“Hello, I’m Donald Gordon,” the figure, dressed in a flight suit, cap and goggles from the early 1900s, told visitors, shaking hands and then making his way to the podium that had been set up in front of a tent erected to shade the audience.
And there was quite a respectable audience for an event that occurred in an empty field off Cool Valley Road, on a hot and humid morning. A hundred or more people attended the 100th anniversary celebration Saturday of the historic flight of Donald Gordon, the first flight west of the Mississippi.
“Gordon,” who was actually Jon Vick, chairman of the First Flight Centennial Committee, which put on the event, talked about the event as if he were the man, pointing this way to indicate where a barn had been at the time, and that way to indicate which way the airplane flew on its short flight.
Much of the field is as it was at that time, except that the trees are taller.
Vick acted as MC, introducing William Hutchings, president of the VC Historical Society and VC History Museum and Jim Kidrick, president of the San Diego Air & Space Museum.
The climax of the short ceremony was the unveiling of the 1/2 scale replica of Don Gordon’s Flying Machine, designed by flight enthusiast and retired aeronautics engineer Joe Proctor and built by Ira Goode in his garage.
The replica will be caught in its historic act of flight forever in the history museum.
Finally, Hutchings and Robert Giere, president of the Pauma Valley Pilots Assn., unveiled an historical marker that will be placed at the entrance to the field.
REMARKS BY BILL HUTCHINGS: JULY 25, 2009
One hundred years ago today, a young man built and flew what we now know was the first documented powered flight west of the Mississippi.
That event occurred at the ranch and farm of his parents in an area of San Diego County known as Bostonia. At the end of World War I, Don Gordon and his airplanes moved to this field in Valley Center. On this spot where we gather today, he built a hangar that would also serve as his home.
For the next 25 years, Don Gordon would regularly fly from this very field.
Don Gordon was never famous. He never held public demonstrations and did not seek or want publicity for his pioneer adventure.
We are fortunate, however, that his brother James took photographs of those early flights. We have some of those photos.
We are fortunate that the hangar that housed his flying machines and served as his home has survived. It was moved in 1980 about a quarter of a mile to the east of this field, and serves today as a working barn.
We are fortunate that an early member of our historical society lived across the street from this field and became friends with Don Gordon. We have a record of their conversations.
And, we are fortunate that part of Don Gordon’s original airplane survive. They hang today inside the Valley Center History Museum, just down the road from this field.
Finally, today we are observing not only the 100th anniversary of a major aviation achievement, but we are celebrating the birthday of Don Gordon who would have been 126 years old. So, happy birthday, Don Gordon.
Friends of Wilderness Gardens Preserve invite the public to the Preserve Saturday, Aug. 8, 10 a.m. for the unveiling and dedication of an historically accurate, scale model of the Sickler Brothers Gristmill.
This mill, now in ruins at the preserve, was constructed in the 1800s to grind grain for farmers in the vicinity. Vestiges of the mill are clearly visible, but it is far beyond rehabilitation. Thus, the scale model will resurrect the vitality and importance of this mill to early settlers.
Built near where an old stage coach line forded the San Luis Rey River, the mill was a gathering and camping place for farming families waiting for their grain to be processed. Of course, the preserve had always been a gathering place for Native Americans foraging for acorns.
Dr. Lynne Newell Christenson, Ph.D., the historian for the county parks system, will be keynote speaker at the dedication. She is the historian for the County Parks and Recreation Dept. and will talk about the rich and interesting history of the Wilderness Gardens area.
The Sickler Brothers’ Mill model was commissioned by the Friends of the Wilderness Garden Preserve for donation to the County as a central feature of the Information Center at the preserve headquarters building.
It is intended to convey a sense of history to school children and other visitors. And, especially to highlight the importance of water and water power in this drought-afflicted time.
The principal artist is Valley Center resident Ron Norris. He carefully researched the scale, details of the mill and the workings of the water wheel (turbine). Each shingle on the roof, each piece of siding and each rock in the foundation were individually hand set.
Don Leeder engineered and made tooling for the authentic, working water wheel and Paul Roberts painted a mural back board for the model.
Refreshments will be served and this meeting will be a most sociable and informative event in a beautiful setting.
The preserve is about 2.9 miles north of the intersection of Cole Grade Road and Hwy 76. Questions? Call Phil Stone at 742-1201.
A crowd estimated at 500 or more braved the hot and humid weather to listen and dance to Rockola, in a concert sponsored by the VC Parks & Rec District.
