In among the giants of the offshore transport industry in the Gulf of Mexico, there’s one operator that fulfills a unique and vital role with just two aircraft. That company is CHI Aviation, and that vital role is to provide 24/7 contract and ad hoc search-and-rescue (SAR) service to those working offshore. As for unique, it operates the only heavy SAR platform in the Gulf of Mexico — a Sikorsky S-92 — along with an AgustaWestland AW139.
CHI has been providing the service, from a base in Galliano, La., for about 18 months. Headquartered in Howell, Mich., CHI has become something of a multi-sector specialist in the heavy-lift world (see p.56, Vertical, Aug./Sept. 2014). However, the move into offshore SAR wasn’t something company president Chris Turner had been considering. “It was never a thought, because it’s not a market you can break into,” he told Vertical 911. “If you’re not already a vendor for the oil companies, and haven’t been audited by them, they won’t even talk to you.”
But when the U.S. Department of Transportation found that VIH Cougar, which had previously run the Galliano SAR base and aircraft, was under the control of a non-U.S. citizen, a unique opportunity to enter the market presented itself. While Canadian company VIH Aviation Group contested the finding, it decided to sell its VIH Cougar subsidiary to Turner, bringing an end to a turbulent and very political period in the operation’s history.
A CHI Aviation search-and-rescue (SAR) crew performs a training mission int he waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This Sikorsky S-92 is the only heavy SAR platform in the region. Mike Reyno Photos
Today, CHI has two offshore SAR offerings in the Gulf of Mexico; it services an oil company consortium (membership) contract with the S-92, and provides ad hoc SAR with the AW139. Both are operated in partnership with Acadian Air Med. CHI also provides seasonal SAR in Barrow, Alaska, with another S-92.
“We’re just a tiny company compared to the other offshore operators,” said Turner. “But the oil companies seem to like that [and] we do well on our audits.”
A Niche Service
According to Turner, the secret to CHI’s success in such niche industries is in selecting the right people to oversee them. In Galliano, that person is David Jacob, who serves as CHI’s director of offshore operations. Jacob has been taking part in advanced life support and critical care missions as part of both the Louisiana Army National Guard and as a flight paramedic for Acadian Ambulance for over 21 years. And that wealth of experience is not unique at the base; during Vertical 911’s visit to the Galliano facility earlier this year, Jacob noted over 90 percent of the pilots and rescue specialists working there were ex-military.
“Probably 80 of the 90 percent are all combat veterans; we’ve all done good medicine in bad places, so this is a dream job,” said Jacob. “This is where a guy with that very specific and lifesaving skill trade can have employment, stability, and a future after a career in the military.”
CHI operates its SAR service in partnership with Acadian Air Med. In addition to providing paramedics for the flight crews, Acadian contributes dedicated flight following, offers a medical director on standby, and provides access to its entire ground and air fleet.
Arriving from across the services, from Army to Navy, Coast Guard to Air Force, the diversity in background is a boon to CHI’s service, according to Jacob. “The Navy may do something better than the Army did something; the Army may have done some things maybe better than the Navy did — so we’re taking the best of each service’s rescue operation, and formulating our own,” he said. “That’s the CHI way of doing business.”
In terms of certifications, CHI’s SAR service is Federal Aviation Regulation part 135 and part 133 (class A, B, C and D) certified for air ambulance operations and hoisting/external load operations, respectively, and both the S-92 and AW139 are licensed air ambulances.
The standard crew configuration for the S-92 and AW139 is the same: a flight paramedic, a rescue swimmer, a hoist operator, and two pilots. The level of expertise throughout the crews is illustrated by the capabilities of the program. A 24/7 all-weather service, it operates day or night, in visual flight rules (VFR) or instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions; can perform rescues ranging from advanced rope and confined space, to industrial rescue operations; and has critical care medical transport capabilities that include rapid sequence induction, chemical extrication, CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure), portable respiratory ventilators, and IV nitrates (more on those later).
CHI’s maintenance teams look after the aircraft in the first air conditioned hangar in the Gulf of Mexico. This protects the aircraft’s avionics, in particular, from the damaging effects of the brutal humidity during Galliano’s summer.
The main SAR platform, the S-92, is equipped with forward looking infrared cameras (FLIR Ultra 8500 XR), Spectrolab XP Nightsun searchlights, and a Goodrich dual hoist (the AW139 has a Breeze-Eastern single hoist). The S-92 is also equipped with a SAR automatic flight control system (AFCS) that creates optimized search patterns, transitions from cruise flight to hover (and back again), and allows the hoist operator limited control of the aircraft when in a hover, through a hoist pendant control.
At the time of Vertical 911’s visit, the AW139 had just completed its night vision goggle (NVG) conformity process (the completion was done by Aviation Specialities Unlimited), bringing it into line with the S-92’s night vision capability.
When a call comes in, CHI’s stated launch time is within 20 minutes, but internally the crews aim to hit 15 minutes. “We’re usually hitting under 15, which is unique for an S-92,” said Jacob. “The only way we can accomplish that is to have quick start checklists in the aircraft. The pilots go out at the beginning of the shift and run through the checklist all the way to start, and then it’s on standby — it’s roped off and no one can touch it.”
