Police Aviation News January 2011

Police Aviation News January 2011 13
AIR AMBULANCE
AUSTRALIA
RFDS: The Royal Flying Doctor Service’s Central Operations is seeking to establish a
new, consolidated base at Adelaide Airport covering South Australia.
The organisation has hangar and maintenance space at the airport but has its administration
elsewhere. It is now negotiating with Adelaide Airport Ltd for land at the airport on which
to build a new facility that will embrace the admin office. The proposal would involve a new
site with access to taxiways and runways.
The fifth and final new Pilatus PC-12 is due to enter service this month after its medical fitout,
completing a $30M investment by Central Operations to replace the oldest aircraft in
its current fleet of eleven PC-12s based in Adelaide, Port Augusta and Alice Springs. Two of
the older fleet of PC-12s have been sold in the USA.
The delivery will mean that the next move in fleet renewal can be put off about five years
unless there is a positive outcome of the competitive tender to supply aeromedical services
in the Northern Territory [NT]. If the contract is won the NT government contract will require
four new aircraft, new bases and staff, to replace existing NT Health Department medical
teams.
The selection of the aircraft type for NT will not be addressed until the outcome of the tender
is known but the bid pre-supposes that the existing Pearl Aviation air ambulance aircraft
will be replaced with new aircraft based out of a new facility in Darwin. Pearl Aviation operate
a mixed fleet of around two dozen aircraft out of Darwin International Airport and assigns
Beech 200 twins in support of the existing NT contract. [Australian Aviation/PAR]