Professional Pilot

Company flies diverse fleet of helicopters and airplanes from more than 70 emergency medical service bases throughout US.

October 1, 2008

It was in the 1960s that the commercial helicopter business was born. Those early days were like flying the biplanes of the 1930s, the aircraft underequipped and underpowered, their owners convinced the world wanted their services somehow, somewhere. A few brave souls set up shop with Bell 47s and, like their 30s airplane predecessors, offered rides at local county fairs, photo flights and any other odd job that might bring in a few dollars.

Dan Parker of Janesville WI, heir to the famous Parker Pen fortune, saw the potential of helicopters and started Omniflight in 1962.

From home base in Janesville, Omniflight developed a large aerial spraying and agricultural support business with a Bell 47 fleet. In between spraying missions there were the occasional high-profile events like drying the grass at Lambeau Field for the Green Bay Packers—good advertising for the fledgling company.

By 1980 the Bell 47 fleet had been replaced with Bell 206 Jet-Rangers and 206L LongRangers. Omniflight expanded into other markets by buying established operations. Chesapeake and Potomac Helicopters in Baltimore MD became Omniflight Airways after its acquisition, continuing its work in passenger transport along the US east coast. Dot Helicopters in Corpus Christi TX became Omniflight Offshore. That fleet continued to support its oil rig customers in its new Omniflight colors.

And the company took a major step entering the emergency medical services (EMS) business. One of its first contracts was with the Mayo Clinic. St Mary’s Hospital, a Mayo affiliate in Rochester MN, became an Omniflight customer, buying its first helicopter and hiring Omniflight to manage the aircraft.

Omniflight continues to support St Mary’s today after almost 25 years of continuous service. Mayo Air Transport, the operating entity for the St Mary’s-based helicopter, recently took delivery of a new Eurocopter EC145, equipped with state-of-the-art avionics, an all-EFIS instrument system and single-pilot IFR AFCS. The EC145’s cabin is furnished with the latest in advanced life support (ALS) equipment. Delivery of this helicopter is a major highlight in the long relationship between Omniflight and the Mayo Clinic.

Omniflight’s list of aviation milestones is long and notable—it includes a contract with Pan American Airways to provide helicopter airline service. To support the contract Omniflight Airways acquired 4 Bell 222s and based them in New York. These helicopters operated a schedule from heliports high atop buildings in downtown Manhattan to EWR (Newark NJ), JFK (John F Kennedy, New York NY) and LGA (La Guardia, New York NY). Passengers bought the trip to the airport as part of their fare for overseas flights from New York.

In 1984 Omniflight sold Omniflight Offshore to Air Logistics and concentrated all its resources on the EMS market. In 1989 the company acquired Silver Star Helicopters, an ADS (Addison, Dallas TX)-based EMS operator, adding about 30 new hospitals to Omniflight’s client base. Omniflight moved its base to ADS to be more centralized supporting its US operations.

Dan Parker passed away in early 1990 and his wife JoAnn took over the business. In 2003 she sold the company to Texas Growth Fund, who subsequently sold it to Wind Point Partners, a private equity firm that considers Omniflight a significant asset in its large health care portfolio.

Anthony DiNota serves as Omniflight’s president & COO. He joined the company in Nov 2007 after serving as COO of Atlantic Southeast Airlines (ASA). Prior to his tenure at ASA, DiNota served as general manager of aircraft engine maintenance for Delta Air Lines. DiNota says, “My goals for Omniflight are focused in 4 areas—safety, quality, reliability and dependability. Safety is paramount. In general I’d like to bring my experience in the Part 121 world to Omni and build a model of excellence that will set us apart from all other air medical operators.”

He continues, “We’re going to restructure the company’s operations by incorporating a safety management system (SMS) approach used by Part 121 operators. This will put in place standardized proactive, hands-on support tools for our staff, allowing them to better address safety issues and increase operating efficiencies.

“We also want to incorporate more advanced technology, including implementing the flight operations quality assurance (FOQA) concept.”

