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Helicopter evacuation

 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Just had the invoice for my helicopter ride from piste in champoluc to hospital in Aosta.....bearing in mind a taxi cost 144 euros...... helicopter was only 200 euro.... dirt cheap
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@yorkshirelad,
Do they do airport transfers at half term Toofy Grin
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I was airlifted from Hintertux to Schwarz Hospital in December, a 60km flight I think. Cost €4,000. Taxi back was €119. I thought the taxi was quite cheap.
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@yorkshirelad, read it again, you may have missed a zero or two Puzzled

200Eu will keep a chopper in the air for about 15 mins
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
@Masque, wouldn't have thought Champoluc to Aosta would have been much more than 15 minutes
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@yorkshirelad, did your lift pass have insurance for rescue? Maybe the 200€ is just the excess.
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
Masque wrote:
200Eu will keep a chopper in the air for about 15 mins
€91 per minute of flight with AirAlpin in Austria, plus nearly €600 for the rescue coordination fee. It was a mere €9.10 for the morphine shot which was the cheapest part of the experience, as well as the only enjoyable part of the day.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@yorkshirelad, Don't forget the funny foreigners use commas instead of full stops and vice versa when writing numbers!
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I had to pay €240 to be taken off the French motorway yesterday and to a garage about 5 minutes away, flipping front wheel bolts had come loose, one minute job to tighten them.....no wheel brace in the boot......BMW think you don't need it as it has run flats. Good job BMW are picking up the tab. Very Happy
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@rob@rar, dare I ask what you had done to deserve a ride on a chopper?
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
Steilhang wrote:
@rob@rar, dare I ask what you had done to deserve a ride on a chopper?
Somebody skied in to me, rather quickly.
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
yorkshirelad wrote:
.....bearing in mind a taxi cost 144 euros...... helicopter was only 200 euro.... dirt cheap
Some places it's free.

Collective time for a 4-seater heli is about $2,000 Canadian an hour. That'll get you a 75 miles return trip. And you travel "as the crow flies".

Many transatlantic first-class tickets cost significantly more than that.
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So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Mrs Sunshine blew her knee out in January above Plaine Dranse in PDS. The rescue and chopper back to the Medical Centre in Avoriaz was 650E which I didn't think we too bad. The Piste Patrol who helped her were incredible, so efficient and caring.
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
Has anyone had to actually pay for one before or are these all insurance absorbed costs?
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Insurance claim for me.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Insurance
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
@moseyp, a certain 'Kate' on UKclimbing site dislocated her shoulder in Zermatt. Friends called Air Glacier - this was in 2010 - she thought it would be covered by EHIC - she did not have insurance. At that time, AG was 90 chf per minute - 15 from Sion to Zermatt, 10 mins pickup time, 15 minutes to Sion hospital, 5 mins for AG to clear Sion hospital and hop back over the road to Sion airport. 90 x 45. Ouch. The post ended with a hovering dread of the almost certain arrival of the bill.

Meanwhile, when both my partner and I managed to pick up head injuries climbing on nasty unstable morraine above Arolla in 2015 - hers was darn sight messier than mine, steristrips wouldn't do it so we used climbing tape to close the split (!!!) - the hospital bills using EHIC but no helicopter was 66 chf. Bargain.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
I did find something on a Aosta valley website somewhere about a 200€ 'contribution' to rescue charges being payable, but can't find the link now. Maybe on La Thuile site?
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Checked the invoice....200 euro.... not an excess !!! Short flight anyway, but still cheap, ...
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Posted about my recent experience with Air Zermatt on another thread. CHF 4.5k for delivery of Doctor and Medic then evacuation to Visp Hospital from the Glacier. Thank goodness for insurance.
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4 years ago Mrs B was helied off the back of the Stubai Glacier on (the last run of a 6 day) ski tour.

We were billed for 48 minutes, from take off to pick up, to drop off & flight back to base - €5,000.

Our insurer agreed to settle the bill directly with the rescuers. wink
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...
checked with insurance company and the only invoice they have is the one we sent them... im not complaining..
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
@yorkshirelad, that's cheaper than the taxi I paid for last week in arlberg area..Warth to lech 265 euros.. mountain rescue wanted 500 to take wife in a sledge. Now way she could have gone in sledge with dislocated shoulder and shattered collar bone.
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Hells Bells wrote:
I did find something on a Aosta valley website somewhere about a 200€ 'contribution' to rescue charges being payable, but can't find the link now. Maybe on La Thuile site?
I found this on the Cervinia site: http://www.cervinia.it/en/inverno/tariffe-note-regolamento
€200 contribution to the first aid service. If that includes helicopter evacuation, then its a bargain.
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Masque wrote:
@yorkshirelad, read it again, you may have missed a zero or two Puzzled

200Eu will keep a chopper in the air for about 15 mins



Good bit longer than that.
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@Charliegolf, Only if its an R22!

