Oregon Air Ambulance Services

I thought I had detected an absence from the airwaves of some of the helicopter-based ambulance services that were somewhat common on the Tillamook county fire channels so dug into it a bit deeper. In the past, they'd have either Reach Air Medical respond from Corvallis or, more recently, Oregon Lifeguard respond from its Tillamook base. Most recently, I haven't heard either service but, instead, Life Flight Network respond from its Astoria or its new Newport base.

It's probably not unexpected that Reach Air would pull out of Corvallis with competing services from LIfe Flight Network's Cottage Grove and Aurora bases and, the new Newport base, cutting into its previous service area.

Looking at the Life Flight Network website at https://www.lifeflight.org/service-area/, it doesn't show Hillsboro. I seem to recall them having a rotor-wing ship based at Hillsboro along with Aurora. I suspect that its Redmond base must compete with Airlink for service in central Oregon.

The Oregon Lifeguard website at http://www.oregonlifeguard.com/ explains that they've discontinued service at Tillamook primarily due to the weather conditions and are referring membership customers to the Life Flight Network.

Reach Air Medical, from looking at their webpage at https://reachair.com/services/service-areas/, must have relocated its Corvallis operations to Roseburg. That site, coupled with its North Bend and parent company's Cal-Ore Life Flight operation, concentrate service in southwestern Oregon. Looks like it really has a concentration of service areas in California with the sister operations of Calstar.

All accurate. If I recall, the Hillsboro LifeFlight is a summer only gig.

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Heard Reach pulled out like 1 1/2 -2 months ago from local firefighters. First they said Cottage Grove did not know they went to Roseburg.

David

Can anyone verify the freqs. these companies use? There are a lot in the DB but unsure if they are current/updated.

Thanks.

Life Flight no longer has a base at Hillsboro; Aurora and Longview and Astoria cover the area.

Cottage Grove is a Life Flight base; the Eugene rotor relocated there a few years ago.

Life Flight aircraft will talk to ATC / tower on the usual frequencies, ground units on whatever frequencies they use, and primarily communicate with their dispatch via phone.

Thanks Medic!