FRIDAY, JUNE 12, 2015
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 5
Local
Haines celebrates heroes
Continued from Page 1
Kylie ran to get her
mother who was work-
ing nearby in the garden.
Wesley pulled Thomas
from the pond and Caleb
remained calm and dialed
911 while their mother
performed CPR. Emer-
gency service personnel,
Gary Timm, Tom Everson,
Baker City Fire Chief
Mark John, Deputy Eric
Colton, and Sara Blair
responded to the scene and
began lifesaving medical
procedures on Thomas,
bringing him back to life.
Local emergency treatment
on Thomas was followed
by a Life Flight helicopter
ride to a Boise hospital.
Thomas remained hospi-
talized until May 29 and
was doing well after being
released.
Baker County Sheriff
Travis Ash presented
Kylie, Caleb, and Wesley
each with a life saving
certificate during the as-
sembly recognizing their
bravery, quick action, and
calmness is the face of
dire circumstances. Father
Adam watched on proudly
with Thomas happily in his
arms.
“The different agen-
cies work together every
day,” said Ash. “This was a
miraculous outcome.”
The first responders,
Timm, Everson, John, and
Blair were also recognized
and received certificates as
Haines Heroes.
Baker City resident Jim
Tomlinson, coordinator of
the Baker County Com-
munity Literacy Coalition,
Inc., was another recipi-
ent of the Haines Heroes
award. Tomlinson is well-
known for his years of
volunteer work promoting
literacy. Nanette Lehman,
Haines Head Teacher
thanked Tomlinson for his
Brian Addison / The Baker County Press
Baker County Sheriff Travis Ash presents lifesaving certificates to Kylie, Wesley,
and Caleb Kerns for their quick and calm actions to save their the life of their
little brother, Thomas.
The 23-year old Bend,
Oregon native graduated
from Baylor University in
Waco, Texas with a Bach-
elor’s Degree in Political
Science and a minor in
Environmental Studies. He
had been at the La Grande
office for the past year-
and-a-half and has been
promoted to Legislative
Assistant. Garrett joins a
staff of three Legislative
Assistants working in D.C.
for the Rep. Walden.
“I’m helping track legis-
lation,” Garrett said. “This
includes financial services,
taxes, Second Amend-
ment issues, education,
transportation, and various
resource issues as well.”
“While in La Grande,
I was Rep. Walden’s eyes
and ears on the ground
keeping touch with folks in
the district,” he explained.
His work as Field
Representative involved
case work helping people
engage with federal agen-
cies. “I traveled with Greg
throughout the district
and attended town halls.
My experiences included
seeing first-hand how folks
were affected back in the
district.”
One of the most impor-
tant issues for Garrett dur-
ing his time in La Grande
and a focal point for Rep.
Walden continues to be
forestry and local econo-
mies. Also topping the list
of Walden’s working topics
and ongoing concerns felt
Submitted Photo.
Jagged metal is visible while standing on top of the
helicopter looking down at the K-flex joint broken
off between the engine and transmission. This joint
is critical for the engine to power the transmission,
which powers the main rotor and tail rotor.
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
Brian Addison / The Baker County Press
Dad Adam Kerns holds 15-month-old Thomas, who was pulled nearly lifeless
from a pond by his siblings May 26.
work in writing literacy
grants and for helping to
provide each student with
two or three books every
year.
Darci Turley was the fi-
nal recipient of the Haines
Heroes certificate for her
volunteer work with the
Haines Hawk Store. Turley
was noted for her enduring
smile and hard work mak-
ing the school based store a
successful endeavor.
Walden staff
Continued from Page 1
Helicopter
crash
by the people of the Sec-
ond Congressional District
are resource issues with
mining, grazing, impacts
with the possible listing
as a federally recognized
endangered species of the
Greater sage-grouse, and
to push back against the
expansion of control by the
Environmental Protection
Agency with the proposed
changes to the Clean Water
Act, said Andrew Mal-
colm, Communications
Director for Walden.
To the people of the 2nd
Congressional District
Garrett says, “Thank you.
It was a pleasure getting to
know folks locally. Central
Oregon is home but I en-
joyed getting to know the
people of eastern Oregon.
I’ll be back out periodical-
ly, meeting with folks from
different sectors to see how
Greg can be helpful.”
“I’m enjoying the role
I’m in now and I look
forward to staying in touch
and continuing to work on
issues that impact people
from here in D.C.. It is
a challenge and a steep
learning curve,” Garrett
said of his new position.
“The 2nd Congressional
District varies. If you drive
a short ways the landscape
and the issues are very dif-
ferent. One of the greatest
challenges is keeping up
with Greg and the amount
he travels and how hard he
works.”
Jorden Noyes, a
22-year-old from Prin-
eville, Oregon, replaces
Submitted Photo.
Kirby Garrett now works in Washington D.C.
