From police officer to EMS helicopter pilot

[Jim Schilling]

The newest episode of my podcast Fly the Transition is out now.

I chat with retired Police Officer Lou Gregoire about his second career in aviation.

He went from police officer to a pilot in his departments aviation unit, even commanding their air unit. It was that opportunity that led to his transition to EMS helicopter flight operations.

Check out the episode at the link below, or anywhere you get your podcasts.

https://open.spotify.com/episode/72dpkd2HOjRFFvkXSbqAjY?si=mA20uL7DR9-YFmIT_ROeYA


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[hindsight2020]

EMS schedules can make a good semi-retirement career if you can find the right location for you. I'm keeping fixed wing EMS on my radar as a potential transition after .mil, depending on where we end up settling up location wise.

 

[Jim Schilling]

EMS schedules can make a good semi-retirement career if you can find the right location for you. I'm keeping fixed wing EMS on my radar as a potential transition after .mil, depending on where we end up settling up location wise.

The company Lou is with, Air Methods has services in 48 states at over 300 bases. I’m sure you’ve probably already heard of them though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[hindsight2020]

The company Lou is with, Air Methods has services in 48 states at over 300 bases. I’m sure you’ve probably already heard of them though.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes, I have of course, plus I have my unpaid life coach @Velocity173 on retainer, who has provided me with all the inside baseball deets on the career. Kudos on the interview nonetheless, job-shadow vids and DIY repairs are two categories the boob I actually watch unironically or without a recreational rage-watch motivation. Cheers!

 

[Velocity173]

Probably 80 % of our company is either military / law enforcement background. Hard to get the NVG hours for rotor side without it. Guy on my hitch that’s opposite me is retired chief pilot from a large police unit. Excellent pilot.

 

[hindsight2020]

yeah, rotor is a different beast, NVG time being the least of which. The wife says to me in passing "oh you could get that job anywhere we would [want to] live" and then I explained to her how us fixed wingers don't consort with such poors .

Requisite rotor smearing humor aside, i'd be like a my 9 year old flipping switches and struggling to make heads and tails down the runway in the -38 if I ever tried to pull a Mover and play helicopter pilot for a flex.

At any rate that was a fun and short lived conversation with the wife while looking for burlap sacks to save our trees from the freeze last week at Lowes. Only other gig I could do that would come close on the schedules front is Silver (121), but that would be a paycut as a *gear monkey compared to flying with my favorite CA everyday on EMS. Adv EMS.




*given my low amount of "cReW" TPIC from the bomber won't help cover a meaningful portion of the 1k 121 SIC the feds require for 121 CA upgrade.

 

[Velocity173]

yeah, rotor is a different beast, NVG time being the least of which. The wife says to me in passing "oh you could get that job anywhere we would [want to] live" and then I explained to her how us fixed wingers don't consort with such poors .

Requisite rotor smearing humor aside, i'd be like a my 9 year old flipping switches and struggling to make heads and tails down the runway in the -38 if I ever tried to pull a Mover and play helicopter pilot for a flex.

At any rate that was a fun and short lived conversation with the wife while looking for burlap sacks to save our trees from the freeze last week at Lowes. Only other gig I could do that would come close on the schedules front is Silver (121), but that would be a paycut as a *gear monkey compared to flying with my favorite CA everyday on EMS. Adv EMS.




*given my low amount of "cReW" TPIC from the bomber won't help cover a meaningful portion of the 1k 121 SIC the feds require for 121 CA upgrade.

Yep, no need for NVG time for our fixed wing slots. Like our rotor SPIFR bases, they want twin engine IFR time. Which you have plenty of.

My IFR days are probably over. Unless they close my base or send me an IFR ship (doubtful), I’ll retire SE VFR. That’s fine with me. The things fly themselves anyway and it’s two checkrides a year vs one.

 

[Velocity173]

 

[hindsight2020]

You guys have the edge on the mission satisfaction front, full stop. If you ask my 9 year old, momma RN is the hero in the family. Dad is "just a teacher". Did I mention I love paying for that little shade-throwing c**-blocker's every waking breath since birth? Labor of love my friends, which I pay with 'effin Grace (aka the restraint not to give him an early introduction to the coldness of the outside world). *mutters the serenity prayer*

As you know, a lot of boomeranging .mil retirees flock to these type jobs for the mission satisfaction. In my time researching the FW side, it's common for folks to underscore not making much of what goes on aft of the cockpit, and treating it like "any other" part 135 non-sked job, as that's "what it ultimately is". I agree with the former, but heavily disagree with the latter. I understand the spirit of their sentiment in order to avoid hero complex and take unneeded weather risks for the sake of mission accomplishment. Especially when it comes to FW transfers which are by definition not frequently as critical as rotor. But, I'm certainly personally influenced by the distinction between offering my chauffer services in the furtherance of a medical transfer, as opposed to some monied richard's wife on her way to give her dog a pedicure across the pond (true story, SJU-FLL leg for a dog pedi appointment). I don't care how many people that consumption excess ultimately employs, I'm not personally motivated by it even if it pays more.

