RACQ is proud to support four of Queensland’s community helicopter rescue services through naming right sponsorships.
First sponsoring CareFlight Queensland’s community helicopter rescue service in 1993, our sponsored network has since expanded to include Capricorn Helicopter Rescue Service and CQ Rescue in 2001 and NQ Rescue in 2012.
As a result, RACQ sponsorship helps ensure an aerial mantle of safety covering most of Queensland’s population and land mass.
RACQ CareFlight
Operating two twin-engine Bell 412 helicopters out of its Tugun and Toowoomba bases, RACQ CareFlight can cover much of the aero-medical and rescue response needs of southern Queensland. On-base availability of specially trained physicians to help crew the aircraft enhances RACQ CareFlight's first-response capabilities. Forty percent of CareFlight's emergency and medical missions are motor crash-related.
RACQ CQ Rescue
Although RACQ CQ Rescue has one of the smaller residential populations of the state's three community helicopter rescue services, it is responsible for an area that is four times the size of Tasmania.
It is an area that includes the western coal mining areas of Clermont, Moranbah and Nebo, the sugar-cane growing areas of Sarina and Proserpine as well as the tourist destinations of the Whitsunday Islands and Airlie Beach.
To help carry out their life-saving work, CQ Rescue operates two Bell 412 helicopters.
With IFR capabilities, the aircraft and crew can ably service this vast area from Bowen in the north to St Lawrence in the south, averaging one mission per day.
RACQ Capricorn Rescue
Based at Rockhampton, RACQ Capricorn Rescue covers an area ranging from St Lawrence in the north to Agnes Water in the south. No western boundary has been set, however response times mean that the effective operational radius is approximately 300km from Rockhampton. The average response time from call-out to airborne is about seven minutes. The service operates a Sikorsky helicopter.
RACQ sponsorship and donations help keep this vital rescue service operating. As with all of the state's helicopter rescue services, RACQ Capricorn carries out its life-saving work at no charge to Australian residents.
All operational boundaries are flexible and the various helicopter rescue services regularly assist other rescue agencies.
RACQ NQ Rescue
The Mt Isa-based service is the latest addition to the RACQ-sponsored Helicopter Rescue Network and will service the aero-medical and rescue response needs of the local mining and grazing communities of the north west of the State.
The helicopter service will cover more than 500,000 square kilometres reaching north to Mornington Island in the Gulf, south to Birdsville, west to the Northern Territory border and east to Richmond.
RACQ NQ Rescue operates a B 105 twin-engine, multi-purpose helicopter made in Germany. On board will be a fully qualified crewman and a paramedic and one stretcher space for the patient.
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