Costs in Tignes last year rescue on piste €374, off piste €484 and transportation to hospital €55 per minute
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 And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
How many litres of avtur does 200E buy?
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
Wow, that is cheap, I've just paid my 24,89 euros bill for being blue lighted to Troyes hospital in the summer after falling off my bike. That I think is the contribution that the French pay (20%?) thanks to my EHIC card. They wanted to operate but I was headed home the following day so I had the op in the UK which saved me paying the 20% of the operation and having to claim it back from the insurance. I actually didn't know that at the time (regarding the 20% contribution) so it's made me very aware of how it all works should I have another accident!
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 You know it makes sense.
You know it makes sense.
@AllyK,were you blue-lighted by the Pompiers? Charge would have been grester via a private ambulance. And the 20% cost also depends on the need for surgery. If it was a emergency op for example, my hubby didn't have to pay 20% for his, only the daily hospital charge which I think was 18€ per day.
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
I was yes, silver lining and all Wink I'd only broken my little finger but it needed k-wires inserting so not really an emergency just a bit painful. It really made me think though, there's a presumption that your EHIC gives you full medical cover. I have annual insurance cover anyway for skiing so it would have been fine but wonder how many people think your EHIC covers you for everything.
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead
Charliegolf wrote:
How many litres of avtur does 200E buy?
Actually the cost of Jet-A is probably the smallest line-item on the direct costs.

Every heli evac I've been involved with (UK and BC) have been free, but if you have to rent a heli to do it the costs are easily available Most people will spend significantly more changing their cars.
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
I think (but not certain) it's about 700€ here but that only gets you off the mountain to the helipad at resort level. Ambulance to the clinic for x-rays etc. Even a sled down is several hundred. I dread to think how much a helicopter ride to the nearest hospital in Grenoble is. It's 75 mins by road so ambulance isn't cheap either.
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 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Presumably our beloved EHIC will be on the way out with brexit and insurance will be a bit more of a hassle... get those airlifts in while they are cheap!
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EHIC only kicks in once you get to a hospital in France. All doctors charge a consultation fee, ambulances are private and here all clinics are private too. Pharmacies are also expensive. The French have a mutuel which pays all or a large part of those fees. Helicopter or sled rescue is not covered.
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 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Sorry to be a pedant but:
Quote:

Pharmacies are also expensive.

For some items, but cheaper than UK for others.
&
Quote:

The French have a mutuel

Anyone whose paying French social charges on wages gets this too don't they, not just the French (a pretty important distinction for ex pats).
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@midgetbiker, I think they usually pay for a mutuel also which gives a reduction on all sorts of things inc prescriptions, dentists, glasses, etc. I'll ask my french girlfriend tomorrow. Granted some things are cheaper in pharmacies, I think the fact that you can only buy from a pharmacy unlike the UK is a big factor.
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Anyone on the system can get a Mutuelle, but they're expensive.
After an initial year, ours jumped to eur1400 p.a.
We stopped paying for 11 years. Saving around 15K.
During that time we lost out on eur6 per doctors appointment, and we had to pay the 30% not covered by the normal "free" carte-vitale upon my partners broken leg, hospitalisation, operations and rehab, and my son's ACL injury, op and rehab, and 6 years of orthodontics. ( The Mutuelle had a ceiling for orthodontics of eur 500 pp pa) In total these cost us around 5K, so we're still 10K ahead of where we would be if we still had the Mutuelle.
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
Quote:

Granted some things are cheaper in pharmacies

Like 'crampons' for the bottom of my crutches...........they were only a few Euros, and I bet you can't even get them in the UK!! Laughing
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Last couple of things I got were some insect repellent and a tiny tube of steroid cream for a rash. About 25€ for the two. In UK you could pop in and buy Tescos own brand.
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Ten years ago a mate of mine owned a Jetranger. He leased it to a flying school to keep ownership costs down but reckoned it was still working out at approx £400ph for every hour he flew it.

The biggest cost was engine-out servicing, where the engine must be crated and shipped back to Bell in the US. I would imagine it could easily be 50% more than that now, possibly double with exchange rate costs.

I would frame a €200 heli-evac invoice.
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