Balancing act

Air ambulances straddle a tricky line. Too small, and there isn’t room on board for a medical team, patient, and gear, including a stretcher – or enough room to easily get to the patient in flight. Too big, and the more awkward it is to land, especially in some of the trickier environments that are required – like carparks or playgrounds.

“It’s got to be a bit of a balance between getting an aircraft that’s capable and big enough but also that can land anywhere,” says William. “The problem is the bigger you get, the more lift and the more noise, the more downdraft, you get. Particularly downdraft, because if you have to land in a small, built-up area, you’re going to batter the fences around you, playgrounds, whatever it might be – and it gets a lot more risky.

“And sometimes, if you turn up and the job’s been cancelled, or the casualty is not that unwell, you end up creating more casualties just with dirt in the eye, or whatever.”

The pilots say the model they fly, Airbus’s H-145, is the best of both. It has a maximum speed of some 145 knots (about 170mph). Inside, the 4.6m-long cabin has room for four passengers, a stretcher – and, unusually, two pilots. That frees up one pilot to fly, the other to navigate, watch out the window and make decisions about where to land – key since they’re usually landing in spots like carparks, motorways and sport grounds.

It also helps that the helicopter is computerised. And the four-axis autopilot is “a serious treat,” says William. “It can fly itself effectively right down to landing. With airplanes we have been able to do that for a long time, but helicopters have been a bit slow, because it’s obviously a completely different aeronautical ability.”

Says Dave Kelly, the senior pilot at the Cambridge base: “If the aircraft is flying itself, then that leaves me to do my job, which is to land. And to do my recce properly.”