VIDEO/PHOTOS: New STARS helicopter soars above the rest

Matt Greenway, STARS captain, piloted the helicopter down just before noon.

“This is the latest and greatest,” Greenway said. “It’s really fast, lots of power, lots of space for medical crew in the back, it’s fully de-iced, which is kind of a unique attribute for helicopters.”

Greenway said the de-icing capability is something only a select number of helicopters have. He explained on their other two aircrafts this doesn’t exist, which meant crews couldn’t fly into the clouds when the weather was below freezing, nor could they usually fly at night.

“It did impact some of our calls. During the day we sort of fly low and scoot around the clouds and at night … a lot of the time we would have to decline calls because we just couldn’t fly at night because at night, legally, you have to fly at a certain altitude,” he said, adding now this won’t be a problem.

The STARS crew had a month of training at a simulator school in New Jersey, as well as month of further training afterwards. He said right now they’re doing outreach exercises with the local fire departments and EMS so they can get used to the new aircraft.

For Greenway, one of the most challenging parts of the AW139 is the location and layout, adding with a chuckle that there are a lot of buttons.

Paramedic and clinical educator for STARS Tara Oliver had a smile on her face stepping off the helicopter.

“It runs much faster and we can go much further,” she said. This will be particularly helpful for northern communities because now the crew can fly 600 kilometres round trip without refuelling.

Oliver has her own favourite qualities about the new aircraft.

“The biggest thing is we have the different configurations that we can do in the back. We have the ability to transfer the patient in three different positions in the back,” she said. “We also have the ability to slide it over and do a two-patient load and carry two patients, which we could also do in our other aircraft but here we have much more room.”

With this additional space Oliver said staff will be able to move 360 degrees around the patient.

Potash Corp donated roughly $14 million for the AW139 with an additional $2 million used for the medical interiors.

This will be STARS primary aircraft and if it’s down for maintenance they’ll use their BK117, Oliver said.

After STARS’ stop in Prince Albert it headed off to Shellbrook as part of it’s training with the crew and ground staff. According to Oliver, it will be at least another few weeks of training before the aircraft becomes fully operational in the fall.

In 2013 STARS touched down in Prince Albert more than 32 times. STARS has a designated spot south of the Victoria Hospital on the field between the hospital and the Alfred Jenkins Field House.

Oliver said the location is convenient, but landing on the grass is difficult because of the uneven surface, especially with the AW139 being on wheels instead of skids. This was scene on Wednesday when the helicopter had to move forward some feet because the ground was sinking under one of the wheels. This will continue to be tricky into the winter when there is lots of snow, she added.

“We were actually just here for meetings last month and P.A. is going to be working very closely with us because as you can this is a nice close proximity to the hospital, however some of the requirements for us is a nice level ground for off-loading our patient. This is not ideal, but P.A. has been really, really co-operative with us and they’ve actually offered, they’re going to be creating an area that’s a little bit closer to the hospital for us and making something a little more accessible,” she said.

The Prince Albert Parkland Health Region said they have talked with STARS, but they have no firm plans laid down or a timeline on a new landing location.

sstone@panow. com

On Twitter: @sarahstone84

by Sarah Stone

VIDEO/PHOTOS: New STARS helicopter soars above the rest

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