gravitywhore

I know the girl in this situation, and am very glad that she has brought this to her rigger and to the police now.. the guy is a mad doucher and needs to be dealt with..

Early on a friday morning, under a full moon with slight snowfall, had my gear bag packed as if skydiving was I going to go. Into the handicap accessible transportation the manual wheelchair with this large bag and one with some electronic gadgets, laptop, video camera's communication device and alarm clock on my lap did I go to the the large GObus station which the 2nd leg of a 4 part journey would be. This journey's most frustrating part was the pen & paper I needed to communicate with, they in themselves were not the "issue" but the VIAtrain workers who insisted on writing back with simple large print words from their kindergarden days ... Even after I wrote, "I understand and hear each word you speak, it saves us time in the words you can speak you choose to use, instead of writing dumbed down scribles, filling up my papers with" to which they replied by grabbing my papers and adding a large print "YES WE HELP YOU. YOU SIT THERE. WE GET YOU. DON'T MOVE. SO YOU WON'T GET LOST. ITS A BIG STATION. YOUR MOMMY SHOUL NOT HAVE SENT YOU ALONE. BUT DON'T BE SCARED. WE WILL TAKE CARE OF YOU. My reply was short and straight forward-" if youchoose to write to me, read it I will not, your voice I expect you to use while still its there". Had planned to go buy some orange juice and water since on the train they want $3 for each cup of water or juice,$7 for wine or beer and since solid foods I cannot eat-much juice will I go through on a 6 hour trip just to Ottawa. Each time I tried to go get something quickly these excessively paternal or obsessively controlling m Train porters came running to hold still who in their minds was a shild in an adults body to protect me from the big bad world and to ensure the path to grandmas house little dumb child won't eer-lest some big bad wolf will chew me up in this video secure station during the 2 hour wait that by the red light. Then a miracle came, the skydiving stickers on the back rest of the chair attrackted the attention of a porter who didn't think a chick without a voice was any dumber then those with one. Quickly we 'friends' became and questions flew my way, how do I land starting with and on from there. The ticket master had said there were no "tie down" seats available, so he went and cxhanged my seat to a "tie down" seat in 1st class which is always available! (Seems not 2 many gimps have $ for a fare 4x that of the regular!. On the train free booze was flowing, with wider seats, n bigger tables-free hot fancy meals I could of had-but cxhoking on filet mignon was not on my agenda! For 5 hrs I worked (and accomplished!) On emptying their red wine supply- even soft chocolat bon bons cal my way-the kind I could melt in my mouth and and not choke! To ottawa my destination was, to travel with the ladies going to the camp who from Gan.DZ came therew to fly. With excitement we travelled together & there ladies never treated this gimp like my brain fell out when the voice left in such a hurry.(It had taken 4 hrs from going from a whispering slurring voice to nothing even coughing is making no sounds-burping even is like a soundless hickup). So with great happiness we travelled without comparing the fact that one lady had 1500 dives and one with less then a 1/4 of mine. Skydivers we all were & it turned out I was the only one who in the tunnel time had spent. So ther with excitement and anticipation we went, With jokes and stories to share, making our trip with expenses shared cheaper for us all and fair. The tunnel was so awesome a whole new post it deserves, but since it seems I always have some unplanned "oops" along the way-when we were done after the last session I hurried to take off the knee braces and in this rush I pulled my catheter right out intact! For those who've newver had one, a balloon the size of a marble it has, inside the bladder to keep it from coming out. Typically when changing it they deflate this balloon to get it out, but I pulled it through with the whole ballon intact-through that little place the urine flows OUCH!! The ER was our stop on Montreal before we drove back to ottawa, from where the train ride was not so great. Into the 1st class I went again for the tie down seat was taken elsewhere & the train officials again started with their childish language and calling me sweetie, asking will my mommy meet me in toronto- "no a caravan at the airport will pick me up and fly by my house so to my yard I can dive I replied fascitiously with frustration. But the lady to sit near me in 1st class loudly proclaimed that she can't possibly "sit near someone like that" as she poined towards me and added "I won't even be able to eat my dinner fearing she might drool or make the noises those retarded people make" the fury within was so strong. It took all my might to not deck her right out with one upper cuff! So the porters lifted me from my seat to the car behind leaving that passanger off the train to wait 5 hrs for the next one as the trsin was full. For the 1st class lady paid a large price for her fare so her wishes kicked some poorer fellow right off the traain. The next post will be pure delight, shsaring all the skills the tunnel instructors taught, and how I dealt with the issues which had stopped me from going in the tunnel in the past for more then the little while I did. Right now I'm in the hospital (been here for 12 days & 6 more to go-so to the nurses needs I must attend. They have schedules to keep!. After the vampire ladys been here to prick me I will write the best part of this story yet to be heard-the skills I learned in tbe tunnel met all the planned ones except for one- with 4 people I did not yet fly-my quadrants took 1/r of the tunnel so with 3 I can safely fly with levels, docking, side sliding without backsliding now I can fly

