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Speaker 1: Now joined by franchise, the toys, helicopter pilot and the

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Speaker 1: flight operations manager, because what would any ambulance service be

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Speaker 1: without a dedicated team of pilots and front of the

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Speaker 1: toy dreams us He had this conversation franchiore you strictly

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Speaker 1: a pilot or do you have also the medical background?

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Speaker 1: Do you participate in the medical procedures as well?

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Speaker 2: Firstly, good morning, thank you for having us your question.

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Speaker 2: Strictly a helicopter pilot, were some fixing background and all

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Speaker 2: that type of stuff, But AMS tries to separate the

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Speaker 2: two disciplines in order to maintain the highest quality standards.

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Speaker 1: So you have a footprint that, if needs be, covers

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Speaker 1: the entire country. But where would be some of the

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Speaker 1: more remote places that you have operated in?

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Speaker 2: Well IMS has historically had a footprint in just about

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Speaker 2: every single province in the country, so remote places is

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Speaker 2: what we do. The fixing operations is more geared for

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Speaker 2: the remote places because they can cover larger distances at

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Speaker 2: greater speed. The helicopter gives us more versatility, of course,

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Speaker 2: and being able to land in confined spaces and get

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Speaker 2: critical care to patients as quickly as possible.

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Speaker 1: And of course the fixing wing would require some sort

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Speaker 1: of landing strip.

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Speaker 2: Most we can land on roads if required, but according

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Speaker 2: to the regulations, but we do tend to operate to

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Speaker 2: registered airfield.

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Speaker 1: So we have leocopter year next us. Besides the pilot

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Speaker 1: co pilot, who is who is a team that goes

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Speaker 1: out on a mission.

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Speaker 2: All right, So generally speaking we have the pilot and

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Speaker 2: then to medical personnel a primary crew member followed by

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Speaker 2: a secondary crew member with various medical disciplines. And then

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Speaker 2: if we do go out on a rescue flight, we

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Speaker 2: also have an external load operator which is principally responsible

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Speaker 2: for safe operations during the rescue, both with the winching

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Speaker 2: and the short all operations.

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Speaker 1: So you also do have that wenching to do an airlift.

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Speaker 1: Maybe someone stuck in a for example, a flooded area

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Speaker 1: use that wench and you then absolutely hoist them up

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Speaker 1: into the as. It's absolutely fascinating for it in terms

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Speaker 1: of all the disciplines that are involved in not just

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Speaker 1: the pilots, not just the medical personnel, there's also flight engineers.

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Speaker 1: Apart from instandly just being a medical rescue service transportation service.

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Speaker 1: Over the last while you've also been investing into the future,

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Speaker 1: not just our future pilots, future med text, but also

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Speaker 1: future engineers. How important is that story when it comes

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Speaker 1: to AMS.

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Speaker 3: Lesson, That is an incredibly important story, especially in the

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Speaker 3: context of our country. Aviation, as we know, is one

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Speaker 3: of those industries that was traditionally very restricted to people

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Speaker 3: of color. And one of the things we have done

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Speaker 3: at AMS over the last many decades is to ensure

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Speaker 3: that we serve as that open door to allow people

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Speaker 3: to come in here, young people who have a passion,

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Speaker 3: or sometimes not even have a passion, but have an

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Speaker 3: inkling that this is something they'd like to get involved in.

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Speaker 1: More than the inkling, if we expose more young people,

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Speaker 1: they get introduced to things that their mind has never

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Speaker 1: even imagined.

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Speaker 3: That's exactly right. You know. We look at some young

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Speaker 3: people come in here, the thought of being involved in

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Speaker 3: aviation or even being a medic that works in an

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Speaker 3: aeromedical service has never been a part of their thought

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Speaker 3: frame of reference, and suddenly you see a light bulb

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Speaker 3: go on, the passion starts to arise within them, and

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Speaker 3: we serve as that opportunity for these young people to

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Speaker 3: come in you're talking about on the engineer side, Now,

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Speaker 3: South Africa trains its people very well and this is

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Speaker 3: why we're in such demand internationally. So you find, especially

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Speaker 3: in our industry, pilots, medics, engineers are well sought after,

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Speaker 3: especially in the Middle East and those countries which pay

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Speaker 3: big dollar text free salaries which we can't compete with.

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Speaker 3: And we understand that that's part of how this industry works.

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Speaker 3: But what we do is we give those youngsters a

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Speaker 3: foot in the door. We mentor them, train them, put

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Speaker 3: them through a structured program so that they become one

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Speaker 3: of those internationally sought after people.

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Speaker 1: Isn't that something that's a that's a huge irony. I

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Speaker 1: recall the the COVID period. Yes, South African nurses and

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Speaker 1: doctors who specialized, not even specialized, but in communicable diseases.

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Speaker 1: All of a sudden, My sister was is a nurse

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Speaker 1: and she worked in the Gulf and during that entire period,

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Speaker 1: the the recruiters were calling a NonStop Why because you

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Speaker 1: interned in a South African hospital, You interned in a

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Speaker 1: South African hospital of of violent trauma victims communicable diseases.

