I'm so so Proud of RFDS. My Mother worked for them back in the early 60's. She told me that they would sometimes land in the main street in town & the locals would be there with the patient ready to go most times. RIP mum. ❤
14:07 I was flown ftom Wagga Wagga to St Vincent's Hospital in Sydney (landing at Bankstown Airport) for emergency lung surgery. Ambulances both ends, a Beechcraft King Air, Pilot and Flight Nurse. The aircraft spent about 3 hours flying to pick me up, transport me and then return to Base in Dubbo. I did not pay a single cent for transport or the surgery and subsequent return to Wagga Wagga. Australia is well served by Volunteers in so many areas like this. We are so lucky to have such great community minded people.
The RFDS are the only reason I'm alive today. I was pulled into the water by a 13ft Saltwater Crocodile and had my right hip basically ripped off. My mate had his shotgun (he had a permit) and shot it while it was death rolling me. If the RFDS didn't come and grab me, I would have died for sure. I always donate to them every month now.
I think so highly of the RFDS, that I have a monthly donation to them and I just hope I never need to use them. Thank you for showing an interesting and brilliant service, Mate
Australia is so vast. I used to live 5 hours drive from the nearest supermarket in the outback. 7 hours from nearest Kmart. Was 30 minutes from the house to the entrance to the property. The flying doctors are a godsend to the outback. They also hold clinics to help people treat themselves at home for less severe issues. Homes keep extensive first aid kits.
When we drove across the Nullarbor on the Eyre Highway on our journey from Sydney to Perth we saw landing areas in several places along the highway. Part of the highway is made wider and marked out like a runway for the pilots to land when there has been a vehicle accident or some other medical emergency. It’s hard to explain to someone who is from Britain or Europe just how vast Australia is. If you drove non stop from Sydney to Perth it would take 43 hours. If you stop only to eat and sleep it’s still a 5 day trip.
Nice reaction video. Thank you. Early in the video, they said, "half a day to REACH our patient". That's before they fly them to a hospital for treatment.
Begore they had gas lamps they used cars parked along the strip to light the runway with their headlights. Some smart person discovered that a roll of toilet tissue soaked in diesel could be put in position and lit. It would burn for hours in the worst of weather
In various parts of Australia (including a region where I do some work, the remote parts of NSW), various roads at various points the road will widen and have runway markets and the RFDS or other state-run Ambulance AeroMedical service land on the highway/road, and the local medical/ambulance bring them to the highway/runway. The police also have a part in closing each end of the highway/runway. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-uK10UiizJF8.html (Emergency testing with a new aircraft on the Nullabour SA) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-eETG7G4rRRI.html (Queensland)
There are lots of camels in Australia both wild and farmed we ship them to Nth Africa as Australian camels are bigger and stronger than theirs I live near Brisbane and there are 2 camel farms within 40k they were brought over by the Afghans and the train from South Australia to Alice and Darwin is called THE GHAN after those people outback homesteads and stations {farms} have their own air strip cheers
For the people of our remotest parts it's not just emergencies that are a challenge what about day to day life and how on earth do the kids get an education when the nearest school is a four hour drive away. That's where The School of the Air steps in. Whilst the RFDS plane is on it's way the dispatcher talks with the people in the remote community by phone to tell them how to stabilise the patient until the RFDS plane arrives.
Love the RFDS they do a lot of fundraising, and I donate every time I see them. Seen them operating a lot and glad I watched your video. Things like landing it never occured to me that it was odd because to us it is a regular occurrence. As much as I always appreciated them I appreciate them more now. Non profot. Donate Donate Donate please
Most remote rural properties are large in area and the land often is flat, so those properties would have their own graded and well-maintained dirt airstrips, as seen in the video. Landing and taking off would be no problem in daytime and good weather.
My interaction with the RFDS was driving Taxis in Perth, cruising early morning looking for something to take me home, a "C" job comes up, Contract job, on a Sunday morning at this hour ?... C: Perth > Jandakot. Immediately I knew this was Blood Bank, going to the RFDS. Jandakot was like 15 minutes from home, smashed the computer to get the job (although most other taxi's were changing drivers). There had been a Mine site incident and there was a convoy of RFDS coming back, and needed Blood Plasma URGENTLY. Got the products from Red Cross, went down to Jandakot and delivered. Parked up and watched as 4 RFDS planes landed, then the Ambulances streamed in to the airport for the injured.
