Aerial ER: Medical-helicopter pilot found his calling and is still in love with it

As an AirCare helicopter pilot for Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, Guy Maher's job is to get a nurse and a paramedic to a patient as quickly and safely as possible and, as the medical team works with the patient in back, he flies everyone back to the medical center.

"It's just like an emergency room only we're in the air," Maher said. "The real magic and the real work is going on behind me."

When Maher lands a helicopter at an interstate exit ramp to pick up someone injured in a traffic accident, his work may look dangerous but if he thinks something isn't safe, he doesn't do it.

"Safety is first," he said.

It's work that he thoroughly enjoys not only because it helps others but also because flying is one of the great loves of his life. He recalled the first time he saw Sky King, the television adventure show in which pilot/rancher Sky King thwarts bank robbers and spies.

"I knew from the time I was eating my first Oreo cookie that I wanted to fly," he said.

Maher was still young enough to need his father to give him a ride to the airport when he started taking flying lessons, paid for with money earned through jobs such as working at the local drugstore after school.

As an adult, Maher had the good fortune to become friends with Kirby Grant, the man who played Sky King, and, from time to time, he would fly him to his personal appearances.

In 1977, Maher was working in the Northeast for airplane-maker Cessna -- "my company car was a brand new Cessna airplane" -- when a client offered to take him up in a helicopter.

"I was immediately hooked," he said. "I didn't think there could be anything more fun. You have an unrestricted view of everything ahead. Even more important than that, the helicopter is more like free flying. It is as close to being a bird as you can be."

Maher immediately began taking helicopter-flying lessons. He likened the process to learning how to pat your head and rub your stomach while balancing on a little rubber ball.

"Helicopters are inherently unstable," he said.

He was soon certified. Maher came to the medical center about 20 years ago. His actual employer is Air Methods, a national company that contracts with the medical center to provide the helicopter service.

Maher, 56, is one of four AirCare pilots. The pilots work 12-hour shifts for seven days -- and, yes, they're allowed to sleep on the night shifts -- followed by seven days off. Because the nurses and paramedics are on different rotations, he doesn't always work with the same medical team. Some shifts, AirCare may not fly at all because of adverse flying conditions or no calls. The next shift, there could be three missions.

"It pretty much averages out to a call a shift," he said.

AirCare uses a Eurocopter EC135, which is widely used by police and air-ambulance services. It cruises at about 150 mph. Head winds will decrease the ground speed and tail winds will give it a boost. The radius of the medical center's service area is about 150 miles.

In some cases, Maher and the medical team fly to a smaller hospital to pick up someone who could benefit from the services that Wake Forest Baptist offers. In other instances, they pick up someone injured in some sort of accident. Usually, the AirCare team handles only one patient per flight, but the team can take a second, non-critical patient when necessary.

It's challenging work but satisfying, said Mack Tolbert, a nurse who flies as a member of AirCare teams. "It's a very tight space and, usually, the patients are very sick." And, in some cases, Tolbert said, they also have to deal with a patient's anxieties about flying in a helicopter.

Maher's schedule enables him to have his own business on the side. He owns his own helicopter, which he keeps on the 23 acres that he and his wife, Staci, live on in Rowan County, and he provides services such as aerial photography. His wife, who has her own real-estate company, isn't a pilot but she thoroughly enjoys flying and often serves as the photographer on jobs.

Maher also regularly writes articles for magazines such as Vertical 911: North America's Parapublic Helicopter Authority, and he said his love of flying helicopters is as fresh as ever.

"It never gets old," he said. "In a helicopter, there is that little extra bit of magic."

■ Kim Underwood can be reached at 727-7389 or at kunderwood@wsjournal.com.