Speaker Alex Galloway

Fri, Mar 31st 2017 at 12:55 pm - 2:10 pm

Topic: The Gimli Glider


 Rotary Club of Stirling  meeting of 31/3/2017.

President Alan Rankin welcomed members to our meeting on "kindness
day".   Club council meets on 10th April and our AGM is on 14th April.

Our speaker, Rotarian Alex Galloway has visited the small fishing town of Gimli in Manitoba over many years. Gimli has one main claim to fame, the unexpected emergency landing of a Boeing 767 on its small airfield, arising from an error in calculating how much fuel it had on board.  Instead of 20,000 litres it had only 9000 in its tanks.
Inevitably the engines began to stop one after the other leading to total electrical failure, turning it into a very large glider. Winnipeg was identified as the nearest airport, but it rapidly became evident that it was out of range of the rapidly descending plane. Fortunately, one of the flight crew knew of the airfield at Gimli, and in addition the pilot had experience of flying gliders. Approaching too high and too fast the pilot manipulated the angle of the plane to slow it down, but on landing the undercarriage did not lock, and all the tyres burst on impact. The plane came to a halt just short of a number of locals who were using the airfield for a community event. No one died, but it was said that it cost $1,000,000 to retrieve the plane and put it back into service. As a result of the incident this Boeing 767 has been affectionately known as the Gimli Glider.  Arising from his visits to Gimli Alex had always wondered why the river at Gimli was called the New Iceland.  Investigating this led him to the Vikings, who had of course found Canada in 906AD, while sailing to Greenland. However it was in 1878 that 50,000 Icelanders went West, 2000 eventually settling in Gimli. Many died of disease and the harsh climate, but the community survived as New Iceland, becoming part of Canada in 1887.

The vote of thanks was given by Stewart Wilson.  Our next meeting 7th April  Speaker's host Crawford Gordon, Visitor's host Mike Queen .  For more info www.stirling.rotary1010.org

Ian Richardson

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