No. 46 - Royal Flying Doctor Service
In contravention of my normal operating procedures I've fast-tracked this request to the front of my queue because of how fantastically timed it is. It was requested the day my BermudAir post went up, and the moment I saw it I realized I was going to publish it as the next entry on this blog, because I want to highlight something really important and really positive about aviation. So thank you @alionessespride for the impetus to discuss why aviation is genuinely indispensable, regardless of what cynical things people might use it for.
My most recent post on BermudAir is definitely a major downer, and other posts I've done, like my David Neeleman special and various other assorted brief allusions, have been really distinctly pessimistic and jaded about the motivations of airlines. Which I don't regret or think is bad or wrong - these are very omnipresent specters in the airline industry, which is inherently more than a little predatory both due to its necessity for profit and its very heavy ties to the military-industrial complex, with airlines, governments, and manufacturers ending up in elaborate daisy chains of sweetheart deals and making money being sort of incompatible with anything I'd consider a virtue.
But I went on about this in my Neeleman post and sort of alluded to it with BermudAir as well - aviation isn't just that, and it's really hugely important. In addition to the sheer fact that people who live on islands or in remote places with poor infrastructure can easily access the rest of the world, aviation provides a lot of important services - weather research/surveillance, aerial firefighting, aerial inspection of things like power lines, agricultural work, greatly increasing the speed and thoroughness of search and rescue, and of course air medical services.
If you live in a major city you probably get a handful of ambient helicopters (I've been told a lot of people find them annoying because they tend to fly quite low), and if you've ever wondered what they are, they're probably medevac helicopters. There's a chance they're news, or private helicopters, or something else, but most of the time they're there to airlift people to hospitals if their condition is too dire to wait for the length of time an ambulance would take to get them to the trauma center, and a helicopter can easily land in a small, precise area and bring them there.
Which is all well and good, but that's for large cities. But most of the world actually isn't large cities. Case in point: most of Australia is borderline empty.
Most of Australia is on par with places like Alaska. While it's overall the fourth least dense country in the world, that density is wildly skewed and the best thing I can say for the dark green section is that it's still denser than Greenland, but not denser than Mongolia. Safe to say you aren't getting an ambulance if you live in there. So what if you have an acute medical problem which needs immediate attention to prevent your death?
The Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS) is probably the best-known aeromedical service. It was the first such organization, nearly 100 years old, established in 1928. They provide medical services, particularly in medical emergencies, to the parts of Australia where getting someone to a hospital would probably otherwise take days. They also provide telehealth services, transfer of patients between hospitals, and transport general practitioners to places which lack access to primary care, among other things.
The initial ask requesting them outlined a lot of this:
RFDS is an absolute lifeline in rural, regional, and remote Australia, staffed with flight doctors and nurses that fly out 24/7/365. Often they land on runways that are actually just roads or dirt strips, sometimes with the runway lit up for a night landing with rolls of toilet paper dipped in kerosene and lit on fire. They move patients that may be many many hours from any medical service, as first responders to an incident or as a medical evacuation service for small hospitals to big city hospitals.
It takes a special kind of skill to land a plane somewhere like this, and an even more special kind of skill to do paramedic work while someone is landing the plane you're in somewhere like this.
While initially RFDS just rented their airplanes and pilots from Qantas, these days they have their own fleet and pilots, and while it's hard to find exact numbers because of their several regional branches their planes number in the triple-digits and are mostly small-to-medium and capable of operation on very short, poorly-equipped airstrips (STOL). The most-used models are the Pilatus PC-12 turboprop, Pilatus PC-24 very light jet, and Beechcraft King Air 200 twin-turboprop.
They have a couple of different liveries, presumably varying by time and branch, so I'm going to stick with one I think is both more visibly distinct and more current.
Here's a fairly standard example of this livery. The 7NEWS sticker is, I believe, a sponsor - there are different ones on different planes. As you can see, the livery is primarily red, white, and blue, which I suppose is fair enough for a non-profit service in a country with a flag based on the Union Jack, though I still find it a bit of a pedestrian choice. That said, it's at least quite an ambulancey color scheme, though it's missing giant strobe lights and a siren. I think you could install those on a plane (I mean, strobe lights are actually mandatory, just not that type) but I feel like you also shouldn't, and this is better.
Here's a view from below, so you can see the clear and bright underside with RFDS emblazoned very visibly on it. Being easy to spot and identify is a broadly desirable trait in an emergency medical vehicle, and I love their specific choice in shade of fire-engine red. Note also the suspension on the landing gear and the weather radar on the wing facing towards the camera. The PC-12 is an incredibly designed aircraft which is popular for good reason, and is very well-suited to exactly what the RFDS is doing.
The white is used in a very interesting way, where the transition between it being a dividing line separating red from blue and the main body of the aircraft with the blue as just a swash is very very subtle, and the taper of the red is extremely well-executed. The red underside is excellent because it specifically prevents the blue and white from blending in with the sky, which wouldn't be ideal.
The Royal Flying Doctor Service and/or RFDS name is placed in three distinct places - the underside, the rudder, and above the windows. My gripe is that I wish they were a little bigger and more visible, I think. I'm not sure about the rudder, but I think a relatively easy fix would be to make the text above the windows bold and red - perhaps they just wanted to sequester the red fully to the bottom of the plane rather than having it on both sides of the blue, which I understand but don't think I fully endorse.