“The dance floor was full,” Roxane Carlson, district secretary, said. “Everybody seemed to be having a great time. The band was obviously playing the music that the people wanted to hear.”
The band took requests for music up to the mid and late 1970s.
“We got a lot of comments: ‘Are you going to have another one?’ ‘You guys should do this more often.’ It was definitely very warm and humid too. But it didn't stop people from coming out or dancing,” said Carlson.
San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) announced last week that it won’t wait for a Public Utilities Commission (PUC) ruling before adopting its controversial Emergency Power Shut-Off plan.
The PUC announced the same day that it wouldn’t rule on the proposal until Sept. 10. But the power company won’t wait, it says.
If it carries out its promise, the SDG&E plan could be in effect as soon as Sept. 1, just in time for 2009’s Santa Ana wind season.
SDG&E claims that only 10,000 people would be affected at a time, however, most of them would be in the Backcountry.
However, the water districts that several months ago sued SDG&E to stop this policy from being implemented, and Supervisor Dianne Jacob may put roadblocks in the way.
Stephanie Donovan, SDG&E’s spokesman, told The Roadrunner, “… we continue to seek out ways to help reduce the impact of our Emergency Power Shut-Off plan on customers.”
She noted projects that are underway, including undergrounding power lines and replacing wooden poles with metal poles, that, while improving reliability, also remove some people from the plan “footprint.
“By September we hope to have eliminated a big chunk of Valley Center and Poway,” she said, and added that not everyone in the “footprint” of the plan will be affected at the same time. “We expect to see these extreme weather-related conditions once or twice a year, affecting eight to ten thousand customers per event, not fifty-five thousand!”
Several local water districts, especially Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD), have bitterly fought SDG&E’s proposal to turn off the power during red flag days of high winds and low humidity, combined with other factors.
The County Board of Supervisors voted to oppose the plan after the Sheriff’s Dept. and the County’s emergency services staff refused to take part in the plan. However, earlier this week the San Diego City Council voted to support the plan.
The Roadrunner asked VCMWD’s Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant if SDG&E’s announcement means the water districts will revive their lawsuit to keep this from happening.
Arant commented, “If they proceed with the shut-off plan, then we will exercise any and all other avenues available to protect the communities and people we serve. We are examining our options now, including going back to court right now.
“If they implement this in advance of the PUC decision, absolutely we will go to court.”
He added, “They say they have the authority to shut off power now, with or without the PUC ruling. It is true, they have the ability to do that. However, what they need from the PUC is a rule modification which gives them tort immunity from doing so. If they had that now had that immunity, why would they have gone to the PUC in the first place?
“They are evidently hell-bent to do this. With their approach and attitude, it is clear that the Emergency Power Shut Off is more about the SDG&E bottom-line and less about community safety,” said Arant.
“The water districts and others participated in the PUC process in good faith as we did in the negotiation process. It seems that SDG&E has as much respect for the PUC as they do for negotiating in good faith.”
SDG&E estimates that such outages would occur perhaps once or twice a year, last up to 12–72 hours and affect 4% of the County’s population—about 60,000 total or 8,000-10,000 per event.
Water districts oppose the plan because they say they might not have time to obtain back-up generators to keep the water flowing, which could deprive firefighters during an emergency.
The emergency shut-off will be triggered by five conditions, which must all be met for it to happen:
• Moisture level in “non-living” materials (grass, twigs and leaves) is less than or equal to 10%.
• Moisture level in “living” plants and bushes is less than or equal to 75%.
• Relative humidity (moisture in the air) is less than or equal to 20%.
• The National Weather Service calls a Red Flag Warning.
• Localized wind speeds in an area are 35 mph sustained or 55 mph gusts, with 30 mph sustained. This would be determined by the local Remote Access Weather Stations.
Supervisor Dianne Jacob last week called for an ethics investigation of SDG&E for allegedly manipulating testimony of public hearings on the issue, such as the one that was held in Valley Center in April.
In would be difficult to say that SDG&E manipulated testimony at that hearing since nine out of every ten speakers argued against the policy. However some groups spoke in favor of the proposal, and Jacob says that she has information that they were pressured to do so.
Valley Center’s supervisor, Bill Horn, was unavailable to comment on Jacob’s accusation. He was in Nashville, Tennessee, attending a National Assn. of Counties gathering.
Those who drive in Valley Center will probably not be surprised to learn that the town’s fire engines get more mileage and wear and tear than most fire departments.