The volume of calls tends to be cyclical, said Jacob, but in the first three months of the year, CHI received 17 SAR callouts, and transported 12 of those (the remainder were cancelled). However, the crew maintains a high degree of proficiency through constant training — 50 to 70 flight hours a month per aircraft.
This includes practicing hoists from offshore installations, vessels, rafts or open water; conducting searches; and delivering SKAD (survival kit air droppable) kits to survivors in the water — as well as preparing for the medevacs from oil rigs that make up the vast bulk of the operation’s work.
While much of this training is mandated by the oil companies — such as each pilot and rescue specialist needing to complete three open water hoisting sequences every 90 days, six SAR AFCS transitions every 90 days, two vessel hoisting sequences every 180 days, and one night hoist sequence every 180 days — Jacob said merely maintaining currency with these requirements isn’t enough. “Current is one thing, proficient is a totally different thing,” he said. “Proficiency is key to the operation.”
Steve Tupper, CHI’s maintenance lead in Galliano, has been working at the base since the operation began. “We’re a pretty tight knit group here,” he said. “It’s been a good eight years.”
At the Controls
CHI currently has 28 pilots flying the offshore SAR mission, including those working on the second S-92 on the seasonal contract in Barrow. In Galliano, they work 12-hour shifts in a pattern of 14 days on, 14 days off, but the format of how the day/night shifts fall is somewhat flexible.
Nuri Van Hattum, who has been flying offshore SAR for almost four years, is one of the few pilots at CHI’s SAR operation with a civilian background. A varied career that took in Alaska air tours, utility, emergency medical services (EMS), and bar pilot operations, provided him with the right combination of twin-engine, IFR, NVG, and offshore hoisting experience for the role. He originally joined the operation to fly Airbus Helicopters EC135s offshore in Alaska, before converting to the S-92 through an intensive month-long course at FlightSafety International a couple of years ago.
“I’ve flown some other big helicopters a bit, but nothing this big,” said Van Hattum. “It’s just a little slower and less maneuverable.”
In terms of the mission, he said he loves everything about the job — except for the fact that they rarely get the chance to put their finely-honed SAR skills into practice. “The majority of what we do for actual medevac calls is fairly straightforward,” he said. “Most of the rigs we serve have S-92-capable decks, so we’re generally flying out and landing on a rig, picking up an injured patient, and bringing them back.”
Aside from thunderstorms and the possibility of hurricanes, he said the main concern in operating the Gulf was the heat and humidity. “It gets brutally hot going into the summertime and we run into humidity and power issues, especially with the SAR aircraft where we’re always thinking about single-engine hover performance.”
The power and size of the S-92 allow the crews to carry a board array of advanced medical equipment. This can prove crucial in negating the effects of patients having to travel such great distances to reach definitive medical treatment.
In the Cabin
There are 13 CHI personnel trained as rescue specialists, and they’re usually qualified in at least two of three cabin positions — hoist operator, rescue swimmer, and/or paramedic. While the crew contains a paramedic from partner Acadian Air Med, because of the dual qualification of the rescue specialists, there could be up to three trained paramedics on any given call. “The dual qualification gives us the flexibility in our operation to cover multiple positions,” said Jacob.
Justin Stout is a relatively new rescue specialist with CHI. He had been a rescue swimmer in the U.S. Navy, where he flew in a Sikorsky SH-60 Seahawk, before he began civilian life at his family’s bakery.
“I did three years as a civilian, which was pretty tough, and then Dave [Jacob] found me,” he said. “I absolutely love this job. It’s tough to find something that makes you feel like you did when you were in the military.”
Comparing his current role with his experience in the military, he said the sheer size and power of the S-92 stood out. “This thing’s a beast, it’s a dream compared to what the military’s using in my opinion,” he said. “It’s a workhorse, and we’ve seen that since I’ve been here.”
He added that the tighter requirements of the civilian world also meant that the training was more frequent. “In the Navy, you’ve got 45 to 50 rescue swimmers in one squadron, and only a few helicopters to operate because you’re on deployment, so there’s no way to maintain the currencies,” he said. “Everybody’s getting their training here, and we’re doing it a bit more often — so it’s all fresh.”
Two crewmembers practice a line transfer at the hangar. CHI has 13 of its own rescue specialists as well as four paramedics from Acadian Air Med working at its SAR operation. Almost all the rescue specialists have a military background.
A Successful Partnership
While Acadian Air Med provides paramedics for both the S-92 and the ad hoc AW139, its partnership with CHI actually runs much deeper. Acadian also provides 24/7 dedicated flight following with certified emergency medical dispatchers who can provide pre-arrival care instructions, as well as coordinate aviation logistics, weather, hospitals, medical control, and other auxiliary services for CHI’s flight teams. CHI also has access to Acadian’s ground and air fleet if further patient transfer is necessary, and is able to resupply its medical stocks from Acadian units. Finally, the crews have around-the-clock access to a medical director on standby.
