http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_8372367
On October 29, 2008, I had the distinct honor of being elected as the Vice Chair of the St. Anthony Health Foundation. I initially became involved with the St. Anthony Health Foundation through Flight For Life Colorado. Flight For Life began in 1972 with a single Alouette III helicopter, based at St. Anthony Central Hospital in Denver. It was the first hospital-based medical helicopter program in the U.S. From its humble beginnings, it has grown to be a regional program responding to nine states.
In addition to Flight For Life, the St. Anthony Health Foundation helps to fund several other health-related programs and services such as:
* Family Medicine Centers which cares for thousands of ethnically diverse and medically underserved residents each year
* The Yaffe Hospitality House, a no-charge “bed and breakfast” for out-of-town family members of hospitalized patients
* Injury Prevention/Helmet Promotion – have you seen the “brain bucket” stickers or taken advantage of a free helmet when renting skis from Christies?
* The Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) Program provides trained, on-call nurse examiners to support and obtain forensic evidence from sexual assault victims.
* And many other very valuable community health programs
Saturday, November 29, 2008
The Crash of N953CD
On April 9, 2007 I managed to crash the first aircraft I owned over an isolated area of New Mexico. Thanks largely to the Cirrus Airframe Parachute System (CAPS) manufactured by Ballistic Recovery Systems, I walked away from the crash without so much as a scratch.
The official details of the crash are contained in the NTSB report, a link to which is contained below. If you are so inclined, you can read the report for all the details of the crash itself.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=DEN07LA082&rpt=fa
What is not contained in the report, however, is my trip home from the middle of nowhere New Mexico (officially 16 miles north of Luna, NM). Surprisingly, my trip home was relatively quick and uneventful.
I crash landed near a ranch house. After collecting a few of my things including a hand held Garmin 396 GPS from the aircraft wreckage, I walked down the hill towards the ranch house. Unfortunately, nobody was home and the doors were locked. I decided to wander around a bit and try to pick up a cell phone signal. From the nearby road, I was able to get just one little bar of service. I called 911. I told the operator where I was thanks to my hand held GPS device giving me precise coordinates. After convincing the operator that I really was unharmed after an airplane crash, he let me know that the closest emergency response was nearly an hour to an hour and twenty minutes away from my location. I asked the operator to let my family know that I was ok and settled in for a bit of a wait.
I busied myself by carrying my baggage from the aircraft wreckage down to the road (roughly a ½ mile hike up and down the forested hillside). Once I had my stuff down, the weather moved it a bit more and it began to rain. I carried everything down to the porch of the ranch house for a little cover. Shortly thereafter, an Air Force C-130 emerged from the clouds and started flying a figure 8 pattern over the ELT (emergency locating transmitter) signal being emitted from my plane. It was quite an incredible site to see a huge C-130 lumbering out of the low cloud layer and flying over me and my aircraft.
As promised, the local police and highway patrol showed up about an hour and twenty minutes after my phone call to 911. After a short discussion and explanation of what happened to the local police, an Air Force helicopter began to circle overhead and landed shortly there after.
After a few questions from the Air Force recovery party, they loaded me and my stuff into the helicopter for a short 45 minute flight back to Albuquerque International Airport. The helicopter landed on the Air Force side of the airport and had a civilian security guard pick me up and take me back around to the commercial side of the airport. I managed to clean up in the restroom, change my cloths and re-pack my suit case so I could check one bag and carry the other on the commercial flight. I booked a one-way flight home on Frontier Airlines, passed through security and made several phone calls while I waited. I talked to my family for a while assuring them I really was perfectly alright. I spoke with some friends in Denver to arrange a ride home from the airport. Cirrus Design heard about my accident and called me to make sure everything was alright.
By 10:30 that night I was home, showered and comfortably in my bed. My return home was really quite amazing considering the potential gravity of the situation.
The official details of the crash are contained in the NTSB report, a link to which is contained below. If you are so inclined, you can read the report for all the details of the crash itself.
http://www.ntsb.gov/ntsb/GenPDF.asp?id=DEN07LA082&rpt=fa
What is not contained in the report, however, is my trip home from the middle of nowhere New Mexico (officially 16 miles north of Luna, NM). Surprisingly, my trip home was relatively quick and uneventful.
I crash landed near a ranch house. After collecting a few of my things including a hand held Garmin 396 GPS from the aircraft wreckage, I walked down the hill towards the ranch house. Unfortunately, nobody was home and the doors were locked. I decided to wander around a bit and try to pick up a cell phone signal. From the nearby road, I was able to get just one little bar of service. I called 911. I told the operator where I was thanks to my hand held GPS device giving me precise coordinates. After convincing the operator that I really was unharmed after an airplane crash, he let me know that the closest emergency response was nearly an hour to an hour and twenty minutes away from my location. I asked the operator to let my family know that I was ok and settled in for a bit of a wait.
