gimpboogie

glad to get this freaken packing spring loaded clamp off my stomach 2nd night now no sleep-it is a bit 'tender' shall I say ;)

thans for your support,

and Granny, I've made my plans,
I will be at twin by memorial day-come watch me jump off the bridge?
yah I will be there earlier-I expect, so no worries.

remind me to PM you my cel #-no calling only text pls cant afford the calls lol so we can connect. :)

for sure-i will post before I go,'and i am going to go
the only thing that would keep me from going is a cold blue body flat lined for way too long for reflexes to kick in and start working again,

having said that...

i need to go to the hospital tomorrow

nothing horrid-just got to put my stomach back together againm
but if things dont go so well with the blood tests
their going to take out that kidney that is not a happy camper and has decided to prematurely call it quits...

its like an office temp with a bad attitude
this kidney ever since my december hspital days when i had sepsis
it decided to throw in the towel
or perhaps i had hoped put up a sign
"work sucks ive gone skydiving i quit:
but there was no skydiving for me in december,'

i did manage to dive a few ride the slide cartwheels out from 7.5 in Now.

then this stupid stomach decided to start giving me trouble
my inisides been coming out of the hole in my stomach for the last 24 plus hours

so i rigged up a bit of a system to slow down the proces with some clamps, short wooden stickand cotton swabs

thats keeping me intact till i go to the hospital tomorrow AM
there will be a small surgery and if the kidney decided to come back and start at least working on half work load then were going to keep her
otherwise its getting yanked out and tossed in the nearest incinerator

photos are my 'new to me' bashed up used carbon fiber full face helmet gift-awesome people give me things kus my $ source is now down to $89 after rent now that my room mate's gone *that grabbed $500.month from my income having to pay for the house alone-
4 the month LOL! (paid the shipping grabbed 1/4 of my months income-that sure seems insane when I look at in writing)...
but I am not leaving this house living at PST DZ
- here I will stay till I die
which sure contributes to the choices in what kind of jumping I can do when not here.

Here, I can work for my jumps-like the fixing of the jumpsuits in the winters and other chores in the summers-it all adds up in my account, or else i can exchange it for my DZO chopping up boxes of kindling for my wood stove-no $ for hydro-that stuff costs like gold! so I lug piles of wood in daily-its good physio therapy me-which I need-kus honestly for me the most dangerous activity at the DZ would be swinging an axe!

Had I gone to FL, it would of been to a DZ I know someone who works there but that doesn't change the rules we all need to follow

I had wanted to go there this winter,'but with all the 'regulations' with a solo I dont know if any DZ will let me skydive anywhere else except here at home.....regardless if my friend works there -but he's Not the DZO

This is one reason I'm SO grateful for my DZO kus he lets me do work here to be able to jump! he's truly .
it would of been a great place to learn more,
keep current @much better then staying here @ home reading riggers course manuals, sewing collars on jumpsuits,'making static lines for A jumps and
looking for those 'warm' winter days to jum-with my lower limb circulation issues, FF in -26C temps plus wind chill will turn these gimp legs into frozen shatter like icicles on landing disadvantages (some things I just cant figure out how to 'overcome)....

so FL would of been an awesome place to go (even though locals feel its cold-but for us Canadians we got hot packs to put in our shoes and gloves even FL cold spells are tolerable), but things being as they are, regulations etc.
I'd end up touring the beaches, getting stuck in the sand while only wishing I'd have something to jump out of from top floor-That i cant tolerate! (the tourist thingy)
I got an invite to go to idaho, got a place to set up house-tent and as they told me "locals enjoy riggin up black death contraptions to fling anyone with physical challenges off the bridge multiple times" no jump tickets to buy-leaves $ to give offerings to these fellows
-with offers to set up house- for me my wheelchair, feeding pumps etc. .