Hey pookie, Glad you wrotw back so soon kus its boring here in the hospital :) I think there's some misunderstandings from that last post. I was never referring to your life outside of the weekends @ the DZ (THUS YOUR HOME AND WORK LIFE) I just assume everyone who skydives works full time because its so expensive-most of us have to. Buy our own gear etc. (Except Dale is very good with public speaking & marketing & somwhow hw was offered free -sponsored gear-which is happening to me occasionally but with some email showing up offering me free sunglasses so long as I wear only them-no problem I will wear what ever is passed my way :) ) but what I mean most of us do not have that skill to be so well versed and speak in ways people want us to be paid for talking_well actually a long time ago in 2001-2003 I was given $500 "honerarium" for coming to teach in conferences what it is like to have autism-yah I have autism-but that would be like some paying to have you talk about what its like to be paralyzed. So sorry if you got the impression that I was saying you didn't work during the week or get dressed, and drive etc. I can understand the frustration when people do assume that a person can't do that-because when ever I'm in the hospital they get the nurses to come watch en mass to watch when I use the hoyer lift myself- I tell them after they say they have never seen a quad dress themselves or use the lift alone to get in and out of bed etc. Its when I tell them it shows how poor the rehab. Here is if folks are sent home and they cannot do this. I have no use of parts of my hands and no use od parts of my forearms while a buddy of ine has no use of his hands or arms below his elbowsband he dresses himself, cuts hisbown finger nails, and lights candles, cooks, without use of arms. Having said that it wasn't my intention to mean you are not independent on the ground totally (kus if you werent-your support worker would of been on your "Team" :). ) Its too bad there is a strap positioned in a place you can't reach since it will always leave you needing to rely on someone else. But on the good side your DZ is big & there are tons of experienced skydivers-would it be possible to have a group session- advertize it @ the DZ ahead of time for people who'd like to be in the "team DunbAss"-support frew. Thus people could learn how your gear is set pu, clips-where thy go-so if there were a dozen people outside of youe team who could give a hand with the gear-that last strap- along the way they would understand where the gear is for you-what differences you've needed to make- I may be a good way to get some peopleinvolved with stuff that they didn't at first, and then you will have back upfolks. The more I think of it. The more it suks not knowing if you can't jump because od team members missing or gear issues. Yes I need help to get into the bigger planes (while the 206 I get in on my own). I think the issue is more that the gear we have, is safest if we can get in them and out of the alone. This only becomes a safety issue if there is an off drop zone landing, and/or if it didn't go so well & we need to able to get out ASAP. I haven't had it happen in all the jumps I"kve made skydiving, but its always good to prepare for anything in this sport-things can happen to anyone-and when they do it often is tragic wether it is ijuries or worse,o one wants to have friends hurt. Now as for the courses etc. Awesome! Glad to hear you keepiing yourself busy when not jumping. I'm assuming because you are so far South you have outdoor packing areas? We don't ecxept during competitions, so for me to pack on the weekends its not practical to pack because I flat pack (we have to I haven't found a way for paralyzed to pro pack), and so I take up lots of room. Anyways if you have outside packing areas there's space for you to practice packing your gear-its a good accomplishmebt for a para to learn to pack-leaves us again more imdependent @ the DZ, needing less help. Do you have your packing endorsement? I remember when Dale was asking about packing and I wrote a very long detailed message to him how I flat pack-anyone can teach flat packing-surely @ Zhills but it is a bit dofferent for us, and I found using clamps (packimng like riggers or for B.A.S.E.) And bungee tighteners to keep tension on the lines, a good way to pacxk or else me dragging my body around the pack job on the ground often a leg would move my carefully positioned parachute and I needed to start again-so the clamps and bungee tensioners stopped