One of the challenges associated with Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) operations is the selection of a safe landing site as close as practicable to the scene of an incident.
Great Western Air Ambulance Charity (GWAAC) Pilot, Alan Petch, has come up with an idea to minimise response times, facilitate integration with other emergency service assets and enhance flight safety.
On arriving overhead at a scene, the GWAAC crew must select a landing site and conduct a ‘recce’ to ensure the site is suitable. The recce involves an assessment of a potential site, including:
The challenge associated with landing site selection is particularly acute in densely populated urban areas and steep rural terrain. The GWAAC operating area includes an abundance of both!
Captain Petch says that the most difficult landing areas in our region include:
“Dense urban areas such as central Bristol, Bath, and Gloucester… Put simply there just isn’t a great deal of open space available in these areas. Hazards associated with obstructions, downwash, people and vehicles are also more prevalent in an urban environment.
The most challenging rural area on our patch is the Forest of Dean. The woodland is very dense over significant portions of the forest and many of the clearings and forestry tracks are located on steep ground.
The Stroud valleys are also challenging because they combine a rural environment with steeply sloping terrain.”
To assist with flight planning, minimise response times, facilitate integration with other emergency service assets and enhance flight safety, GWAAC has established a database of potential landing sites throughout the charity’s operating area.
The “South West Rendezvous Directory” (SWRV directory) lists over 250 sites in Bristol, Bath, Gloucester, Cheltenham, the Stroud Valley, Weston-super-Mare and a number of other densely populated areas.
Sites included in the directory have been assessed to be large enough to accommodate Helimed 65, our EC135 helicopter, with each one having a minimum diameter of 25m. Inclusion of a site in the SWRV directory does not imply permission to land and our crews must conduct an airborne recce prior to landing in a similar manner to any other ad-hoc landing site
Alan says that maintaining and developing the SWRV directory is an iterative process. All sites are measured using Google Earth to ensure that they meet minimum size requirements.
Sites included in the initial version of the directory were identified using a combination of local knowledge and a systematic search of targeted urban areas using Google Earth. Further sites have been added following identification and use during live HEMS missions. Alan has also carried out ground recces of a number of sites.
When a SWRV directory site is used by Helimed 65, the pilot concerned updates a ‘resurvey matrix’. Any comments added to the matrix are included in the directory at the next update.
There are four main advantages of the SWRV directory, all of which help to increase a patient’s chance of survival:
For example, we have an informal arrangement with pedal-a-bike-away cycle hire in the Forest of Dean, where they facilitate access to a landing site located in an adjacent Highways Agency compound. They also provide onward transportation for the Critical Care Team to incidents on the local mountain bike trails.
Another example is the service offered by the North Somerset Council Beach Rangers in Weston-super-Mare — we can request secure landing sites on the seafront by calling ahead to the local CCTV control room.
We’re already using the SWRV directory to help us land in urban environments. The centre of Bristol offers a very limited number of potential sites. Also, the time it takes to start up the helicopter, find somewhere to land, then get to the patient from that landing site can be outweighed by the shorter time it may take for our critical care car to drive straight into the city centre from Almondsbury via the M32.
On one occasion, the aircraft and crew were on the helipad at Southmead Hospital, having completed a patient handover. A call came in for a HEMS mission in St Pauls, central Bristol. The choice was to fly or not respond at all. Because of the SWRV directory, the crew knew they had a potential place to land at Riverside Park, St Agnes, so they deployed.
Alan says, “We’ll keep adding sites to our database as and when we find them… It would be nice to see the project adopted by other air ambulance charities and HEMS operations. And it would be great to see my school initiative come to fruition in 2022.”
Alan’s “school initiative” will expand the SWRV directory with more sites located at schools and sports clubs. Access to such locations can be problematic at weekends and school holidays so GWAAC’s Supporter Engagement Team is in the process of building relationships with the relevant organisations to ensure ‘out-of-hours’ access.
Not only will the school initiative benefit people in need of critical care in our communities, but it will also benefit the schools themselves. Intrigued? More will follow on this endeavour, so keep your eyes peeled on our news page.
… Put simply there just isn’t a great deal of open space available in these areas. Hazards associated with obstructions, downwash, people, and vehicles are also more prevalent in an urban environment.
The most challenging rural area on our patch is the Forest of Dean. The woodland is very dense over significant portions of the forest and many of the clearings and forestry tracks are located on steep ground.
The Stroud valleys are also challenging because they combine a rural environment with steeply sloping terrain.”
Pilot, Alan Petch
Did you know that the initial ‘wall’ of wind associated with downwash can potentially blow at speeds of up to 60mph? Downwash has the potential to cause significant damage. It’s a factor that HEMS pilots must take into account during every approach to an ad-hoc landing site.
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