The Magpas Air Ambulance team is made up of the most advanced clinicians, who have decades of experience and complete specialist training in order to provide lifesaving medical care to critically ill and injured patients across the region. However, there is another team of professionals working with them every day, ensuring the medics can get anywhere they are called to quickly and safely, when every second counts; and the aviation team are just as experienced and well-trained in what they do.
To ensure these accomplished fliers are prepared for every situation the unpredictable role can pose, every year the aviation crew who fly the Magpas Air Ambulance helicopter have to undergo mandatory training... But this is no 'health and safety 101'. Instead, the charity's pilots and technical crew members have just returned from a visit to Europe's AW109SP flight simulator in Zurich.
Aircrew from all over the world travel to this simulator, which comprises a full motion device on hydraulic legs that replicates flying, with a real AW109SP cockpit inside. This is the same aircraft Magpas Air Ambulance uses to fly to emergencies across Cambridgeshire and beyond, and the simulator allows the crew members to practice and prepare for scenarios that would not be possible on board a real helicopter.
Rob Davies, Magpas Air Ambulance's Lead Technical Crew Member explains, "It's a very similar concept to funfair rides, but much bigger, more advanced and realistic.
"A pilot and technical crew member sit up in the cockpit, with a trainer in the back who has full control over the weather conditions you're flying in, whether it's light or dark, and what emergency they're going to test you with next."
Rob continues, "Whilst the simulator is good fun and very realistic, the purpose of attending the training is to learn and conduct emergency procedures that we can't do on an actual aircraft, and with an examiner sitting behind us watching our every move, the whole experience can be quite hard work. On top of that, the simulator replicates real aircraft handling, so it can move quite dramatically... And if you get something wrong, you'll know about it! All staff taking part have to be strapped in for the rollercoaster ride ahead at all times."
Some of the scenarios practiced include double engine failures, engine fires, battery failures and training in low visibility. These are all emergencies the Magpas Air Ambulance crew would hopefully never have to contend with, but having this opportunity to practice handling the aircraft and pressing buttons they never normally would means the crew is as prepared as they possibly can be.
This perspective on training forms part of the ethos of Magpas Air Ambulance, whose clinicians also undergo rigorous training exercises for uncommon yet lifesaving procedures in order for them to become muscle memory should they ever be needed. This means the Cambridgeshire-based charity can continue to provide the local community with the most advanced lifesaving care 24/7, and everyone who needs this service is in the most capable hands.
