As I commented in a previous “Hover Power” post, it behooves the EMS helicopter community to use their years of experience and lessons learned in blood to “lead by example” and propose a set of aircraft, equipment, and training standards for operators, rather than wait for them to be determined and then mandated by the FAA.

In order to make move the process along as fast as possible, and encourage as many operators as possible to participate, these standards could be grouped as “certifications” for specific mission types in increasing level of complexity and thus increasing operating requirements (e.g. Day VFR, Day IFR, Night VFR, Night IFR). This will encourage operators to get the highest level of certification as possible, while allowing some market transparency to customers, who can then select the best operator for their needs and budget. Participation in such a certification program may also serve to reduce insurance costs as well.

As you point out, technology to provide greater “hazard awareness” during night ops has not only become more prolific, capable, and better integrated into the flight environment, but has also seen a simultaneous precipitous drop in pricing as well. Any operator who is appropriately funded to operate an EMS service and takes the safety of their operation seriously has little to prevent them from outfitting both their aircraft and pilots with the requisite tools and training to make use of these technologies.

As a side note, Safe Flight has a power line detection system that is able to detect EMF from the power lines by incorporating an ELF receiver in the aircraft. This, in conjunction with the proposed in-progress database, and mandated equipment like the WSPS you also covered in a previous post, should all but remove the possibilities of a flight coming to grief due to a power line collision. See http://www.safeflight.com/mmain.php?px=1&cm=12&cs=92 for more details.