Comments on: Thoughts on IFR HEMS

By: Vengeance 07

Vengeance 07 — Sat, 05 Dec 2009 06:36:23 +0000

We deal with this stuff in the military a lot. Coming back over the mountains into the San Diego area. Even though our pilots are all instrument rated, they fail to keep their proficiency to a level that gives them the confidence to pick up IFR handling and try to ‘sneak” under the weather. Statistics tell me all I need to know. More pilots and crews are running into wires and other obstructions trying to avoid IFR than pilots IFR who suffer from spatial d.

By: nate_fl

nate_fl — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 16:19:42 +0000

I speak from ignorance here, but would a helicopter operating under a “lifeguard” callsign not receive priority clearance when asking for a popup IFR clearance?

By: Robert R. Bash

Robert R. Bash — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 21:36:46 +0000

I flew medical evacuation in Vietnam (Dustoff), and I agree whole heartily with what Tim McAdams said in his article. One thing that I would add is that the military flew helicopter IFR way back then (1969-1970′s). It definately improves the options and now you can have a GPS approach to a hospital helipad.