If it was possible to be jumping in FL I was hoping to stay 3 weeks but to Idaho
I was thinking of going until I get so wrinkled from the water landings that i wont match my passport photo anymore then I will have to come back home.

my rigger and I share a deep interest in 'old school skydiving'-and vintage canopies (should I say mine is an obsession I will reserve him the right to define his interest in that collection on his own )

a vintage or in other words "old school" skydiving canopy.

stratocloud 240.
the 270 wont fit in my container.

and NO its NOT the plasma cloud that most people think of=when they hear the word (which is the interaction of the solar winds with Venus)...

now I did try to tell my DZO if he's so concerned about my butt slide landings, on an old military reserve -it hasn't been jumped in .... let's say "a while" :) but my riggers kept it in his collection because he's just more interested in jumping some of the more 'interesting' vintage canopies...

I told him what my rigger said jokingly-"we could rig up a system like they landed on Mars that rover-under a round parachute, with the rover surrounded by airbag balloons so it could bounce around until it stopped I asked my DZO if he'd like me to try that? :-) "Actually some modern paragliding harnesses have a self inflating airbag under the seat. Sort of an airlock idea - air from the front fills the airbag but if one has a bad landing the air doesn't go out either too fast or slow through the inlet valve. No good in freefall, but if one built one that could be foolproof in staying shut or being opened, that could protect your spine on landing. On the other hand, something like that would actually interfere more with a good sliding landing"...
and NO im not high writing this-my brain just wanders to these things on its own-CLEARLY I DON'T NEED DRUGS


This to me is as exciting as a 14 sec canopy ride-which clearly was the most exciting time anyone could have in their life....

no butt slide landings there... and maybe a good place to try out the balloon system

but my serious body armor helps as much as i could get for myself (including a NYPD bullet proof vest-which I figured would be useful just incase there's a broken rib that pierces the heart (yes a remote chance-but things more bizarre have happened to people=it just would be a 'shitty way to go in' ).

after this diversion break-back to the sport this forum is for

this jump, with the vintage canopy is seriously one of the most interesting jumps I'm EVER going to do in skydiving-unless I get to jump other vintage canopies-but for those of you who are familiar with them-i cant think of any other one which is 'gimp friendly' for landings-we do need some flare
as it's been said more often then not-
including by myself just today in another thread-
we must not femur or go in
for others sake...

thus the options for me to try such a canopy is ONLY in the winters or perhaps the spring-into some soft muddy sh*t-I'll take the winters ANY DAY before the muddy option .


because our planes are not frozen to the ground...

actually i saw Peter Chapman going up there yesterday...Gosh he's not grumpily hibernating!
it was a balmy -16C on the ground and -26C at top floor...

hey what else do you call a 35 sec FF from top floor on a day like that -except 'refreshing' ?

As Dale says

"Landings need to be excellent everytime or you will break something and do skin damage that will put you out of action for a long time. It will also make it difficult for other paras who want to get into jumping. If there are any horror stories that start to circulate because paras hook it in and explode on landing it will be very difficult to find instructors and DZs that will allow us to jump.
"

THIS IS CRITICAL

none of us (paralyzed)HAS THE RIGHT to take chances on landings,'because we will fck it up for every ontehr 1 coming after us

these photos focus on leg strap positioning and the different methods-and in Dale's case the difference minor modifications make(and a link to Pookies video-since it details his leg straps well but we do not have photos yet)


We each have different methods, yet the basic principles are the same. we must do something with the legs so they do not flop around uncontrollably. Also you will notice that even within each person, we modify things as we progress in our ideas-there really is no set way of 'this is how its done'.

As Dale discovered by experimenting, -the 1st photo shows how his first settings were and the second photo shows how he modified them to give him more stability.

The 3rd photo shows how they were positioned for my 1st AFF.-which was ok at the time but the goal was to get them away from the lateral webbing-making sure there is nothing near the cut away handles.

M current set up is that i sewed pockets with elastics at the top (like pockets in swoop pants) where I hide the leg straps completely and there is no possibility of any interference with cut away and reserve handles because the straps do not come out of the pockets until after i have done my canopy control check and oriented my canopy flying in an appropriate direction according to the winds and the DZ location.

