The SkyBlog

Given how slow my recovery has been going it is seriously doubtful that i will get much if any chance to chase after a world record.

I do hope to get back into the air via paraglider in about two weeks, basically as soon as my back feels up to it.

I have been spending alot of time with my son Sky, which has been great.

I also have been hanging out up on my land in T.P. got some solar equipment ordered and soon the place will be lit up, with regular light bulbs. I also put in a 20×10 garden plot with a raised bed, but i still need to import some good top soil.

I’ve been out fishing a bit, all lake fishing as my fly casting arm is just not ready for the streams.  I caught a 9 lbs walleye which was the biggest fish i ever landed. It’s great therapy for my arm, and alot more fun then pulling on a giant rubberband.

I’m heading to Oklahoma next week to check in on my farm/garden and visit some relatives with a fishing trip to lake Texhoma. After all this is the first time in 8 years that i have not been in Texas chasing the world record during this time of year.    

Hope you all are getting some great summer flying, send me the gloat on my email when you get a chance, i’m having to live thru your flights for now.

David.

Bill and I launched the two place Grob at 4:45 and after a 2,000 ft tow we pinned off 8,200 and slowly climbed to 10,000 ft where the thermal accelerated to 1,200 fpm surges and we topped out at 13,400.

We headed out upwind for the Manzanos but we got drilled, there were some lennies overhead, with raspy cu’s under that marking the rotor. So we dove back downwind toward the airport and proceded to scratch for 30 mins twice getting to with 500 ft of mandatory landing approach set-up 7,000 ft with agl of 6,000 ft.

Bill hung on like a champ and eventually it turned on and we slowly worked back to 11,000 ft when it turned on to 1,200 fpm and we topped out this time at 13,500 but drove upwind and gained another 2,000 ft. despite the lennies overhead we never got into obvious wave lift. Eventually we had to bring the ship home so the flight park owner could go home, landing at 6:45 p.m.

I must say it was very nice to fly for two hours in strong air, never even having a moment of concern for the turbulance and but by what i felt i could say that if you were in a PG, you would be having the Rodeo ride of a lifetime.

BIll did let me fly her on the way home, i even caught a thermal and climbed 600ft. i was wobblie for sure, with over tight left grip but i think i could get it fairly soon.

It is the safest way to expereince full on summer flying in New Mexico. all the time going 300 to 500 miles daily.

Rehab is going slow, still alot of pain but there is improvement. Daily simple functions are getting easier and overall range of motion has improved slightly. There is still a bit of swelling but at nearly back to normal.

It’s been great spending time in the outdoors, getting life in Tres Piedras situated and spending lots of time with Sky.

He’s really moving these days, got to watch him like a hawk.

Well i hope all you guys are gettng some good flights send me a gloat mail, i’ll fly vicariously through you all for now, just be safe i don’t need any more crashing.

I’m starting to work toward the new revolution back protection system design, the next generation of harness that will supply a new level of high impact, spinal protection system never seen before in the PG industry. It’s time!

David.

I’ve started to work a daily routine of shoulder and wrist stretches and excersises and i’ve seen about a 20% gain in upward movement of my arm to full upwar extension, but certainly not pain free. My wrist is not as good with only a minor gain toward flexation and virtually no gain toward extension,  plus  My right grip is lacking an inch of closure to make a fist. 

I’ve been trying to spend some time outside enjoying nature, but the back pain limits the amount of mobility, so i’m limited to padded seat low risk activities like fishing, which is also good therapy for my right arm/hand.

The local skies have been starting to get that great NM big sky look, but there has been plenty of cu-nibms going off and actually some great rainfall that opened several forests after fire resrtiction  closures. But now the usual pattern is starting to set up for a drier June and those epic days are coming soon, and i’ll be forced to sit them out, which is hard to do.

I’m hoping to get out in a sailplane for a tandem flight or two. The local NM summer skies are really best enjoyed to thier fullest in a glass ship that gets a 35 to 1 glide at 100 knots which allows you to out run the normal NM cunimbs,gust fronts,virga, cover huge distances and have a serious strong airframe to withstand the turbulance that swats us PG’s out of the sky and crushes HG’s from time to time here in New Mexico, which will at least fill my air fix for a while.

We are moving this weekend up to TP, so i’ll be rehabing in paradise by this time next week.

more soon,

David.

After five rough days behind the wheel, i made it home to Albuquerque.

I did have a short delay in Robertsdale Alabama where i blew a U joint at 70mph on I-10.  I got towed to Robertsdale after a three hour wait roadside then they had to find parts 60 mile drive to the Miss line. $600 later i got a new differencial yolk,and two new U joints.

