The SkyBlog

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.