Air Ambulance Lat/Lon Info. Duh!

[rescuecomm]

Last week I was monitoring comms and checking the batteries on my old Magellan GPS. Medtrans was dispatched and I was entering the coordinates to see how far the landing zone was. The longitude numbers were something like W82-32-81. While trying to enter that I realized my unit was set up for degree/min/sec and the dispatcher was giving deg/min/decimal min since there is no 81 secs. I had to change my GPS and am going to check the one in the squad truck. The way they give the co-ords out is confusing since they omit the "point" in the numbers and it makes one think it is Deg/Min/Sec. Wonder if anyone else has had this problem.

Bob

 

[Jacob]

I teach GPS and in dms you will have a decimal so as my address is
N 33degress 30'36.67"
W 082degress 07'22.12"

I hope this example helps

Jacob

 

[drsouth]

Funny that you mention this, towards the end of last fall, was listening to Georgetown tone out MUSC lifecare. The FD was giving their coordinates in DMS, and the chopper was some 90-110miles off the LZ, took them so long to figure out the confusion that the EMS unit went on to transport the patient to the hospital 20miles away to meet the chopper there on the pad.

Georgetown had two diff agents reporting off of two diff GPS units, needless to say their frustration under pressure must also mean they are just as confused as to what format they need to report their location in too.

I am still somewhat confused as to the "standardization" of the format to report LZ coordinates. I've seen my local FD call MUSC lifecare and give both formats, and then the poor chopper pilot convert that onboard to get to where he needed to be.

I've gained much respect for the chopper pilots around us for being able to do all they do as well as they do.

It sure is a lot easier sitting in a comfy chair listening to their location description, and plugging in the info into google earth or something similar than fling 120knots at 1000ft converting it on a calculator and reentering it on the mission computer at 3am in the dark!


P.S.

SC EMD 64064 is gearing up for an op today in Moncks Corner heard on tower 52 and 12, hope they setup the video feed again!



Dave

 

[Jacob]

It is very important that everyone be on the same sheet of music for that very reason. Most pilots us LL DMS, the other important think to remember is that everyone is using the same user datum. If not this could cause a lot of problems as well.

 

[evan]

P.S.

SC EMD 64064 is gearing up for an op today in Moncks Corner heard on tower 52 and 12, hope they setup the video feed again!

Dave

Activity also heard in the Columbia area on 28832. The EMD training calendar lists Wednesday and Thursday as "State Full Scale Exercise." Tomorrow may be a big listening day.

 

[brian]

Air Ambulance Services in SC

Thjs is slightly off the topic of the OP's thread, but it got me to thinking:

So there is MedTrans based in Greenville.
There's Regional 1 in Spartanburg, also operated by Medtrans
There's South Carolina LifeNet now, the combination of LifeReach and CareForce in Columbia. This is operated by Air Methods, Inc.
Then there's MUSC Meducare Air in Charleston, operated by Omniflight Helicopters.
And Carolina LifeNet in Conway, also operated by OmniFlight.

Did I miss any? Maybe Florence or Aiken? Who flies to Beaufort?

MedTrans is on UHF.
Regional 1 is on State Air-Ground 3856, toned out on Spartanburg EMS Page 800 Conventional freq.
LifeNet is on 3888 and 3920.
MUSC Meducare is on 3824. They also have a VHF conventional freq for tone-out?
LifeCare is on 50928.

Greenville County is Flight Control for MedTrans.
Spartanburg County is Flight Control for Regional 1.
Does LifeNet have their own Flight Control/Comm Center?
MUSC Meducare handles Comms for the Air Transport as well as Ground Transport Ambulances.
I assume that MUSC Meducare also handles Flight Control for LifeCare?

Anyone have anything to add to this?

 

[LarrySC]

What freqs are the RC choppers on? .... .. .... ..

 

[rescuecomm]

Made a call to Medtrans Op Center near Donaldson Center and have the answer. According to the pilot on duty, the desired format is Deg/Min/Sec. There must have been some confusion on the co-ords I copied on the Oconee drowning call.

Bob

 

[evan]

Here are some choppers based out of state that respond to calls in SC:
LifeStarOne-Savannah; I believe I've heard them on the Beaufort Co. TRS in the past
MedCenter Air-Charlotte
AirMed (Gold Cross EMS)-Augusta
MCG LifeNet-Augusta; owned by same company as SC LifeNet. MCG LifeNet occasionally comes up on 3888

The company that owns the LifeNet helos, Air Methods, states that dispatching for all of their helicopters is done from one place...and it's in Nebraska. http://12.45.98.34/content/index.cfm?fuseaction=showContent&contentID=16&navID=16 I assume this applies to SC and MCG LifeNet? Seems kind of odd.

 

[Pumper253]

Caroline LifeCare

FYI:

LifeCare is no longer at Conway, SC.

It is now based at Myrtle Beach Airport and works out of the ARFF station.

 

[kf4pep]

One thing that they did here in my county some years ago was send each FD out with a GPS to identify and catalog all likely LZ's. Then a list was made of each LZ with a unique ID number, location, coordinates, and nearby hazards. Then this list was supposed to go out to each FD but I am not sure it did, I know it is in dispatch as well as the helicopters dispatch...so worst come to worst if the deprtment says they are setting up a LZ at a certain location dispatch has the coordinates.

A little recon work can eliminate a lot of time lost later.

 

[kayn1n32008]

very confusing, here in alberta there are a few different coord. systems in use. there is UTM w/ datum of NAD27 or WSG86(slowly going to just WSG86), 3TM, and Range/Township. plus Lat/Long.

for calling STARS air ambulance in alberta, i *think* that they would prefer a section/range/township/west of _meridian(in alberta it is the 4th, 5th or 6th meridian) starting at the sask/alberta border is the th (110deg. W). example is 3-21-57-25-5W (i was working at this LSD last week)

myself i prefer UTM coords. as it is easy to figure out, as long as you know which zone you are in.

I think that the biggest problem is that if i had to call 911 not knowing where i am and i gave the dispatcher my location in UTM coords.

As it is i dont have my personal GPS set up to display lat/long as it is of little to no use to me, or in my work.

 

[DCHarris]

Med-Center Air now has a unit based out of Rock Hill, SC; I assume this is at the airport.

 

[Searay]

Med-Center Air now has a unit based out of Rock Hill, SC; I assume this is at the airport.

You are correct. They have a crew and one chopper stationed at the Rock Hill airport.

Matt