"The New semi-Geometric Possibility"
photograph by D.Quirke.
"Our E.T.A will be in 17 minutes..." are words that fill us both with relief and cold pressured fear. I don't know how many times I have heard them over the years. It means the ambulance will pull up in seconds and I have to have a patient 'ready to go', copies of every document photocopied, and answer the questions thrown at me by someone's family while I attempt to calmly make last minute calls. It also means that I've probably got 5 minutes to get ready because it takes 12 minutes to get to the runway. Heofonlic angels will soon arrive as we finish unpacking bits of hell.
A short time later, I might be standing in an aeroplane hangar under the shadow of large, silent propellas, or outside on a runway. Sometimes a plane pulls up next to our ambulance moments after we park and sprays us with fine gravel. I don't know how many times I have wished I wore seven padded jackets. Sometimes we stand in tin sheds. Once an ambulance volunteer held a tiny injured bird while we loaded a patient onto a trolley out under a black, silent, star-lit Heaven's Gate.
Next week, two new Pilatus PC24 jets are being made available for casualty and emergency retrieval at Jandokot for the RFDS and Broome base. West Australian RFDS presently uses Pilatus PC12 single engine, pressurised turbo prop planes which can hold two stretchers and seat 3 people. These can fly at 450 km per hour. Emergency RFDS retrieval expert Hakkan Yaman describes them as "mini I.C.Us in a tin can". These tin cans can glide.
Dheborah Quirke. 27th November 2018.
