Yesterday, I went on a ride-along with an old roommate of mine on Arizona Lifeline 2 in Douglas, AZ. I had a lot of fun! The pilot started by giving me the quick "What to do in a helicopter" and quick safety guidelines should something go wrong. John briefly told me about how a call is run and what I could and could not do with the patients. I wasn't surprised to find out that there wasn't much I could do to them, and that I would primarily be on observational status only.

Within about five minutes, we got our first call. This would be my first trip up in a helicopter! Our patient was very critical and it was a great call. On our way back to the base, we got another call. This patient wasn't nearly as bad off, but it was still fun. On our way back, our pilot called back to us to tell us we had a problem. We had lost all hydraulics in the helicopter and would be making an emergency landing in Tombstone. We told Tombstone Fire Department, our dispatch center, and the Tombstone Marshalls that we would be coming down at their airport. I was then told to "brace for impact." We came down to the airport with a forward speed of about 75 MPH, slid to a stop, and shut down the aircraft. We all then got out, checked our shorts, and called everybody to tell them we made it down safely.

Now we just had to wait to get our aircraft off the runway, but in the meantime the runway was closed down. While waiting, I took a few photos of the skid marks from the helicopter. Unfortunately, you can't really see anything except a helicopter on a runway. We sat on the runway until about 7:30 PM, drove back to the base, ate dinner, then I left.

The day didn't stop me from wanting to work in flight medicine. I had a lot of fun with my first two calls, and the fact that the pilot was experienced enough to be able to bring down the aircraft in a safe manner made me feel really good about the dangers of going up in a helicopter on a regular basis while at work.