Northern California Wildfire Rescues – CHP Pilot Jan Sears Interview

Aviation News Talk podcast

Glass Cockpit Publishing

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4.8 • 730 Ratings

🗓️ 18 October 2017

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This past weekend, the governor of California called the Northern California wildfires “one of the greatest tragedies California has ever faced.” And even as we record this today, nine days after the fires started, over 11,000 firefighters are still on the front lines, fighting these fires. You’ve probably seen news reports showing some of the dozens of airtankers and helicopters that are fighting the fires. But most people are unaware that the California Highway Patrol runs one of the largest law enforcement aviation operations in the country, both in number of aircraft and hours flown. And that those aircraft, flown by CHP officer/pilots, have been heavily involved in fire-related activities. Late on a Sunday night, on October 8, 2017, CHP officer/pilot Jan Sears was returning from a routine patrol in one of the department's GippsAero GA-8 Airvan airplanes, when he spotted a faint flicker in the dark hills. He told his partner, Flight Officer Todd Labadie that it might not be anything, but that they should fly over and take a look. Jan picks up the story from there and describes how he and other CHP officers have support the fire relief efforts, including air rescues of over 50 people from within the fires. You can find more information about CHP here, and on the CHP Golden Gate Division Air Operations' Facebook page. It includes a link to this story that ran on the CBS Evening News, about Pepe Tamayo, a father who had to stay behind because there was only room for four people in the CHP helicopter. CHP made two return trips before they found Pepe and rescued him too. In our interview, Jan Sears referred to an article in LA Times titled Understaffed and overwhelmed, rescuers had to make life-and-death choices as wildfires rages. If you enjoy this show, please visit my Patreon page, and become a supporting member of the show by contributing as little as $2/month by credit card. Click here for the listener survey. Tell us what what ADS-B portable receiver you own or plan to buy, and what you like and dislike about it. You can Dictate a listener question from your phone and I’ll try to answer it on a future show, or send an email.

Transcript

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0:00.0	All told, it was roughly 50 people that we ended up, that our helicopter crews ended up pulling out that evening.
0:08.3	And the account of the conditions down there, as far as an aviator goes, were some of the worst that I've ever heard of.
0:17.9	I was getting bumped around up there as it was, but not nearly like these
0:22.1	guys were flying into basically hurricane force winds that were being created not only by the
0:29.3	north wind, but by the fire itself. Hello, and thank you for joining me for episode 37 of the
0:35.6	Aviation News Talk podcast for a newsmaker's edition,
0:38.8	where we talk to people who are making the news. And there's been no greater news for the past
0:43.2	week than the Northern California wildfires, which collectively are the deadliest fires in
0:48.1	state history, having claimed 41 lives and destroying a record 5,700 structures. In a moment, we'll be sitting down with Jan Sears, a California Highway Patrol or CHP officer
0:59.8	and pilot, and we'll talk about how he discovered and reported the fire, and how CHP
1:04.9	officers immediately began rescuing people who were trapped by the fires.
1:09.2	So get ready because this Newsmakers edition starts now.
1:34.1	Welcome to Aviation News Talk, where we talk about the very best of general aviation and the people in our industry.
1:41.6	I'm Max Prescott, and if you're new to the show, we have a weekly show that shares pilot safety tips and general aviation news from around the world. And last week's episode, we released the results of our flight planning
1:45.3	survey and shared how listeners go about planning longer trips. So if you missed it, check out
1:50.1	episode 36. But today is one of our newsmakers episodes where we interview movers and shakers
1:55.7	in the aviation industry. In this past weekend, the governor of California called the Northern
2:00.6	California wildfires, quote, governor of California called the Northern California
2:01.2	wildfires, quote, one of the greatest tragedies California has ever faced. And even as we sit
2:07.0	here recording this today, nine days after the fire started, over 11,000 firefighters are still
2:13.0	on the front lines fighting these fires. You've probably seen news reports showing some of the dozens of air
2:18.6	tankers and helicopters that are fighting the fires, but most people are unaware that the California
	...

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