My Day with CALSTAR

When the Gilroy crew of the California Shock/Trauma Air Rescue (CALSTAR) reports to work, they never know what their day will be like. Thus began a story I wrote in which I spent the day with the crew.

It was a Friday and though we only went on one call, and ended up being cancelled en route, I learned a lot about the crew and what it's like to be waiting for the phone to ring with a call they only learn the details about after they agree to take it. Though rare a call could be refused, such as if a crew member was injured, or due to poor weather conditions, etc.

The crew is made up of two flight nurses, who are both RN's,and a pilot. Here is flight nurse Jaime Hill checking out the gear.




Another shot of Jamie (who kept on his sunglasses almost all day) in a closeup of him and the gear.




When I saw the aircraft controls I was mesmerized by the sheer volume of all of them. As I have friends in the SJSU aviation program I've been up in a Piper and a Cesna, and I didn't recognize hardly anything. However, this is a helicopter, unlike the two aircraft I mentioned which are planes. Only the pilot is given instructions on how to fly it, and luckily even if one engine broke the second could be used to land. Also, the pilot sits on the right, which I found interesting.





Here is flight nurse David Wiebe preparing the radio for our flight.




I had David take some "prove I was there" shots. In this one, he caught me mid blink, but it's the only one I have with the land in the background showing we are truly airborne.





Luckily, in this other one, my eyes were wide open.




One final shot taken while we were still airborne, and before we were told to head back to base.