Devon Air Ambulance (DAA) are proud to be celebrating their incredible Pilots on World Pilots Day
When every second counts, getting the specialist skills of DAA’s Critical Care Doctors and Paramedics to scene is paramount. Devon's two emergency helicopters enable these doctors and paramedics to deliver expert time-critical care to patients wherever they may be. Devon is a huge county with two epic coastlines, hundreds of villages and acres of rural wilderness. But Devon’s geography can make getting the right emergency treatment to patients challenging. Sometimes people in need of urgent medical support cannot be reached by road so easily. At other times, it would take too long to reach a patient by land ambulance.
Therefore, the prime task of a DAA pilot is to safely fly the Critical Care Paramedics and Doctor to the scene of the incident as quickly as possible. This is where their adept aviation skills come into action, not only by understanding Devon’s challenging terrain, but also the changeable weather conditions which can be glorious sunshine one minute to hail stones and high winds the next.
It takes around 3-4 minutes from when the emergency phone rings to alert the crew of a mission, to take off, with our helicopter being able to reach most parts of the county within 15-20 minutes.
DAA Line Pilot, Captain Ross White, shares some interesting information in his own words to describe what the role of a Line Pilot for the life-saving charity entails daily.
Ross said: ‘No two days are ever the same at Devon Air Ambulance. The weather and the incidents we attend are different hour by hour and day to day.
In the front of the helicopter, one of the paramedics helps with the navigation and if the weather allows, we will go in a straight line and other aircraft will get out of our way. If the weather is not so good, we might have to dodge around hills to get there safely and as quickly as possible.
When we are not out flying there are still things for us to do. The helicopter needs cleaning regularly, much like cleaning a car, inside and out – we often end up in muddy fields too, which gets everything dirty.
In our non-flying time, we also carry out training in either aviation or medical subjects, we do our paperwork, run software updates, and undertake a dozen other tasks - while keeping an eagle eye on changes in the Devon weather.
Our operation is entirely funded by the kind people of Devon and beyond. You never know if or when you might need our help. Having two helicopters at immediate readiness for 19 hours a day, every day of the year is not cheap, and we rely on the kindness of the Devon people to donate what they can to help us to help you.’
To learn more about the important daily work of the DAA pilots read Captain Ross White’s blog post here: https://www.daat.org/blog/a-day-in-the-life-of-a-devon-air-ambulance-pilot