I made the drive to Houston Friday night just in time for Ethopian food then a short nights sleep in the Wal-mart parking lot. Saturday i made the long drive to Hobbs, NM where i styed with long time friends Brian and Kim N. Then the final leg home to Alb.

I’ve started to work on the rehab and i’m already seeing increased range of motion, the pain is easing a bit although i still cannot sleep flat in bed more then a few hours, then the pain is unbearable and i’m forced to sleep in the lazy-boy recliner. I’m still having lots of swelling in my right arm with the worst pain being in my right shoulder asi try to get it moving.

We will be moving up to our land in Tres Piedras NM this next week, I’ll be hosting a yurt raising party this coming Sat,Sun with a San Antonio fly-in too.  i’ll supply the food and beer, with five or six helpers it should’nt take more than 5-6 hrs. Then i can continue my rehab in a beautiful place where i can scream in pain and no one will hear.

I’m planning a SIV course at elephant butte June 12,13,14 Then we will plan a three day weekend x-c trip to Oklahoma weather dependant of course.

I forgot my cell phone in Hobbs and i should have it back in a few days, so for now i’m without my phone numbers so leave me a message with your number if you can attend this weekends party in T.P.

My medical fund account is now sitting at $3,700 which is greatly appreciated and will certainly ease the pain to my pocket book. many thanks to all who have contributed to my fund.

There has been quite the stink on PG Forum about my accident or mainly my lack of medical insurance started by Mark Forbes and continued by Deushbag Straub. But here’s an interesting look at the money and health insurance.

It’s been 16 years since i needed hospitalization/ surgery to fix me up from my paragliding related injuries. If i had been paying for health insurance all along at $250 month/$3,000 year with a $5,000 deductable my cost to date would be in the $53,000 range. Right now my medical bills are totalling  around $36,000 after the self-pay/low income discount. and that does not take into account how much the insurance might not have covered anyways. That’s still $17,000 cheaper then if i had been paying for the insurance.

So Mark Forbes preaches that no one should fly without insurance coverage, but if i lived by that rule then i would not have accumulated the flight experience i have because i would have to either, get a real job or focus more on making money to pay for the insurance instead of focusing on flying.

So while Mark is stuck in his cubicle making the money to pay for the insurance day dreaming about flying i’m out there flying because that’s what i love to do and i am willing to take those risks in pursuit of my goals and dreams, where he and others pursue the money and dream about flying. It’s a lifestyle choice and i don’t fault them for their choice but they seem quick to fault me for my choice.

David

I had my first check-up today with Dr. Leach. who did the surgery on my arm. I had two x-rays taken and they showed the bones are healing properly. They removed 22 staples from my RT shoulder and my cast on my RT wrist. The doc said i need to get everything moving soon(tough love physical therapy) or else!

 Back in the day before screws my RT arm would have been immobilized for 6 weeks before any rehab, but now they screw it together and it’s good to go a week later. Those 6 weeks allowed time for the pain to subside, but Doc says the pain only gets better with mobility, he explained fully the extent of my injuries. which was different from what i thought they were in that i severed my humurus right at the bottom of the head or ball, not four inches down, and my wrist fracture was complicated because i fractured the distal tip of the radius at the point where it fits against it’s tarcel bone. Also the Humurus bone became impacted in the deltoid muscle and required extensive cleaning(muscle removal) which adds tothe pain and lengthens the recovery time.

I’ll be heading home to NM soon where i’ll get on the rehab for the wrist and shoulder, but the worst pain for now is still in my back which makes rehab more painful. T6,T8, fractures with the old compressions of T12 and L1,

 The weather has been rainy and the drought conditions here in south Florida are easing.

More soon,

David.

Sorry for the delay in posting here, it’s been a busy/painful last 10 days.

For those who are interested in the details of my accident you can log onto www.pgforum.com and open the accident/incident thread and at the bottom of page two there is a detaled account of what happened.

Short story is, on final approach at about 150 ft or less i took a full frontal collapse, i popped the brakes to open the glider but the tips had wrapped around each other and was in a horseshoe stall configeration, i went to throw my reserve but saw i did’nt hve adequate altitude and so i decided to try to fix the glider or prepare for a PLF landing. at that moment the glider lurched to the right and began to rotate me backwards to my right, i could’nt get my feet under me and as i impacted i used my right arm to break my fall.

I severed my humurus 4 inches below the ball, broke my radius in four pieces, broke two vertabrae in my back at T4 and T6. My shoulder required a few hours of surgery and a plate with 9 screws and my Radius required similar surgery with a plate and 9 screws. My back fractures were not bad enough to require surgery but will need 8 weeks of wearing a painful back brace and limited activity.

