Matt Wilcock has taken up his first posting as a Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS) pilot at Wiltshire Air Ambulance (WAA). Matt has made the switch to HEMS work after 17 years in the military where he flew a range of helicopters.
Matt completed his training on Wiltshire Air Ambulance’s new helicopter, the Bell 429, at Fairoaks, Surrey, and began flying the air ambulance earlier this month.
Matt said, “The public support for Wiltshire Air Ambulance is great. When we have landed at locations to attend an incident local people have offered their help, such as driving our paramedics from the helicopter to the scene.
“I like the role and challenge of flying an air ambulance. It’s unique in what it does in civilian flying and I can bring my 17 years of experience in the military, including night flying.
“The Bell 429 is a very stable, fast and comfortable aircraft. It’s got really good cabin space in the back for the paramedics to treat patients and the avionics on board allow us to do our job really well.”
Matt will be leading the training on using Night Vision Goggles (NVG) for the pilots and paramedics at WAA to enable the air ambulance to fly at night.
Heli Charter employs the Wiltshire Air Ambulance pilots and WAA leases the Bell 429 from Heli Charter under a 10-year contract.
