Air Ambulance Visit

Members of Bexhill Rotary Club visited Redhill Aerodrome – home of the Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance to donate money raised locally to this very worthwhile charity. President Graham Forster and Rotarian Ian Edwards were treated to an impressive tour of the offices then the helicopters by paramedics and pilots of the Service. 

The air ambulance has multiple crews, both pilots and paramedics on standby 24/7 365 days a year ready to act in just minutes to any emergency. They expect to be off the ground within 3 or 4 minutes which means they have to keep fully aware of the imminent surrounding weather conditions at all times and the aircraft at the ready to go. With two Leonardo AW169 helicopters and a smaller MD902 Explorer two aircraft and crew are ready at any one time. On average they are called to 7 or 8 emergency responses each day. While the smaller aircraft has some advantages the AW169 can fly faster and further enabling, a quicker attendance on scene and delivery to hospital. The larger size also enables more life saving intervention to take place in the aircraft rather than on the ground.

President Graham thanked the staff there for their time. He complimented them on being one of the first ambulance services to introduce faster AW169 and on the on the wonderful service they carry out every day before handing over a cheque for £2000. Dora Szekfi Community Fundraising Officer for Air Ambulance expressed her thanks and said “without the excellent fundraising of many organisations like Rotary the operation of the Air Ambulance a charity would just not be possible”.