Press Release

Issued by SkyTrac.

December 4, 2013

Polish HEMS operator, SP ZOZ Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe (LPR) utilizes SkyTrac Systems' solutions to meet European single pilot HEMS night flying regulations and enhance medical air rescue operations in Poland. The combination of advanced helicopter design, highly skilled aviators and ground support crew coupled with satellite technology, aviation telematics, and software engineering solutions is making an important difference in the Medevac industry.

1. Medical Evacuation Industry Overview

The Medevac industry encompasses the Helicopter Emergency Medical Services industry (HEMS), which provides critical helicopter transport of patients between trauma scenes and. medical facilities. HEMS helicopters are outfitted with medical equipment and are staffed with medical professionals. They are chosen over ground emergency crews when issues surrounding timing, severity, and/or location exist. Many fly to rural areas where there is limited access to trauma centers, providing a bridge to advanced medical care that would be otherwise too far away for many individuals.

The medical term “The Golden Hour” refers to a time window immediately following a traumatic injury when prompt medical care will reduce the likelihood of fatality. When ground transportation is not a viable or timely option, Medevac operators serve to transport patients to critical care facilities while this limited window of opportunity is still open. The industry is gaining in both popularity and success - a September 2013 Air Medical Operators Association fact sheet reported that greater numbers of available aircraft across the U.S. have improved patient response times, directly resulting in improved recovery times and reductions in mortality rates, especially in the case of cardiac arrest, stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Though the benefits provided to the public are priceless, HEMS operators face serious challenges, such as working under highly time-sensitive conditions at all hours of the day, sometimes in bad weather, in unfamiliar areas or at risky landing zones. Dependable communication and coordination with dispatch is key, especially during the Golden Hour. Many organizations are choosing to invest in satellite communication technology to ensure reliable contact, coordinate with hospital staff while enroute, improve aircrew and ground crew situational awareness, and enhance safety for the aircrew and patients. LPR is a HEMS operator who utilizes SkyTrac's flight following solutions to comply with regulations, mitigate risks and increase connectivity.

2. Product Overview

SkyTrac Systems is a custom satellite communications solution provider for the aviation sector. Their solutions enable organizations operating helicopters and fixed wing aircraft to reduce operational costs, increase operational efficiency on the ground and in the air, meet compliance standards, and improve flight safety. Their systems track, monitor and communicate with fleets using the Iridium satellite system to ensure reliable global coverage. SkyTrac specializes in operations management solutions, providing aviation companies with critical data and custom solutions that ensure air operations run as smoothly and efficiently as possible. SkyTrac provides tailored solutions for a variety of industries. In the Medevac field their solutions address a wide variety of challenges and are used throughout the industry.

2.1 Hardware Solutions

SkyTrac's ISAT-200R transceiver is a full featured flight following and satellite communication system that gives Medevac operators the tools they need for global flight following, voice, messaging and data communication. The transceiver comes equipped with an emergency switch, internal field replaceable battery, SD card interface and the ability to send and receive satellite phone calls, emails and text.

The ISAT-200R uses a Cockpit Display Unit that is used to send and receive pre-configured, editable field or free-form messages, as well as send and receive satellite phone calls. It also has an emergency switch which notifies preselected addresses via SkyWeb or email messages of a declared emergency situation.

SkyTrac's latest hardware innovation, the ISAT-200A, combines the benefits of the ISAT-200R with additional Flight Data Monitoring (FDM) and Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) capabilities, as well as exceedance reporting. FDM capabilities include an extensive set of operational and maintenance parameters to be monitored and the ability to alert ground crews immediately when preconfigured parameters are exceeded, thus helping identify potential safety of flight incidents, or costly maintenance issues. The ISAT-200A also offers voice messaging capabilities that provide efficient voice communications using a single button interface, reducing pilot workload. The transceiver comes equipped with a hardened memory module for cockpit audio and data recording.

The ISAT-200A has an embedded accelerometer, interfaces directly with the cockpit audio panel and supports a variety of handsets for cabin voice connectivity. It also has an internal battery that allows aircrew to use handset phone calls without aircraft power.

An optional accessory for the ISAT-200A meets Lightweight Aircraft Recording System (LARS) requirements. SkyTrac's Crash Hardened Memory (CHM) module is typically installed in the airframe tail and is designed to survive the static, dynamic and thermal conditions that may result from an accident.

SkyTrac's optional Wi-Fi device interfaces with the ISAT-200 series and can be used to simplify the Flight Data Monitoring process, as no manual data retrieval is necessary, reducing workload and increasing efficiency of information flow.

2.2 SkyWeb

SkyWeb is SkyTrac's web-based mapping and system management program. The program is accessible organization wide to assigned users and provides a cohesive communication and dispatch tool for Medevac operators. SkyWeb dynamically connects aircrew to ground crew and increases situational awareness using a wide variety of software tools. SkyWeb can be used to forward information to other organizations, interface with other operational systems and analyze and export flight hours, manifest data, billing information - an extremely valuable tool in streamlining Medevac operations.

The software also has a unique weather overlay capability to aid in mission execution as well as geo- fencing options – both important elements for HEMS operations. The SkyWeb Mobile application provides an additional interface via smartphone giving organizations the power to connect with and monitor aircraft all from one's pocket.

