Pilot Geoff Rodgers spoke at Kiwanis recently, describing the history and operations of Classic Air, the medical flight company that serves Los Alamos. Photo by Charmian Schaller 

There was a time, not too long ago, when patients who had to be transported from Los Alamos to hospitals in Albuquerque took an hour and 29 minutes to get there.

Now, with Classic Air Medical providing helicopter service to the area, the same trip takes just 26 minutes. That reduction in time can be a life-saver.

Geoff Rodgers—a veteran of Army flight training, a former transportation director for the Los Alamos Public Schools, and a former County Council member and chairman—is now a pilot for Classic Air. He spoke at Kiwanis recently, telling the club about the company’s background, its employees, and the service it provides.

The company began, he said, as Classic Tour Helicopters, which provided scenic flights for paying customers over Bryce Canyon in southwestern Utah. However, as time went by, the company was called on more and more often to handle medical evacuations from places such as Lake Powell. The company recognized a need, and on Memorial Day 1988, Classic Air Medical officially began service. The company is owned, he said, by the Henderson family of Salt Lake City, Utah.

Rodgers said the company has implemented steady upgrades. For example, in 2004, it was certified in the use of night-vision goggles. What that means is that it can help with search-and-rescue operations and pick up people in need of assistance 24 hours a day.

In 2007, it started providing fixed-wing service for people who needed to go farther for medical care than helicopters could easily provide.

The company now serves people in Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, and California, and in 2015, Rodgers said, it “opened the base here.” Both the red helicopter and the blue one seen so often in Los Alamos County are owned by Classic Air. And, Rodgers said, “We have a support system behind us … 10 bases at this point.”

The company has 13 fulltime employees in Los Alamos County. Four of them (including Rodgers) are pilots, who fly “seven days on, seven days off.” Eight are nurses or paramedics, and one is a fulltime mechanic. When a Classic Air helicopter takes off, it has one pilot, one nurse, and one flight paramedic on board. The nurses take care of the patient’s medication needs, and the paramedics handle needs related to the patient’s airways. Each nurse or paramedic has two years of experience, and all of the crew members have specialized flight safety training. “We are very concerned about safety,” Rodgers commented, and he added, if there are questions about the weather, “It takes three to go, and just one to say no.” In other words, in dubious weather, the helicopter doesn’t fly unless the entire crew agrees that it can fly safely.

Rodgers says the helicopter he flies is a Bell 407 with a 206-nautical-mile range. It flies at 150 miles per hour. He said, “It has the most advanced avionic suite available in a single-engine helicopter … It’s a real joy to fly!”

He showed photos of the interior of one of the helicopters, and he noted that recently, he was able to transport a six-foot-nine-inch man who weighed more than 300 pounds.

He had high praise for the medical crews. He said they are “a phenomenally well-trained group.” In addition, he said, the helicopters have good medical equipment—”just about everything you have at the Emergency Room” except x-ray machines. He told of one case recently in which a patient’s heart had stopped, and the helicopter’s medical crew treated him before the flight began. “He was dead when we showed up,” Rodgers said, “and alive when we took off.”

“We’re not a bunch of cowboys,” he said. Classic Air’s employees are the well-trained staff of a small and caring company that can do inter-facility transfers, handle on-scene emergencies, and assist in search-and-rescue operations. He noted that the company even “provides the first two hours of search and rescue for free.”

Classic Air recently relocated its aircraft to a pad at Los Alamos Medical Center (instead of a space at the Los Alamos County Airport). The move has resulted, he said, in “improved launch time” and better coordination.

The company also paid attention to noise complaints from Los Alamos, he said, and recently negotiated with Los Alamos National Laboratory for permission to use a controlled corridor in Los Alamos. Classic Air helicopters won’t be flying over housing in the future (although two Kiwanis members said they had actually enjoyed watching the helicopters fly over their homes).

The company is not a contractor with the county or the laboratory, he said. It is “a private, for-profit operation”—but it has good relations with both the hospital and the fire department, and for $60 per year, you can buy a household membership that will eliminate any out-of-pocket expenses if you need to take a medical flight. “This community has been very welcoming,” he said, and, “We try to be a very community-based organization.”