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RFDS western operations set to introduce the first Jet aircraft into the RFD Service

[quote]The Royal Flying Doctor Service announces a $11.4 million partnership with Rio Tinto for its first emergency jet service in Australia

Media Release
6 August 2008



Royal Flying Doctor Service and Rio Tinto soar to new heights


The Royal Flying Doctor Service today announced an $11.4 million partnership with Rio Tinto for its first emergency jet service in Australia.

The Rio Tinto Life Flight will provide a free-of-charge, community medical jet service to patients in need of evacuation when time and distance are critical.

RFDS chief executive Tim Shackleton said the partnership was a ground-breaking move for emergency aeromedical services.

“It is a great leap forward for the RFDS, and a dream come true for people in the bush,â€

Wow thats great.

Just curious is Careflight operating in perth atm ?

I wonder who Rio Tinto will choose as their Ambulance Provider from Jandakot, seems though they would be classed as a private patient should be interesting.

Rio Tinto is sponsoring/donating the aircraft to the RFDS, therefore the RFDS will be the primary operator, and thus who ever has the RFDS contract will do the transfers.

AO11912: There is no such thing as a RFDS contract, it is only the perception that it is.

The contract is actually with the W.A Country Health Service, RFDS are more so the mediator to arrange pickup off the patient they are told by the W.A Country Health Service who they can and cant use to transport public patients.

Currently SJA is the contract provider for country public patients which is currently up for renewal.

Private patients from the country are transported by Advanced Medical Service when contacted by RFDS to do so.

...

Looks good now,

Rio Tinto fixed wing jet and Careflight fixed wing jet... WOW, 2 fixed wing jets for medivacs in WA + RFDS fleet.. Good.

Wow a jet. That's be pretty cool. We could use one of them here. Make the transfer from darwin and alice to adelaide a bit quicker. No more of an all day thing. Would the pilots have to be retrained to fly to jets or do lots of additional training rather? I'd imagined they would do. I wonder how that will go. Any of the aviation heads have an idea on how this would worK?

SJANT wrote:Wow a jet. That's be pretty cool. We could use one of them here. Make the transfer from darwin and alice to adelaide a bit quicker. No more of an all day thing. Would the pilots have to be retrained to fly to jets or do lots of additional training rather? I'd imagined they would do. I wonder how that will go. Any of the aviation heads have an idea on how this would worK?

Try here mate - might help ;o)

http://www.rfdswestops.com.au/go/news/media-releases
read mid way down and you'll find your answers ;o)

Hi SJANT,
Careflight aparently also work out of Darwin too http://careflight.org/careflight_international/ Though this is $$$ for medical retrievals..

Yeah i know. Seen them bring in some people while i was up there

Thanks, thought you would have already known. Noticed how it was affilliated through another organisation. I met the Careflight manager some months ago and commented there was also a base in Queensland too. Though can't see that on the web page..

I remember reading on the RFDS site that pilots are trained on both equipment that being the PC12 and BE200, how ever a pilot will need a multi jet engine rating before being able to fly the jet, how ever i see no problem going down from the jet to the turbo props

AO - they won't be RFDS Pilots - see below...

5. Who will fund the cost of the staff for the jet service? How many additional staff will be needed?

The RFDS has a full complement of medical and nursing staff available on roster who will staff the Rio Tinto Life Flight jet when operational. It is not anticipated that additional staff will be required in the short term. Pilots will be provided by the provider of the leased jet.

RFDS VH-KWO PC12 departed Jandakot at 2136, cleared direct to
Kununoppin. climb to 13000 ft, track direct 2143

jasonjag wrote:RFDS VH-KWO PC12 departed Jandakot at 2136, cleared direct to
Kununoppin. climb to 13000 ft, track direct 2143

These sorts of things can be seen on the awesome RFDS flight tracker.