I was able to get my hands on an old used freefl one piece suit-which is not here yet-but when it arives i will sew the same pockets on,as well as add the straps so then i will show a photo of the final product
the video to Pookies leg strapping can be found on TK;s site here:
http://gallery.me.com/davidtkhayes#100350

POOKIES LANDING ODY POSITION IS ALSO FOUND ON THAT SITE.

I have also a photo in the landing style post a different method-similar to my 2nd set u for the leg sraps but that individual does not have the strap taped to him but rather it is attached o the chest strap and to the legs (it is the photo with the skydiver with a yellow/orange strap as he is approaching landing)

I have my freefall alarms set as follows:
5,500f (to remind me that in 1000f I will be deploying, so I will at that time do a circle of awareness in case I need to track away from others near by-mind you I haven't had anyone near me-yet-but that's the purpose of that 1st ff alarm).
2nd FF alarm is set to 5000f reminding me it is my last time to get ready for deployment-turning myself towards the DZ for deployment. 4,500f is when i want to deploy.


I've given myself a fairl high/conservative hard deck for two factors:
1) IF I need to cut away, I will have altitude to safely do so-and still have plenty of time to pull up my legs/
my system is such that I pul my legs up high for landing once under canopy-with the straps inside pockets sewn onto my pants so during freefall i do not have any aterial flapping around to potentially hinder cut away and reserve deployment-so once under canopy i take each strap out of the pockets on each leg and clip them to my chest strap and then pull up te legs as high as i can ge them to go

2) I want a higher hard deck so I have time to fix minor prolems with the canopy, line twists, end cells which didnt inflate, to orient myself accordingly depending on the winds, so when I work on my getting my legs up I am not flying away from the DZ.
I've had once line twists up to my slider and past them as well, so I needed to be vigilant of the altitude as I worked out the twists-so having a higher hard deck is the safety measure which I rey on to give me a chance to deal with unusual situations and still be under a good canopy with enough altitude to work on getting my legs up.

These FF alarms are there as reminders only, i do not rely on them-my wrist mount visual is what i rely on.... and infact I'm planning on getting a chest mount as well and I just haent yet figured out which is the best location because my chest strap has a hook knife allready and I need the space for the leg straps to be attached (talking of hook knives-i have two-one on my leg strap and one on chest strap-because if I end up in water for some reason i will need to cut away my crotch panel to get out of the gear-the typical front flip wont work when my leg straps are routed through holes in my crotch panel.

under canopy I set the alarms to 900f, 600f, and finally 300f.
These are not relied upon-as others say, i go by eye, but i have them on-since they are available-and in the beginning it has been helpful for me to learn to gauge what altitudes look like-as i learn to rely on my eyes=for my landing approach.

Thanks TK for all the work you've put into making Pookies dream come true!

Definitely an impressive amount of support and planning has been put forth for this 1st jumpl

I'm very curious to see how the stability will work out in further jumps -especially once you get to level 5.

Certainly a very unique approach to the lower limb 'issues'-never have I seen such-except for tandems.

Excellent job there on keeping a hold of Pookie till deployment-critical as you knew (was it you in the background at the end of the video saying something to the effect of "I was more scared then..."?

Regardless of how the future unfolds in this project-I'm VERY IMPRESSED with Pookies determination and your exceptional support in not giving up over the years-you've certainly made one mans dream come true-kudos to ALL of you who offered their support.

I'd really like to see the video from the 2nd instructors camera and the one out in the distance who seemed to be in front of you guys through the points that this particular video wasn't able to kee up to.

POOKIE! you rock!, what's the next plan?
by the way, you certainly did experience a great deal of what skydiving is about, its not always just flying on your belly

Angus Smith on right, "FuzzyDave" Hatherly on reserve side and photo by Steve tambosso

no worries pookie i understad its hard to learn new foruns rules, and ways of posting etc.

we all are excited about your skydiving-as for "allowed" to post your video-its YOUR video-you own it you can do what ever you like with it

all is well-and im looking forward to your photos as well as yhe video.

i keept wondering what it meant by the instructor 'fell off' so i asked my DZO (dropzone owner) and apparently it is a safety measure-if the instability is at the level that someone could get hurt- either you or that instructor-the secondary (one on your left) instructor lets go...

actually we discussed a real 'unusual situation' where one guy was doing an AFF jump and the coach kept trying to put his hand on the deployment handle-hackeym but the guy kept putting his hand back on his cut away handle-over and over again-until the guy actually did pull his cut away handle=so now he was in freefall without his main! the insturctor actually had to go dive after him and pull the reserve for him ...

so keep that story in mind... and always tell yourself, what ever happens, happened, you didn't do that

im proud of you lets keep up the good spirits

much of this depends on the manner in which the knees are held up to the chest strap.

