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Posted By: Hal Brown

Date Posted: Oct 10, 2008

Description: It was muddy parking where the stream met the river. Trying to get out of the airplane I sank up to my knees in the cool, smooth bank. The great thing was that I didn’t even get in trouble with my mom for being all muddy!

Of course, I was prepared with a tale in case I got in trouble........

Date Taken: Oct 10, 2008

Place Taken: Near Westwater, CO

Owner: Dan Nickens

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Category: 329, Taking Peli Home

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Dan Nickens - Oct 10,2008 Viewers | Reply


	Pilots aren’t the only ones with wild tales to tell. Cosmologists have some tales that go way beyond anything mere pilots could imagine. This is one such tale.<br /><br /> In the beginning there was wild chaos as the universe burst into existence. At time zero energy and elemental particles, “god” particles, blew out from a point in nothingness to make somethingness. Some of the particles took off on a path to a most improbable rendezvous an unimaginably long time later.<br /><br />It only took a very, very short time for the god particles to form recognizable mass. In the span of one million million million million millionth of a second (or 10**-30 seconds), everything dramatically enlarged from a submicroscopic point to a span billions of light years across. The liberated god particles burst into the new born universe.<br /><br />The god particles that are the subject of this improbable tale rode incredible currents to arrive in the same neighborhood as the universe exploded. In a bubble of creation where the stars average 20 million million miles apart, their association was not inevitable, just very, very improbable.<br /><br />That the god particles were able to make something of themselves was simply astoundingly. First they had to be scooped up with billions upon billions of other particles to form quarks and leptons. Then they all had to get together to generate enough energy to start a nuclear furnace. <br /><br />The furnace had to be of just the right size to undergo a radical fusion reaction that kicked out a variety of elements, including carbon. The size of the furnace was critical to create the instability that eventually caused the giant star to go nova. The god particles and their partners blasted back into the expanding vacuum of space in an association that would come to be known as a carbon atom.<br /><br />With improbability stacked on improbability, our wayward particles got swept up in a little system coalescing around another smaller star. The new star wasn’t quite big enough to sweep them in, however, and they went into a semi-circular orbit just out of its clutches. Nine and a half billion years after bursting into existence, they were peacefully circling the young star.<br /><br />Peace was not in their future. Attractions and collisions brought them closer together on a coalescing ball about 93 million miles from the young sun. In the boiling cauldron that was proto-earth, the particles found themselves on its outer edge.<br /><br />The particles were on the opposite side of the planet when another proto-planet, Theia, hit the earth with such force as to form our strange moon. In the eons that followed, the particles trapped in their carbon atom boiled in the molten soup of the planet’s surface.<br /><br />Things had settled down quite a bit in 12 and half billion years. The particles and their carbon atom had attracted some oxygen as they floated sanguinely in a shallow sea. A strangely improbable thing happened, though, when the molecule got sucked into the shell of a living brachiopod. Combined with calcium, the particles took their place in a molecule of calcium carbonate in the assemblage of chemicals working in concert as life.<br /><br />What a strange fate to go from being flung into the universe to being part of a vibrant, multi-cellular creature! That improbable fate turned cruel and crushing during a storm some 300 million years ago. Their young organism was buried too deeply in the sand where it had lived. It never had time to spread its seed and reproduce. So it seemed that the particles’ brief involvement with life had come to nothing more than the briefest flash of life.<br /><br />Seasons came and went in rhythmic, relentless succession. The sand got deeper. The little carbonate molecule was squeezed under the weight of miles of sediments and millions of years. As deeply as it was pushed down into the earth, it was raised back up even more as the planet moved and heaved.<br /><br />After being buried in darkness from eons, one spring day a tumbling pebble in swirling meltwater gouged away a patch of sandstone. Water rushed over the particles in their calcium carbonate matrix.<br /><br />Water covered the particles with the irresistible attraction of solvency. Surrounding calcium carbonate molecules turned loose and vanished into the liquid flood one by one. One day at the end of summer three hundred million years after they had been buried, the persistent water took their molecule away from the earth that had held it so close.<br /><br />As the particles careened through the swirling atoms of water, two humans, Kyle and Melissa, were approaching. The young couple had taken a day off of work in Denver to celebrate a mere two years of marriage. They were kayaking down the Colorado River through Westwater Canyon on their last minute lark.