responding. So sit and wait, keep the patient stabilized. Started getting dark by the time we heard the chopper. Tide had come in giving us maybe 20 feet from cliffs to water. Around the headlands swings a Chinook! Oh freaking ****!! Shining flashlights on the cliff for the pilot he nosed the monster in as close as he could and we waded out to load the patient.

 

[VentMonkey]

Ok, I enjoy a good novel like anyone, but in all seriousness @RedBlanketRunner what are your credentials?

 

[RedBlanketRunner]

Ok, I enjoy a good novel like anyone, but in all seriousness @RedBlanketRunner what are your credentials?

As Jerry Garcia said, long strange trip. Nutshell, glossing over a lot.
Engineering student, did ambulance red blanket runs to help student expenses. No qualifications were required then, just an hour or two basic instructions. Grab and run. ALL medical procedures required physician instructions/authorization. Radios were Motorola tube type.

Burned out on school and ambulance I worked So Cal brush fires, seasonal on call. Worked manufacturing industry then ramrod running a pack station. A couple of friends, US Marshall and an S.O. talked me into applying for S&R. Politics ran and ruled all in that county. On the job training, a combination of LEO and advanced rescue. Around a year in I had a major confrontation with a misogynist max good old boy group crapping on a couple of would be female fire fighters. Quit or get fired I quit.

Marshall and a friend of his put in the word for me and I ended up an S.O. Bottom of the pecking order, errand runner, S&R in rolling wreck vehicles with, literally, a quarter ton of rescue gear. Chains, cables, jacks, extrication gear and assisting HPs the majority of the work.
Volunteered at various VFDs throughout the above time and always, my name in the hat for brush fires.

Got out of the SO gig after about a year or two? and went back to school. Electronic engineering and whatever EMT like courses that were available. Grabbed EMT cert and Bio-med tech.

Around five years of a blur here. Marriage, wildland fires, erosion control work for LA County Flood control. Grabbed heavy equipment cert in there somewhere. Then So Cal. Ambulance on call extra for maybe 2 years? City started to get to me. Marriage went south.

Became a transient. Took odd jobs. One stint in the golden triangle, migrant pot farm worker for a summer. Fist full of money but way too much hard core crazy. Went into construction. Built 3 houses with a friend in So Cal. Grabbed my money and went up state, transient again. Future wife took me in. Cleaned up my act. VFD and started an electronics repair. Friend of friend stuff, got a job on a local ambulance and B-MET at local hospital. Took courses. EMT II. More courses, 12 hour ambulance shifts, 8 hour a day B-met. and college. Certified Bio-Med Engineer and grabbed ACLS. Did lots and lots of CPR classes during those 15 years. Then N.A. Was really enjoying things at that time. I work best under maximum pressure.

Then my debility hit. Tossed back and forth in a divorce, law suit with former employer and Soc Sec trying to hand me the shaft. (Sitting on the steps of the county court house, 08:00, watching the private company jet fly in the attyorneys to give me yet another reaming, ex had cleaned out the bank accounts. Representing myself. Sleeping on the floor in a friends trailer.) Court determination, permanently disabled. Transient again. Felt sorry for myself for a couple of years then contacted some NGOs and headed to the third world.

Would make a good novel if it wasn't so implausible.

 

[RedBlanketRunner]

@RedBlanketRunner what are your credentials?

Medic-all. 4 full code field saves.
FF. I can run just about any pumper out there with an hour getting familiarized. Pretty good as #2 on a quick attack.
Cop. Can write tickets. Pretty good at dialing down confrontation situations.
Bio-med. Can keep most equipment alive. I've learned more tricks off Youtube in the past year than I knew my entire career.
Engineer. I designed and built a cable stay bridge that hasn't fallen down yet.
Still got 10 fingers, 10 toes. Amazingly.

 

[Carlos Danger]

In some aspects yes. However when your main rotor blade makes contact with anything, that is an automatic land now and wait until it gets fully inspected. If you have a rotor blade fail during flight that is usually an automatic gravestone, especially if you only have 2 blades.

You might be surprised.

 

[akflightmedic]

Would make a good novel if it wasn't so implausible.

LOL! You do not have to tell me about atypical journeys and stories which sound incredible, yet are true.

 

[RedBlanketRunner]

You might be surprised.

Two minutes web search. Combat chopper blades have often taken bullet strikes; small arms, .50s and even canon shells and drove home. It's an air foil. A thin wing. Not an ultra balanced spin gizmo that drops like a rock when a gram out of weight. Sure they need to be balanced often but ...
I can see the source of some confusion here. It trimmed off the ends of the branches, a few feet at most. Around an inch thick at most.

LOL! You do not have to tell me about atypical journeys and stories which sound incredible, yet are true.

Sounds like you have some of your own.

 

[GMCmedic]

Two minutes web search. Combat chopper blades have often taken bullet strikes; small arms, .50s and even canon shells and drove home. It's an air foil. A thin wing. Not an ultra balanced spin gizmo that drops like a rock when a gram out of weight. Sure they need to be balanced often but ...
I can see the source of some confusion here. It trimmed off the ends of the branches, a few feet at most. Around an inch thick at most.


Sounds like you have some of your own.

No oun intended but that argument doesnt fly hete. Helicopters in combat situations are not required to follow FAA regulations.

 

[akflightmedic]

I am giving a "pass" on the helicopter story primarily because in the 80's I was a young child and my only frame of reference is my past and current knowledge and practice (started flying in 2004), when safety culture was improving and has continued to improve.

The 1980s very well could have had a ton of cowboys still actively flying with their Vietnam mindset. Some of my first RW pilots from my adventures in the Philippines were of advanced age but with many 1000s of hours of stick time. We never cut back brush, however we did some very tight landings under some unusual LZ circumstances as that is what the job called for. We were "as safe as we could be" without compromising our mission of being too safe.

 

[Mufasa556]

You guys made it 2 pages into this helicopter thread without a San Andreas reference?

 

[VentMonkey]

You guys made it 2 pages into this helicopter thread without a San Andreas reference?

View attachment 4619

Perhaps because you’re the only person known to man to have actually sat through that atrocity...

Me personally, I’m more of a “Cliffhanger” guy myself.

 

[ffemt8978]

@VentMonkey you just about made me out my coffee with that one.