Helicopter medevac operators exploring use of FAA weather camera system


The FAA is looking to expand the use of weather camera systems among commercial operators. FAA Photo

As the popularity and success of the weather camera program grows, the FAA is now looking to expand the use of the systems among commercial operators, and in the process, possibly save lives. The FAA is loaning weather cameras to helicopter air ambulance (HAA) operators flying out of three hospitals in Grenada and Jackson, Mississippi, and Ann Arbor, Michigan.

For the next year, the agency will collect data to ascertain the uses and benefits of the images to the air ambulance and aviation industry, especially in locations where the nearest automated surface observing system (ASOS) is located miles away from the heliport or airport.

This demonstration could help in the development of special operational procedures that enable better-informed flight operations and efficiencies at air ambulance heliports and airports throughout the country where ASOS does not exist.

Wayne Fry, manager of the General Aviation Division in FAA’s General Aviation Safety Assurance. FAA Photo

If the weather camera services improve flight operations as expected, the medevac operators and the hospitals they serve could experience far fewer flight cancellations due to unknown weather conditions, and the lives of more people in need of emergency transportation could well be saved.

Until this summer, the FAA has worked exclusively with state governments to install weather cameras and integrate images onto the website in areas where pilots — generally of fixed-wing aircraft — can face hazardous flying conditions. Colorado, Alaska, and Hawaii already have agreements with the FAA, with Montana being the latest state to participate in a demonstration project. The weather camera program shares the design and technology for operating the cameras with the states who install, own, and maintain the camera systems under cost reimbursable agreements.

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Fixed-wing medical flights and HAA flights are allowed to operate only if adequate weather data is available to help pilots make an informed go/no-go decision. The difference is that fixed-wing flights are conducted from airports, which more frequently have a weather reporting station. The weather data that HAA flights use are often provided by ASOS, but its accuracy varies from location to location.

Mike LaMee, director of operations for Med-Trans Corp. FAA Photo

Two employees with the FAA’s Flight Standards office, Laennec Ratard and Wayne Fry, helped lead the effort to get the weather cameras installed at the three hospital locations.

Ratard is a principal operations inspector working out of the Baton Rouge (La.) Flight Standards District Office (FSDO), where he oversees Metro Aviation, a helicopter air ambulance company. Metro has operations around the country and has reported problematic weather-related cancellations out of the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor.

Metro Aviation operates 30 to 45 flights a month out of Ann Arbor, with anywhere from two to five flights cancelled because of inadequate or misleading weather reporting data.

“We’re basically losing patient care,” said Brian Bihler, director of operations for Metro Aviation. “We could be an effective air ambulance and do these flight requests safely, and we can’t because of the regulations and the circumstances. We’re basically turning down patients,” he added.

“That hospital does not have its own weather reporting,” explained Ratard. It instead relies on an ASOS that sits in a valley about five miles south of the hospital. “The way it sits, it gives off lower-than-perceived visibility reports,” said Ratard, leading to what he believes are unnecessary flight cancellations.

Bihler stumbled upon the FAA’s Weather Camera site and suggested it as an alternative solution. Ratard pursued the idea with Walter Combs, manager of the weather camera program, who agreed to loan one of the agency’s camera systems to Metro for a year-long test.

“Laennec is really the one behind the scenes who ran with this on the FAA end,” said Bihler. “He was the guy who was instrumental in bringing everybody to the table. It goes to show how dedicated you guys are to safety,” he said. The FAA sent a team to select a site for the weather camera system and recently completed its installation.

The issues down south were even more pronounced.

In rural Mississippi the alternative to a 45-minute helicopter medevac flight could be a 5-hour ambulance ride, noted Wayne Fry, manager of the General Aviation Division in FAA’s General Aviation Safety Assurance. A doctor working for the University of Mississippi Medical Centers in Jackson and Grenada told Fry that an estimated 750 medevac flights out of those facilities were cancelled annually.

“We’re out there to serve these communities in their time of need,” said Mike LaMee, director of operations for Med-Trans Corp., the air ambulance company that operates out of Jackson and Grenada. He estimates that 35 percent of the medevac requests his company receives are cancelled because weather data indicates it’s not safe to fly.

“I think without question if somebody needs to get to that next level of assistance quickly and you can’t do it, there will be negative outcomes,” he added.

Fry approached Combs, who arranged to loan two weather systems to Med-Trans. They both agreed to combine the Mississippi hospital demos with the one at Ann Arbor as a year-long research project.

The camera installations at Granada and Jackson are now completed. LaMee remarked upon the ease in which the collaborative effort came together.

What I see today are regulators working with industry in a very meaningful way to enhance safety,” LaMee said. “This process isn’t mired in multiple levels of bureaucracy. We all had the conversation and we all agreed and we’re moving forward.

Fry is thinking long-term with the weather camera demos. “Our hope is that the pilots and operators will come to understand what a boost they are and go out and purchase some of their own,” said Fry.

When asked if Metro would buy and install weather cameras at its own expanse, Bihler was emphatic: “Absolutely. We want to offer this to all of our customers. I think it’s going to be a game changer as far as safety is concerned. I’m really looking forward to seeing where this goes.”

LaMee noted that there are cutting-edge weather observation systems being produced that offer additional information such as cloud ceilings, visibility and air pressure. Along with night vision goggles and the establishment of operation control centers, LaMee said the weather camera program has the potential to be one of the top three developments that “have changed air ambulance helicopter operations in the last 20 years.”

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“If we can improve availability and reliability of weather reporting, it’s going to absolutely revolutionize what we’re able to do as helicopter air ambulance operators,” he said.

This story was prepared and distributed by the Federal Aviation Administration. It was previously published on Medium.

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