skysix

Check with the British Columbia Ambulance Service, they have a long standing Infant Transport Team (neo/pedes to 35kg) that is dual paramedic, no RN or RT. Their medical director, Andy McNabb, also has done or been involved in a lot of transport related research/outcome studies.

forgotten things: my generator is separate - that way I can run it a hundred feet away and chain it to a couple of old 3/4-ton axel shafts pounded in with a sledge (schedule 80 chain and high security lock) - in the treeline if possible. Reduces the noise when REALLY boondocking. The 2 x 80# huskies provide great security (although they are more like lickers/lap dogs if given the chance but ARE very intimidating when barking and sprinting at you head on then spreading to 10 and 2 o'clock from thier shady nap spot...) Had to get a 20' propane extension hose and move it closer in the winters below -20. Also the trailer was re-skinned after the insulation was upgraded, and in winter I remove the screen door and add a 1" thick interior foam/thin plywood door. Also 1" thick foam sheets cut to fit window openings with smaller hinged sections mid-window reduce loss through the windoews (as does the replacement of the bug screens with a second sheet of glass the same size) Just make sure your tanks are well insulated or have hot air ducted to them / an immersion or external "oil pan" type heater glued on of some sort to prevent freezing - and that all hoses are inside the insulated shell as far as possible. Also had to make a 40' raiseable anntenna to attach FM and remote cell antenna and 3w booster to as only analog signals and from far enough away that being in the valley/gravel pit made reception problematic. Used 'net at work, and lived without TV - got a lot of studying done!

trvlnRN: Do you boondock on assignments or pay a RV park? or just use campsites with limited facilities/power (semi-dry I guess). Have been following Odyssey's blog (Our Odyssey) and although they can boondock for up to 2 weeks they seem to stay at RV parks more often than I thought they would... I spent 4 months in the fall (45 to 5 degrees or so) in Whitehorse "semi-dry" using hospital power at nominal fee, then another 4 in Yellowknife (Canadian arctic) with temps below -40 in a 25' travel trailer in a gravel pit on the edge of town (was easiest way to let my Huskies run around...they hated being tied to the trailer in Whitehorse and I had 2 spend 1.5 hours a day on excercising them...) Discovered that propane freezes - so had to put electric battery warming blankets on the propane tanks and run the generator fairly often. Ended up building a 2" think blue high density styrofoam box with duct tape that covered the generator (1' clearance everywhere), and another for the propane, then ducted the exhaust heat 3' from one box to the other entering at the top and venting around the base (placed on a forklift pallet so leaking propane if any would excape...) Trailer had standard 1980's furnace but had the skin removed and another 1" of foam isulation placed all around, 2" under, all the pink fiberglass replaced and thickened, and a 6" double roof (fiberglass filled) added. Then all vents and chimney were raised 12" so any snow that fell could stay on top and not melt / add to the roof insulation. Was quite comfortable, although there was a definite stratification of air temp inside that required a couple of vertical fans at the roof to stir up the air inside... The next 16 months were in Edmonton in a farmers field as security for his cows - Huskies learned the hard way not to try to herd a bull (got her bell rung twice!) also boondocking, but only down to -30 so all OK. Still had to run the generator for 8 hours once every 3 days to recharge the batteries. SO...my question is what do you see as the +/- of solar or wind power for RV's? I am still strying to calculate the breakpoint of temperature-vs-propane/gas used to see when it makes sense to pay commercial RV long-term rates - but at least in Canada they can be 4-6 month minimums not year long contracts... Have seen up to 1600W in solar and many 400w wind generators on other rigs, even a Scottish 1500W wind turbine (very cool) on collapsible/guyed masts that only take 15-30 min to set up...

OOPS - not done and accidntally posted. So I am currently averaging about 475 hours a year which means that I would have to fly 44.2 years. As it happens, I plan to retire at about 25.25 years so I guess I should only have a 22% chance??? I am not sure you can manipulate the numbers that easily...

re: 21,000 flight crew, I know of an active FW CFN who has been flying since 4/1978, in 12/1995 when I met her she had just under 14,000 hours, so I expect she is over 23,000 by now. 21,000 over a 28.666 year career is only 61 hours a month which if you are working a 21 of 35 day schedule is only about 3.5 hours a day and I KNOW she averages over 4 hours a day... I have only been flying for just over 6 years and already have 2850 hours, so I expect by the time I quit flying and retire I will have about 12,000 or so but then my schedule is a lot easier!!

also try "northern nurses: true nursing adventures from canada's north ..." and northern nurses ii: more nursing adventures from canada's north ...edited by karen scott and jean keiser, publihed by kokum publications in oakville ontario. not all flight nursing nstories, but many are. and of the "remember when..." variety - lot's of "interesting" responses to put it mildly. flew with or knew many of the authors of the short stories - and none of the are exaggerated, or the worst they could relate!