More to life than money. And I would know a lot about that these days, NDAA yearly-reminding me how little regard I have for my family's "material well being". I leave money on the table like it's my primary duty title.

 

[Piperonca]

You guys have the edge on the mission satisfaction front, full stop. If you ask my 9 year old, momma RN is the hero in the family. Dad is "just a teacher". Did I mention I love paying for that little shade-throwing c**-blocker's every waking breath since birth? Labor of love my friends, which I pay with 'effin Grace (aka the restraint not to give him an early introduction to the coldness of the outside world). *mutters the serenity prayer*

As you know, a lot of boomeranging .mil retirees flock to these type jobs for the mission satisfaction. In my time researching the FW side, it's common for folks to underscore not making much of what goes on aft of the cockpit, and treating it like "any other" part 135 non-sked job, as that's "what it ultimately is". I agree with the former, but heavily disagree with the latter. I understand the spirit of their sentiment in order to avoid hero complex and take unneeded weather risks for the sake of mission accomplishment. Especially when it comes to FW transfers which are by definition not frequently as critical as rotor. But, I'm certainly personally influenced by the distinction between offering my chauffer services in the furtherance of a medical transfer, as opposed to some monied richard's wife on her way to give her dog a pedicure across the pond (true story, SJU-FLL leg for a dog pedi appointment). I don't care how many people that consumption excess ultimately employs, I'm not personally motivated by it even if it pays more.

More to life than money. And I would know a lot about that these days, NDAA yearly-reminding me how little regard I have for my family's "material well being". I leave money on the table like it's my primary duty title.

I know what your most lucrative retirement job would be: Dave Barry of the Skies. Not making this up. Still sitting here smiling.

 

[Piperonca]

Yep, no need for NVG time for our fixed wing slots. Like our rotor SPIFR bases, they want twin engine IFR time. Which you have plenty of.

My IFR days are probably over. Unless they close my base or send me an IFR ship (doubtful), I’ll retire SE VFR. That’s fine with me. The things fly themselves anyway and it’s two checkrides a year vs one.

What kind of inadvertent IMC procedure do y'all follow?

 

[Velocity173]

What kind of inadvertent IMC procedure do y'all follow?

The usual stuff:
Attitude
Heading
Torque
Trim
Airspeed
Altitude
Squawk
ATC

 

[Piperonca]

The usual stuff:
Attitude
Heading
Torque
Trim
Airspeed
Altitude
Squawk
ATC

So, assuming your aircraft are fully equipped for IFR, just lacking one additional crew? Thus no hesitation if the situation suddenly demands it?

 

[Direct C51]

So, assuming your aircraft are fully equipped for IFR, just lacking one additional crew? Thus no hesitation if the situation suddenly demands it?

Most of the HAA helicopters fully equipped for IFR are operated as Single Pilot IFR (SPIFR) bases. The single engine VFR only helicopters can fly an ILS or GPS approach, but would only do so for practice or in a VFR to IMC emergency.

The SPIFR helicopters have an autopilot in lieu of a second in command, which must meet certain requirements. So no additional crew is needed or used. As a SPIFR HAA pilot, we routinely fly IFR in IMC, with the only real limitation being icing.

 

[Velocity173]

So, assuming your aircraft are fully equipped for IFR, just lacking one additional crew? Thus no hesitation if the situation suddenly demands it?

As far as 91.205 we have the instrumentation but lack a a few things to meet full IFR certification. Don’t have a back up generator, dual pitot system, it’s only 2 axis AP, etc.

There are programs that have gone the extra mile and are using the 407GXI (appropriately equipped) for IFR but my company has yet to do that. It’s a no brainer flying a GXI on instruments though. A two pilot UH-60 (non autopilot) was harder to fly in the clouds than this thing is.

