Bond Durham on 407 HEMS Operations

When I first started flight training, I worked at this small airport, and I would see this helicopter flying in and out, people in the flight suits getting in and out, and I just thought it was the coolest thing I've ever seen, and I always wanted to be that person -- I wanted to be part of that team. I'm Bond Durham, and I'm a pilot at CareFlite. The 407 handles really well, so we make sure that we put on an appropriate amount of fuel to be able to service any patient at any distance, but regardless it actually handles very well -- even if we are loaded to capacity, the aircraft is very responsive, and it's immediately very smooth. So I don't ever feel like any kind of movement that I make, whether it's just a normal flight maneuver, or if it's to keep dodging a bird, is going to be disruptive to any activity in the back, or any patient that we're carrying. So I'm very confident in the aircraft's ability to provide a smooth ride no matter what. The 407 has G1000 primary and multifunction displays, which are something I've never flown with before coming to CareFlite, and I'll tell you what, those things are pretty incredible in all that they can do -- you name it and it'll program it, it'll have it as a function that you can preset, it's very, very useful. Well, we've had many ops, airport, or scene landings before -- multiple times I've landed on the road, two-lane very small, you know, FM road somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and you've got trees on one side, a small fence, there's power lines, and the ability to get in and out of that small tight area, secured, obviously got ground crews that are holding both sides off, but very thankful to have the 407 -- it's very, very slim to get in and out of that space. It provides so, thankfully, you know, any scene, I have confidence in being able to get into them. There, first, you know, long-distance transports -- we went to Abilene, and taking off out of that hospital, a random car just stopped on the side of the road, and this dad got out, opened up the back, and this little kid in there, whatever, in the back, and he's watching and pointing, and they're filming me, they're getting all excited. It's very special to see people looking and watching me do a job that I used to be where they are -- so getting to be here now, being a part of it, and actually seeing the lives that we're impacting, seeing families come watch me take off with their family members, it's a big deal. It is amazing, it is definitely a dream come true.