that problem. It just occurred to me, to ask you how your feeling about it all now (and even our conversation-as it's hars to know what people feel when they are on the web-because we do not see each other or hear the voices-i realized there was a misunderstandind when I read your response about the work you do and vehicles you drive-that perhaps you were trhinking that I'm assuming you can't care for yourself off the 5 DZ-which was nothing that I was thinking of-my discussions about trhe independence was rwegarding purely on DZ as with gearing up and packing your parachtue etc.). So I wanted to ask you if you were feeling at all better about your wingman as clearly if he's jumped with you before-or is willing to do so, then it's perhaps worth talking further with him about the situation (perhaps he's read this allready and knows how you feel)... Honestly its difficult to find a instructors willing to jump with para's-getting 1 is great, getting two is pretty awesome,getting 3 becomes more rare.here in ont3io Angus asked his doog friend FuzzyDave and he was willing to give it a try but until I had proven with them two and a fellow Rick that I can do it and not tumble all over rhe sky no one else would want to try-were talking about a whole province with at least 6 DZ's or more... But now that I had done several with Angus he was able to continue with his regular duties and two others "Mike" & "Gareth" stepped up and we finished the AFFprogression (although for the last jump we wanted ANGUS TO BE A PART OF IT-FOR THE FACT THAT WE STARTED TOGETHER AND WANTED TO HAVE HIM WHEN I FONISHED IT) so jumped with Gareth and Angus to do some docking for added measure of experience to that final jump. Then when it came time do my solo check out jump, I was again that no one wanted to do it-saying "I'd feel better if Angus did it" so during his tandem duties he had to watch out the door as I did my low hop n pop 5 second delay. Then after that (he failed me the 1st time because I was so focussed on the fast pull that I sacrificed stability and tossed on my pack (I kept thinking of the priorities. 1) pull, 2) pull on time (which is where I was feeling I needed to pull so soon) and finally 3) pull stable. I've heard so mamy of the static line students been told to pull on time regardless of their body position-that my mind was stuck on that-Angus failed me for pullimg on my back-i had a pilot chute hesitation-bridle was stuck under my container)- but after that other coaches have been wanting to do my solo check out jump. See people are worried incase something goes wrong and they do not want to be involved. I know even in your case it was so back in 2008-as Tk was hoping to get Angus to come down to jump with you-as he had no one else-Angus was going to come no problem but his work etc. Would not permit it-had he been able to_you would of done your 1st AFF spring of 2009. But like you said TK won't give up on you unless you give up-which is really awesome as you said even if he has to deploy for you-that is unheard of! Seriously dude... You got the worlds most compassionaye man on your team- and the others-as people have written apparently are the best Zhills has to offer... I so hope things work out with your wingmam in the future because its a lot easier to fire then to hire in this sport in our "situation". Hoping to some day see you jumping but reality tells me it propably won't happen. I've spent a months worth of days in the hospital in the last 2 1/2 months :( My illness is deteriorating my body way too fast the last 12 months-even the difference from when I moved to the DZ in june (when I worked around the yards keeping the place clean inside and out-with my manual chair-pushing around for 10 hours on mondays to get the recycling etc. Done for early Tues. Morning) by the time our "big plane" season came to an end I was unable to breathe enough to work or mainly use my manual chair and needed to change jobs on the DZO by working from my electric chair-even being pushed to the plane and paying for my pack jobs- couldn't breathe enough to pack and jump-need to monitor oxygen levels several times a day during jumping days-i hope to finish this season jumping alone_before I will become angus' tandem "strap on" again... That will be a hard transition for me-to give up my gear and become tandem again until my ash dive. So dude, I so hope things work out again with your wingman-their hard to find :) Sending you some hope that it all works for the best and you will be jumping for decades to come!

