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Air Ambulance Pilot Finds Globalstar Invaluable:
Steve Arnott / Air Ambulance Operator, Northern Canadian Communities
Steve Arnott of Thomson, Manitoba, operates an air ambulance to
northern Canadian communities. He transfers residents requiring
immediate medical attention to hospitals in larger centres such as
Churchill, Thompson, or Winnipeg. Steve regularly flies into remote
areas outside of cellular coverage where even radio contact and
communication with an air traffic control unit is sometimes impossible.
However, since he acquired Globalstar service, Steve can update patient
information and arrival times with receiving hospitals and land
ambulances prior to departure.
"The reliable communications that Globalstar provides can mean the
difference in life or death for many patients," said Steve. "Providing
an emergency physician with advanced details on a patient's condition
is invaluable."
A pilot with Skyward Aviation, Steve shared his handset with other
company pilots who fly charter flights to fishing lodges and remote
outposts. With Globalstar, pilots flying from the most isolated areas
can notify their base of changes to flight plans and arrival and
departure times. The handset also provides these pilots with an extra
sense of security in case of an emergency.
"My Skyward Aviation colleagues are amazed at the quality of the
Globalstar handset," says Steve. "And in the areas where I travel,
people in these remote regions say they never thought this level of
reliable, quality voice communications would ever be possible from
their town. You can be sure Globalstar Canada will acquire new
customers from Thomson, Manitoba."
Steve appreciates the cost-savings of the handset's tri-mode feature,
providing customers with cellular service when using the Globalstar
handset in a cellular coverage area. When Steve is in his hometown of
Thomson, he can use the cellular feature on the Globalstar handset. As
he drives to the airport for work and leaves the cellular coverage
area, the Globalstar satellite service can then be activated.
Steve learned about Globalstar from a segment on CTV's Digital Desk,
which offered the opportunity to win a Globalstar handset. Viewers
submitted applications explaining why they should be selected and the
audience voted for the winner on the Digital Desk website. Steve's
compelling story received the majority of audience endorsements and he
became a Globalstar customer.
* * *
An Enormously Useful Safety Device:
Eric Eller
"Hi
all, hope you're all having fun with your phones. I use the cell side
of mine all the time, but since I'm not out and about that much, not
the G* side. But I do take it with me in my Cessna 310 all the time,
simply because it's my normal phone and because I could use it for
whatever: making calls to destination airports, friends to change
schedule, etc. Or in case my primary radios were to fail.
Which recently happened to me. Specifically over Las Vegas talking to
LAS Approach. I could hear them, but they couldn't hear me. Controllers
have a simple way of dealing with this; they just ask you to respond by
pressing the "ident" feature on your transponder, and they use yes/no
questions. Now this was OK while I was just passing through their
airspace, but getting in to San Jose Reid-Hillview meant that I was
going to have to use radio out procedures, which is always thrilling in
that you must enter the pattern no-radio, usually set your transponder
to the no-radio code (7600) and wait for light signals. You become the
most well known pilot for miles around (the 7600 code sets off an alarm
for the controllers).
Or, I could just use my Globalstar phone and call the tower. Which I
did after trying the verizon cell service -- it shouldn't and didn't
work from the air (sometimes it will I've been told). So I just locked
up on the sat pointing out the window, called the tower on their
landline (listed in the flight guide I had) and asked them what they
wanted me to do, me being about 20 miles south. The nice local
controller (he oversees the runways and air, ground controller does the
taxiways) told me to proceed straight in to 31R and look for a light on
a 1 mile final. All of which I did, got a green light, landed and
taxied home.
The radio problem turned out to be a microphone jack that had grounded out to the panel.
I have said this before: this is an enormously useful safety device.
Doing what I did was a) legal, since the phone is not part of the
installed radio stack and violates no FCC rules for use (so I'm told),
and b) saved a lot of people -- me, the tower, all the other airplanes
in the pattern -- a lot of possible trouble and confusion with an
unknown No-Radio airplane in the pattern. It was really great.
Imagine how much money, time, effort and anxiety could have been saved
if the kid who walked out of the forest the other day with injured
ankles had been in possession of a G* phone and could have made a call
on day one."
* * *
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