<br /><br />Kyle and Melissa could not have known the invisibly minute particles with the calcium carbonate had let go of their rocky bonds. With the strength of their foundation rock weakened past a tipping point, surrounding rocks collapsed into the swirling river rapids.<br /><br />Kyle was an experienced kayaker. Nothing in his experience prepared him, however, for the massive torrent created by the collapse of the cliff wall.<br /><br />With a crack like cannon fire, a wall of rock jumped from the cliff. There was no time to scream as the boulders roared down towards them. Instinctively both Kyle and Melissa threw their arms up to cover their face. That autonomic reaction kept them from being pummeled to death. The kayak flipped over as rocks rained down on its upturned bottom.<br /><br />The surge of rocks entering the river pushed the water laterally up against the opposite canyon wall. This too was fortunate for the kayakers as the rapidly deepening water kept them from being crushed against boulders in the river bottom. The two humans were washed from their kayak into the churning maelstrom.<br /><br />Kyle regained consciousness in the relative quiet of a wide turn exiting the canyon. Though he was kept afloat by his floatation gear, his immediate instinct was to start swimming. His reflective spasm resulted in excruciating pain. He almost passed out, but instead he coughed and sputtered as he tried to clear out his lungs with a strangled scream.<br /><br />The sputtering caught he attention of a seaplane pilot that was lounging on a sandbank. The pilot had stopped to take a break from a long cross country trip. On an impulse he had put his little seaplane into the cool water of the river just outside the canyon. He had almost dozed off in the sunshine when he noticed Kyle’s orange jacket coming around the bend in the river.<br /><br />The pilot watched warily as Kyle struggled to orient himself. “Hey! Are you okay?” the pilot yelled.<br /><br />Kyle forced himself to focus on where the voice was coming from. He saw a distant figure standing next to a small airplane up against the far shore. The scene made no sense to him. He knew, however, that he desperately needed help. He tried to call out in reply. Instead, he swallowed a mouthful of water. Dissolved in the water that blocked his airways were the particles from the distant star still trapped in the dissolved calcium carbonate molecule.<br /><br />The pilot knew nothing of the long traveled particles, but he could see the desperation on Kyle’s face even at a distance. Judging the strength of the stream, he quickly decided it would be futile trying to swim out to him. He ran and jumped into the beached seaplane.<br /><br />The engine snarled to life as Kyle swept past. The pilot gunned the engine to get out into the current upstream away from the panicked face of Kyle.<br /><br />“Now what?” the pilot thought. To get to Kyle he would have to maneuver downstream. The seaplane was least maneuverable going with the current. He would have to go past Kyle and turn around to have a chance to get to him.<br /><br />Kyle could only watch helplessly as the seaplane went downstream past him. Relief swept over him as it turned around and headed back towards him.<br /><br />The pilot aimed the seaplane at Kyle. He was concerned about the aft mounted prop. If the rendezvous was not properly planned, Kyle could end up in the chopping prop.<br /><br />Just before they converged, the pilot killed the engine. “Grab on to the landing gear!” the pilot yelled to Kyle.<br /><br />Kyle weakly tried to raise his hand out towards the rapidly approaching airplane. He couldn’t do it. He tried to call out, but the pain reduced his voice to a loud moan.<br /><br />The plane drifted past Kyle before it slowed, then began drifting downstream with the current. The pilot grabbed a rope from the cockpit and tied it to the wheel. He grabbed his inflatable vest and jumped into the water heading towards Kyle.<br /><br />Swimming rapidly in the current, the pilot approached Kyle. “Are you hurt?” he called out.<br /><br />The only answer was another moan.<br /><br />“Okay. That answers my question. I’m going to tie this rope around your chest and pull you to shore.”<br /><br />Kyle weakly nodded in reply.<br /><br />The pilot reached around Kyle passing the rope under his arms and tying a quick knot at his back. The approaching curve in the river hurried his work. He feared that the airplane would swing with them into the steep, rocky bank.<br /><br />“Hang in there,” the pilot told Kyle. “I’ll pull you over to that sandbank as quickly as I can.”<br /><br />The pilot then used the rope to pull himself back to the airplane. He climbed up on the landing gear and clambered onboard with increasing urgency at the approaching turn.<br /><br />“Please start,” he pleaded with the engine. It did. With the engine running the seaplane quickly stopped its downstream run.<br /><br />Looking back at Kyle, he could see the wave of water piling up on his back. “At least his head is still above water,” he noted. He thought about the stress of pulling Kyle over to the sandbank. It could aggravate any injuries, particularly if there were spinal injuries. There didn’t appear to be any reasonable alternative, so he gradually increased the throttle, propelling the airplane slowly forward towards the upstream shore.<br /><br />The pile of water ahead of Kyle threatened to wash over him. The pilot tried to delicately balance the need to quickly get to shore with the problem of pulling him under.