1st, it's a good thing your feeling comfortable enough to vent your feelings when frustrated as well as share your joy when things are going great. I so clearly remember the count down to your jump and how much joy you had after wards. Surely that will happen again. :) Having said that, I feel its important for you to have things set out to a way you can enjoy the skies again :) Sorry I didn't know which guy "fell off" so I assumed it was the other guy-not TK because he is experienced enough, to not be falling off "by accident" Yet, just as Angus is experienced enough-it still happened when I went flipped on my back-he "fell off" but as I was watching the training of AFF instructors in the wind tunnel the last weekend in Jan. When I was @ the tunnel...the instructor "pretending to be the student" would go into a unstable high speed spin and the "stuent-AFF instructor-to-be" had to catch him by grabbing on inside of the leg and shoulder of harness to stop the spin, and if the student was on their back, grabbing the farthest side to the sttudent @ hip ring area & flip them back to belly to earth orientation. The point being these instructors have their reasons for doing things, the way they do it & one of the "safety measures" is for the 1 instructor to let the student go, leaving them with one with them if there is a safety/injury potential @ any stage (except @ deployment altitude-they will pull for you)... Anyways, clearly it happens to the best of them & I have to say that without Tonto here. Angus & TK are among the best "of them"-when you get a guy like them loosing a student its sometimes "just one of those "oops" moments" or a purposeful move. Watching your exit you guys tumbled pretty much initially-which is why I wondered if the instructor let go for that reason, but like you said-it got better,TK tracked/or delta down to you & the dive continued on well :) As it goes in this sport, sometimes things just happen & so long as they become well again-all is ok :) Now I also am disappointed with the fact that you haven't jumped for so long-its tough to be out of the skies-don't I know it! :) early Dec I was in hosp (1st- 12th)& needed to wait till early jan. To get my strength back to jump again-did a few in Jan., went to the tunnel for an hour & came back Mon. Feb. 1st to end up in hosp. Tuesday 2nd and am still here. Knowing I missed last weekends jumping (with that vintage canopy @ that!) On a day when temps were only minus ten! (That's great winter jumping weather so long as I jump with my emerngy gear pack with me in case of a off DZ landing..sucks to be in here n not jumping & knowing that I am going to get stronger again before I was going to jump again... Yah it sucks pookie & talking about it surely helps. I was hoping to encourage you to not give up om your "team dumbass" kus clearly they are exceptional people. And it sounds like an awesome team! So what ever this situation with the other DZ IS. (Believe me, I've come to learn that such politics can really send coaches etc. Heads spinning-not to forget those who were on their backs get grabbed by the farthest side @ the hip ring to be flipped back. I hope for you that what ever it is he has with that other DZ is going to resolve. But actually for everyones safety it was a good thing he didn't jump. You see for a successaful skydive you ALWAYS need to be emotionally in a good space. He has responsibility to he you up there & with his mind on other problems it is not 100% on the jump. As for "others" hooking up your gear etc. In the plane, that's not anyones responsibility but yours.Angus would not have let me dive solo finally (without any instructors just go when I want and do a dove of what I want like all those others %@ your DZ (and everywhere) you need to able to care for and do your own gear set up. If its not possible you won't be jumping like Dale-any DZ he wants to.now if you can't, and will always be a AFF STUDENT style skydiver THAT'S OK but do not expect others to dedicate so much of themselves to jump with you always-or as often as you'd like. It would be like asking a pro athlete of any type to be ready to drop their own thing when you show up to work with you because yoi need that support in the sport. I can see that people wamt you to jump and its evident by how long they have dedicated themselves to jump with you-and not given up on the possibility of getting up there to do a AFF jump.I also hand only one AFF through my whole program the 2nd time we did it and like I said my 1st time was terminated after two attempts where I did not pull alone-so if folks are still willing to jump with you its a blessing.like Dale wrote somewhere (to that thread about landings for a para) IF WE GET HURT IT WILL PERHAPS MAKE IT SO NO OTHER DZ WILL TAKE A CHANCE FOR ANOTHER PARAoops sorry for caps left on I'm writing via my phone at the hosp. Poopkie u have worked way too hards to have it go down the drain now. How about during the times you can't jump take in ALL the seminars you can get your hands on?I did my water jump and night jump endorsements although I will never have the license for a night jump-or even if I did may not be permitted to do one because of the critical of para's timing on landing.or get your hands on the FAA RIGGERS