I busied myself by carrying my baggage from the aircraft wreckage down to the road (roughly a ½ mile hike up and down the forested hillside). Once I had my stuff down, the weather moved it a bit more and it began to rain. I carried everything down to the porch of the ranch house for a little cover. Shortly thereafter, an Air Force C-130 emerged from the clouds and started flying a figure 8 pattern over the ELT (emergency locating transmitter) signal being emitted from my plane. It was quite an incredible site to see a huge C-130 lumbering out of the low cloud layer and flying over me and my aircraft.
As promised, the local police and highway patrol showed up about an hour and twenty minutes after my phone call to 911. After a short discussion and explanation of what happened to the local police, an Air Force helicopter began to circle overhead and landed shortly there after.
After a few questions from the Air Force recovery party, they loaded me and my stuff into the helicopter for a short 45 minute flight back to Albuquerque International Airport. The helicopter landed on the Air Force side of the airport and had a civilian security guard pick me up and take me back around to the commercial side of the airport. I managed to clean up in the restroom, change my cloths and re-pack my suit case so I could check one bag and carry the other on the commercial flight. I booked a one-way flight home on Frontier Airlines, passed through security and made several phone calls while I waited. I talked to my family for a while assuring them I really was perfectly alright. I spoke with some friends in Denver to arrange a ride home from the airport. Cirrus Design heard about my accident and called me to make sure everything was alright.
By 10:30 that night I was home, showered and comfortably in my bed. My return home was really quite amazing considering the potential gravity of the situation.
St. Anthony North Medical Office Building
The Chief Marketing Officer at Aardex LLC issued a press release about the development of the St. Anthony North Medical Office Building. I was in charge of this project on behalf of Aardex.
For Immediate Release
Contact: Steve Grund: 303.327.4452
New Centura Health Medical Office Building
Opens in Westminster
City’s first LEED Building
(Westminster, Colorado – October 14, 2008) A sunny morning welcomed Aardex and friends to celebrate the Grand Opening of the new 65,000 square foot, St. Anthony North Medical Office building today.
"We are so proud to offer this new resource to the north metro community," said James Dover, CEO of St. Anthony North Hospital.
Located at 8501 Bryant Street in Westminster, the building will be the City’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building. Sustainable features include multi-zone HVAC systems for frequent air exchange, advanced individual temperature controls, natural daylighting, sound diffusion and efficient energy saving systems and design. The building is also fully integrated electronically with the hospital’s medical informatics system.
“We are so grateful to Centura Health for this marvelous partnership,” said Aardex CEO Rick Butler. “We are afforded the privilege of creating a sustainable building that then gets to be applied to Centura’s healing environment. It’s very rewarding.”
95% pre-leased at the Grand Opening, the medical office building will be home to Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center, Rocky Mountain Cardiovascular Associates, St. Anthony North Family Medicine Residency, St. Anthony Senior Health Centers and Women’s Health Specialists.
Founded in 1983, Aardex LLC is a development, design, construction and property services firm based in Denver. A recognized leader in build-to-suit, Aardex authored User Effective® Buildings in 2004, a methodology that champions worker productivity in the workplace. The company is committed to reflecting the highest standards in sustainability in all of its business lines – office, healthcare and hospitality.
Learn more at www.aardex.com
For Immediate Release
Contact: Steve Grund: 303.327.4452
New Centura Health Medical Office Building
Opens in Westminster
City’s first LEED Building
(Westminster, Colorado – October 14, 2008) A sunny morning welcomed Aardex and friends to celebrate the Grand Opening of the new 65,000 square foot, St. Anthony North Medical Office building today.
"We are so proud to offer this new resource to the north metro community," said James Dover, CEO of St. Anthony North Hospital.
Located at 8501 Bryant Street in Westminster, the building will be the City’s first LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified building. Sustainable features include multi-zone HVAC systems for frequent air exchange, advanced individual temperature controls, natural daylighting, sound diffusion and efficient energy saving systems and design. The building is also fully integrated electronically with the hospital’s medical informatics system.
“We are so grateful to Centura Health for this marvelous partnership,” said Aardex CEO Rick Butler. “We are afforded the privilege of creating a sustainable building that then gets to be applied to Centura’s healing environment. It’s very rewarding.”
95% pre-leased at the Grand Opening, the medical office building will be home to Panorama Orthopedics & Spine Center, Rocky Mountain Cardiovascular Associates, St. Anthony North Family Medicine Residency, St. Anthony Senior Health Centers and Women’s Health Specialists.
Founded in 1983, Aardex LLC is a development, design, construction and property services firm based in Denver. A recognized leader in build-to-suit, Aardex authored User Effective® Buildings in 2004, a methodology that champions worker productivity in the workplace. The company is committed to reflecting the highest standards in sustainability in all of its business lines – office, healthcare and hospitality.
Learn more at www.aardex.com
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