I explained how mine are, in the section where I show my pants.

Here are some photos of 3 different paralyzed skydivers, all of whom have a different profile while we are flying, and therefore affects the position in which we are in, while we land.


The first photo is from Dale's thread -a real nice side view shot of him flying.

The second one is me and the 3rd is Peter's flying profile

zippers on the pant legs is important for a few reasons.
1) the knees are braced together with various methods (DAle and Peter use fibreglass formed into 90 degree angle with straps to put around the knees to keep the knees at a 90 degree angle which has so far been found to be optimal freefall angle) I dont have the money-or anyone to help make them for me, so i do not have fibre glass knee braces. I bought from ebay used knee braces that lock into a variety of positions (again, I also use the 0- degrees) and i wrap them as best as i can with athletic tape (or tensor bandages that stick to themselves) each time i dive-so they stay on properly and in the proper position.

so it is important to have these zippers because the legs of the pants would be otherwise too tight to fit those knee braces inside them, and secondly many/most paralyzed individuals utelize a catheter system of some sort-i use a leg bag which i need to have easy access to-without having to take off the pants completely. This is important because getting dressed is a major chore for some of us-the higher the level of paralysis the more difficult it is, for me it takes a good 30 minutes to just put the pants and knee braces on-thus the zippers are a great time saver in that sense. I also can adjust things, either leg bag or the braces by undoing the zippers more easily then if i had to take the pants off,

1) My pants have a 'crotch panel' (similar to the idea of the traking suit by Pheonix Fly and Birdman)
the purpose of which is to allow the airflow to provide some 'lift' to lower limbs stopping them from falling towards the ground at the waist (this allows me to fly with my legs parallel to my body instead of falling perpendicular to my body at the waist)

2) the black 'seat belt' looking straps sewn to the knees of the pants are made such that they have buckles at the opposite end, with a D ring and a carabiner on both so once under canopy I can clip the carabiner to my chest strap and use the Dring to help pull up the straps lifting my legs up. I pull them as high as they will go-meaning that the part attached to the knee is almost at my chest strap-giving my feet he highest possible position for landing-with the purpose of trying to avert any possibility of my feet catching on any rut in the ground. An added benefit of this is that on early morning days as the grass is wet i have a decent amount of slide on the ground as I land.

There is one photo of me that I'm desperately looking for and cant find which shows a decent side view of how my legs are parallel to the body rather then falling downwards, this is because of the crotch panel. but if you really want to go see how the legs stay parallel with that crotch panel you can check out my 7th AFF video at:
http://www.youtube.com/user/extremewheelchairs#p/u/12/sUk54JMfgk8
Even the positioning, sizing and type of panel makes a difference for people. While looking through Dale's thread for his photos, I noticed that he decided his potato chipping may be due to the crotch panel being not porous enough-it was catching too much of the air-while for me it was the opposite (as far as the panel goes). I needed to add a second layer of the material to my crotch panel and reinforce the sides to make it less porous, and my potato chipping was due to being too stiff-once I relaxed more it stopped- (there was an exercise called "swimming lessons' while in freefall to show that the arms can be in what ever position, if the body is relaxed and allow the wind to cradle my body the stability comes-so the idea was to literally move arms around as if swimming, while staying stable-i did it in one of my jumps alone and relized it is true-which is why my arms can be in the mantis position-thats another thread altogether though)
Dale's first tandem jump photo shows what I mean by the legs 'hanging down' at the waist.
The crotch panel helps to stop that from happening.