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Speaker 1: You know the protocols on how to prep and protect

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Speaker 1: yourself when it comes to ppe so it's this irony

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Speaker 1: that we actually have the best training in the world.

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Speaker 1: It's about retaining those people and their training, absolutely, and

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Speaker 1: that's the challenge, you know. So you know, how do

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Speaker 1: we how do we deal with this continuous challenge of

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Speaker 1: having to replace the skills that we lose. And this is.

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Speaker 3: Why we create this pipeline of young people who come through.

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Speaker 3: We train them and some of them find the real

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Speaker 3: passion for what they do at the MS and stay

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Speaker 3: stay with us for many, many years. But we cannot

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Speaker 3: just say, well, we're going to lose them. We can't

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Speaker 3: do anything. We've got to train those people. Those are

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Speaker 3: youngsters who need to live their own lives and hopefully

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Speaker 3: they will give back and contribute towards the country.

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Speaker 1: Front or your thoughts. This is of course an independent

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Speaker 1: civil society organization in partnership with the provincial govern But

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Speaker 1: you thought of the impact that AMS plays in the community,

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Speaker 1: the impact on you, it's massive.

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Speaker 2: I've been with AMS going on eighteen years and the

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Speaker 2: amount of missions we've done, the impact on patients that

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Speaker 2: we've done over those period is phenomenal. It's actually quite

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Speaker 2: iron ironic because when I started flying, the first place

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Speaker 2: that I wanted to work professionally. Was Ams even applied

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Speaker 2: for volunteering and all that type of stuff and eventually

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Speaker 2: got my a helicopter license. And that's how it got

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Speaker 2: entered and has had From a personal point of view,

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Speaker 2: it resonates a lot with me and a lot of

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Speaker 2: our staff members as well, and at the end of

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Speaker 2: the day, it's the final impact.

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Speaker 1: That we spoke to Nikky and Neil a short while

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Speaker 1: ago the response of AMS in the accident in Danqua,

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Speaker 1: and you could hear Neil the getting quite emotional. He

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Speaker 1: wasn't the victim, but he got quite emotional when particularly

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Speaker 1: dealing with with vulnerable people, people in the stress. How

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Speaker 1: do you also protect yourself? Is any maybe particular rescue

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Speaker 1: operation that lingers.

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Speaker 2: With you, Well, there's so many, to be honest, and

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Speaker 2: doing it for as long as I have, it sort

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Speaker 2: of blurs a little bit from time to time. But

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Speaker 2: what stands up for me specifically, and as you indicate

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Speaker 2: it with the rescue that happened, a story that stays

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Speaker 2: with me is one day we did a mountain rescue

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Speaker 2: at Table Mountain Platic Clip Gorge, and we did a

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Speaker 2: mission debrief, which we always do to see what we

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Speaker 2: can do better, what we've learned, everything that went well,

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Speaker 2: and all that type of stuff. And as we finished

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Speaker 2: this random guy just popped in and said, hey, guys,

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Speaker 2: this is my name. I just wanted to thank you

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Speaker 2: because eight months ago it was me that you guys

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Speaker 2: fetched on the side of a mountain and that does

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Speaker 2: give you the goosebumps, you know, and that's really special.

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Speaker 1: In terms of, well, we are here because we've asked

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Speaker 1: to be, because you want to hear and show what

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Speaker 1: AMS is doing. But also how do you get young people?

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Speaker 1: How do you get the big donors because you are

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Speaker 1: reliant on fundraising. How do you get people to say,

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Speaker 1: this is what we do, We're an important part of

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Speaker 1: the community. We want to continue helping and assisting people.

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Speaker 1: But also, if you're a young person who has the

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Speaker 1: inkling of being a pilot or a medic and what's

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Speaker 1: work in the space, how do you encourage people to

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Speaker 1: come out and find you a eu genie? In fact

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Speaker 1: is I often see AMS here in part they do

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Speaker 1: good work. They sometimes line difficult conditions where the sa

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Speaker 1: A force should be flying. So besides gently just hearing

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Speaker 1: AMS rescue dispatched in the EW News bulletin. How do

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Speaker 1: you want people to be in touch with you?

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Speaker 3: Are we on all the socials? Look for us on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn,

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Speaker 3: et cetera. But the easiest way is probably to go

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Speaker 3: into our website AMS dot org dot z or you

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Speaker 3: can email us infraret ams dot org ze go and

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Speaker 3: look at what we do. Interact with us on our socials,

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Speaker 3: make contact and if we are able to assist you

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Speaker 3: to become part of AMS, we will definitely do so.

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Speaker 3: But more so, we're looking for those people who are

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Speaker 3: able to support our course to make sure that AMS

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Speaker 3: continues for another sixty years, and more that we are

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Speaker 3: able to become the sustainable aero medical organization that continues

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Speaker 3: to impact our communities every day in every single way.

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Speaker 1: Off half ad you see of a mercy service and

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Speaker 1: French right a toy helicopter pilot Flight operations manager. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for having us here. We really appreciate your

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Speaker 1: time and best of luck. Yes, with another sixty years