COURSE MANUAL its what I read when I can't jump. NOT because I will ever be a rigger, but its learning about skydiving gear, differences in strength of different webbing, even sewing "patterns" and so much more.Angus saif its a good thing because the more we understand about our gear the better,-makes sense? :) I hope.also like you said, I thinbk based on your video youbgot AWESOME landings, and as such are a good candidate for static line jumps. IF ZHILLS does static line for students-awesome! Do a short seminar explaining how it works and then you can get on any load you want! No need to wait for the wingmen at. All:) you will be your own man, jumping when you feel like it.it would be so much easier for me because I live at the DZ so if I can't get on a load one day, there is always the next day. But 4 you its more important to get on a load during the weekends as tou had hoped. You mentioned you didn't know why TK let go of you. Knowing it is a part of your learning.Ask him:) he won't llie to you, you KNOW that about TK he's a straight up guy and will give the full goods. He cares deeply about yourjumping-hell I've been told a AFF -to-be coach that he would of given up and bot had the patiene to learn as long as I did. And I did 12 tandems and total of 12 AFF including both yrs . That really hit home on how lucky I am to have had Angus for he did 12 tandems and 5. Of those AFF jumps, that's 21 total (he did some extra "for fun" tandems @ times when I was having my gear @ rigger s& just wanted to jump with him) but I see you got 31 jumps and all of them are with someone from Team dumb ass! That's A LOT OF SUPPORT from these guys n gals.pookie try to be inventive. Ask questions "TK what happened?, why did you let go in that jump?" , "can I try to learn static line or IAD for the times we can't do AFF?" YOUR LANDINGS ARE AESOME DUDE! So if you can pull stable and also remain in an arch on the way out the door so on static line you won't be having your chute open while your upside down then you'd be loving static line since you enjoy the canopy control stuff.Also you'd not only get up to jump you'd be perfecting your canopy control and god only knows what awesome landing methods you'd get 4 yourself-you'll be doing the blind man or something awesome in no time. It was real good sign your wingman was sitting and chatting with you that day-and perhaps his mind was troubled enough about the other DZ issue he did the responsible thing and not get up in the skies with troubles on his mind. You deserve a long life time of jumping so start taking responsibility-practice gearing up your leg straps etc. Practice. I learned to dress my pants once I was more debilitated by this illness then when I was just using the manual chair -BY A C4 QUAD! Who got himsef in n out of bed without a lift, dresses himself, cuts his finger nails on his own, cuts open his letters, and he can't use his hands below the elbow or his core below his nipples.Infact he was a skydiver who broke his neck in FF in 2003 @ Deland. Things can be done that looks impossible if we try and try again :) When I saw what that guy was doing I started thibnking "shit I got use of my arms, I got a hoyer lift, I got SO MUCH more then him so I better get off my butt and learn to do allthis stuff. Maybe right now this all doesn't leave you feeling better about the missed jumps and perhaps even more so about feeling let down by a Team dumbAss member who at this point you'd like to fire off the team- - I hope in a few weeks your raw feelings of disappointment and sadness. Over it will subside and you can consider some of the suggestions, seminars in what you probly won't ever need (heck sit in on the theoretical part of the wingsuit course-surely they will let you listen for free knowing you won't be able to toss on a wingsuit and go flocking :), maybe read books on C R W, or anything you can do to pass the time to be a part of the sport while your not jumping. I took the course to be a judge in skydiving competitions(and my DZO paid for it because I didn't have $ for that)because I wanted something to do for the sport to give back for all those who give so much for me so I can jump. Besides its fun, you get to analyze the videos of the best skydivers performances (judging your friends can be "not so fun" when you know one will win over another. But you just do your job as it is-and how ever you need to do it) Please pookie your so important to this sport, like a rare engangered inhabitant of the earth! -theres not many of us "paras" or quads (I've technically transformed over to being a quad now from beong a para because I've lost enough hand grip function)... WE ALL want to see you keep divong. Participaring in the sport and having fun, traveling with TK but while its great there in the skies, find something fun skydiving related that will keep you I want to learn CRW this summer and have 3 instructors eegot videos to watch here in the hspital od CRW and pick the brain of my future CRW coaches when questions pop up in my mind while here. Lots of safe hugs to you pookie, it will get better!send me via private message an address where I can send you a few suprises that will hopefully give you a smile till the skies give you one ;) brotherly luv to yah!