Dales threat is found at:http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3348407;page=2;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25;

i am hoping that those of us who are paralyzed and skydive would take some time to post pictures of the various gear modifications we have that have been helpful in letting us get up to the skies and become solo skydivers.

We all are different people with differences in our needs-and therefore most of us basically have custom modifications of one form or another.
Not every modification works well for every paralyzed person, and this is why I hope to have a thread filled with various pictures and details on what the modification is, why it was done and what was the result (ie. posting even pictures of modifications of things that did not work is important so long as there is explanation as to why it didn't work).

I understand that all of us active paralyzed skydivers have our own threads where we have discussed our particular modifications, as well as posted photos for new people coming to these forums who do not know which person here is necessarily paralyzed, and which thread has photos this may be a good way to collect these all into one message easy to find.

Also differences in landing techniques would be good to see Just today looking back to Peter Hewitt's photos he sent me I see his legs are positioned very dirrerently then mine for landing,,, his are pointing more straight in front of him and his ankles are well below his butt level (perhaps his landing area's were very smooth surfaces-unlike mine which are bumpy in p,aces yet grass on top so i have no idea if there are ruts in the ground where my feet can catch and end up breaking my leg-so I fly with my legs pulled very high up at the knees trying to keep my ankles as high as possible to provide a greater element of safety for my feet).

ANYWAYS ENOUGH TALK-PHOTO TIME.

I will take the liberty of posting some of Dale's photos he has in his threads-and add the link to the original post since they are allready up on this forum (Dale if you have a problem with that just pull them down-or ask me to pull them down( but the photos I have of Peter's gear I will wait till I get his permission to post them, (unless I happen to find them online here but i havent yet).

Hi Pookie,

I thought to post this for you, i hope it is useful in some way. It is about posting, how to add information, how to add photos etc. first I will share some links:


In the “GENERAL” forum in the “announcements” section the top message is called:
New to Dropzone.com? Read this first.

http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=1008849;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

it has a lot of basic information on how to post things, and where to post them-that sort of thing.


The FORUM FAQ’s (frequently asked questions)
thread is found here
http://www.dropzone.com/help/Forums/

this link brings you to showing how you can attach pictures or links to videos to your messages –like the links to where your video will be when you post it on the internet.
http://www.dropzone.com/content/Detailed/347.html


Now I will try to explain how to add message to your post-so that you can continue adding more information on a post you start.

For example, if you started a message called:
"information about my 1st solo jump"

then wanted to add the information in it, and as people replied you could reply to them separately (to a single person who replied to you) or just a general new message discussing what is going on.

You've obviously figured out much of this already:

1) how to start a post
which is using the button :post new: in the upper right corner of the forum you want to post your message in.

2) this brings you to the screen which has a blue line at the top with white letters :subject:-that's where you put the name of the subject you are posting about-as you've been doing-.

3) in that same screen you will see a clear box with nothing on it (it is the box I am writing in) which again you have figured out how to do)

4) on the left side there are many yellow faces, if you put your mouse over them and click on them that face will appear in your message (I've seen you doing that also-you basically got the hang of most of this already)

5) below the box where you are writing your message there are small boxes with the words " code ", " reply ", " quote ", " b ", " u with a line under it, " /i ", " email " and "/url".
These give you the option to do the following:

the /i lets you change some of your words into italics (this slanted writing )
bold or
underlined

IF you want to use any of them, then you highlight by right clicking over the words you want to put these effects on and go down to that button and press it.
so when i want to make something bold i highlight that word (the word bold in this case) and go click on that button with the " b " on it.

sometimes when you have written a post and several people reply, you may wish to reply to one person specifically (I will use Peter as an example kus if he doesn't like it, next time he comes jumping in my backyard I will just shove him out of the plane-since we got no door its easy-and he wont let me admire his vintage canopy collection-but its worth it- on you Peter )

So lets say you wanted to reply to Peters message go up to his message and you will see on the right side of his message two words " reply" and "quote".

you can reply directly to him either way.
the difference is that if you press the quote button, his words will appear at the top of the screen you will be writing in, and then you write below it-this can be helpful if you are trying to make a point in reference to something he said specifically, because you can use the bold, and underline over his words also-so when your replying to him you can underline the words of his you are specifically referring to.

if you choose to just make a general post referring to what he is saying, you can press the reply button and then the subject line at the top (in the blue line with the word subject and the box in it), will have these words:

Re: Peter-and followed by what ever is the name of the subject matter.