According to Louis Marro, president of North County Emergency Vehicle Services, Inc., the man responsible for maintaining the engines of Valley Center Fire Protection District (VCFPD), each engine logs about 8,000 miles a year.
Marro made a report to the fire board at its July 16 meeting. He recommended that the district buy a new engine every five years.
Marro has been maintaining the district’s engines for two years, and by all accounts has done a superior job. So good, in fact, that he was given a certificate congratulating him on the job he has done.
VCFPD’s engines get more wear and tear because of the district’s size.
Most districts’ engines are front line engines for ten years and are then held in reserve for another ten years.
To spread costs evenly a new engine should be purchased every five years, he said. Maintenance costs go up after ten years so that it eventually becomes more expensive to maintain an engine than to buy a new one.
For example, fuel costs for a typical engine in VC per year is $3,200 when new, and
$6,500 when old. But, he said, the biggest reason to replace an engine is firefighter safety. Newer engines are equipped with safety features that help prevent rollovers and transmission controls that help engines on the off-road conditions that VC frequently offers emergency vehicles.
Marro talked about the department’s Brush Engine 7763, a Type II engine that has 32,000 miles on it but has a bad water pump, which compromises how much water it can put onto a fire, reducing that amount by 20%.
Marro said that the cost to find out what’s wrong with the pump and to fix it, might cost between $30,000–$50,000.
Another engine, Rescue Squad 7782, is ten years old and has 45,000 miles. Its use is limited. It is, said Marro, underpowered for its load as well as under-braked. It is due for significant repairs and significant updates to its radio equipment.
Engineer Dan Beeson, who played a significant role in the acquisition of the district’s most recent engine purchase, and then spent several months getting it ready for service, said that Valley Center’s terrain causes most of the wear and tear on its engines. They bottom out and their shocks wear out quickly. Thirty percent of the calls that VCFPD gets are off-road.
Board Pres. Dan Thornton said it looked to him as though Valley Center’s mileage was similar to other districts the same size, such as Deer Springs and Alpine, however Marro insisted that Valley Center “is the highest per engine.”
“It’s an ongoing problem for a district with our resources,” said Thornton. “It costs three to four years to pay for a new engine, so it’s a constant payback. These things aren’t cheap.”
The district is in the unfortunate position that two of its engines are ten years old. That’s because in 1999 an accident occurred between two VC engines, where both were totalled and had to be replaced.
Saturday at 11:18 a.m. Cal Fire-VC Fire Dept. responded to an airplane crash on the Guejito Ranch. Copter 10 (Sheriff/Cal Fire) was able to respond and begin treatment on the pilot. When his engine stalled, he attempted to land when the plane flipped over and landed upside down. He had moderate injuries, and was transported to Scripps La Jolla by Copter 10 with a paramedic on board.
By DAVID ROSS
If there’s anything nuttier than the Harvard University professor Henry Gates trying to stir up sympathy for his “black man in America” plight because a cop asked to see his ID when he was seen breaking into his own home, it’s watching the “Birther” nutcases continue to pursue the lunacy that somehow President Barack Obama is not an American citizen.
Even though that eminent southender John McCain (the horse was going north, you see) and his people would have loved to have come up with proof that “The One” wasn’t a naturalized citizen, they didn’t find any substance to the claim. Don’t you think that if there was something that proved that Obama was actually a native born African that they would have found it— exploited it? Even McCain was not such an incompetent candidate that he would have let that easy pitch go by without swinging at it!
This ludicrous obsession that is fanned by far right wing loons like Michael Savage and Alan Keyes, but not, you’ll notice, by savvy political observers like Rush Limbaugh, is the equivalent of those who say that the CIA brought down the Twin Towers, or that Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong were actually in Studio 51 faking the moon landing 40 years ago.
Lord knows there are enough conspiracy theories going around on both ends of the political spectrum. All you have to do is log onto the Daily Kos or the Huffington Post, where they continue to blame Swine Flu or the Heartbreak of Psoriasis on Dick Cheney or George Bush. But I really hate to see conservatives wasting their energy and making themselves and fellow Republicans look ridiculous by pursuing something that makes people look at them like they look at homeless people who walk around without cell phones, and still talk to themselves.
We have plenty to fight Obama on, such as attacking Bush for spending too much, and then spending four times as much, or for taking over the car industry or for taking over health care or for taking over … actually I can’t think of anything he hasn’t tried to take over.
Let’s leave silly conspiracy theories for the silly and marshal our adult arguments to take down this socialist!
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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