Air ambulance charity seeks new £80k-a-year pilot

A rare opportunity to take to the skies as the member of an air ambulance crew has been advertised, with a starting salary of almost £80,000 a year.

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance charity said its vacancy for a pilot would see the successful candidate at the controls of one of its Airbus H145 helicopters.

According to the ad, the role would be based at RAF Topcliffe, near Thirsk, one of the sites in Yorkshire from which the charity operates.

Yorkshire Air Ambulance chief pilot Owen McTeggart told BBC Radio York that on average he would carry out 30 to 40 flights a week, and "no day is exactly the same".

Unlike most other air ambulances in the UK, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance directly employs pilots to fly its helicopters under its own Air Operator’s Certificate.

The service covers a population of five million people.

As well as its base at RAF Topcliffe, it also operates from a site at Nostell Priory near Wakefield.

The charity, which needs to raise £19,000 a day to keep operating, said that wherever the air ambulance's helicopter landed at the scene of an accident, it was a maximum of 20 minutes from a Major Trauma Centre.

Mr McTeggart, a former Staff Sergeant, was a pilot in the military for 17 years, after joining the Army aged 16.

"After years of getting wet and cold, I decided to try helicopters - and luckily I passed my exams," he said.

He retired from the armed forces at the age of 40 and joined the Air Ambulance in the Lake District, before moving to Yorkshire five years ago.

He said the job was always a challenge, explaining: "Some of the most challenging call-outs are in the more rural areas of Yorkshire, even those that at first seem simple, such as a suspected broken ankle."

Mr McTeggart said the new pilot, with a £79,732 annual salary, would ideally be someone with at least 10 years of flying experience, who had spent lots of time in helicopters in similar situations.

Last year the charity unveiled two new helicopters, bought with £15m of public donations.

The Airbus H145 D3 helicopters were the first of their kind in the UK and were "fantastic", according to Mr McTeggart.

"They almost fly themselves, to be honest. They can do automated take-off - which really helps the pilots at night spot other hazards, such as overhead power lines."

The Yorkshire Air Ambulance relies solely on donations from individuals and organisations, and as an independent charity it only receives help through secondment of the paramedics from the Yorkshire Ambulance Service NHS Trust.

According to the charity, the new recruit would need to have a minimum of 1,500 hours as a pilot-in-command of an aircraft - and must live in, or be prepared to relocate to, the Yorkshire region.

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