6) changing the subject line in the same thread-posted message:notice in this post I am making, i changed the subject like from "Re: [pookieland] I am so Happy!!! "
to:
"information on posting in the forms-hope it is helpful."

This can be useful when you want to do what I just did-replying in your thread to a subject that has come up for discussion but not the exact original message that was posted.
I did that because I wanted to give a title to my current message-because it is not directly related to your original message-about being happy for having done your jump-but rather a message that is adding information to the discussion on the way posts have been made-so it is now replying to a section of what this post has within it

7) the /url button is used when you want to make a link to something in your message.

Like at the top of this message I put a few links from this forum to direct the reader to have a look at those links.

That is how you would put the link to your video when you get it.
when you get the video, just go to the page where ever it is going to be-whether skydivecity or on youtube and copy the URL at the top of the screen (the 'address' to your video) and post it in your message and then click that /url button.

One final note-sometimes when I click on those buttons, nothing happens-i need to click on them a second time. Once I see that the .url (or what ever i was intending to do) shows up between the words I typed then i know it worked,

but i hope that gives a general idea of what i mean.

now im excited for tomorrow-VIDEO TIME!

Quote

Ok first let me get thiss out so there is no more comfusion, " I don't know how to and onto a thread". I stubled onto post anything. " I myself have not seen the video yet" Tony the camera man has it and will show it to me on saturday. I don't know what he has planed for the video, but he is one of my camera men and he runs that part of what I do. As far as what motifications I have, I did know that I had some Big secrete that someone wanted. I have 3 years of notes and a log book with pitcures and drewings of our trial and errors that's what it took. If you know TK he is a straight forwad type of guy and feel free to ask him anything you want. I don't have some big secret everyone will be different because of there disabilitie. The main thing to have is a person who believes in you and willing to go the distance, but with also understanding that this might not work. I have sent out plenty of dress rehursell pictures to people that have asked, but I have never been known as a person who does'nt want to help others. So by knowing I don't know how to do a thread and I have'nt even seen the video yet, which should have been your first question. You should be more mindful of how you present yourself to people, because you just might need them some day. man life is rugh enough with out people throwing hatful things around.

AWESOME Pookie... just what I was hoping you would start to share with us.

As you said TK is a sttraight forward guy-I haven't met him, but he must be if Angus calls him a friend-Angus is perhaps the most respectable individual ive known-and chooses his friends wisely and carefully.

Having said that I'ts great that you let us know whats up with the video-you didnt even see it yet.
Clearly your video guy has something awesome planned for your video because typically we get our videos within 1/2 hr or so of landing.

The yr's of notes and drawing's is a great sign. I am so happy to read that-it means you've kept in safe place all the information it took to get you here and I feel confident you will keep doing the same from here onward (At least till you get your license -seems after the license many even start to get sloppy with filling in their log books-not good-I also keep my own notes besides my log book which is is the 'official' thing that is required for me to show to the officials to get further licenses after this one that I now have.

THANK YOU POOKIE for putting much thought into how you replied to us, because if you were not a gentle heart guy you could of easily slammed me ahnd peter (and the other guy in that thread thats missing now-who i tried to correct for being harsh-my bad on that-you took the high road and didnt tell him off).

I hope you didnt mean that we think you have some big secret-no it isnt that.
i will show you in an attachment here what i mean by the question on gear and modifications.

as an example, Tonto (whom the skydiving world and his friends and family lost Oct 2007) came up with the idea along with his student Peter Hewitt that having our skydiving pants modified a certain way is helpful.
Dale came up with an additional modification that helped him -which i have not adopted-yet but perhaps need to some day-as my condition is progressive.

