Admin told a visiting VIP that we will commit to launch within 5 minutes of receiving a callout.

This is my first HEMS job, so I am wondering if this is the normal.

My uncle says when he was in SAC, they could have engines running in two minutes, begin to taxi in five minutes, and be airborne within 15 minutes. 

not a B 52. get moving bro

5 minutes is pretty fast. When I got a call I needed to recheck weather, do a "looksee" walkaround checking cowling, panels etc, and complete a weight and balance if there are changes in personnel. Once you strap in there is only one speed acceptable.

You make more mistakes going a little too fast than you do moving at a deliberate pace. 

Could he mean "commit to launch in 5 minutes" to be the time it takes to accept or deny the flight request from when the call comes in?

I took it to mean "we are committed to launching a helicopter within 5 minutes"

Your take is "we will make a committment (or decline) within 5 minutes"

Interesting interpretation.

At the program I work at we have a 10 minute lift goal. That is from the time the pilot verbally accepts the flight  the clock starts with the goal of being skids up within 10 minutes. The time from the call with the request to when it is accepted can vary but usually is less than 5 minutes. 

I asked the dispatcher how they compute lift times. They told me it was the time from when I accepted the flight to the time I call lifting off, so if I was going to take a flight, when I was in the seat, I called them accepting. Then I would start the engines and call lifting off. this way, I had about a three or four minutes lift time. so I was the fastest gun in the West.

lift times. I hate to tell you this but they would figure that out after about 2 flights and then you are pegged as a liar but cool story bro

Do not rush for any business manager or any reason. you should be keeping an eye on the weather while you are on duty an already know whether you will fly or not. If it's a yellow day and you need to call your OCC that will obviously take more time. Be deliberate/intentional and focused. I have never worried about launch times. I am responsible for our safety and getting us home. Rushing never ends well. Always have an out for each segment of your flights. Never stop thinking about forced landing areas. Do these things and you will have a long and safe career. 

Thank you

Your risk level. Green you can launch, yellow is higher risk so call the OCC, red = no fly highest risk

You must be a twit. Green weather would mean weather is flyable in your entire service area. Yellow weather would mean weather in part of your service area could be forecasted or affected by fog, low ceiling, snow squall, ect and you would decline to those areas. Red means weather is below posted minimums in your service area including at your departure position. 

No, if you call green weather they will automatically scramble you for a flight and not ask for a weather check. 

What company is this?

Do it in 3. What can go wrong?

 Admin. is the face selling silly ideas to VIPs to gain or shore up unattainable goals. Makes me think of 'the golden hour' trash talk from the old days.

 It's all crap! stay with the job long enough and you'll see that 90% of your flights were just for money. 1% made a differance. The others were maybes at best. In the case of hospital transfers 100% were hours ago decided before you ever got the call to lift in 5 mins. and most were not needed anyway.

I can agree to launching within 5 minutes.... from my chair.   

So many variables can go into the launch time goals....

VFR v IFR

No towered v towered airport or remote heliport

Single v Twin

Hangared v No Hangar. 

Common sense tells me that each base should have target lift times based on local factors. 

I assumed accepting within 5 minutes as well based on the quote.  Probably means 5 minutes total from a sending facility requesting a transfer to the transfer center, pushed to dispatch, toned and then accepted.  Our time from accepting to launch is 13 minutes, anything over that has the reason documented, but we are normally up in 10 or less.  But like above said there are many variables, just our hangar door takes 3 minutes to open and close, add in the heliporter travel time and you got 5 minutes right there.

the coast guard arent flying a 407 either

10-12 is great. Stick with it.

We used to try get airborne in 45 minutes from alert time... 

but we were at home on Call most of the time.

We need you on that wall!  If you're taking longer then 5 minutes we could all die!

All these clown managers are not concerned about the patient.  Do you think the 5 minutes off the ground has anything to do with the patient.  Hell no.

It's all about the EMT who doesn't want to wait for you.  It's all about beating the other helicopter to the scene.  It's all about getting more calls.  Nothing to do with the patient.  

Therefore, let the managers do their jobs and get the buisiness.  They'll give out a few pizzas and donuts and you'll get a few calls from the agency. This industry is a complete joke 90% of the time.

You just do your job as safely and efficiently as you can.  If you're getting flak from a manager to get off the ground in 5 minutes, shake your head and go about your buisiness.  Don't argue with him because he's an idiot.  

do your job logically, forget the idiots.