CareFlight Group Queensland is celebrating five years since it commenced its safety instruction program through the provision of training to Dubai’s Police Force Air Wing.
In five years, three CareFlight instructors have spent more than 2,000 hours training more than 70 Abu Dhabi Police pilots and 40 aircrewmen in search and rescue operations and night vision goggle (NVG) equipped flying.
“Basically, we take someone who has no experience flying in a crewed operation and train them so they’re practically ready for anything,” Abu Dhabi based CareFlight Instructor, Andrew Riches said in a statement. “They learn confined area flying, dust landings, winching over water and land, as well as performing vessel transfers; after dark they learn how to fly NVG. We’ve gone to great lengths to integrate ourselves into their organisation and build a trusting relationship.”
The Abu Dhabi Police Air Wing is one of the organisations in the Middle East and wider region that has tasked CareFlight to provide training. Others include the Qatar Emiri Air Force, Malaysian Coast Guard, UAE Air Force, Dubai Police Force and Saudi Paramedics.
“CareFlight Training Services was originally established to train our own pilots, aircrewmen and medical staff, but over the last 18 years it’s grown into a busy hub of specialist educational training for external aviation industry clients around the world,” CareFlight’s General Manager Training Jeremy Ovens said. “We also regularly welcome groups of international students to our HEMS Academy on the Gold Coast. Best of all, funds generated from these training contracts are directed back into the CareFlight community rescue helicopters so they can continue to provide the lifesaving care across the country.”