I want to say many thanks to all who came to help me! Rasa my amazing wife who had a tough job of caring for me and Sky. Zach and Greg Babush for setting up the paypal account. Jonathan Wolfe my web master for getting it on the blog on short notice, and to all you who have donated to my medical fund.

As of right now my bill is sitting around $56,000 that does not include the helicopter medivac flight to the hospital. I think i will qualify for a low income program where the hospital will cover most of the hospital bill, i already paid $1,000 cash before being released.

The main thing for now is recovery, lots of rest and soon rehab to keep full range of motion in my shoulder it will take a few months of therapy/rehab.

I will be staying here in Florida for another week relaxing before heading home to NM for the remainder of my recovery.

The Spring Fling 09 was a huge success with 20 pilots in attendance and a great week of weather.  Luis Rosenjker won the event as he flew 650 kms in 7 flights. There are more detailed reports on the Spring Fling 09 thread under the competition results catagory on www.pgforum.com 

I will keep everyone updated on my recovery but for now i’m exhausted all this left hand typing is slow, so i gotsta go for now.

Thanks again for your healing vibes!

David Prentice.

More details soon! 

You can follow a conversation at Paragliding Forum, and he will update here when he can.

Please donate to Dave’s emergency medical fund!

Thank you!

( -Davey’s webmaster)

Wednesday the winds fdinally mellowed out enough to get away for a flight although it was still blowing 15 gusting to 20 on the surface.

I launched at 1:20 and got a 1,500 ft tow then i sank down to 750 ft before hooking into a good core, i was soon at cloudbase with about 20 HG’s all around me. We were all cutting crosswind so we could avoid the water at north Ft myers shores.

My flight was the most turbulant flight i have ever had in Florida, i encountered several thermals that had climb rates at 1,500 fpm  1,000 fpm was eveywhere and i also hit a patch of 1,600 fpm down which lasted 2 mins.  The clouds were working great but  there was a serious hover effect(cloud suck) myself and a few HG’s had to do some aviodance maneuvers to stay clear of the cloud.

I decided to land in Ft Ogden 50 miles out, it took me 30 mins to get down from 3,000 ft and i was still hitting 500 fpm lift at 1,000 agl.

Today is looking like it maybe the best day of the year! So i will be taking a crack at the 98 mile state record of mine.

Sunday is the first day of the 09 Spring fling, which will host 24 PG pilots from around the US.

David.

The Burmuda high that has set up off Florida has been piping in the high winds for the past three days, strong enough to force us to cancel the last two days of the SIV training.

The Rob Kells Memorial competition at the Florida ridge is on day three and it looks like they may still have to cancel the day due to gusty high winds. They have yet to fly a task.

The good news is that the high should be breaking down by Thrusday and then we will have two days of SE conditions and then a signifacant reduction in the winds. So this should give us a great week of flying for the 4th annual Spring Fling.

A reminder note to those who are attending the Spring Fling, registration will start Saturday May 2nd at 4:00 p.m. and the Competition safety breifing will start at 7:00 p.m. followed by what may possibly be the largest gathering of both PG and HG comp pilots ever in the US, as there will be 40 HG pilots who will kick off the Flytec Race and rally May 3rd as well as 25 PG pilots for the Spring Fling, certainly a party not to be missed. If pilots have any questions please contact me at 505-720-5436. there are still about 8 spots still open for the Spring Fling.

See you soon,

David.

Well we finally got a day with lighter winds and that allowed everyone a chance to get airborne, we were flying all day and things were just starting to get good at 1:30 when Kevin C got away, he topped out at 4,000 ft agl and went on glide over the canal and then into the Triangle of doom, he did’nt find any more workable lift and landed back in the forest and had about a 2 mile walkout with most of that being bushwhacking.

Around 3:00 it went off and cloudbase went up to 7,000 ft agl and there were about 5 HG pilots who got into the good stuff and they floated around at base for hours going anywhere they felt like with little drift aloft. There was one pilot at cloudbase at 6:00 7,800 agl and reported climbing there in a 1,300 fpm smoothie.

Today we started with mostly cirrus cover high and some cu’s forming below, the winds were strong at 20mph at 3,000 ft but seem to be backing off, we’ll be waiting for the afternoon cook to see if we can get in some miles.

There is a front approaching but the weekend weather calls for building high pressure with light winds, great forecast for a weekend SIV session.

Right now there are four pilots flying daily preping for the SIV and the SPring Fling which starts May 3rd going thru the 8th. There are 22 pilots confirmed at this point.

David.