Hyde County EMS to evaluate ultralight plane for two months

By Connie Leinbach

Hyde County Emergency Services will soon be airborne in a first-in-the-nation trial program using an ultralight aircraft.

The Blackfly, an electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing biplane, or eVTOL, made by Pivotal of Palo Alto, California, will arrive on the mainland on Saturday (March 14) for a two-month evaluation.

Hyde County EMS Chief Brook Cox presented the idea to the Hyde County commissioners at their February meeting.

A meet-and-greet with the EMS Department and the eVTOL, will be held from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday at the Hyde County airport, 470 Airport Road, Engelhard.

This battery-powered aircraft has four propellers on the front and four in the back and takes off and lands vertically, Cox explained during the presentation.

The 60-day trial period will be a “proof of concept” to determine if the plane is feasible as an additional tool for both for medical emergencies, search-and-rescue or other law enforcement needs by the sheriff’s department, which oversees the EMS department.

“It’s simple and light, and we want to be on the forefront,” Cox said. “This plane can go where you can only parachute. It is another tool to help people.”

The Hyde experiment is also a first for Pivotal as this aircraft until now has been used only by private citizens, according to the Pivotal website, which manufactures these ultralight aircraft.

The plane holds only one person, who, in Hyde’s case will be a paramedic trained to pilot the aircraft, and it will also hold a cardiac monitor and an oxygen unit, Cox said.

“(The aircraft is) basically to get someone stabilized until a vehicle can get there,” said Heidi Groshelle, Pivotal spokesperson. “Hyde County’s large, rural geography makes it an ideal real-world testbed for this new approach to emergency medical access.”

The aircraft has a range of 20 miles before it must be recharged, which takes about 75 minutes, she said.  It needs a 100-foot by 100-foot area in which to land.

Hyde is partnering with Code Blue Resources of Wake Forest, a critical care training company, for three part-time paramedic pilots who will participate in the evaluation.

Cox said in a later interview that having this aircraft to evaluate is a great opportunity. 

Hyde County is a good test site because it is so vast and flat, and then there’s Ocracoke across the Pamlico Sound.

Wind gusts can help the plane fly, Cox said, and Groshelle said maximum wind for flight is 23 knots; for takeoff are nine knots; four knots for crosswinds and three knots for tailwinds. Maximum altitude is 200 to 400 feet.

“Creating this program with Hyde County and Code Blue Resources marks a definitive milestone for advanced air mobility. For the first time, eVTOL technology is being deployed to support active public safety operations,” said Pivotal CEO Ken Karklin in a press release. “The initial phase is designed to build the framework for sustained Airmobile Emergency Services response, and we expect it could deliver measurable life-saving benefits from the start.”

Groshelle said the aircraft’s price starts at $190,000 and goes up to $260,000, depending on what accessories, such as trailers, a customer wants.

Last year, Cox said, Hyde County EMS had 1,400 calls, averaging about three calls a day.

Their calls last a longer time because of the geographical size of the county and the time it takes to get to the nearest hospitals, which is in (little) Washington to the west or OBX Hospital to the east in Nags Head.

“Our people have to be at the top of their game,” she said about the EMTs’ skills.

Because of Hyde’s uniqueness, she wants to hire people who really care.

“In Hyde County, you’ve got to think outside the box,” she said. “There are different challenges here but we’re pretty special.”

This story was corrected from an earlier version as to the aircraft’s range, the time it takes to recharge the battery and the amount of space it needs in which to land.