FOQA was designed by Flight Safety Foundation in 1989 as a method of evaluating aircrew practices in day-to-day flying. It uses flight recorder data to build a database of average flight profiles. These are analyzed for deviations from normal and the results published to all pilots. The entire process is designed to eliminate any possibility of individual criticism. DiNota claims that implementing FOQA at the Part 135 level, particularly in helicopters, will be a first for the industry. “We think our pilots will appreciate the feedback and value the opportunity to continuously sharpen their skills,” he says.

“To implement FOQA we will need a method of accumulating flight data, like the flight recorders in commercial transport aircraft. We think we’ve found a cost-effective system that will work appropriately in a helicopter. We’re also going to complete the flight following system that Omniflight has already implemented by integrating a national communications loop. This will be linked with data from each aircraft in flight as well as online 3D weather. We will then be equipped to support every pilot with real-time input on optimum routes to ensure the safest set of options.”

Discussing quality, DiNota explains, “We will continually strive to proactively improve quality in managing operations. We will examine reliability tracking on all powerplant and airframe components by establishing mean time between removal (MTBR) databases.” This will help to keep aircraft in the air and decrease unscheduled component issues, he says.

“Another Part 121 concept we intend to look at is developing thirdparty vendors as alternatives sources for repairs,” he continues. “We can add a lot of value to our system by developing vendors as alternatives to OEM suppliers.”

DiNota goes on to describe how the 2 remaining areas fit into the future operating plan. “We can increase overall system reliability by managing available assets,” he says. “We operate within a regional structure and each region boasts an excellent management team. We will provide them with ... corporate assets like spares, IT systems and training available to them on-site.

“Dependability is all about having depth so we can respond to irregularities in the system,” he continues. “We need sufficient aircraft sparing ratios strategically placed throughout the system—and we need relief crews in place to support sick leave and vacation events among base personnel.”

All training, maintenance oversight and corporate administrative functions are centralized at ADS. The largest concentration of bases and aircraft is in Arizona, where in 2004 Omniflight acquired Native American Air.

Omniflight’s fleet includes Agusta- Westland A119 Koalas, Bell 206 LongRangers, Bell 222s, Eurocopter BK117s, EC135s, EC145s and various models of AS350 AStar. Pilatus PC12s and Hawker Beechcraft King Airs round out the fleet.

Future plans are to standardize around 1 or 2 aircraft types and consolidate support. Additional standardization plans involve the administrative and operational structure— also part of DiNota’s plan for improving flight operations.

Daily Routines

Each Arizona operating base is staffed with 4 pilots, 4 paramedics, 4 nurses and 1 maintenance technician. The Eurocopter AS350 AStar is the standard base aircraft, the majority of them AS350B2s and B3s. Pilots and the maintenance technician report to an aviation base manager and medical crewmembers to a medical base manager, reflecting the dual disciplines that operate in partnership at an EMS helicopter base. Medical crewmembers work a 24-hr shift and pilots a 12-hr shift.

Maintenance technicians are on call 5 days a week, 24 hours a day. Generally, the base technician comes in every morning during the week and reviews flight activity to schedule his inspection tasks and take care of daily maintenance. Weekends are covered by on-call technicians from regional maintenance facilities or by other base technicians who swap weekend coverage with each other.

Pilots are responsible for keeping their aircraft clean and servicing the medical oxygen system. Omniflight provides specialized training to all pilots on use of the base oxygen cart to top off the helicopter’s medical oxygen. Medical crewmembers take care of their section of the cabin and the patient area.

Shift changes are scheduled between 0530 and 0730 and are staggered throughout the base system so that no more than one base is in shift change at a time, ensuring maximum availability for incoming calls. The medical crew changes shift on the morning schedule—pilots change both morning and evening. With each pilot shift change the crew does a briefing in accordance with the company ops manual. The duty pilot uses a comprehensive checklist of topics, current weather and its impact on operations, condition of the aircraft, emergency procedures and any concerns the medical crew may have. At the end of the briefing all 3 crewmembers initial a log, documenting that the briefing was conducted. This helps the medical crew and pilot stay in close touch, enhancing internal communications. The briefing also helps the crews ensure that all are aware of and prepared to deal with any flight emergency.

