January 24, 2011 Spokesman

Posted by Jim Styner 
on Jan 24, 2011
 

Rotary Meeting 1-24-2011

 

The meeting was called to order at 6:35pm by President Pat with Gary Bruner leading us in the pledge of allegiance, then Pat sending out a thanks to Doug Carter for greeting and Jim Styner for scribing.

 

Guests:

  • Dennis DeVere, guest of Jm Feek, one of the original chefs at the Woodmark and now owns his own catering business called Carpe Diem Cooking.
  • Kay Taylor, guest of John Overleese is the VP of marketing at Evergreen Hospital and a past member of the Battlecreek Rotary.
  • Bud Saxbergs, visiting Rotarian from the University Club and a professor at the University of Washington.
Bonnie Gilbery, alternate student of the month is a senior from Juanita High School.  Bonnie gave a nice talk about her interests including 12 years with the Girl Scouts, involvement in the Girl Scout camp, and cross country running and orienteering.

Announcements:

  • Scott Rethke and wife Anne had a baby boy, Price Richard Rethke , on Jan  13 weighing in at 10lbs 9oz..
  • Brandon provided an update on the Duck Dash sponsor money raising.  The team,  including Jim F, Debi G, Brandon, and Sara B, have already received commitments amounting to $15,000 so far…great job! 
  • Also Brandon mentioned that the DECA judging is coming up and is looking for volunteers.  Contact Brandon or see www.wadeca.org for further details.
  • Makaylaa asked all new members to make sure you notify her of the details when you support any of the many community service projects sponsored by our club.
  • Joanne has invited a select group to her place for a party on Chinese New Year (Feb 3rd).  To be allowed into this premier event, you need to put your name on the list to take our exchange student, Jason, to an event in the next couple months.

 

Inspirational Moment:

Pat Swenson gave the inspirational moment by recounting a story from the Reading Buddies program at John Muir Elementary.  It was in their 2nd year of the program; at the end of the year, the Rotary would buy a book for each of the kids to keep.  Pedro was one of the lucky recipients and sometime later Pat received a picture from Pedro’s family of a nice hand built bookcase that the family had in their home and Pedro’s book proudly displayed.  It turns out, it was the very first book the family had owned and they all took turns reading it..definitely a memorable event in Pedro’s life.

 

Program:

Debbie Gregorek introduced our speaker for the evening, Joe Gryniuk.  Joe spent many years serving on a fast attack nuclear sub during the Cold War and now is a teacher of electronics technology at the Lake Washington Technical College.  His talk was a very moving one involving his accident in a small general aviation airplane on July 20, 2002.

 

Joe and his 13 yr old son, JJ, took off from Silverdale early on that July morning for a leisurely flight down to Seaside Oregon for the day to fly kites.  They took their time meandering in the early stages of the flight hoping for the coastal fog to burn off, but that didn’t happen so they were forced to land in Astoria to check the conditions.  After deciding the fog wasn’t going to cooperate, they climbed back in the Cessna for a return toward the Puget Sound..it was then, as they were climbing out over the Columbia river that Joe started noticing a roughness in the engine but incoming weather prevented a direct return to Astoria.  They ventured on and Joe just kept climbing to get as much altitude as possible in case something bad should happen - and then it did…a huge explosion that rocked the airplane with JJ exclaiming “Dad, did you see that part fly off the airplane!!”

 

The number 2 cylinder exploded sending parts out of the side of the engine compartment and leaving the plane eerily quiet but shaking violently due to the unbalanced rotating engine.  Realizing the engine was toast, Joe immediately pulled the nose up which stopped the propeller and the violent shaking, then he looked out the front windscreen only to see some of the harshest terrain imaginable.  He quickly steered toward Pe Ell, WA which appeared to offer the best of a whole lot of bad landing options.  What followed was 3.5 minutes of quietness while gliding to their crash site. 

 

They ended up impacting the side of a mountain, on a 45 degree slope, filled with 12 foot new growth evergreens and old growth stumps.  Joe’s quick upward climbing maneuver just before impact enabled the plane to impact on the bottom of the tail first, then bringing the nose down and flipping the plane over on its back.  Miraculously, both Joe and son ended up with lacerations on their foreheads and broken right arms, but otherwise ok.

 

The plane radios were near useless, but thankfully his cell had a signal and he was able to get a 911 call out with their exact geographic coordinates.  Within a couple hours, an army Blackhawk helicopter from Ft. Lewis approached, found their location and attempted to land; however, the terrain was so bad, the helicopter couldn’t find a suitable location, so they dropped down a paramedic on the cable hoist.  The trees and undergrowth were so thick, it took along time for the paramedic to reach their location, once there, he quickly assessed the injuries and started the evacuation process, hauling each of them out on the hoist.  Five hours after the impact, both Joe and JJ were safe in the helicopter and enroute to Harborview.

 

This was a remarkable story with a fantastic ending.  Joe attributes his preparedness to dealing with the emergency situation on three things:

  • Military background
  • Learning from Senior Flight Instructors
  • Constantly surrounded with aviation mentors 

 

Jim Going conducted the joker raffle.  With the pot at $910 and only 36 cards, Dianna Lanspa had the winning ticket but didn’t pick the winning card..the pot grows for next week.

 

Meeting was adjourned at 7:52pm

 

Jim Styner, Scribe