WITH its two gas turbine jet engines, the second RAC Rescue helicopter, based in Bunbury, isn’t the quietest bird in the sky but for those in need it’s the sweetest sound in the world.
Pilot Dave Shaw gets a bit exasperated when discussing the noise complaints he’s received but is understanding all the same.
“It’s a noisy helicopter with two jet engines roaring away so it’s not as if it’s quiet, and we’reblasting off in all directions at all hours of the day and night so of course people are going to be concerned,” he said.
“But I look at the noise the same way I think of a fire engine with its siren going past your house – it’s not there forever and at least you know what it’s doing, and if you hear a helicopter going past or hanging around at night you know it’s for a bloody good reason.”
Shaw is one of four pilots who, with four aircrewmen and a team of 10 paramedics from St. John Ambulance, are on 24-hour-a-day standby every day of the year, ready to be in the air no more than 15 minutes after receiving a call, although Shaw says the average is 7 or 8 minutes.
"You do anything and everything that’s thrown at you and your skills are put to the best possible use."
- RAC Rescue helicopter pilot Dave Shaw.
Since February this year the second RAC rescue chopper, which has an older sister based in Jandakot, has already flown almost 60 missions.
“A lot of the work is down here,” he told the Mail.
“Car crashes are a lot of what we do but we’re also out to sea searching for people overboard or lost or lifting injured mariners off ships, looking for lost people in the bush, motocross riders, mountain bikers, cam-pers, and then farming accidents are a big one for us, too – harvesting season comes and we get farmers stuck in combines and terrible things like that.”
Paramedic Allan Newbold, who has been with St. John Ambulance for 17 years and on helicopters for nine, said that the service has to be sold two ways, both in terms of financial viability and clinical outcomes.
“We went to a farmer the other day who had really bad injuries to both his legs just a five-minute flight away, so we were there about 15 minutes after getting the call where, if a helicopter was coming from Perth, that’s a 50-minute delay,” he said.
“So he was in hospital within two or two and a half hours of making the emergency call whereas a year ago even with the Perth helicopter it would have been three or three and a half hours and before the helicopters it could have been all day.”
“That has a flow-on effect to the taxpayer, as the quicker people get treatment and heal the less money spent by the taxpayer in the medical system.”
On the day of the Mail’s visit, Newbold was busy showing new paramedic Andrew Readhead the ropes.
The pair have a lot of vital equipment they are responsible for and it can be a lot for someone to take in on their first day.
The chopper is sponsored by the RAC, managed by DFES and funded by the state government.
Shaw said that every minute of flight time has to be accounted for.
Those in need are not just in highly-trained hands – the chopper is loaded with state-of-the-art equipment including a million-dollar infra-red laser-targeted camera and a 30-million candlepower spotlight.
“You can play football at night under that thing from 500 feet,” said Shaw.
“Medically we’ve got more gear than any ambulance on the road.”
WATCH: The RAC Rescue helicopter take off from a crash in Leschenault.
But for Shaw and his crew it’s about much more than the gear.
“You’ve got to have people who are very good at what they do, who are very, very well practiced at this style of flying,” he said.
“I’ve been flying for 28 years and I’ve done everything from military to cattle mustering, offshore oil and gas, police, fire-fighting, TV work for three channels and I used to fly for the owner of Chelsea Football Club in London but this is a unique style of flying – the toughest there is.”
“The people who do it have not just got a passion for flying but it’s about what they can contribute, and it’s exactly the same for every crew member and paramedic – you do anything and everything that’s thrown at you, your skills are put to the best possible use, and it’s just a brilliant way to give back.”
“I guess that’s job satisfaction."