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These conditions are perfect for flying, yet both Pietro and his co-pilot Dario Garcia, 32, stay busy. As Pietro climbs over the snowy streets of Cleveland, Garcia monitors the instrument panel to make sure the helicopter's engines don't overload. Next Garcia uses the radio to warn two local airport towers, two hospitals and all the planes in the area that his bright yellow helicopter is about to traipse directly across their dedicated flight paths...
...Even flying with two pilots, workload can be an issue," Pietro says before the flight. "If you're flying single-pilot in bad weather and you're trying to land on a highway, it gets real scary. There's just not enough hands to do all the work...
Both single- and double-engine helicopters are common in EMS work, but most medical helicopters fly with just one pilot. Metro Life Flight is one of just a handful of programs in the country that always flies choppers with two engines and two pilots. Founded in 1982, the program has logged just under 66,000 patient flights without a single accident. "I wouldn't fly any other way," says Drew Ferguson, Metro Life Flight's lead pilot. "I don't want to die." Cleveland Metro's Sikorsky S76A started life as a taxi for corporate executives. It is heavy, fast...
Buying more expensive equipment doesn't guarantee safety, however. As the FAA's Peggy Gilligan points out, a number of programs that fly beefy, dual-pilot helicopters with sophisticated safety technologies have crashed, while programs flying small, single-pilot helicopters with nothing more advanced than radio altimeters have perfect safety records. "Operating a medical helicopter is not an inexpensive proposition, and it's not something that people do lightly," says Dawn Mancuso, CEO of the Association of Air Medical Services...
...pilots interviewed for this story said they would prefer new FAA rules requiring night vision goggles and instrument flying technology on all medical helicopters. But some worry such rules might force companies out of business. "From a pilot's perspective, it's utopia" to have night vision goggles, says Gary Sizemore, a medical helicopter pilot and former president of the National EMS Pilots Association. "Is that fiscally realistic? I kind of doubt it. It's bad to say that we don't want to spend the money to save people's lives. But the reality is that somebody...