First Flight gives back

First Flight of Wyoming opened its annual Family Day celebration to all area first responders this year, offering free rides in its helicopter, a barbecue and even a mini-car show Saturday at the South Big Horn County Airport.

“Amazing” is how Rebecca Miller, an infection preventionist at Cody Regional Health, described her approximately 10-minute pass over the Greybull and the red and brown hills that surround it.

 Miller was joined on the flight by Stacey Firkus. A quality control worker at the same Cody facility, Firkus said, “This was my first time (in a helicopter) and I thought it would be my first and last, but once I got up there, I was like, ‘I’m going to have to do it again.’”

Miller and Firkus said they enjoyed talking to the pilot through their headsets and especially seeing the area landscape from a different perspective. 

“I’d rather do that than ride in a plane,” said Miller.

Kevin Miciha, a flight paramedic for First Flight, was responsible for lining up the helicopter rides. He described Family Day as First Flight’s way of giving back to the community.

First Flight has approximately 15 employees in the Greybull area, including pilots, mechanics, paramedics and support personnel.

“Watching the way the area communities and area hospitals come together when needed, show up out of the woodwork when something happens and how they’ve worked with us has been eye-opening,” said Miciha.  “It wasn’t something I expected moving here from Vegas.

“The sense of community, it’s just very different here ... and I’m really happy to be part of that.”

Miciha said First Flight has seen more volume than it originally anticipated. “The first year, we averaged something like 19 missions a month,” he said. “Sometimes those missions took us to Montana, but the majority of them were right here in the Big Horn Basin.

“The first year, Sheridan and Powell called us the most. During the summer, we’re in these mountains more than we are not.”

First Flight is Wyoming’s only hospital-owned flight program, a venture of Cody Regional Health and St. Vincent Heathcare (now part of Intermountain Healthcare).