<br /><br />Getting the shore seemed to take an eternity to the pilot. It was no time to Kyle who had slipped back into unconsciousness.<br /><br />The pilot ran the airplane as far up onto the sandbank as he could and killed the engine. As soon as he could get out with the rope, the pilot pulled Kyle to shore. The apparent lack of life in Kyle caused the pilot to tremble with anxiety.<br /><br />Grabbing Kyle’s floatation jacket, the pilot carefully pulled him towards the shore. He put his ear to Kyle’s face and was relieved to find a shallow breath.<br /><br />The pilot looked more carefully and saw bruises and cuts. He remembered Kyle’s inability to swim and became even more concerned about the possibility of a spinal injury. Instead of pulling him up on shore, the pilot left most of Kyle’s body in the water.<br /><br />Using the rope, the pilot secured Kyle to a tree stump. He ran back to the airplane and pulled out his cell phone. There was no signal.<br /><br />The pilot had a personal locating beacon. He pulled it out and pressed the emergency button.<br /><br />A moan coming from Kyle immediately refocused the pilot’s attention. He knelt on the sand by Kyle. “Can you hear me?”<br /><br />Kyle opened his eyes. “Where’s Melissa?”<br /><br />“You are the only one I’ve seen,” the pilot answered.<br /><br />Kyle’s eyes were wide open now. “You’ve got to find Melissa! Please, please find her!”<br /><br />“Okay, we’ll find her. I’ve signaled for help. Are you hurt?”<br /><br />“I can’t move my legs. There was a landslide. I hit the rocks after our kayak flipped over. I didn’t see what happened to Melissa. You have to find her.”<br /><br />“Okay. We will. I’ll look for her. I just need to make sure you’re okay.”<br /><br />Kyle tried to push himself up with his arms to look up the river. He screamed in pain.<br /><br />“Hold still!” the pilot demanded. “You’ll only hurt yourself more trying to move.”<br /><br />“Find Melissa,” Kyle pleaded through gritted teeth.<br /><br />“Okay. You hold on to this. It’s an emergency beacon. I’m going to take the airplane and go look for her.”<br /><br />Kyle nodded. The pilot reluctantly rose and looked upstream. There was nothing but the muddy water to be seen. His line of sight was sharply limited by the curve of tall cliffs, however, so he went back to the airplane.<br /><br />The engine quickly responded to the ignition, and he powered up and into the stream. Turning down river away from the cliffs, he applied full power and quickly rose up and away from the sprawled figure of Kyle, half in and half out of the water.<br /><br />The pilot turned back towards the cliffs and circled just over the rim of the canyon looking upstream. What he saw made his heart sink. Deep within the steep walled canyon, water raged white over huge boulders. Even if he spotted Melissa, he didn’t see how anyone could survive in such a torrent.<br /><br />“But the guy did,” he reminded himself. Configuring his airplane for slow flight, he started up the winding canyon as low as he dared go.<br /><br />It didn’t take long to spot Melissa’s bright orange jacket. About a mile up canyon she was wedged in some rocks beside a steep wall of rock.<br /><br />The pilot climbed and circled back looking for any sign of life. There was no visible movement, but he could see the girl’s head was well clear of the water.<br /><br />There was never any consideration given to landing. The canyon was too deep and too narrow. The water was too wild.<br /><br />Contemplating his options, the pilot decided the only thing he could do was call for help. He put full power to the engine and began to climb. From his chart he found the closest major airport: Grand Junction.<br /><br />“Grand Junction tower, SeaRey 104 Sierra Romeo has an emergency.”<br /><br />“State the nature of your emergency 4 Sierra Romeo.”<br /><br />“Four Sierra Romeo is approximately 15 west of the airport over Westwater Canyon. There is an injured kayaker in the canyon.”<br /><br />“Sierra Romeo I have been notified by NOAA of an emergency beacon south of the canyon. Is that your beacon?”<br /><br />“Roger. The beacon was left with another injured kayaker. He is located on a sandbar just outside of the canyon. I cannot get to the second kayaker in the canyon.”<br /><br />“Standby 4 Sierra Romeo.”<br /><br />“Roger.”<br /><br />“Tower this is Fire-Eater 29. I am inbound from the fire on Horse Mountain and copied Sierra Romeo’s transmission. Can we be of assistance?”<br /><br />“Standby Fire-Eater 29. Four Sierra Romeo, do you have the second kayaker in sight?”<br /><br />“Roger.”<br /><br />“Grand Junction Tower, Cessna 324 Papa is five miles out landing.”<br /><br />“All aircraft on the frequency standby. SeaRey 4 Sierra Romeo and Fire-Eater 29 switch to emergency frequency 121.5. Acknowledge.”<br /><br />“Four Sierra Romeo to 21.5”<br /><br />“Fire-Eater 29 to Guard.”<br /><br />The pilot switched frequencies and checked in.<br /><br />“Okay, 4 Sierra Romeo, Grand Junction Tower. I’m in contact with the Mesa County Sheriff’s office. They are dispatching a helicopter and estimate arrival in 20 minutes. Can you remain overhead the scene?”<br /><br />“Roger.”<br /><br />“Fire-Eater 29, say your position.”<br /><br />“Fire-Eater 29 is enroute from over Palisade. I can be at the canyon in 10 minutes.”<br /><br />“Roger, Fire-Eater. The Sheriff’s dispatcher requests you proceed to scene and assess the situation.”<br /><br />“Roger.”<br /><br />“Four Sierra Romeo and Fire-Eater 29 switch to my discrete frequency 119.2. Acknowledge.”