Metro Aviation Will Convert Three Helos For University Of Michigan

As the result of a recent competitive bid award, Metro Aviation will finish three Eurocopter EC155B1 critical care transport helicopters for The University of Michigan Health System Survival Flight program. Based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Survival Flight will enter service with their first EC155B1 in September 2011 and will replace the current fleet of Bell 430s with the three new helicopters. Survival Flight initiated service as the first air medical program in the state of Michigan in 1983 and will be the first to operate civil air medical EC155s in the United States

Prior to delivery of the first new airframe to Metro Aviation, the company developed a full scale cabin, baggage, and cockpit mock-up in order to reduce the configuration development and completion timeframe. The airframe mock-up includes cabin and flight crew seating with a LifePort MedDeck patient handling platform. Working in conjunction with the product design group at Metro Aviation, Survival Flight program director, Denise Landis, recently visited the company headquarters with the interior development group from the longtime air medical program, to finalize interior appointments and equipment fitment plans. The airframe mock-up will also provide air medical crew training and systems familiarization opportunities without utilizing an operational aircraft.

The EC155 air medical development program at Metro Aviation will include cabin seating for five medical attendants, two piece aluminum floor with integrated tracking, a secondary patient restraint system, as well as custom interior lighting and audio systems. An innovative flat screen multi-function system at three cabin stations to control and indicate condition of equipment is utilized. Milton Geltz, Managing Director, states, "The large cabin size of the EC155 created a unique problem for the crew. Through the Cobham DACS system we are installing they could communicate but the larger issue was how to effectively control the functions of the installed patient care support equipment. We believe we have solved this problem with the flat screen multifunction control system." Geltz also stated, "Survival Flight will receive the innovative iPAD familiarization tool that will describe all the installed equipment functionality and operation."

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Ben Tung, a flight nurse from the University of Michigan Health System Survival Flight says they intend to integrate this system into their recurrent training program to maintain the currency of flight team members. Metro Aviation will integrate other specialized systems on the aircraft for the critical care transport team in addition to providing a custom paint scheme specified by Survival Flight. Metro Aviation is also responsible for developing the first air medical interiors for both the EC135 and EC145. The company will receive the first new airframe from American Eurocopter in May 2011. 

FMI: www.metroaviation.com