For Emergency Medical Service Helicopter Pilots, All Wind Is Local

Abstract

As an EMS (emergency medical service helicopter) Helicopter pilot you are often asked to stretch your skills to the limit when landing in a remote area to pick up an injured patient on a gusty windy night. With pressure to get the patient to the nearest hospital where medical doctors may save a life, it is easy to forget that the approach to the hospital landing pad may be the most challenging segment of your flight. It should be easy; you have a lighted landing pad, wind socks, wind instruments, regional ambient wind (Ambient wind is unobstructed by terrain, buildings, and vegetation such as that reported by nearby automated surface observing systems [ASOS] and automated weather observing systems [AWOS] airport weather station or properly sited on highest nearby facility.) reports, maybe even global positioning system (GPS) approaches, and you have made many safe landings at this hospital in the past. Unfortunately, all wind is local. Wind conditions can change dramatically over very short distances, with hospital buildings and nearby obstacles creating dangerous wind shifts, downdrafts, and turbulence that can lead to emergency helicopter incidents in this final segment of flight.