Both SkyWeb and SkyWeb Mobile greatly increase connectivity to flight operations, providing an easily accessible interface that provides information about a fleet, along with current and historic data that can be shared throughout an organization. This allows Medevac operators' ground crew and dispatch to access a multitude of flight data, leaving air crew to focus on the mission at hand.

SkyTrac's application programming interface option also allows for the sending of tracking data through to third parties' Automated Flight Follow (AFF) systems – an increasingly common requirement for many aviation agencies especially in the Medevac industry.

2.3 High Resolution Data

SkyTrac created the High Resolution Data feature to help improve flight path compliance and increase the fidelity of standard flight tracking. The feature, enabled by specially developed algorithms, most accurately reflects the actual flight path through 1 second GPS sampling as opposed to the traditional reporting method of 'connecting the dots' through sixty second reporting. SkyTrac's compression algorithms and technical approach ensure that the 1- second data is not cost-prohibitive to operators.

High Resolution Data enables Medevac operators the ability to determine precise distances flown for billing purposes and high-fidelity flight paths that document compliance with local airspace regulations (restricted flight zones, prohibited airspace and noise abatement plans). This feature is selectable by ground staff using SkyWeb.

2.4 Service Contracts

SkyTrac currently holds tailored Service Contracts with organizations who wish to focus their resources on operations and receive only simplified reports containing exactly the data they need. Service Contracts further help Medevac operators streamline their operations by allowing SkyTrac to take care of the work associated with fleet management. SkyTrac interfaces with a wide variety of ERP and operational systems in order to ensure that customer's data flows quickly and efficiently within organizations – increasing situational awareness, providing management with key operational metrics, speeding billing cycles, and highlighting critical maintenance events in a timely manner.

3. LPR

Lotnicze Pogotowie Ratunkowe is a major air emergency response and the sole Polish HEMS operator in Poland operating a fleet of 23 EC135 helicopters. All are staffed with a doctor, paramedic, pilot and equipped with an ISAT-100. The company provides medical air rescue services all over the country and averages 7000-8000 missions a year.

LPR chose SkyTrac's products to comply with European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) regulations surrounding single pilot HEMS night flying. The company chose to pursue a ground monitoring system from the various options for meeting these regulations. After identifying various solutions, LPR set a number of challenging requirements for the satellite position monitoring system and published a public tender to retrofit their brand new fleet of EC 135 helicopters. A competitive offer, good SkyTrac reputation confirmed by a usage record from DRF Luftrettung, the ISAT's 100% global coverage and built-in internal battery played a significant role in awarding the contract. Finally LPR chose SkyTrac to fulfill their fleet management needs. After equipping their entire helicopter fleet with ISAT-100 flight monitoring systems, LPR could respond to emergency calls at all hours of the day while keeping ground and air operations connected. Once compliance with regulations was realized, the organization utilized the system to also increase situational awareness on the ground as well as in the air during mission execution, support real- time decision making and to increase management oversight of key fleet metrics.

LPR currently uses a set of pre-programmed messages (mission statuses) sent from the helicopter to quickly and efficiently communicate the aircraft's status with dispatch. This allows for quick updates to be sent with minimal crew interaction to further increase efficiency. Dispatch is immediately informed of crucial ETA's and flight status of the medical rescue mission. This coordination is especially important in the event of mass incidents that require more than one helicopter. The backup battery also facilitates emergency mode and continues recording after a power loss which is extremely important to LPR for analysis should an incident occur.

The ISAT transceiver is used in conjunction with EuroAvionics' EuroNav 5 system in the aircraft. Together these systems provide crucial information to LPR's own software program. From this program, they manage their fleet using real time position and mission data supplied by SkyTrac's hardware.

Marcin Wiktorzak of LPR (EC 135 fleet exchange Project Coordinator) commented “We initially used SkyTrac's product to comply with regulations so we could respond to emergencies at all hours. However SkyTrac's products and services have become instrumental in optimizing the efforts and safety of our entire fleet. Our operations have become more efficient as time management and internal communications have greatly improved. With SkyTrac's help we are able to increase situational awareness across the entire organization and more effectively coordinate our fleet using up to the minute information. This allows us to provide more immediate assistance to those who are depending on us getting there quickly. We are consistently seeking new ideas on how to leverage this investment.”

4. Conclusion

The Medevac and HEMS industry provides immediate transport of trauma victims to medical facilities, increasing the chance of survival when they receive care within the Golden Hour. The benefits of rapid transport for patients are immense, but it also presents its share of challenges that operators are working to overcome. SkyTrac's solutions aim to resolve these issues while enhancing the operations of Medevac providers such as LPR.

The satellite connectivity solutions offered by SkyTrac increase efficiency, enhance safety and ensure regulatory compliance. Solutions give Medevac operators the ability to monitor and communicate with fleet in real time on a global scale. This increases aircraft safety while mitigating risks. Operational efficiency is also greatly increased as cohesive communication and fleet coordination improves organization wide. LPR utilizes SkyTrac Systems' solutions to enhance communication abilities throughout their operations and to comply with European regulations surrounding single pilot HEMS night flying. This not only enabled them to provide their vital services to patients at all hours of the day, but also provided many other benefits to the company. The system improved organizational safety, situational awareness, time management and internal communication - all important elements of fleet optimization that have cost savings and positive operational expense implications. However, the most significant impacts have been the quicker aircraft response times and the off-board communication of the present status of the HEMS missions during the critical Golden Hour.