Tony Cramer, a registered nurse and critical care flight paramedic from Acadian, has been working with CHI for just over a year. “We see a lot of trauma-related accidents,” he said, “because of the heavy machinery and equipment that they have offshore. Then there’s medical [calls] — and it can be anything from kidney stones, to appendicitis, to a heart attack.”
The key difference in the patients seen in the offshore world as compared to onshore EMS is the time it takes to reach them, said Cramer. Though many rigs contain high-level medics, that isn’t always the case.
“Say it’s a patient with chest pain,” he said. “Well, you’re already an hour or two into the event, so they’re going to need more aggressive treatment. Same with trauma patients; we’re not going to make the golden hour if it takes us an hour to get there and an hour to get back… there’s nothing we can really do about that. You just have to watch them very closely and your treatment has to be very aggressive.”
The program has developed some capabilities to negate some of the effects of the delay, where possible. For example, when the crews are transporting someone having a heart attack, they’re able to carry the IV pumps, patient monitors and 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) that are often only found inside an ER, and those monitors can be synched through cellphones to the receiving hospital. This means the crew is often able to bypass the ER and take the patient straight to a catheterization lab, saving valuable time.
Another of the operation’s particularly impressive medical capabilities, provided through its partnership with Acadian, is chemical extrication. This is the use of a hypnotic agent (etomidate) and heavy sedatives to facilitate the removal of a limb that’s trapped in a piece of machinery. According to Cramer, in such situations, the medical team can only give so much pain medication without dropping the patient’s vital signs so low that it becomes counterproductive — and such a dosage still wouldn’t be enough to prevent a very painful extraction.
“We give them this medicine and it knocks them out,” he said. “You may be awake — most of the time you’re not — but you won’t remember it. It’s like amnesia. It still hurts, but you just don’t remember it.”
Reflecting on the switch from onshore to offshore operations, Cramer said his current role was more dynamic. “The patient care is sometimes very critical patient care, and then you get to do some rescue type work as well,” he said. “It doesn’t get much better than that!”
Both aircraft are fully compatible with night vision goggles, and the crew spend many hours training at night to keep proficiency for those missions.
Home Base
CHI’s Galliano base contains the first air-conditioned hangar in the Gulf of Mexico — which the maintenance team has found to be a crucial aid in keeping the aircraft in a constant state of readiness.
“Our reliability is high — it’s about 97 percent,” said maintenance lead Steve Tupper, who has been working at the Galliano operation since its beginning under VIH Cougar eight years ago. “It’s the humidity that kills these machines outside — it just wreaks havoc on the computer systems.”
But before the aircraft are taken in to the hangar, they are given a full saltwater flush, an engine rinse, and wiped down — daily. The meticulous cleaning regime also includes a weekly polish. These measures help protect the aircraft from the worst of the corrosive environment in which they operate.
Inside the hangar, each aircraft has its own dedicated maintenance team and separate tools. While all of the 20 maintenance personnel in Galliano are qualified to work on both aircraft types, the four avionics technicians are the only ones able to cross over between the two within a 24-hour period — a measure mandated by the oil companies.
The aircraft are on original equipment manufacturer (OEM) maintenance support contracts for more predictable maintenance costs and support, but major maintenance requires planning well in advance of schedule.
“If anything major is coming along and we’re 20 hours or 25 hours out, I let operations and the oil companies know — because the oil companies always want to know — and then they’ll actually prepare another aircraft, if they need heavy-lift like an S-92,” said Tupper. “It’s a juggling act — not because they’re a SAR aircraft, but because we’re a 24/7 operation.”
Just as the oil company requirements for proficiency from the pilots and rescue specialists are fairly exacting, so are the standards for excellence from the maintenance team. All are factory schooled, and then undergo week-long recurrency
training every 12 months.
“What we’re seeing in the Gulf is that North Sea standard of operation,” said Tupper. “That’s where that 15-minute launch standard came from — the North Sea. It’s all being absorbed down here.”
The operator also has an AgustaWestland AW139 in Galliano for ad hoc SAR missions. Like the S-92, the aircraft has a crew of five: two pilots, a hoist operator, a rescue swimmer, and a paramedic.
A Transferable Operation
Looking ahead, Jacob said CHI’s SAR program certainly has the capability to grow — and military cutbacks may provide new opportunities for the company, which could result in an increased level of service for the end user. “Just look at the Coast Guard,” he said. “They’re having to respond to calls that are further and further away, and in the Gulf of Mexico they’re flying the [Airbus Helicopters MH-65] Dolphin — which is very limited on range and space; the medical providers are basic, so the care a patient would receive would basically be limited to advanced first aid; and they’re transported to the closest hospital they come across. We can transport patients to the most definitive care facility.”
But growth domestically may just be the tip of the iceberg.
“We like this segment,” said CHI president Chris Turner. “This segment will take us to other places in the world, because the oil companies are putting that requirement on every place they work to have SAR. So we’re hoping to take our SAR program to other places, and there’s been quite a few enquiries that we’ve had to do just that.”
Oliver Johnson is managing editor of Vertical Magazine. He can be reached at oliver@mhmpub.com.