Enloe Medical Center’s FlightCare program is ringing into the New Year with a state-of-the-art new helicopter.
What’s so cool about it?
Marty Marshall: “Well, there’s a lot cool about it.”
That’s Marty Marshall, helicopter pilot and director of Enloe Emergency Medical Services. He called the new vehicle, among other things, “an air conditioner with a helicopter built around it.”
The EcoStar is more spacious than the old chopper. It’s a low-noise helicopter, which Marshall says neighbors of Enloe’s Esplanade location will appreciate.
And it has all kinds of redundancies and automation…
Marshall: “…which means we don’t have very many analog instruments any more. It’s like flying with iPads.”
The total cost of the EcoStar was about $3.5 million. Almost $1.2 million of that was raised by some 1,500 individual donors, plus $1 million from the Enloe Foundation. Marshall says the sale of the old FlightCare helicopter should bridge the remaining $1.3 million.
Enloe FlightCare directly serves about a 60-mile radius, but frequently transports patients as far as Reno, San Francisco and San Jose.
They’re unveiling the EcoStar tomorrow afternoon from 2 to 4:30 at the Chico Air Museum, near the municipal airport.