Mercy Flight Western New York
Mercy Flight Western New York is an independent not-for-profit provider of emergency and non-emergency air and ground medical transport and supporting services. Established in 1981 and headquartered in Buffalo, NY, the Mercy Flight team ensures the rapid, safe and cost-effective delivery of expert response teams. Mercy Flight owns and operates a fleet of four Bell 429 medical evacuation (MEDEVAC) helicopters, flies more than 1,500 rescue/transport missions per year, maintains four bases and is staffed 24/7 by a rotating crew of 18 pilots.
Jason Spurlock, Chief Inspector, joined the Mercy Flight team in 2018. Originally from rural northern Texas, Jason served in the US Army, was posted to USAG Wiesbaden, Germany, and became a Crew Chief on UH-60 Black Hawk MEDEVAC helicopters.
After six years of active duty, including two deployments to Bosnia, Jason left the Army in 1999 and joined military contractor DynCorp as a flight mechanic working on Black Hawks, Apaches and Bell OH-58s.
Jason later earned an airframe and powerplant (A&P) designation and worked for FBOs Piedmont Hawthorne Aviation/Landmark Aviation, USAirports and Jet Aviation in the Rochester, NY, area. During this time, he worked as an A&P mechanic, avionics technician, Chief Inspector and Assistant Director of Maintenance.
“I would absolutely recommend Traxxall to other helicopter operators. The number one reason would have to be the service. The attitude of the competition all too often was ‘take it, or leave it’, which increased my workload and had me spending a lot of time fixing simple errors. The Traxxall team are aviation maintenance experts who really understand the day-to-day challenges of maintaining a fleet and are responsive to our needs. Overall, it’s a much better experience.”
The Challenge
“Three of our four 429s were purchased in 2018,” explains Jason.
“At that time, our Director of Maintenance wanted to modernize our maintenance tracking. We had been using a competing system and felt it was time for a change. So, we implemented a different competing system but soon realized that we were again dissatisfied – mostly with the service. We were getting too close to overflying FAA inspections, which is totally unacceptable. Then, in 2019, we met Nicole Graham from Traxxall. She gave us an initial demo and walked us through the process. We liked it and signed up pretty soon afterwards.”
The Benefits of Traxxall
“The service at Traxxall is second-to-none. Our analyst, Tory Martin, is experienced, dedicated and very responsive. This is probably Traxxall’s greatest strength. Dealing with other maintenance tracking providers, it would sometimes take a few days to get a response to an e-mail or voicemail. We just can’t do business that way.”
“Traxxall’s other major benefit is its efficiency. As Chief Inspector, I’m at my desk most of the time. And, Traxxall is always on. It provides an overview of essential data – flight plans and quality control reports are automatically inputted to create a perfect match with Bell’s maintenance program. It provides us with the peace of mind of knowing that we’re on top of things.”
