The Solution

TRACKER is KEY-
Zon's research for viable equipment and software solutions led him to Sky Connect. Sky Connect's equipment solution was its unified TRACKER system, which provides flight following and telephone communication.

For flight following, TRACKER automatically derives position, heading, and groundspeed from a GPS receiver. Position reports are rapidly relayed by Iridium to Sky Connect's secure servers, then to EagleMed. The frequency of tracking reports is user-programmable; EagleMed uses a 5-minute reporting rate.

For voice communication, TRACKER uses a cockpit-mounted dialpad to make telephone calls and an audio interface to send calls directly to the aircraft audio system. Flight crews communicate with dispatch centers in two workload-reducing ways: direct-dial telephone calls and manual pushbutton status reports.

For graphically displaying aircraft positions, TRACKER position reports are compatible with the mapping element of several flight tracking software programs; EagleMed uses Flight Explorer Professional® (FE). The features of FE include overlays for weather and temporary flight restrictions; audible and visual alerts of aircraft events like takeoff, landing, or flight plan changes; event logging and reporting; and the capability to integrate third-party position data.

The latter feature was important to Zon, who wanted to use TRACKER position reports to obtain full situational awareness of his fleet. He wanted to see the complete flight path: from the aircraft's current position (usually the aircraft's base) to the patient pickup point, to the receiving hospital, and back to base. He also wanted to see the aircraft's real-time position, altitude, groundspeed, and an automatically updated ETA.

"When emergency personnel call you with a patient who is bleeding out, and you tell them you will be there in 17 minutes, they will do what is required based upon that information. Knowing exactly when the aircraft will arrive changes the way a patient is managed on-scene. I wanted to be able to give emergency personnel the information needed to make the best medical decisions. No other airmedical dispatch software does that because their focus is on the medical side, not the flight side," Zon explains.

To put TRACKER data to greater use, EagleMed integrates the TRACKER information into its dispatch management software, Flight Vector. This program provides everything Zon wanted and more. For example, it computes actual miles flown, crosschecks crew hours against a planned mission's time requirement, alerts when an aircraft must be removed from service due to component life limits, and generates reports for FAA safety audits.

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