Yeah, the fire was probably, I mean, it was burning every piece of vegetation.

And so it was probably between, I don't know, maybe 35 feet from the rotor disk where we were landing,

enough that we were blowing embers around with the rotor wash.

Hello again and welcome to Aviation News Talk, a weekly show with relevant news and

flying tips for pilots and student pilots to help keep you safe.

I'm Max Ruscott.

You just heard helicopter pilot Kip Gotting talking about a recent rescue mission.

Over the course of three days

in early September, California National Guard helicopter crews rescued nearly 400 people

who were trapped by the creek fire and had no escape. Other agencies also performed rescues,

but the California National Guard may have set a record for the number of people airlifted

from a

wildfire in the United States. Today we'll talk with both a rescuer and a rescuee to hear their

stories. But as California sets new records nearly every year for the number and size of its

wildfires, it begs an even larger question, which is, how will we fight even larger fires that might

trap even more people who need to be rescued? And will backcountry hikers need to change what

they do? We'll share what people are already thinking about doing in the future. By the way,

Aviation News Talk was recently ranked number one of the over 200 aviation podcasts that appear in

the Apple

podcast app.

And if this podcast is new to you and whatever app you're using to listen to us, just

click on the subscribe button so new episodes will download for free each week.

...