Rope procedures for extraction and insertion of persons used by helicopter emergency medical service

Abstract

The article deals with the issue of alternative ways of extraction and insertion of persons by helicopters using rope and non-rope procedures. The article provides a current general overview of rope and non-rope procedures for insertion of persons in places where a helicopter cannot touch down, as well as an overview of techniques used for extraction/transport of persons from places not permitting helicopter touchdown. The article lists advantages and disadvantages of individual methods and their applicability in the helicopter emergency medical service. The main contribution of the article is the comparison of time indicators when inserting and transporting persons by helicopters with the use of rope procedures during typical model situations. For the purposes of comparing rope procedures have been created three typical model situations for inserting two persons from a hovering helicopter and two typical model situations for extracting four persons and their transportation on board. During creating these model situations, we have taken into consideration the most frequently used rope procedures within HEMS in civil, military and police sectors of the Slovak Republic. Total insertion/extraction time was considered the basic piece of data for the comparison. Time data were obtained from flight tests, actual training, technical documentation data and on the basis of the expert estimate. Rope procedures were compared among each other and among three types of helicopters most used for these purposes in the Slovak Republic: Mi-17 LPZS, Bell-429 and AGUSTA A109K2. Processed conclusions from the comparison of each model situation within the considered alternative rope ways of extraction and insertion of persons by helicopters and the conclusions drawn from the performance comparison of HEMS helicopters in the Slovak Republic within these model situations are a significant contribution to the determination of procedures in the framework of rescue missions.