Tumbi Umbi pilot Travis West notches up nearly 1000 missions with CareFlight

From flying blind at night to rescuing “broken kids”, Central Coast pilot Travis West talks about the challenges of flying nearly 1000 missions for rescue helicopter service CareFlight.

Almost every day Mounties CareFlight helicopters are tasked to treat and retrieve some of the most critically injured or sick patients, in their darkest hour of need, from across NSW.

For Central Coast helicopter pilot Travis West it is all in his day job.

But it is hardly a typical nine-to-five the 40-year-old from Tumbi Umbi takes for granted.

Growing up in the US state of Washington, Mr West was obsessed with helicopters from a young age and after almost joining the army he went to university and gained his pilot’s licence.

Having flown rescue helicopters in the US, Mr West moved to Australia and joined CareFlight nine years ago where he was relieved to be able to help patients without a “$50,000 bill when we landed”.

“In Australia when I go to help somebody, I really get to help them, without the $50,000 bill attached,” he said.

“I’m also lucky enough to get to help people on their worst days. It’s always a really cool experience when a patient comes back to visit, after you’ve seen them completely broken and really seeing the outcomes that we’ve had the chance to be a part of.”

One such reunion recently was that with Northern Beaches teenager Isabella “Izzy” Hoffman who fell from a boat during a “freak” accident on Narrabeen Lagoon on September 24 last year and was hit repeatedly by the propeller suffering horrific head and spinal injuries.

The 15-year-old was put in an induced coma and flown to The Children’s Hospital at Westmead.

Mr West had to land on a football oval half way there so the specialist doctor could save her before she underwent emergency lifesaving surgery.

Reunited, Isabelle “Izzy” Hoffman and CareFlight helicopter pilot Travis West at Westmead in Sydney after the 15-year-old was injured in a freak boating accident. Picture: Richard Dobson

After 48 hours in a coma, Isabelle spent several days in intensive care, followed by four weeks in hospital.

But the high school student is back working part time at a bakery and continuing to surprise doctors with her recovery.

Mr West said “situational awareness” in those moments was critical for a rescue pilot.

“You need to be aware of what’s happening now and what’s happened in the past and put this together to be able to somewhat predict what is going to happen in the future,” he said.

“You can’t be even a minute behind when you’re flying, that’s how you get into trouble. So being able to maintain situational awareness is really the key to being a good pilot.”

Mr West said despite all the training and extensive use of flight simulators, which can test pilots in the “extreme” with “lose-lose” scenarios, the hardest part of his job remained seeing severely injured or “broken” patients.

No matter how many missions he flies Tumbi Umbi helicopter pilot Travis West said seeing “broken” people was the hardest part of the job. Picture: Supplied

“Especially seeing broken kids because I have kids myself,” he said.

“You really empathise with the parents when you see a hurt kid. It’s really hard to see that.”

Ibuprofen manufacturer Nurofen recently announced a $90,000 sponsorship deal with CareFlight to fit out three of the service’s helicopters with state-of-the-art night vision goggles.

Mr West said night vision goggles were a vital piece of equipment which enabled the to reach patients safer and quicker.

“Without the goggles, we’d have to fly at lower altitudes, especially in mountainous terrain, where we need to land via a ‘black hole’ approach with a single light source, which is incredibly risky and takes quite a long time to set up,” he said.

“Another thing that most people probably don’t consider is that when you fly into the darkness, no visual horizon to refer to, you don’t know which way down. In this situation, people can actually lose their bearings, fly upside down and crash.”