Just another day at the office....

5-18-11

At 8:50 this morning I was in the modular training building at the Columbia Helicopters, Inc. headquarters in Aurora OR. There was a presentation going on with the topic projected up on the big screen in front of us. It was a required course on Federal Aviation Regulations. The first hint of something different was the image on the screen began to shake, followed instantly by the low drone of huge Chinook turboshaft engines as they cranked up to idle speed. The entire building was vibrating as the Columbia Helicopter model 234 sat on the tarmac about 40 yards from our classroom.

The instructor must have seen the look in my eyes, because he looked up at the clock and said it was time to take a 10 minute break! Most of the other 22 employees in the class had seen the behemoth helicopters taking off and landing many times before, but not this green horn.

I made my way quickly outside and down the ramp, the helicopter was around the corner and just out of sight on the west side of the building. As I rounded the corner and the big bird came into view I was immediately blasted by the heat and turbulence of the huge rotors and exhaust and the smell of spent jet fuel filled the air.

For several minutes the craft sat there at idle while pilot and co-pilot went through their checklist. Finally with seemingly little effort the two 3,000 hp engines were throttled up just a bit and 10 tons of aircraft gracefully left the ground. The rotor wash threw dust and other small particles everywhere (including into my eyes) but I squinted and kept my eyes on the huge #46 that the guys in the shop had spent so much time on. Nearby trees and bushes were bent over in the turbulence as the helicopter rose to about a hundred feet and slowly pivoted to point east.

Finally at about 150 feet the nose of the 234 dipped downward and the craft began moving off to the east. On it’s way to it’s next assignment.

Glynn Jr.

Long time no post.....

It's been almost a month since my last post. Lots of stuff going on. Jon's shoulder seems to be healing. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers. He likes SPU and is getting along well up in Seattle. Just a couple of more weeks and he will be returning home for the summer.

Adam is moving this Friday to a house with a new room mate. Lorelei, Cody and I went to Portland last Saturday to help him move some of his stuff that would not fit in his car. The new neighborhood seems nice and it looks like it will be a good move for him. He is still working and playing music.

Lorelei has been on a long term sub job in her favorite class and will be there until the end of the year. She is doing well!

Cody is doing awesome in school with straight A's and all his teachers enjoy and appreciate him being in their class. Cody will be a teenager next month! Cody played in the band for the annual May Day celebration at Amity HS.

As for me......I started a new job a few weeks ago which is part of the reason for the lack of blog posts. I now work for Columbia Helicopter in Aurora Oregon. We have the largest publicly operated fleet of heavy lift helicopters in the world. Lots of new stuff to learn!

Around the place we have had another record setting spring. Too much rain and not enough sun has put a damper on the garden. Some of it will need to be replanted. Some retaining walls have been built and a few other projects are in the works.

That's about all for now.

Glynn Jr.

Jon gets hurt + Cody and I head to California!

On April 8th Jon called home from Seattle Pacific, I answered and the first words out of Jon's mouth were....."Dad, do we have insurance"....hmmm....I knew this was not going to be good. Well...Jon and his friends usually do some sort of sport in the afternoons after class and work. On Thursday night the 7th of April they decided that the evening sport would be RUGBY! Jon suffered a third degree clavicle separation of his shoulder. He spent most of the night in the ER for x-rays. At one point he over heard the doctor say "wow I have never seen one like this before". The next day he saw a specialist who said that the course of action is to wait and see if things will go back together and re-attach. Surgery may be needed down the road.

Jon was home over this past weekend for a friends wedding. He seems to be doing ok and is not in too much pain although he has this very interesting hump in his right shoulder where the outside of his arm is lower (not attached) to the rest of his shoulder.

Last Friday the 15th Cody and I headed south to pick up some parts from my dad and Franci. We met up in Corning CA. We had a great trip and Cody was good company. We drove about 900 miles total, visited a State Park and had a great visit with my dad and Franci.

On Friday we got to Corning ahead of my dad so we went on over to the State Park and walked around with our camera gear. There were these black butterflies everywhere. When they flew you could see blue in their wings but when they landed they looked all black. I couldn't figure out how to get a picture of the blue in their wings and gave up and walked on down the trail. Cody lingered near the butterflies and he figured out that the blue was on the underneath of them! Great job Cody.

So we walked along the river.....

And then Cody saw some lizards running around on the oak trees. I spotted the tall grass along the trail and showed Cody how I use to catch lizards as a kid with a noose made from the grass.

No lizards were injured in the making of this blog post.

After our walk we met up with my dad and Franci for dinner then went back to the motel and talked until time for bed.

Of course Iota came along for the ride too.

We had a fun trip and it was nice spending time with my youngest. I know there will not be too many more years that he will be willing to hop in the vehicle for an overnight road trip with his dad!
All of Cody's pictures of the trip are HERE

Glynn Jr.

Spring Break fishing, family and Jon goes to SPU

My brother Craig (Brian) flew in from Phoenix last week to attend a local auction here in the Portland area. Between his commitments we were able to squeeze in some fishing and family stuff! Below "uncle" hooks up with a perch while Adam watches.

We had a great day over on the coast. We brought back a total of 7 fish that we put in the smoker! We stopped at J's fish n chips on the way home for an awesome dinner.

Below, Lorelei and Pam look on as uncle goes over some things that he brought for Adam to put on e-bay.

 Below, uncle and Cody at the Red Lobster.

 

 
After a fun filled weekend it was time to take Jon to Seattle Pacific University  , we drove up through a driving rain on Tuesday. We left early in the morning and stopped by to pick up Corina. Cody rode along too! We toured the campus and had lunch at the burger place across from school. Then we hauled everything up 3 flights of stairs, to Jon's dorm room.

Lorelei was not a happy camper saying "so long" to her son.

 We had an awesome week of fun with the family. Adam and Pam were here from Portland. Jon and Corina were around and of course my brother being here just capped our spring break. We went out to eat, we stayed up late and of course we did some fishing!
That's about all for now.
All of the pictures from March can be found HERE

Glynn Jr.