 

[Velocity173]

You guys have the edge on the mission satisfaction front, full stop. If you ask my 9 year old, momma RN is the hero in the family. Dad is "just a teacher". Did I mention I love paying for that little shade-throwing c**-blocker's every waking breath since birth? Labor of love my friends, which I pay with 'effin Grace (aka the restraint not to give him an early introduction to the coldness of the outside world). *mutters the serenity prayer*

As you know, a lot of boomeranging .mil retirees flock to these type jobs for the mission satisfaction. In my time researching the FW side, it's common for folks to underscore not making much of what goes on aft of the cockpit, and treating it like "any other" part 135 non-sked job, as that's "what it ultimately is". I agree with the former, but heavily disagree with the latter. I understand the spirit of their sentiment in order to avoid hero complex and take unneeded weather risks for the sake of mission accomplishment. Especially when it comes to FW transfers which are by definition not frequently as critical as rotor. But, I'm certainly personally influenced by the distinction between offering my chauffer services in the furtherance of a medical transfer, as opposed to some monied richard's wife on her way to give her dog a pedicure across the pond (true story, SJU-FLL leg for a dog pedi appointment). I don't care how many people that consumption excess ultimately employs, I'm not personally motivated by it even if it pays more.

More to life than money. And I would know a lot about that these days, NDAA yearly-reminding me how little regard I have for my family's "material well being". I leave money on the table like it's my primary duty title.

Yeah an old friend of mine has been trying to get me to jump ship to his company (PMC) flying MI-17s around the world. I’d make twice the pay and as he says, I’d “make a difference.” Well, I make a difference now.

Obviously the above vid is exaggerated. It’s great for recruiting but like the military, real life is far less glamorous than the dream. We aren’t saying lives on a daily basis but it does happen. I could make a difference in a foreign country gone 6 months out of the year or make a difference in my own back yard…I think I’ll stick with the later.

 

[Piperonca]

As far as 91.205 we have the instrumentation but lack a a few things to meet full IFR certification. Don’t have a back up generator, dual pitot system, it’s only 2 axis AP, etc.

There are programs that have gone the extra mile and are using the 407GXI (appropriately equipped) for IFR but my company has yet to do that. It’s a no brainer flying a GXI on instruments though. A two pilot UH-60 (non autopilot) was harder to fly in the clouds than this thing is.
View attachment 113648

Gobs of situation awareness right there. And what is this autopilot of which you speak?

 

[Velocity173]

Gobs of situation awareness right there. And what is this autopilot of which you speak?

Yeah the GX/GXI airframes are easy to fly on instruments. SVT makes a whole of difference but the AP is key. It would be a massive PITA to fly that thing in the clouds without the AP. When they take it away in the sim, I’m usually sweating pretty good after an IAP.

I always brag to the IFR guys that I had to use both hands and feet in the Army but you Huey guys truly had it rough. I at least had SAS / FPS. The good ole days of no autopilot and no LPV approaches.

 

[Piperonca]

I always brag to the IFR guys that I had to use both hands and feet in the Army but you Huey guys truly had it rough.

QFT. Much as I love the Huey, I must admit the Army did not see fit to equip it adequately for low/vis or instrument flight. I was always jealous when I would spot a Marine or Air Force UH-1 on a ramp somewhere, go over and look in the cockpit, and behold complete instrumentation for both pilots, along with such exotic things as TACAN. Bear in mind the time it takes to develop and procure an aircraft in DoD, and the longstanding hostility the Army leadership had toward aviation, it was a miracle we even got the Huey, along with the turbine engine. Some brass hat somewhere undoubtedly said, "don't make it fancy."

The cyclic was a wet noodle. For lack of SAS, we used force trim and/or friction. Even with that, it was work to fly in the clouds, just as you say. Unfortunately there were losses of the Huey in both VN (including 5 fatalities in my own platoon) and in CONUS (multiple fatalities) attributable to disorientation. My fingers would wear out typing all the times I pondered my longevity sitting over there in that left seat crooking my neck to keep focus on the right hand side of the panel during some challenging conditions. Even the fricking compass was on the farthest right edge of the panel, essentially invisible. Completing the picture, the junior (and frequently inexperienced) pilot typically sat in that right seat.

Happy to see that era is gone. Commercial and military helicopters now have basic equipment I would have considered flying saucer stuff all those years ago. Precision location? Terrain advisory? Coupled approaches to a point? Automatic hover mode? Hands off flying in general? Night vision? I would trade a thousand Huey ashtrays for any one of those, and a body part for all of them back when any one of them would have been a literal lifesaver.

 

[KaiGywer]

Not nearly as bad ass, but I am going cop to fixed wing EMS

 

[hindsight2020]

Not nearly as bad ***, but I am going cop to fixed wing EMS

It's a very common flow for LE to become pilots of all kinds, as second careers. Ditto for firefighter. A guy now in his 50s who flies fixed EMS locally, washed out of Navy flight school in his 20s, bounced in and out of part 135/91 due to low pay, gave up on it and settled into a firefighter career for 20 some years. Once the pension was secured, shifted back to flying (FW EMS) as a retirement career once the affordability wasn't as much of an issue. The sector should pay better, but this dynamic is quite common.