Heli Ems Maintenance

[Gary Watson]

I have some questions for those who spend their time maintaining EMS helicopters.

 

The nature of this industry is the desire for 100% immediate dispatch reliability.

The recent NTSB hearings that Vertical's Executive Editor, Elan Head, covered did not mention maintenance as an issue but is that because of the difference in the maintenance culture, a better working environment for maintenance or specific changes to ensure maximum serviceability?

 

Do you have any issues specific to the HEMS role? Do you shorten the component times? - ie replacing items prior to their due date to ensure a lower probability of the aircraft being down for unscheduled maintenance. Are your inspections carried out in a different manner, do you have a higher number of spares? Any special (approved) processes that you have created for your specific operation.

 

If so, please post them here or email me at gary@verticalmag.com

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Gary Watson

 

Technical Editor

 

 

 

 

[thruthefence]

I have some questions for those who spend their time maintaining EMS helicopters.

 

The nature of this industry is the desire for 100% immediate dispatch reliability.

The recent NTSB hearings that Vertical's Executive Editor, Elan Head, covered did not mention maintenance as an issue but is that because of the difference in the maintenance culture, a better working environment for maintenance or specific changes to ensure maximum serviceability?

 

Do you have any issues specific to the HEMS role? Do you shorten the component times? - ie replacing items prior to their due date to ensure a lower probability of the aircraft being down for unscheduled maintenance. Are your inspections carried out in a different manner, do you have a higher number of spares? Any special (approved) processes that you have created for your specific operation.

 

If so, please post them here or email me at gary@verticalmag.com

 

Thanks

 

 

 

Gary Watson

 

Technical Editor

 

 

I would think there would be issues pertaining to hazmat, such as blood borne pathogens that would have to be addressed, hepatitis & HIV come to mind. While they may not be an issue on every EMS mission, I'm sure it comes up.

[InspectorGadget]

My brief experience wrenching on them was actually fairly normal. Engine components usually cycled out before they timed out, as most flights were within the area of the city. Deeper maintenance was trickier, everything had to be done with the idea of being able to put it back together within about 10-15 min. For any bigger component changes, we had to file a "down time request" with the ambulance service and then had a time frame to work with. Any non-schedueled maintenance we were penalized for according to the contract. Luckily, if we were to ever lose, say, an engine, we could pull it out of another machine in the fleet and put it in the ambulance to get it up and going asap. No huge inventory of component spares though, just starter gens and the like. All inspections were split up into smaller, more frequent inspections (I forget what that system of doing things is called) for the type of machine anyways so it made swallowing the bigger inspections easier.

 

As far as biological hazards, the interior was the paramedics department. They were in charge of cleaning it and keeping it neat and tidy and clean. We didn't do much in there. The cockpit side yes, but in the back it was somewhere that didn't need much maintenance as the med sleds are pretty bullit proof. Although once I had to do an inspection under the floor of one, and there were mystery fluids everywhere. Not pleasant.

[Gary Watson]

Thanks for the input guys. I am hoping to run the thread for a while to see if any other issues come up.

The fluid thing is the one that worries me-haven't worked on an aircraft in a hazmat suit and really don't want that experience. Unfortunately someone get stuck with it.

[thruthefence]

[quote name='Gary Watson'

The fluid thing is the one that worries me-haven't worked on an aircraft in a hazmat suit and really don't want that experience. Unfortunately someone get stuck with it.

 

Blood, Urine, and the phosphate laden cleaners ' hidden under the floor' are what I would be concerned about from a "maintenance" standpoint, altho my original post was mainly concerning the mechanic's health issues. I wonder if the EMS guys previously noted have been trained in the area of corrosion prevention, ect. There's a big EMS helicopter outfit in my area, and I know a couple of the mechanics. I'll ask around.

steve