BELLEVUE, Wis. — For the past 25 years, the right seat in the cockpit of Eagle III has been Glen Jordan’s office.
He’s one of four pilots with the air medical service helping patients throughout northeast Wisconsin and into Michigan’s upper peninsula.
“We’re a single-pilot ship. We’re not like the airlines where there are two of us up here,” Jordan said after a recent flight to and from Door County. “When we get a call at 2 a.m., or any time of the day, it is that one single person who is putting it all together to make this thing happen safely from point A to point B.”
Eagle III crews have flown more than 10,000 patients since the not-for-profit operation started operations in 1999.
Jordan is one of four pilots with the service. His job includes flying patients from crash scenes to moving patients between hospitals. It also includes helping searchers from the air.
“In any aspect it can go from normal everyday flying to I’ve got a high-risk weather, high-risk patient and it demands the skill of the pilot to get us there,” Jordan said.
Eagle III launched with a Bell Model 407 helicopter. As its operations have grown, so has the size of the aircraft it’s flying. It is now operating its third helicopter, an EC-135 T2-Plus.
Shaun Stamnes, Eagle III air medical coordinator, said the service was formed to fill a void in the area’s medical transportation system in the late 1990s.
“Over the 25 years, to see the growth from where we started to where we are now really gives you a good feeling knowing that you are really helping people,” he said. “You are seeing them at the worst time of their life and you know that you’re making a difference for them and their family.”
Stamnes said Eagle III continually upgrades the equipment available to aid patients.
“We carry the latest medical gear that is out on the market,” he said. “With the ventilator, we currently have the cardiac monitors that we carry. All of that is the latest stuff so we can appropriately treat the patient.”
Weather is one of the biggest challenges Jordan and other flight crews face. Two days are rarely the same.
“I can never say it gets boring because something new always happens,” Jordan said. “No matter how much you have learned, no matter how much you’ve experienced, there’s always something that can grab you and say, ‘Oh, I’ve never seen that happen before.’”