So by the fact that Peter shared with me pictures of how his pants were made=we made pants like that for me.
By me showing in my post how i made the pants, Dale was able to take the basic idea and make his pants, and add to them to fit his needs.
Now someday when you get more comfortable with the posting part-perhaps you will show pictures of your gear=if you have pants modified also=so that way the next person who wants to try something like this, will be able to look through my postings, Dale's postings, and your postings to get as much information as possible-so that person will be able to get the basics of what is helpful and what wasnt helpful-so they can try their first AFF jump as safely as possible and just as importantly find an instruxtor willing to teach them.

As Angus said, TK is perhaps one of the only instructors he knows of, who is highly qualified, and capable of teaching paralyzed people.
I know in several other areas others with paralysis have contacted me and said they have tried to go to dropzones and found that they cant get anyone willing to try to teach them/

As you know from experience, it is a BIG PROJECT and the instructor has to be someone truly with a big heart willing to give up lots of his time/and potential earnings (if he was working with others he may get paid more=in my case because i live on disability and have minimal inome Angus waived his fees completely-that is a BIG sacrifice-he could of had a paying customer each time he jumped with me.


Thanks for replying with such kind and informative words.

We all look forward to the video when it arrives and surely that video will answer most of our questions we have now, because we will get to SEE YOU and how it goes, what happened to that other instructor who fell off, etc.

thanks for your patience with us all.

now here is the example i wanted to show you on what i meant by "modifications".

the pants at the top -with the 'thor written on them are my modified pants (but ive modified them since-a little and this winter project im modifying a jumpsuit i got to my purposes-bought a ton a rigging equiptment and when im done i should have a freefly suit-because these pants last only a couple of hundred jumps before they are so worn they cant be used anymore).

now the 2nd picture is Peters pants,
you can see the similarities and how with the help of Peter sharing the pictures of his modified gear we were able to modify my gear to suit me which help in my ability to skydive.

Quote

Pookie, can you post a video of your jumps? I gather you got some footage???

It is frustrating that you build up excitement for the jumps you did but don't give any info at all about what happened on the day? Don't leave us hanging man!!

Chop chop!

And dude, no more thread posts without content, that shits me to tears.

Agreed with Dalel

Yes this IS a forum for people with disabilities,'yes we got all sorts of disabilities-I for one,have a severe head injury (in a coma for 3 weeks-rehab for 6 months to learn to talk, eat, dress myself etc. all over again). I was born as an individual with autism-yah Im autistic and apparently social skills is not a forte for us autistics-in fact more often then not we are left behind from almost all social activities
(it sure is evident if you were to spend a week viewing my life-I can count in one hand the number of times in my live I've had visitors at my house in the 43 yrs I've been alive-and it isn't because i never want visitors-its because im just too 'weird for anyone to want to stick around near me for too long-here at the DZ i spend more time alone in the fields taking pictures and video listening to my Ipod-then I do talking to people. And that isn't by choice-i would like to be invited to evening activities with other skydivers as much as anyone else who goes-i just don't get invited)
- and finally my paralysis, & ALS... ok so its a 'jumble of 'differences'/'disabilities that I deal with, but who in this forum posting as a person with a disability doesn't have lots of sh*t to deal with?

Having said that, I've done my best to try to encourage pookie to continue with one threat (or maybe a few?), and actually even post something in the body of that message.

I mean the reality is, that in the last 15 days, pookie has made 12 separate threads, and out of those
are threads with a subject but nothing in the body.

In one thread i did my best to try to encourage pookie to add information, via various methods-explaining how it helps us all to have something in the subject as well as the body of the message,
how important it is for us to know what he is doing, how, his progression to date, and what worked and what didn't.

furthermore, when it was initially brought up one of his ;count down threads;-which seems to be lost-I cant find that one- SOMEONE already posted a comment about not just giving us a different thread for each count down day but perhaps just adding to the same thread day after day as the count down was going on.

