Nomen Nescio wrote:

[I had to switch news providers because once again, your post did not
propagate to my commercial news provider's servers.]

1) liability issues

Like others have stated, I suppose that in these times of severe
litigation, a good lawyer could probably get past the waver in the event
of an accident.

However, I do not let the fear of a possible lawsuit stop me from
participating. If anything, I use this potential as added incentive to
flight plan conservatively.

Also, I can't call up a form on Angel Flight Northeast. Is it basically
the same?

Yes.

2) Class 3 medical issues: I assume that as long as you can pass your
class 3, are properly BFRed, current, and meet the 300hr, IFR, 25 IMC?
requirements that you're in there.
snip

Yes. AF does not require any additional medical information other than
a current class 3 medical.

3) Contageous Disease - Quite simply, do you fly people that you
could catch a major disease from?

Severe burns, birth deformity, and cancer are the most common types of
medical conditions I have flown. Honestly, I never even gave contagious
disease a thought until I read your words. Nope.. no worry.

Perhaps my most memorable flight was with a woman who was in the last
stages of terminal cancer. She and her husband lived in NYC and they
wanted to get to Maine to see their only daughter get married. Her
husband told me that most likely she was going to Maine to die. The in-
laws were all waiting at the Maine airport to greet her when we arrived.
This was last August. I believe she has since died.

4) What special care do you have to provide for the passengers?
snip

I carry airsickness bags and during the briefing I encourage the
passengers to ask for one if they need it. On two different flights I
have had passengers request one, but they never used it. I also have
carried two passengers who brought their portable oxygen tanks.

Most of the people I have flown were very appreciative of the flight. A
couple were anxious about flying in a small airplane, but as fate would
have it, the air was smooth and the views were stunning that day, so
they were converted.

One lady was not happy because I was delayed a few hours, thanks to
numerous thunderstorm cells across our entire route. This was the
second leg for her (she was flying from North Caroline up to Boston) and
she had already had a long day. In this case I calmly reminded her of
the limitations of small aircraft.

On our flight up to Boston (from Philly) we crossed right over Kennedy
airport at night and got a spectacular view of a large t-storm cell some
90 miles away lighting up the night-time sky with its lightning. Then,
the full moon rose from behind this isolated cell. It was surreal. The
woman's mood changed substantially and she sincerely thanked me when we
were on the ground at Bedford.

Another person gave me a hard time on the phone because I could not
arrive to pick him, his wife and son up until dinner time. He did not
want to wait around the airport with his young son an extra two hours.

He called back about a half an hour later and apologized for his
attitude, then told me they were taking the train home.

You learn a bit of customer service, too.

5) Commitment: Hours for the avg. mission, times of day (night), advance
notice, lay overs, etc.

This depends on the the departing and arriving airports. When I first
started, I was flying 2 1/2 hours to pick up a patient, flying 2 hours
to the destination airport, then flying another 2 hours home. This made
for an 8 or 9 hour day (including ground time). With two small boys at
home, I soon realized that this was too much for me so I chose shorter
missions.

My average now is about 6 hours total time. Since I work during the
day, most of my missions are in the evenings or occasionally on the
weekends. Now that winter is here, evenings mean after dark.

There are both morning and afternoon missions, as well as "patient
flexible" missions. As I stated previously, you see a list with flights
up to two months advance notice, but there are also emails that go out
twice a week looking for pilots to fly the following day. Fly whatever
works for your schedule.

6) Aircraft: If you can do it in a 172, I guess just about anything that
you can squeeze 4 people in will work?

I learned very quickly about the importance of adjusting fuel load to
accommodate passenger weight. If I am not able to fly with a bit over
an hour's worth of reserve (10 gallons in the C172) based on the weight
of the patients and luggage, I don't take that mission.

One day a few months ago there were three people that needed to get to
Ohio from a city nearby my home airport. Since no one else had taken
the flight, I called AF and told them I would do it if the patient would
consider leaving one behind, since the weight of the three of them
exceeded my load carrying capacity. The patients said no. No other
pilot came forward so they drove the nine hours to Ohio.

7) Any other negatives that I might have missed.

No.

8) Oh, 1 more. How do you figure expenses. Fuel, oil, obviously.
But do you include allocations for overhauls, repairs, annual, etc.
Or do you rent?

I own, so I calculated a fair hourly cost to use the aircraft.
According to my accountant, it should pass the IRS. I also include the
cost to drive back and forth to my home airport (since I live about 1/2
hour away), any meals that I may have purchased because of the flight,
and any fees associated with the flight (landing fees, de-icing, etc.)

Regards,

--
Peter