Garrett as Walden’s Field
Representative in the La
Grande office. Noyes is a
recent Willamette Univer-
sity graduate with a Bach-
elor’s Degree in Politics
with a minor in Econom-
ics. He served an intern-
ship for Walden during
his Sophomore and Junior
years at Willamette and
first become acquainted
with Walden and his staff
through his involvement
with the College Republi-
cans organization.
“If there is anything I can
do to help anybody out,
I’m ready. Don’t hesitate to
call,” Noyes said.
Noyes can be reached
at the La Grande office at
phone number: 541-624-
2400.
Military veterans are
a special focus of Rep.
Walden’s efforts, according
to Malcolm. “We get a lot
of requests from veterans
and their families. We can
help veterans cut through
the red-tape with the Vet-
erans Administration,” said
Malcolm. “We have two
veterans on staff who work
as liaisons with the VA. We
have other liaisons to work
with the federal agencies.
Greg’ll do whatever he can
to help people cut through
the red-tape with the fed-
eral agencies.”
As an addendum to the
interview with the three
Walden staffers, Malcolm
mentioned progress on
Walden’s proposed legisla-
tion titled, Forest Access
in Rural Communities Act,
HR 1555. The legislation
has been reintroduced to
Congress and has gained
bi-partisan support with 11
co-sponsors. HR 1555, if
passed into law, requires
the United States Forest
Service to get local gov-
ernmental approval before
enacting access regulations
on land managed by that
federal land management
agency, said Malcolm.
That gardener raised his iPhone to the skies as the
loaded helicopter flew over, panned back to his watering
for a second, then cut back to helicopter to show the logs,
once attached to the line, suddenly sticking vertically
out of the ground like fence posts. As he filmed, Woyd-
ziak’s crash is captured as the helicopter is engulfed in
dust—not from hitting the wet ground, but rather from
the K-Flex coupling between the transmission and motor
being sucked into the motor and exploding.
Inside the chopper, Woydziak said, “About half way
down, I felt the controls get stiff and realized I had
some type of hydraulic failure. I have been told this was
probably caused by the lower half of the transmission
separating, which also caused a loss of tail rotor control.
I made a deliberate input on the controls and pulled up
on the collective to slow my descent when I heard the
rotor RPM slow down; this made me think that maybe I
still had some type of drive-train failure, so I lowered the
collective again and pulled back on the cyclic to stop my
descent and forward airspeed, which I estimated to be at
only five to 10 knots at this time, about five feet off the
ground. I simultaneously started pulling up on the collec-
tive knowing that it would be stiff as I have done quite
a bit of hydraulics off training. I heard the rotor RPM
slow down but I did not hear the low rotor horn come on.
This concerned me and I was told later that this system is
tied into the lower half of the transmission and was most
likely not working with the transmission half separated.”
The next few seconds may have seemed like minutes.
Said Woydziak, “The impact was not hard enough to
damage the main rotor blades tail rotor or tail boom, but
it was hard enough to break both skids and the Plexiglas
broke out above the pilot and copilot seat along with the
chin bubble on the right-hand side.”
Last week, the Huey was carried out of the crash site
by a larger helicopter, then loaded onto a flatbed bound
for Billings, Montana. As with any crash, the National
Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) and Federal Avia-
tion Administration (FAA) will inspect the helicopter and
do an investigation of the incident.
In talking with other experts, Woydziak believes the
Huey suffered failure in the lower half of the transmis-
sion as well as failure of the K-Flex coupling at once.
He doesn’t believe the weight of the load contributed to
the malfunction. Though the investigation has not been
completed, initial thoughts are that the damage inside the
transmission occurred in-flight, causing the crash, not as
the result of the hard landing.
Woydziak’s nearly 14,000 logged hours of flight time
likely had something to do with the expert level of pilot-
ing skill shown in that amateur video, which mitigated
the extent of the impact.
“When I was young,” he said, “F-4 jets used to fly
over Bridgeport regularly and break the sound barrier I
thought the sonic booms were cool so this was the start
of my love of flight.”
Woydziak and his siblings were raised in large part in
Bridgeport and attended Burnt River School while his
parents, Greg and Ellie, worked and resided on a local
ranch. The family later moved into Baker City.
He said, “Mike Trindle gave me an opportunity after I
completed my flight training to flight instruct and manage
the La Grande Airport FBO. This led into Recon flights
and Air Attack missions on fires. Some of the best parts
of my flying career have been flying the Huey and drop-
ping water on fires with a bucket and long-line and my
experience flying large airtankers the PB4Y-2 Privateer
and the P2-V Neptune dropping fire retardant on fires.
I also enjoy flying predator control flights for the local
ranchers and the big game flights counting deer, elk,
moose, antelope, Rocky Mountain Goats, wolves and Big
Horn Sheep.”
“Last Sunday, May 31, was the first major incident I
have had,” added Woydziak.
Woydziak began flying in 1988.
“Luckily I stepped away from the helicopter without a
scratch or any other injuries. The actual impact from my
perspective felt no harder than hitting a large pothole on
a back road,” Woydziak said.