rather than the patient being brought to the physician, as is the case in Anglo-Saxon countries
Not the case in the UK, actually 
There is a helicopter service with two pilots and two medical guys and a load of kit. I saw them close-up very recently (the victim was dead straight away though) and spoke to the pilots at length; they were ex mil.
The main advantage would be the doctor getting to a remote location faster.
Would that be a 2-seat gyro?
Normally, this line of work needs low level flight capability, for “all” weather operations.
The above mentioned article makes specific mention of the Xenon C-44 MedEvac Gyrocopter, which is apparently able to transport a patient as well as two medical personnell.
It is powered by a Rotax 912 ULS-T @ 135 hp.
Peter wrote:
Not the case in the UK, actually There is a helicopter service with two pilots and two medical guys and a load of kit. I saw them close-up very recently (the victim was dead straight away though) and spoke to the pilots at length; they were ex mil.
Yes I know, the London Air Ambulance is actually quite famous in rescue service circles, even abroad. I was referring to ground-based rescue, which in most countries apart from the German-speaking ones and France is done with paramedics only.
Peter wrote:
Would that be a 2-seat gyro?Normally, this line of work needs low level flight capability, for “all” weather operations.
Regarding the “all weather” capability, even our turbine powered H135 or H145 rescue helicopters stay on the ground if the weather is truly terrible, because naturally most hospitals and moreover most emergency sites do not have IFR approaches, even if the heli and its crew were IFR capable (which not all of then are). So the “all weather” capability is relative. AFAIK, gyrocopters are inherently quite stable against turbulence, so as long as marginal VFR is possible (a ceiling of 200-300 ft AGL is usually sufficient for rescue helicopter ops), they should be able to operate.
Oh and regarding the 2-seat gyro, our posts crossed, see above. The C44 can apparently carry both two crew and a patient, although this seems optimistic at 600 kg MTOW and 290 kg empty weight. My post above was also slightly misleading, as it is not “two medical personnell” but rather a crew of two, including the pilot.
So for these machines to operate properly, one would need a pilot with a paramedic qualification or a paramedic with a pilot license, because a doctor does need a qualified assistant at the site of emergency.
It’s an interesting idea. I presume they have jump take off capability to take off from such small places (spin the rotor, disengage power, apply collective, then apply thrust when at a safe height)? I could imagine it being useful – perhaps for patient transfers between hospitals, particularly in developing nations?
I would imagine helicopters should be better suited to landing in tight, unprepared spaces and the lack of range might not be a big problem for a drone. Unless aircraft can land very close to patients or hospitals you need a ground ambulance, which often renders helicopters less useful than their performance figures would suggest. It’s one thing to be able to land in a field, but another to traipse over a few hundred yards of rough ground with a stretcher.
In Wales I know of a number of hospitals without helipads, or with helipads that cannot accommodate newer and larger helicopters.
kwlf wrote:
It’s an interesting idea. I presume they have jump take off capability to take off from such small places (spin the rotor, disengage power, apply collective, then apply thrust when at a safe height)? I could imagine it being useful – perhaps for patient transfers between hospitals, particularly in developing nations?
Yes, jump take off capabiliy is mentioned in the article, although for the C44 in particular, the manufacturers website mentions a take off run of 100 to 150 m. That would indeed be too long for many rescue service applications.
kwlf wrote:
I would imagine helicopters should be better suited to landing in tight, unprepared spaces and the lack of range might not be a big problem for a drone. Unless aircraft can land very close to patients or hospitals you need a ground ambulance, which often renders helicopters less useful than their performance figures would suggest. It’s one thing to be able to land in a field, but another to traipse over a few hundred yards of rough ground with a stretcher.
Indeed, a “proper” helicopter is always superior to an autogyro for landing in tight, unprepared spaces.
For the medical application of aircraft, be it helicopters, autogyros or fixed-wing aircraft, you do indeed almost always need a ground based ambulance to work in conjunction with the aircraft.
The article mentions that in 60% of all rescue helicopter missions in Germany, the helicopter does not transport the patient, but merely serves as the transport vehicle for the emergency physician (Notarzt), who then treats the patient on-site and accompanies their transport via ground-based ambulance to the hospital (if necessary). So the autogyro in particular would mainly be useful as a fast “air taxi” for the Notarzt
There are Gyro schools at EGPE Inverness and at Perth.
The Inverness gyro was very busy today.
The modern Gyros are factory built.
I believe take-off requires a reasonably smooth surface..
I don’t know how weather affects then compared to a Notarzteinsatzfahrzeug. They may not be night capable, which would be a big restriction in short winter days.
Maoraigh wrote:
I don’t know how weather affects then compared to a Notarzteinsatzfahrzeug. They may not be night capable, which would be a big restriction in short winter days.
Very true. Though rescue helicopters are often incapable of night operations as well. The one based at my clinic, an Eurocopter EC135 model, operates only from SS-SR AFAIK. Another one is based at Hannover airport EDDV and is night and instrument capable (Airbus Helicopters H145), operating H24. They typically only perform hospital to hospital transports at night, AFAIK.
Another report, linked in the article I posted earlier, is from the Brandenburg state police department:
https://mik.brandenburg.de/sixcms/media.php/1056/Bericht%20Projekt%20Tragschrauber.pdf local copy
It concerns the viability of autogyros for police operations. Apparently, they used an MT-3 type 2-seat autogyro for police surveillance operations, for over 160 flight hours as part of an evaluation project. A commercial pilot flew the aircraft while a volunteer policeman in the backseat, equipped with a camera (they don’t say which, but the pictures are decent) observed the area or specific targets. They flew a multitude of missions (all daytime VFR) and the final evaluation was very positive.
Unfortunately, a German aviation magazine reported in February that the project has been terminated after a change of government in the state of Brandenburg (from conservative to leftist)
the manufacturers website mentions a take off run of 100 to 150 m
Which is one significant drawback of these highly amusing machines. They are a lot of fun to fly, and capable of spot landing, but take-off performance is no better than any moderately capable aeroplane.
Crippled as they are by lack of range, comfort, stability, carrying capacity, cloud-flying capability and take-off performance, gyroplanes are nevertheless, like similarly-priced small helicopters, the ultimate beach/farm toy.
Jacko wrote:
ke similarly-priced small helicopters
What would a similarly priced helicopter be? Most of these gyroplanes seem to sell (well) below 100k€, and that is factory new. I didn’t know there were factory new helicopters in that price range.
So twin turbine (rightfully so btw) rescue helicopters shall be replaced by rotax powered experimentals?
I’d love to hear the view of a rescue chopper pilot on that.
I got a tour of our local unit once (EC135, 2x 800hp). They were in the process of getting night qualified using NVS goggles or similar, which took years and big $$$. What I gathered from that tour was that the rescue business isn’t trivial and lots of things need to align perfectly to make it work. The pilots explained that even a closely spaced sound barrier wall between two highway lanes can cause a crash in certain weather conditions. They are also very fit on mountain flying, rescueung tourists with broken bones (many germans/dutchmen) down from mountains (density altitude, terrain). Most choppers are underpowered as it is?
I’d like to learn more about these machines but I don’t see much utility for them in top of the line professional applications like medical rescue.
