Ian went to Baja this past weekend for the Baja 500 again. Nothing exciting medically, but there's always a good story when returning from Baja. The other helicopter ran out of gas...not while in flight though. They were low on fuel and had stopped at one of the two designated fuel stops out in the desert (the helicopter company posted two fuel trucks along the course so helicopters didn't have to fly all the way back to Ensenada for fuel). Somehow the fuel at this stop had become tainted with some water and thus bad. They found this out when another helicopter was revving up to take off and it "flamed out" (the turbine flame burns out due to the water). So the fuel was unusable and there were quickly 3 or 4 helicopters there for fuel and non had enough to escape back to Ensenada. We were nearby the other fuel stop and dusk was 2 hours away. We pulled out the seats and loaded a 50 gallon barrel of Jet A and fuel pump into the back of our helicopter and they flew it out to the stranded helicopters. They left me on the ground (I didn't mind not sitting next to 50 gallons of fuel) and then came back to get me.
The funny thing was the other helicopter had a patient with them (some dehydrated racer). While they were grounded at the bum fuel stop, the racer spotted his team driving by on the highway and flagged them down. He got a ride home with them, but not before they got several tanks of diesel from the small town for the helicopters (helicopters and planes which normally use Jet A can use diesel for brief periods in a pinch without harming the engine).
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