PHI Air Medical DFW - not hearing much ?

[billpritjr]

Hello Folks

Have the VHF freqs for PHI Air Medical, DFW area (specifically Denton) gone quiet? Have my scanner on record mode and have not heard anything in weeks. Maybe antenna etc at my home base, but wanted to ask also.

Thank you

 

[WB5PGE]

Ditto here, I live near Spinks Airport & have all the VHF channels I see listed for them programmed & never hear anything. They seem to have a base there (at Spinks Airport), I see them flying quite a bit on Flightradar24, I think these are mostly just test flights. I see no talk groups for them on North Texas Trunking System either. I know they used to be dispatched out of Phoenix with remote bases connected via VOIP to Phoenix. They had a base station in Corsicana.

 

[Motoballa]

I know a few air companies have gone to the Zello for Work platform, not sure if they happen to be one of them. If that's the case, you won't be able to monitor their dispatches.

 

[hiegtx]

I'm hearing a fair amount of activity on 152.9525, which is listed as being "McKinney and Dallas Executive". The database page references PHI 2 & 3. But mostly I'm hearing PHI 1, which, I think, is based at Medical City Dallas. (They finished a run & were returning to base. Fkightradar24 showed that return flight ended at Med City.). I've also heard PHI 5 on that frequency, but not enough activity to try & identify it's home base. I doubt that PHI is using Dallas Executive. I have seen several of their birds at the Desoto Heliport. One launched while I was having lunch at Ojeda's right across the road. Flightradar24 verified it was a PHI aircraft. I did not have a scanner with me inside the restaurant, so no idea if that was a launch from a base for a mission, or a copter that was at the heliport for fuel or maintenance. There were what appeared to be a couple other PHI units either in "mini-hangers' with the door opened, or outside on the tarmac.

 

[Harold]

I'm hearing a fair amount of activity on 152.9525, which is listed as being "McKinney and Dallas Executive". The database page references PHI 2 & 3. But mostly I'm hearing PHI 1, which, I think, is based at Medical City Dallas. (They finished a run & were returning to base. Fkightradar24 showed that return flight ended at Med City.). I've also heard PHI 5 on that frequency, but not enough activity to try & identify it's home base. I doubt that PHI is using Dallas Executive. I have seen several of their birds at the Desoto Heliport. One launched while I was having lunch at Ojeda's right across the road. Flightradar24 verified it was a PHI aircraft. I did not have a scanner with me inside the restaurant, so no idea if that was a launch from a base for a mission, or a copter that was at the heliport for fuel or maintenance. There were what appeared to be a couple other PHI units either in "mini-hangers' with the door opened, or outside on the tarmac.

I don't think they are at Desoto any longer, I think that operation moved to Spinks. They do their training flights from Spinks now. I tore apart my home office and radio room to put in new flooring and a new desk, as soon as I can put it back together I will try to get a line on what frequency they are on, but I think they did combine everyone to one frequency. The PHI birds here are PHI Med 2 in McKinney , PHI Med 10 in Denton and Med 1 not sure of their base, but it is a Medical City bird.

 

[hiegtx]

I don't think they are at Desoto any longer, I think that operation moved to Spinks. They do their training flights from Spinks now. I tore apart my home office and radio room to put in new flooring and a new desk, as soon as I can put it back together I will try to get a line on what frequency they are on, but I think they did combine everyone to one frequency. The PHI birds here are PHI Med 2 in McKinney , PHI Med 10 in Denton and Med 1 not sure of their base, but it is a Medical City bird.

You are probably correct about them using Spinks. Looking at Fkightradar24, from time to time, I see PHI copters circling around southern Tarrant, and the northern half of Johnson County. Does resemble more of a training, or "maintenance check" flight as opposed to a patient transport mission. A lot of circling around, and sometimes the tracks appear to be that they are shooting landings, maybe 'touch & go' at the Cleburne airport.

Med 1, as I noted, told dispatch he was "returning to base" (on the transmission I was referring to), and he did end up at Med City Dallas on Forest Lane. I heard a couple of transmissions from dispatch to unit 5, but, again I did not have enough to go on to follow where he was at, or was headed. That might be Greenville, or perhaps a Corsicanna bird, that brought a patient to one of the Dallas or Fort Worth hospitals

I get the impression that PHI may be the 'default' provider for the Medical City hospitals A lot of their flights, if you look at the tracks on Flightradar, either start, or end, or at least 'touch' one of the Medical City facilities. Don't recall the exact copter, but there was one PHI bird that, when I looked it up on Flightradar, showed a picture of the helicopter with Medical City livery, though the tail number definitely was a PHI unit.

PHI, besides their own flights, also mans the Children's Hospital unit (a Sikorsky helicopter) and they also provide units for some of the Christus Healthcare missions in East Texas.

 

[billpritjr]

I don't hear anything from PHI 10 anymore (Denton area).

 

[jasday]

You are probably correct about them using Spinks. Looking at Fkightradar24, from time to time, I see PHI copters circling around southern Tarrant, and the northern half of Johnson County. Does resemble more of a training, or "maintenance check" flight as opposed to a patient transport mission. A lot of circling around, and sometimes the tracks appear to be that they are shooting landings, maybe 'touch & go' at the Cleburne airport.

Med 1, as I noted, told dispatch he was "returning to base" (on the transmission I was referring to), and he did end up at Med City Dallas on Forest Lane. I heard a couple of transmissions from dispatch to unit 5, but, again I did not have enough to go on to follow where he was at, or was headed. That might be Greenville, or perhaps a Corsicanna bird, that brought a patient to one of the Dallas or Fort Worth hospitals

I get the impression that PHI may be the 'default' provider for the Medical City hospitals A lot of their flights, if you look at the tracks on Flightradar, either start, or end, or at least 'touch' one of the Medical City facilities. Don't recall the exact copter, but there was one PHI bird that, when I looked it up on Flightradar, showed a picture of the helicopter with Medical City livery, though the tail number definitely was a PHI unit.

PHI, besides their own flights, also mans the Children's Hospital unit (a Sikorsky helicopter) and they also provide units for some of the Christus Healthcare missions in East Texas.

PHI does have the contract with Medical City to provide interfacility transfers.

 

[hiegtx]

PHI does have the contract with Medical City to provide interfacility transfers.

Thanks for the confirmation. Occasionally I’ll see a CareFlite bird going to or from a Medical City facility, but most of the time any copter going to or from. Mercury site is shown as being PHI