286 Flying Relief to Maui's Wildfire Victims – interview Laurence Balter
Aviation News Talk – Pilot Stories, Safety Tips & General Aviation News
Glass Cockpit Publishing
4.8 • 730 Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2023
⏱️ 33 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Max talks with Laurence Balter about how the general aviation community in Hawaii is flying relief supplies to help victims of Maui's wildfires. The town of Lahaina is served by just a single road, which has closed frequently since the wildfires began a week ago. Electricity and cell phone outages have also hampered relief efforts.
Soon after the fires, local Maui pilots began organizing to fly supplies into Kapalua Airport, near Lahaina, but which is closed to most general aviation flights. The pilots received permission to fly into Kapalua, and began flying relief supplies to the airport.
Balter and Maui Brewing founder Garrett Marrero organized the effort via text messages and social media, and flights began on August 11. The pilot group worked with the airport fire departments at Maui's main Kahului Airport. Firefighters and volunteers weighed and loaded supplies that were delivered to the fire station. The process worked in reverse at theKapalua airport, where local fire fighters unloaded planes and helicopters and arranged for the distribution of supplies to local victims in Lahaina.
Laurence is flying his relief flights using the Cirrus SR22 that he usually uses for dual-led flying experiences, for pilots vacationing on Maui who are interested in flying a Cirrus and getting exposed to flying in Hawaii. He's also set up a Go Fund me page for people interested in donating to pay for avgas that volunteer pilots have had to pay for to fly the wildfire relief missions.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The entire GA community, we sprang into action and it was almost like we've done this before. |
| 0:07.7 | It was smooth, professional. |
| 0:11.5 | Everybody was helping. |
| 0:12.6 | I had my sons. |
| 0:13.7 | They were co-piloting and loading and unloading, but other guys would come over, and we'd unload that aircraft faster than anything |
| 0:21.8 | you'd imagine. That's Lawrence Balter of Maui Flight Academy, a pilot who's helping to lead a |
| 0:26.9 | general aviation relief effort to help the victims of the Maui wildfires. Hello again and welcome |
| 0:31.8 | on August 15, 2023, to this newsmaker's edition of Aviation News Talk, where we talk general aviation, with |
| 0:38.7 | relevant news and flying tips for pilots and student pilots to help keep you safe. |
| 0:42.6 | I'm Max Truska. |
| 0:43.7 | The Maui wildfire that started last week and destroyed the town of Lahaina has sadly become |
| 0:48.5 | the deadliest wildfire in the U.S. in modern times. |
| 0:52.0 | As of Tuesday morning, 99 people are known to have perished, |
| 0:55.8 | and the death toll is expected to rise. Relief efforts are now in full swing, and in a moment, |
| 1:00.7 | Lawrence Balter will tell us what it's like on the ground in Maui and how general aviation has |
| 1:05.1 | swung into action to help. Last week in episode 285, we talked about how to choose a flight |
| 1:10.3 | instructor, which is one of the |
| 1:11.7 | most important decisions you'll make when you fly. So if you didn't hear that episode, you may |
| 1:16.4 | want to check it out at aviation newstalk.com slash 285. And so that you don't miss next week's |
| 1:21.5 | episode, go to whatever app that you're using to listen to us now. Take a moment right now, |
| 1:26.5 | touch the subscribe key, or if you're |
| 1:28.4 | using the Apple podcast app, the follow key, so that next week's episode is downloaded for free. |
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