1st of all I need to say this is gimpboogie writing-not gravity whore (he's not even in the same country as me! The admin might want to see why this happened-it happened inPST forums also. I haf lent my phone to gravitywhore in sept and oct and now it seems I'm permanently logged on as him if I write with my phone-which I have to kus I'm in the hospital without internet access) But here is my message from -minna/gimpboogie ok :) Hey dude! Sorry to learn that you got hosed on the jump. I re read your awesome "thank you" letter and saw you (have or had? Are they both now gone off "TeamDumbAss"?) 2 wing men- Tom and Marius it said in your 1st totally beautiful message+and so true it takes much more then 1 to be on our teams-my "team" is the "gimp free fall team" :). ). Yes it sucks when you can't jump- I been there way too often when doing AFF (both years you see I did 3 jumps one year. And my main instructor called it quits-said no more @ that time- I was not mentally focussed with shit going on in life and when I'd flip upside down I now know what a wrong mental attitude I had-I was thinking as I watched my altimeter"this is fun,I got another grand of altitude left to do this" but then I saw the concerned look on Angus as he was coming to catch me-i fell away from him and I dove with just him no wingman except the 1st & last dives that year_but then started again the next year ) So the 2nd time we started again, sure Angus COULDN,T be doing it every weekend it was for a few reasons: 1-he is a tandem master-we got the weekend days often booked so solid for tandems that the tandem "passangers" get trained by one on the ground, then handed to their tandem master who they will jump with-all geared up allready-their TM just gets them and grabs a packed rig on a rack close to where the plane is parked (we hot load all day many weekends) and off they go-each tandem master doing upwards of 20 dives a day-that in itself keeps them so busy sometimes we got instructors teen kids hired to pick up the used gear the camera guys and TM's have to drop where they land, give them bottled water as they runs to the idling plane, his new gear and TM person. 2_Angus is also a AFF instructor-so IF he gets a break from doing TM job he can take an AFF student& there always is those waiting. Even some of the fully paying ones can't get a dive in-one lady took the day off work to hang around all day waiting for her chance @ AFF but he was doing tandems till sunset-it just is that way sometimes-but the next time she came the DZO made sure she was fit in manifest 1st. So is he going to take me (for free and the DZO also makes no$ just the slots in the plane but wear n tear on gear-until I had my own but even when I had my own I had issues at times-while it was getting a reserve repack I needed to get done in august, and when my AADwent dead-i needed to use student gear)... OR is he going to do his "job"-which is to work for the DZO and do what's next in the schedule-a fully paying AFF student. Ioften felt sad also that I would not get to do an AFF jump so I started doing static line jumps. I don't know if they do those or IAD jumps for students OR if all students are AFF there. If they are ALL AFF then maybe it is not another option for you but what if TK can teach a few others to do IAD jumps for you-you won't need anything other then canopy control alone and emergency procedures if you end up with a malfunction off the IAD. Yas that is why I went to do static lines. I've done over 50 static lines-thats how many times my AFF instructors could not take me for what ever reason-thats lots. But my jumping didn't have to stop just because I could not go AFF. If you like the whole skydive-canopy flight as well, then you could try the other options when you can't do AFF. IF Marius and Tom are AFF instructors generally (not just there for you) then they have a responsibility to do their jobs for the DZ 1st...then jump with folks like us IF there is time (this is providing your doing like a wasipaying for their slot only-which it sort of seems like it from you message looking for the new instructor/wingman). Yes it may seem like they chose $ over you (and perhaps they did) but we (or you) do not know all that's going on-in their personal lives (maybe they got a huge new expense they got to pay off, start saving for something special for themselves, or their kids or other dependents-medical costs for a friwend even- their not all going to detail what's happening in their lives. A good example is Tonto-whom if you read the forum of incidents from 2007 + Oct. You will know he was the 1st to teach "one of us" to dive-well no one really knew that after supporting his own children he had taken it uponn himself to support financially a disabled child and pay for her schooling. He was modest about it so he had extra expenses he had chosen to take on and perhaps worked extra to pay for it). I'm saying this because it sucks to be on the ground in sunny warm jumping day- and it seems you may not have jumped much at all on your own with AFF but there may also be reasons we don't know about influencing the choices our AFF instructors make.Like responsibility to their jobs @ the DZ (rarely can an instructor decide who they jump with while working usually it is the DZO and manifest who put that days loads together and at our small DZ that's a hard enough job -i can only appreciate how much so now that I live at the DZ and see what goes on full time every day. Also they may have choices to make which are influenced by their own financial situations. Sure I can look @ my disability income of less then $16,000/yr and say that anyone else working there have more income then me-hell they can make in a weekend what I make in a month but their lives are different also. Kids college to pay for, life, house, vehicle, medical insurance, training costs to upgrade their licences (do you have any idea how much it costs to become an AFF instructor? I don't know but I saw at the wind tunnel 4 guys I know who are doing it and a few od them are TM'S. And 1 said that the AFF training is very expensive- I also had for a room mate (sort of) a guy who did his TM course which was $1500 plus the 25 jumps he had to pay both slots for... They may have done like Tonto, started helping out someone who needs help and now have to find a way to add to their budget that extra $. I certainly don't want to defend the wingman who let you down, I merely want to toss another perspective into the picture- hoping it helps you to repair your relationship with this guy. Clearly he's not after $ only kus if he was he'd never start to jump with you (unless your paying the full AFF fee but even then let's face it-these guys are taking a bigger responsibility and risk on themselves when they jump with paralyzed people-the video showed it- the reason one "falls off" is because they are taught to let go-left side guy-during instability that can cause either injury or be dangerous- then TK held you until it was safe for that left side guy to come back-its an AFF instructor method for safety for every AFF dive that starts to get into an area of possible injury to anyone of the 3) So I also was bummed out often but decided that I was going to jump even if I can't do free fall.So I started doing static line and finally after over 50 of them Angus (as he said to me when I asked him why did he offer to start again-because I was never going to disrespect him so much that I would of ever asked him to re start my AFF again- its happened the same with B.A.S.E. With me, one person said they were not going to continue with me- I respect this person so much I will never beg them to go again and "can we start again" questions- to me it would be as if I thought the person made a wrong decision-so I never asked Angus again-hoped he would start again or I could move to a country where there were those willing to. Start again.) So Angus said to me he started again because he saw I wasn't going to stop and give up and the static line was no way for me to learn to skydive-so hwe started again. But when there were no Aff jumping chance I went jumped static line during that time Hope it helps-think outside the box. :)

