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I would like to take the time to relate an incident
that I had with our cousin, Leston Woods.
A few years ago, I think it was in the early 1980's, I had the
opportunity to do some flying for a neighbor of ours. He was
called upon to repair the refrigeration unit for the vacation resort
ice skating rink in Sun Valley Idaho. The job required that I
fly him from Rigby to Sun Valley several times this particular week.
Since I had the room and was making a return trip to Sun Valley to
pickup our neighbor, I asked Leston if he would like to ride with
me. Leston enjoyed flying and his daughter happened to be
working in Sun Valley so this would allow him to see her for a few
minutes while we were there.
The day started out as a bright sun shinny summer afternoon with not
much wind. Leston and I arrived at Rigby airport and I pre-flighted
the airplane ( a Piper Arrow) and we climbed in and started to taxi
to the end of the runway. I did my pre-take off checklist and
was ready to go when I felt inspired to ask our Heavenly
Father for his guiding hand and protection on this trip. I
turned to Leston and asked him if he minded if we had a word of
prayer prior to our departure. Leston agreed, so we sat at the
end of the runway and offered our prayer and asked for our Heavenly
Father's help and protection.
We took off and flew across the Arco desert without any problems, it
was a very smooth flight with no clouds and only an occasional bump
from the thermals rising off the desert. We reached the mouth
of the canyon leading to Sun Valley and Haily
airport cruising at about 9500 feet and 160 mph. I was looking
around for other aircraft and listening to the radio when I saw what
looked like a speeding car on a dirt road down below us. This
vehicle was kicking up a lot of dust so I mentioned it to Leston so
he could look, while we were wondering why there was so much dust
being generated a gust of wind struck our airplane and turned us
completely upside down very violently. Leston's seat belt came
undone and he smashed his head against the roof of the cockpit.
I was very rapidly trying to get the airplane under control and
right side up. Once we were righted, I slowed the airplane
down, dropped the landing gear to help stabilize the plane and we
were hit again by a violent wind coming out of the canyon and once
again found ourselves upside down. I was able to right the
airplane a second time after loosing 2500' in altitude and then flew
to the other side of the canyon away from what I figured was the
turbulence coming off the east side of the canyon walls. The
strange thing about this incident was that out of the clear blue sky
we were now flying in very strong winds and it started raining very
hard. I was about to turn back to Rigby when we heard on the
radio several other aircraft flying into Haily from Boise with out
any problems. I called the airport and they reported calm
winds but with heavy rain. We decided to continue on to
Haily but the airplane was having to fly with about a 45 degree crab
angle to track straight over the ground. This heavy wind did
not
stop until we were about 20 feet above the approach end of the
runway. We landed in a torrential down pour but very smoothly.
We stayed for awhile in Haily, visited with Leston's daughter, then
picked up our passenger and returned home safely. When we
landed at Rigby, Leston told me how glad he was that we had offered
that prayer to our Heavenly Father prior to our trip and we both
felt the help of a loving Father in Heaven who indeed watched over
us that day.
I have been flying since 1974 and this particular flight was the
roughest I have ever encountered since first learning to fly.
I know that prayers are heard and answered and that the Holy Ghost
is there to help guide and direct us in all that we do if we will
stay in tune with him and live the commandments. I bear
witness that Jesus is the Christ, our Savior and the Son of our
Heavenly Father, that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph
Smith was and is a Prophet of God and that President Hinckley is a
Prophet of God and I do so in the name of Jesus Christ -----Amen.
Parley Byington
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