EAGLE III is a comprehensive emergency air and ground transportation program, which provides Critical Care level treatments during rapid transport of critically ill or injured patients. This transportation is provided by ground ambulance, helicopter, turbo prop or jet aircraft from medical facilities or accident scenes. EAGLE III is available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

The EAGLE III program is owned by County Rescue Services, in partnership with both Bellin and St. Vincent Hospital.  The EAGLE III aircraft are operated by Air Methods. County Rescue Services is a 501-C (3) nonprofit organization that has been in operation since 1982 and is not affiliated with Brown County government.  No tax dollars are used for the EAGLE III program.

The EAGLE III team, which is comprised of critical care trained paramedics, flight nurses, dispatchers, and pilots is prepared for all types of adult and pediatric medical emergencies. Advanced life support equipment onboard enables the crew to offer immediate stabilizing treatment for the patient enroute to any facility.

The EAGLE III program participates in a number of different types of medical transports including interfacility transports, helicopter scene responses in remote areas where ground time would be extensive, and specialty team transports, which includes a neonatal or pediatric nurse and nurse practitioner when necessary. 

In order to obtain coordinates that the pilots of the EAGLE III helicopter can use to pinpoint the exact location of any scene, County Rescue offers a Global Position System Grant Program to equip EMS, Fire and Law Enforcement agencies in our primary coverage area with the needed tools to present this data. The EAGLE III team has also worked with emergency medical, hospital, and law enforcement personnel to ensure safe landing and ground operations around the state.

The EAGLE III helicopter is a EC-135, one of the industry's fastest and safest aircrafts. It is a single pilot, instrument flight rules (IFR) certified helicopter that flies an average of 150-170 MPH. It includes twin, Turbomeca 2B1 Arrius engines. These engines are designed to offer state of the art technology with outstanding reliability, performance, and unsurpassed safety. The "fenestron," or enclosed tail rotor is another safety feature offered by the EC-135 that not only helps with the aircraft's directional control and stability but also reduces noise levels.

Summaries of General On-Board Equipment.

Certifications Needed 

Specialized Medical Equipment

Equipment on-board the      EAGLE III helicopter includes:

• IFR (Instrument Flight Rules) certified aircraft and program.
• ANVIS-9 Night Vision Goggles (NVG)
• A two channel, triple axis, fully coupled autopilot system.
• A color, weather radar, including flight route information.
• A Single Flight Control Display (SFCD), which presents primary flight and navigational data. This lets the pilot concentrate on only one display instead of many to get total aircraft data information.
• An ATD-200 air traffic detector, which is able to detect nearby aircraft and display their proximity in graphical display for up to a six-mile radius.
• Ultra 7000 FLIR (Forward-Looking Infrared system)
• A SX-16 Night Sun that offers 30 million candle watts of power and can illuminate an area the size of a football field. This can help in situations such as scene flights and search and rescue missions.

The EAGLE III, EC-135 helicopter offers considerably more space than many EMS helicopters, accommodating up to two patients and three medical crewmembers. The pilots average in excess of 5,000 hours of rotor wing flight time, are factory-trained in the aircraft, and are highly proficient instrument pilots.

The DTN aviation weather system located in their dispatch center allows the EAGLE III pilots to have weather information updated every fifteen minutes via satellite, accessing the same weather information system as the FAA and National Weather Service. It includes features such as detailed color weather forecast, radar and current weather conditions as well as radar, satellite, state specific, and surface analysis maps.