Just an update ... I have split with the Wife and am moving this Tuesday into a house on the airport tried to make it work .. ...I have been so much happier in the last few months since we split !!! hope she finds it too .. to anyone else going through it .... pull the red handle now , start enjoying life

can't wait gonna be a blast!!!

Cessna U206 .... in Ontario Canada , no door .. F...N COLD

It's like stepping out of the craziest dream you've ever had into the wildest reality you'll ever experiance.. totally surreal oh and windy

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I'm just wondering if anyone knows of any DZ's in Ontario doing either Helo jumps or Balloon jumps this season ?? or how difficult it would be to organize a Helo jump at our home DZ ... I know Dunville had a Heli jumps last year .... thanx for your responses

I was on our Grand Caravan last weekend with 6 others .. 2 tandems and two vidiots... very roomy .. great jump

Adam , you need to get up during the week when Derek isn't teaching class and after he's off work .... he will do the coach jumps with you .... your like 5 jumps away from your A ... why quit now ?? Go balls deep buddy, get current . We have the Caravan now no excuses ..... If you want it you can have it .. I'm heading up Friday afternoon and staying though till sun morning ..... Hope to see you up there Blue ones Buddy

I was up in the Caravan last weekend .....what a great jump ship .... It's nice to have a turbine so close to so many people ......It was bizzare sitting in a plane with 14 other people , having only jumped small cessnas up until now .. such a quick take off from our grass strip ... Thanx to Adam for bringing soo much joy ....

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