June 18, 2010

BARNESVILLE, PA — The small portion of the Carl Spackler Open stormed Mountain Valley last Friday. The nine members from Virginia, Ohio, and Pennsylvania played 36 holes before attending the deck party.

Walt was telling the story of the day at Mountain Valley where a man died of natural causes on the 10th hole (old Pine #1) of the 'Valley' course and a helicopter crashed on the 17th hole (old Pine #8) of the same course within 30 minutes.

"The 79-year old pilot, Alvin Roman, is now paralzyed from the waist down," said Tobash. "The passenger was also seriously injured."

The pilot losing control of his helicopter's tail rotor probably caused the crash on August 22, 2008, a federal report said.

The pilot at the time of the crash, lacked a current medical certificate, current flight review, and his helicopter had not been inspected in the previous year, the National Transportation Safety Board said. The board described a phenomenon that can occur when helicopters turn into a tail wind while flying close to the ground and slower than 30 knots. Under those conditions, the tail rotor must provide nearly all the power to control the direction of the flight. If the tail rotor lacks the required power, the helicopter unexpectedly can swing to the right and out of control if not corrected.

"There were concerns the helicopter would blow up because it could not be turned off," said Tobash of the incident. The FBI, emergency personnel, and local police showed up and took over.

"The helicopter did not have insurance," said Tobash. "The helicopter could not be moved for a week during the investigation and Mountain Valley had to pay for its removal."

The helicopter was supposed to fly over the course and drop 1,500 numbered golf balls. The person whose ball was closest to the pin would have won 50 percent of ticket sales.

The unrelated death at the 10th hole 30 minutes prior to the helicopter crash was due to natural causes. "Someone calls me and says, 'Walt. You need to come out here to the 10th green of Valley. There is a guy laying near the hole and he is not breathing.' I thought that was awkward until the helicopter crashed."

Thomas F. Hametz, 86, of Weatherly, Pennsylvania, died while playing golf Friday afternoon at the Mountain Valley Golf Course in Barnesville.

[back to the deck party]

The crowd was approximately 500 people around 6:30PM. The crowd filed in throughout the night. The attendance had increased to 1,000 by 8:30PM when Gibson suddenly showed up to the table with 11 shots.

"I got 11 red-headed sluts for everyone," said Gibson as he held a bucket of shots. "Everyone grab one." The group, which included Pork and Walt, drank the shots together.

Jon Marti immediately took out his wallet, tossed some money and replied, "Those were good. Gib... you are already down there and I can barely move. Can you go get 11 more?"

An intoxicated Mike Gibson gathered up the empty bucket and said, "This place is amazing. You should see these bartenders over here. They are all sisters. [pause] I'll be back." Mike started to walk away and Greg Long grabbed his shirt. Long said, "The two have to be identical twins, but told me twice they aren't. They are full of shit. Let's try something different this time. This time find a red-headed slut to join us and get 12 shots."

To be continued...