McFARLAND, Wis. -- When seconds count to save a life, the University of Wisconsin Hospital's MedFlight helicopter is often in the air.

Getting the helicopter safely to the ground is the job of both the flight crew and first-responders helping the patient on the ground. On Monday night in McFarland, rescue crews from eight Dane County agencies got lessons from the chopper's flight crew about establishing safe landing zones.

"Just knowing their perspective from the air is important too," said Town of Madison firefighter/EMT Tim Ovadal. "I think maybe it teaches you to look up a little more, and try to see how they're seeing it, instead of just how you're seeing it from the ground."

Scott Russell, the EMT training director for the Village of McFarland, said the meeting will inevitably help patients.

"This way we can have the patients ready to go. So, when they're on the ground, we know what's expected of us and we can get the patient right in there for them," he said.

Dr. Ryan Wubben, the medical director for the UW Med Flight program, said the class isn't just about safety, but knowing situations when responders don't need to request air transport.

"Every EMT, police (officer) or firefighter will tell you about the accident that looks like a complete disaster," Wubben said. "There's pieces of car on the road and we're activated, based on law enforcement showing up, and the guy had his seat belt on, the airbag deployed and the guy is up walking around."

He said those calls don't come often, but are a reality.

To make the flight crew's jobs even safer, UW Hosptial officials are encouraging emergency responders to keep their eyes out for safe places to land the chopper in their areas. For example, if the area right near an emergency isn't safe, they already know a nearby spot to land MedFlight.

At Monday's training session, UW Hospital offcials provided landing zone kits to each agency attending. The kits include four battery-powered green strobes that allow pilots with night vision goggles to see the landing zone from as far as a couple of miles away. They're also weighted so they don't blow around when the helicopter lands.