Kenny Keller explains how EMS helicopter pilots manage fuel when they don't know the mission details ahead of time. They keep a standard fuel load for their shift, use estimated patient weight, and can remove equipment or burn fuel if the helicopter gets too heavy. For longer flights, they'll grab extra fuel or do a hot refuel on the ground.
All right. Day one, 13. Oh, yeah. Night, night. 213, like last night. Got a question I want to answer. This is really cool. It's a good question. And this is something I know a lot of people be interested in. This is from a past video that I did just a few days ago and it was from Samuel and he said, kenny, I can't believe you're still going strong with the copy of Kenny videos. I really appreciate the great content, which makes a big difference with studying. I did have a question for you. I'm wondering how EMS pilots calculate fuel when you don't know how far the site is, patient's weight, and where you're taking them until right before departure. That is a great question, Samuel. And basically what we did, the five years that I did it, everybody keeps the helicopter loaded with the same amount of fuel for every shift all the time. And that amount of fuel that you carry would get us to our normal places that we would go on a normal basis. Like there was one particular city, actually city I was born in that we would go to once or twice a week, and most of the scene work was in the area. So the majority of our calls we carried enough fuel that we could do our normal call and get back home with no problem. So when the calls get dispatched, say we were in Northern Indiana. So let's say we get a call to Indianapolis. We did not carry enough fuel to go to Indianapolis on a normal basis. And that's not that far. But EMS helicopters are loaded down with equipment people, all the equipment that you put in it. And this is what's kind of fun because people say, oh, well, you were flying a twin engine, jet powered helicopter, you had all the power you needed. No, you don't. Because what happens when you get a bigger helicopter with more engines? They load more stuff on the helicopter and more people. Right. So it doesn't matter what helicopter you're flying. I mean, there are. Sue, there are a few exceptions, but in general you're always limited on the amount of power with damn near any helicopter you're going to fly. So get back to the question. We all know where the helicopter is always kept. When you put it away, you put it right at that certain amount. So we knew we had certain amount of fuel. And also they give the patient weight. When you get the call, they give the patient weight. Now you're also pre warned that they may tell you the patient's 200 and the patient winds up being 350. Okay, that does happen. So your standard call you have the standard amount of fuel that we always go with. If it's a local call, you're going to have enough fuel and you're ready for that amount of weight. Now, there was another weight and balance that we could do in a pinch if we had to. Let's say we went for a local call and the patient was on the heavy side, heavier than what was expected. We could change the weight and balance real quick and remove some things from the aircraft. And it was all set up. So there were certain things that the EMS people had with them that they could leave if needed. Right. So we had a second weight and balance ready to go that if, oh, we thought we were going to have a 200 pound patient and oops, this guy's 350. Somebody goofed in the communication. They could take out this box of stuff, okay, and we would switch to the weight and balance, and that's one way that you would compensate. Sometimes you'd have to burn off fuel. And honestly, that's what happens in the EMS world. Sometimes you just don't have enough or you have too much fuel on board because the patient was heavier than expected. So then you have to, you know, either burn off fuel or unload something. You know, that's what you got to do. Can't leave the crew members behind. So either you got to leave equipment off or you have to burn off fuel, one or the other. And as far as sparring, as far as going the further distances, that's part of the pressure of being an EMS pilot. Let's say you had to go on a flight longer than normal. Okay, so you got to compute that real quick. Okay, do I have enough fuel? Sometimes before we left our base, we would take on more fuel at the airport to take care of the flight. If it was even longer, there were times that we might have to stop along the way and get fuel with a patient on board. It wasn't a common practice. And you tried to avoid fueling with a patient on board if at all possible. But sometimes it happened. And usually you'll call ahead, say, hey, we're, we want to do, you know, hot fueling. And you can do it with specific, you know, operators that you're trained with to do that. But this real. That really gets into a lot of decision making and working with companies that you know. And so it's not an easy thing to do when you have to go farther than you expected or the patient's heavier than expected. So again, there's a lot to it, but that's Kind of the short version. It's a great question. I understand a lot of people would want to know that. Right. Because that's just the way it works. And it was very similar in news reporting. We always kept the helicopter. Right. The same amount of fuel all the time. If you had to stay out longer for the evening news or whatever the case is, you may take on more fuel, but that depends on the day, depends on the crew, depends on the weather. And the same thing in ems. There are so many things that come into consideration. That's the short version. So I am Kenny Keller. This is creator. I'm the creator Helicopter line ground school. This is coffee with Kenny. But it's getting late and done with my coffee for today. But I had to share the Pacific Ocean with you. Yeah, this is cool. We're winding down our trip in California. I've always wanted a room right on the ocean and tonight we got it. My daughter's already settled in up there, but this is. This is really nice. Okay. It's badass. I totally intend on having the door open tonight listening to the ocean and I intend on doing that all night long and intend to do another coffee with Kenny video in the morning with actually with some coffee and hopefully have some good light. And I know the. The view here is going to be incredible. I mean, it's dark right now, but I'm sure I can kind of tell by the look of it it's going to be pretty darn beautiful. And. And just gotta thank everybody for tuning in every day. Make sure you subscribe. When you subscribe, click the bell so you'll be notified of our daily video. This was day 213. And we'll see you all tomorrow, still before midnight. So this is day 213. Tomorrow. I'll get down here in the morning, maybe go down closer to the water and do day 214 with a cup of coffee and got some more good questions to answer. So keep your answers coming or your answers. Keep your questions coming in. Click subscribe, click the bell. Give us a thumbs up. If you don't like the video, make sure you. When you dislike you hit it twice. Because that really makes us. Makes us understand that you didn't like the video because, you know, like, I really care. All right, having a blast. Winding down the California trip. More to come. See you tomorrow.
