Zane Hawkins loves to fly; his career has been in the clouds. Zane is a helicopter pilot with Air Methods, an air ambulance company that provides critical care for burn, cardiac, pediatric, respiratory and trauma patients.

He has been flying air ambulance Bell 407 helicopters for nearly a quarter century, beginning his career in the Army. Airtime is the best time for Zane.

“I love my job and have made two careers on helping strangers, in the military and as an Air Life pilot,” Zane said.

Based at HCA HealthONE Skyridge (HCA), the Air Life team Zane works with is like a second family to him. The hanger is large enough to hold two choppers and the staff is top notch on policies and procedures, especially about safety.

Zane’s typical day is much the same as firefighters—cleaning and maintaining equipment and  computer training—but some days, he flies all day. Air ambulance pilots work 12-hour shifts that can be extended to 14 hours by the Federal Aviation Administration. Regulations mandate that pilots can only fly six of the 12 hours.

About 80% of Zane’s calls are interfacility transfer flights, moving critical patients from one hospital or clinic to another, if more specialized care is needed. That often means moving patients from smaller or rural clinics to larger hospitals. The rest of the calls are usually “scene calls,” when the helicopter goes directly to the scene of an accident or emergency to transfers patients.

HCA’s Air Life crew includes the only high-risk, specialty obstetrics nurse in the region; therefore, Zane often pilots the team within a five-state area including Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, New Mexico and Kansas.

A good working relationship between Zane and the HCA crew is critical to their ability to save lives. As the pilot, Zane oversees the aircraft, including take-offs, landing and refueling, but the nurses direct all medical aspects of each call.

Learning to fly as a teenager, Zane began his career in the Army as a helicopter mechanic and was stationed in South Korea. From mechanic, he moved up to crew chief and flight engineer. Then, he was sent to Fort Cambell in Kentucky for flight school. Zane joined the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment, known as the “Night Stalkers,” a specialized aviation task force for the Army Special Operations Forces. After this duty, Zane was stationed in Germany for nearly a decade where he met wife Viktoria. From Germany, Zane was deployed to Iraq and Somalia.

The Army sent him and the family back to the U.S., to Georgia and then further west where Zane flew high altitude rescue teams at Mount McKinley, Alaska. He landed choppers at 16,000 feet above sea level and worked closely with park rangers. His military career ended in Alabama at Fort Rucker, now named Fort Novosel, where he taught in flight school.

After retiring from the Army, Zane went to Air Methods which brought the Hawkins family to Douglas County. They love the more conservative attitudes and good schools here. Zane and Viktoria have been married for 38 years and have three children. Two of their three settled nearby in Parker, and the third lives in Colorado Springs.

Despite his long and impressive military career and 24 years flying air ambulances, Zane views himself as a regular guy. “I don’t feel like a first responder, but that is the status of the job,” he said. “It’s never work when you love your job!”

Zane Hawkins has been an Air Methods pilot for nearly a quarter century, and flying much longer than that. His current career puts him in the pilot seat of medical transport Bell 407 helicopters. The quality of service has not changed even though the chopper’s paint job to red and black (pictured top) recently has.

 

 

By Celeste McNeil; photos courtesy of Zane Hawkins