Another great view of how the red tapers, though, and the blue's termination just below the nose, far enough back that the end is still clearly visible behind the propeller. I've always felt like PC-12s (and similar single-prop aircraft but for some reason especially the PC-12) look like they have a moustache, and this adds a pair of whiskers. I enjoy that.
Admittedly, with the painted nacelles on the King Air something about it can begin to get a little...plastic-looking, I don't have any way to word it better. The blue in general isn't my favorite - unlike the saturated red's strikingness, it just sort of looks over-saturated in a way that I dislike. I'm not sure what would fix this. Maybe a darker blue?
Now, the RFDS's livery is by far the least worth-discussing thing about them. The service that they provide goes way beyond appearances, and because of that and because of the fact that designing liveries for smaller planes like this begins to get difficult I'm going to not be as harsh to them as I would other subjects. I'm just not really going to take into account the fact that this is a pretty generic scheme, because that's fine, there's no reason to care. My main takeaways are that the placement of the colors is quite well-executed, and that I wish the wordmark on the main fuselage body was more distinct. In photographs it's honestly downright illegible, and the text on the rudder doesn't exactly pop out either. The tailfin, in general, looks a little cluttered, like they didn't want to leave it empty but couldn't figure out what to do with it - the RFDS text doesn't even appear centered. But at the very least it's visible, which is crucial for an air ambulance service. Maybe I wish there was less white, but there's enough red and blue, and it's bright enough, so it's done its job.
That said, I'm giving them a C.
This is exactly what I expect of them. They've done a completely adequate job, and probably in a roundabout way it's good they've been spending their money on things that aren't genius graphic design. So if you have anything to take away from this post, don't have it be the grade, or even the fact that the Pilatus PC-12 is a really fantastic airplane - have it be the fact that aviation isn't just airline startups and massive conglomerates, and that it literally saves lives and provides services that we city-dwellers take for granted to people who would otherwise have to go without.
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Loyal Service Dog Gets A Special Send-Off On Her Final Flight Home
9 February 2023
Kaya helped her owner, a Marine Corps veteran, through PTSD and suicidal thoughts, and even inspired a national law to help veterans get service dogs.
When Kaya was diagnosed with terminal cancer, Cole flew her home — and the airline gave her a beautiful special tribute on her final flight
Service dogs are invaluable companions for so many people, especially veterans. The benefits are great: dogs provide therapeutic companionship that can be used to treat conditions like PTSD.
For many vets who have service dogs, these dogs become their best friends in the world.
For Marine Corps veteran Cole Lyle, that dog was Kaya, a German Shepherd. Kaya was by his side all the time, even on hundreds of airline flights.
Sadly, Kaya took her final flight recently — but was given an incredible honor on board.
Cole, from North Texas, came home after a six-year tour in Afghanistan and was suffering from PTSD.
“I tried pills and tried therapy. The pills just made things worse. I spiraled down and almost became a veteran suicide statistic,” the veteran told WFAA.
A fellow veteran suggested he try getting a service dog. Cole brought home Kaya, the runt of her litter, and spent $10,000 of his own money to have her trained as a service dog.
It was well worth it: Kaya was trained to wake the vet up from nightmares and to stop anxiety attacks.
Cole said the dog made a huge difference on his condition and even credited her with stopping his suicidal thoughts.
“A dog can be a powerful thing to keep you around,” he said. “If you get to that point, you look down at the dog and say, well, I can’t leave the dog. The dog would miss me.”
Kaya not only made an impact on Cole’s life but for veterans around the country.
After Cole became an advisor to the US Senate on veterans policies, the pair lobbied for the PAWS Act, which provides canine training for veterans with PTSD.
That act was passed into law on August 2022, receiving bipartisan support.
Kaya lived quite a life: she met many politicians and celebrities, walked at graduation with Cole, and accompanied the vet on hundreds of flights around the country.
But sadly, a tumor under her tongue metastasized in January and took a toll on her quality of life. Cole didn’t want to see his loyal friend suffer.
“I didn’t want her to be in pain and suffer after all the pain and suffering that she stopped,” Cole told WFAA.
Realizing the end was near, he took her on one last flight, from Virginia to their home in Texas.
“She’s a Texas girl and I didn’t want her to die in Virginia,” Cole explained.
But it wasn’t just any ordinary flight. They flew on Southwest Airlines, with whom they had traveled over 250 times.
After finding out that this was Kaya’s final journey, the airline did something inspiring to mark the occasion.
On the February 2 flight, the pilot got on the intercom and made a special announcement.
He introduced Kaya, explaining to the travellers her work as a service dog and her work to get the PAWS Act passed.
He then explained he had the “solemn honor of what will be her last flight, as she goes home to rest where she was born and first met Cole.”
“On behalf of Southwest Airlines, your two veterans up front, we thank both Maya and Cole… for their service.”
In a video shared by Southwest Airlines, you can see Kaya get a round of applause from the plane’s passengers — and Kaya, who had been laying down, suddenly lifts her head up.
After the two arrived in Dallas, the airline also provided a cart for Kaya’s mobility issues.
A few days later, Cole announced that Kaya had died.
Rest in peace, Kaya. You may be gone but you made a huge difference in the world and were a best friend to Cole. We hope you’re at peace now.
https://thespacedogs.com/loyal-service-dog-gets-a-special-send-off-on-her-final-flight-home/
Texas service dog with 250+ Southwest flights takes her final trip home
9 February 2023
Kaya, a German Shepherd with years of service, went home to Texas last week.
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