STARS air ambulance service will begin in Saskatoon this fall, but no specific date has been set yet.

Kelly Brossart with STARS Saskatchewan, says they have secured a temporary landing location, which will be just south of College Drive.

The helicopter will land at this private property and will be met by ground EMS for transporting patients to hospital.

The long term strategy is to have a heliport integrated into the new Children's Hospital.

Brossart says as the launch date gears up, STARS is providing information sessions in various communities.

Also, in August they began landing zone training where STARS teaches emergency personnel and volunteers how to secure a safe landing area for the aircraft and how to safely approach a helicopter.

When the service begins, it will be daylight hours only to begin with, but will eventually become 24 hours a day.

Brossart says they phase in service to make it easier for staff to begin with, as they familiarize themselves.

When everything is up and running to fully capacity, STARS expects to fly between 3 and 400 missions each year out of each base.

STARS will employ about 40 people in Saskatoon. That includes full and part-time crew members, an engineer and office personnel.

(ct sept18/12)