<br /><br />“Roger, 119.2, 4 Sierra Romeo.”<br /><br />“Roger Fire-Eater 29.”<br /><br />The aircraft checked in on the new frequency.<br /><br />“Four Sierra Romeo, can you give me a GPS coordinate for the victim in the canyon.”<br /><br />“Standby.” After fumbling with the GPS, the pilot radioed in the coordinates.<br /><br />“Does it look like the victim in the canyon can be accessed by helicopter?”<br /><br />The pilot looked down at the rugged, deep canyon. “Tower, there are no nearby landing spots I can see. The canyon appears wide enough for a chopper, but there is no flat spot anywhere around the victim.”<br /><br />“Fire-Eater 29 has a water basket underneath. My crew is trained for emergency rescue. We’d like to take a look.”<br /><br />“Proceed as requested, Fire-Eater. I’ll have the Sherriff’s responders come up on this frequency to coordinate.”<br /><br />The pilot continued to watch the orange jacket for any sign of movement. There was none.<br /><br />In a few minutes, Fire-Eater 29 called, “I have the seaplane in sight, Tower.”<br /><br />“Roger. Do you have the chopper, 4 Sierra Romeo?”<br /><br />“Roger. I’m climbing to 6,000’ to give the chopper room to maneuver. I have not seen any sign of movement from the victim in the canyon.”<br /><br />“Roger.”<br /><br />“Grand Junction Tower Sheriff Chopper Five checking in on 119.2.”<br /><br />“Roger Chopper Five. Fire-Eater 29 is just arriving over the canyon. Seaplane 4 Sierra Romeo is overhead at 6000’. Say your intentions.”<br /><br />“Chopper Five is ten minutes out from the reported coordinates. Have Fire-Eater report on the situation.”<br /><br />“Fire-Eater 29 is over the canyon at Skull Rapids and we have the victim in sight. There is no available landing site. I can lower a paramedic by basket and report back.”<br /><br />“Roger Fire-Eater 29. Please proceed at your discretion and report back. Seaplane 4 Sierra Romeo, can you give us directions to the second victim?”<br /><br />“Roger. The second victim is outside the canyon on a sandbar on the south side of the river. I will head back over to the spot.”<br /><br />The pilot left as Fire-Eater 29 dropped into the canyon. Back over the sandbank the pilot spotted Kyle where he had left him. “I’m over the second victim now,” he advised.<br /><br />“Roger. Chopper Five has you in sight. Is there a clear area for landing?”<br /><br />“It will be tight. There should be room on the sandbank. It is narrow and there are small trees at the west end near the victim.”<br /><br />The Sherriff copter acknowledged. It circled the small sandbank twice before dropping in on the east end.<br /><br />With both helicopters down, the frequency went quiet. The pilot was left circling with his own thoughts. It was then he glanced over to check the fuel gauge and saw it had dropped well below his comfort zone.<br /><br />“Grand Junction Tower, 4 Sierra Romeo is getting critically low on fuel. There is nothing else I can do, so I’m heading direct to the nearest airport.”<br /><br />“Roger, 4 Sierra Romeo. Mack Mesa airport is 5 northeast and has fuel available. Please call Grand Junction tower after you land.”<br /><br />“Roger. Wilco. Four Sierra Romeo switching to Mack Mesa Unicom.”<br /><br />There was no traffic at Mack Mesa. The pilot landed and pulled up to the fuel pump. An attendant walked quickly over from the nearby FBO.<br /><br />“Are you the seaplane pilot that landed in the canyon?”<br /><br />The pilot hesitated, thinking that there might have been some sort of conservation rule violated. “Screw it,” he thought, “I’ll just say it was an emergency.”<br /><br />“Yes. I just left there.”<br /><br />“The Sheriff’s department is on the phone and wants you to talk to you right away.”<br /><br />“Fine.”<br /><br />The pilot went inside and took the offered phone.<br /><br />“Hello?”<br /><br />“Hello. This is Deputy Fergusson. Are you the pilot that was just involved with the Westwater Canyon rescues?”<br /><br />“Yes.”<br /><br />“Good. There are reports that need to be filled out. Please wait at the airport and I’ll have a deputy there in ten minutes.”<br /><br />Thirty minutes later the deputy did arrive. The pilot’s frustration with the delay was mitigated by good news: both Kyle and Melissa were alive and on their way to the local hospital.<br /><br />The fate of the god particles in the carbonate molecule was not reported by the deputy. As it happened, however, the particles were absorbed into the collective of particles known as Kyle. Sometime later in 2008 physicists working at the collider known as CERN first detected evidence of their kinds’ existence. Invisible “god” particles, the underlying foundation of mass in the universe (otherwise known as Higgs particles), had been seen by humans for the first time.<br /><br />More than 13 billions years after they were formed, the god particles inside of Kyle became part of an organized, thinking creature. The organism itself managed to reproduce during its flash of a lifetime, sending more organization out into the chaos.<br /><br />As was their fate with the brachiopod millions of years earlier, the god particles stuck with Kyle. They were eventually buried with him. They remained underground until eroded away again by a young river and washed into a new shallow sea eons later. The sea was eventually swallowed by the expanding sun. With the sun’s eventual extinction they were released again into space to continue their incredibly improbable voyage.<br /><br />(Or so the tale was written.)<br /><br />