When pilots report in for their shift they sign in to the Operational Control Center (OCC) via a computerized form. Their sign-in time starts the OCC duty time clock for that pilot. The form gives the pilot 3 weather options—green, yellow and red. Yellow and red require supporting notes and affect the release of any flight during the period of marginal weather. Next the pilot fills out a section documenting the preflight inspection, time remaining until the next maintenance event, and a risk assessment—an FAA mandated process required of all EMS pilots. Pilots use a scale of factors that affect his/her personal risk as a tool to develop their score for the day. These factors include state of training and currency, personal life issues, weather, and whether the shift will include night flying.

Company Launch Protocols

OCC specialists review each pilot’s sign-in. If they see any irregularities they contact the pilot to work them out. Only when the OCC has reviewed and approved the sign-in can the pilot be released for flight. This OCC concept takes the recent FAA emphasis on operational control to an even more precise level. The detailed, item-by-item review of all the preflight release factors is a model for ensuring near-optimum operational oversight.

With the OCC sign-in and crew brief complete, the base is ready to accept flights. The company’s Communications Center is the primary point of contact for all calls for service. Hospitals, fire departments and EMS agencies call the Communications Center when a patient needs to be moved quickly. Communications specialists scan their computerized area map to calculate which aircraft should take the call, considering available helicopters and geographical proximity.

Once a base is selected, an alert call goes out to that base with the patient’s location—be it an accident scene or hospital—and body weight. The duty pilot responds using a Nextel pager/cell phone. Simultaneously, the OCC specialist reviews the current shift information to ensure that aircraft and pilot are legal to make the flight. The specialist also compares current weather against company minimums to ascertain that the weather is within those minimums. Completion of the analysis triggers issuance of a release number to the pilot, signifying to him/her that the flight is OCC approved. The pilot acknowledges the release, briefs the medical crew and they head for the helicopter.

After liftoff, the pilot calls the Communication Center on the company FM radio and files a company flightplan, souls on board, fuel state and estimated time enroute. If the call is to an accident scene the Communications Center advises who the agency on the ground is and on which FM frequency to contact them. Arriving over the scene the pilot calls the ground agency and gets the landing zone (LZ) information. Then he does a careful aerial reconnaissance of the area, checking for towers, wires and other obstructions and sets up the approach.

As soon as they are on the ground, the medical crew leaves the helicopter and attends to the patient. The pilot stays in the helicopter with rotors turning to minimize turnaround time. Once the crew has loaded the patient, the doors are closed and the pilot lifts off. This is when the crewmembers do their best work, moving a trauma patient quickly to a hospital, the pilot using his skills to get there in minimum time and with the smoothest possible ride and the medical crew administering to the patient to keep him/her stable and comfortable for the few minutes of the flight.

Landing, the pilot must use all his skills to avoid obstacles and set up a stable approach path. Then he must land smoothly and position the helicopter within the tight confines of fences, gates and nearby vehicles. When the medical crew returns to the helicopter, the patient safely in the hospital, they fly back to their base, clean up the helicopter and reprovision for the next call. Safety is the principal goal, says Tony Lamorgese, recently appointed to the position of VP Flight Operations as part of the company’s reorganization. “If the weather or other conditions aren’t all within company limits, we will not accept the mission.”

Lamorgese explains, “The air medical services community has suffered too many unfortunate accidents. No one wins if the helicopter crashes. Omniflight provides staff with training, such as air medical resource management (AMRM), which enhances communications inside the aircraft. Medical crewmembers receive formal training to act as observers during critical portions of the flight and assist the pilot by identifying flight hazards.” The air medical services community is well positioned for a period of major change. New technologies will drive safer and more efficient flight operations, and a major consolidation of market players is imminent.

DiNota is positioning Omniflight to build on its established platform and tradition as a market leader. Through his initiatives he intends Omniflight to prevail as the industry moves into the next decade.

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Posted with Permission form Professional Pilot, October 1, 2008