Don Maxwell - Oct 10,2008 Viewers | Reply


	Dan, your yarn reminds me of the 'turtle' anecdote that is often ascribed to William James. Here's one version of it:<br /><br />After a lecture on cosmology and the structure of the solar system, William James was accosted by a little old lady.<br /><br />'Your theory that the sun is the center of the solar system, and the earth is a ball which rotates around it has a very convincing ring to it, Mr James, but it's wrong. I've a better theory,' said the little old lady.<br /><br />'And what is that, Madam?' inquired James politely.<br /><br />'That we live on a crust of earth which is on the back of a giant turtle.'<br /><br />Not wishing to demolish this absurd little theory by bringing to bear the masses of scientific evidence he had at his command, James decided to gently dissuade his opponent by making her see some of the inadequacies of her position.<br /><br />'If your theory is correct, madam,' he asked, 'what does this turtle stand on?'<br /><br />'You're a very clever man, Mr. James, and that's a very good question,' replied the little old lady, 'but I have an answer to it. And it is this: the first turtle stands on the back of a second, far larger turtle, who stands directly under him.'<br /><br />'But what does this second turtle stand on?' persisted James patiently.<br /><br />To this the little old lady crowed triumphantly. 'It's no use, Mr. James, - it's turtles all the way down.'<br /><br />( <a href="http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDead/aGDL/terr.html">http://arts.ucsc.edu/GDead/aGDL/terr.html</a> )

Dan Nickens - Oct 10,2008 Viewers | Reply


	If only Mr. James had been a student of Dr. Seuss, Don, he would have had his retort: 'Madam, if you had but read 'Yertle the Turtle' you would understand that a stack of turtles more than twenty turtles high is completely unstable.'

Tom Rammel - Oct 10,2008 Viewers | Reply


	Wow!!! another fine story by Dan. It would be interesting to hear the stories that you told your Mom when you got in trouble as a kid.

Dan Nickens - Oct 10,2008 Viewers | Reply


	Tom, my mom was impervious to most of my tales having observed stranger realities from my father's various activities.

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