And that he should start adding info in the body of the message,

I jumped in and stood on pookies side-sharing that we DO have a variety of disabilities, and they affect us in various ways-physically, emotionally, cognitively etc.

but to sum up what has been happening in the last 15days,

Now to put this all into some type of perspective,
looking at posts purely from those of us who are paralyzed here is a bit of a summary.

Dale was a first time skydiver-he has posted a total of 3 separate posts
Over a period from Sept 2008 until Dec 2009-yes each thread has LOTS of info, photos links to videos etc.
With the first one being ParaChutePlegic in sept. 2008
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3348407;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

I chose the route of making one post-and adding to it-lie a blog format-if people want to read it they know what they get the whole picture from beginning to end. Starting with my 1st introductory entry on Sept 20th 2007-well after I had done my first few jumps and the final entry to date being on Nov 27 2009. That threat can be found at:
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?do=post_view_flat;post=3055760;page=1;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;mh=25

As for pookie
One of the first of his posts was on Dec 15th-that poll to choose between:
“Is there a Gimp Sky Diving Team” and “2 weeks until..1st USA paraplegic skydiver Coming Soon”

1st USA paraplegic skydiver Coming Soon
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3743088;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread
(maybe I’m not intelligent enough to see the connection between those two questions, but to me it is difficult to see such a poll as a poll-to me the questions are very different topics-like I said I’m autistic and have a head injury so maybe im not noticing some basic easily recognized logic in that poll)[/]

Only...5 Days until my 1st Solo FreeFall
; http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3753533;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread


Only 4 Days until my Solo Jump!!
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3754476;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread


Solo Dive in Z-Hills this weekend
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3759526;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread


Saturday Z-Hills Be There !!!
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3760520;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread


Happy Holidays to all Cloud Jumpers!!!
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3761061;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread

I am so happy
http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=3763070;sb=post_latest_reply;so=ASC;forum_view=forum_view_collapsed;;page=unread#unread


Out of a total of 12 new messages.posts there are 7 without any message in the body of the post only the title.
It IS frustrating to not get any info-which is relevant as Dale mentioned.

I did my best to try to support pookie in learning how to add information, and suggested that if writing wasn’t ;his thing’ then one of those friends he speaks of, could give him a hand and sum up his experiences and share these with us, but somehow that particular 'count down' thread is now missing (I think it was his 3 days left count down threat-since that ne isnt here anymore)

After all, Pookie’s jumping IS IMPORTANT, and remarkable-which makes it even more important to know the details then just any first time skydiver.

Would those who know pookie-care about him, were there to cheer his landings-please take the time to give the fellow a hand... in adding some details?
if asking pookie himself is not a viable option, i know TK is an articulate man, and who ever this other instructor was who 'fell off' maybe they can add some details of at least that jump.

I've heard of pookie since April 2008, and have some info on his situation back then with the wind tunnel trip (s) but it is NOT MY PLACE to detail 2nd hand information, as to what happened then and what the 'issues' were-since I was not there.

Like i said in the thread that is now missing,
if the Zhills folks care for pookie as much as it is evident in these threads-why is no one giving him a little bit of a helping hand in adding some information-particulars of these last two jumps -since it seems some of you were there
- perhaps share with us what type of modifications has pookie been given for his gear?
debrief the jumps,
tell us details,
why did that instructor fall off,
and the video like dale csaid chop chop chop=as Dale put it.

-if pookie doesn't have the computer program or skills needed to put up the video hello friends of his? where are you....

its great your here to offer support
-clearly it is helpful and pookie is excited, as we all were on our first jumps, and all 3 of us paralyzed folks on this forum who are active (yes Peter Hewitt was te 1st one and his instructor Tonto is not with us, I have Peters gear now since he isnt jumping
but out of us active paralyzed jumpers
-Dale, Pookie and mself-the two of us try to add details (some of us-il.e. me-wrote a little too much at times-wich is why you don't need to read my words if it bothers you- but come on this is getting a little more then frustrating... we get the count downs, the building of excitement-believe me i was thinking of pookies jump on and off all day when i knew he was doing it-and to be given no details, no video, ...its certainly a let down and if it wasn't for the fact that pookie is 'one of us' (jumpers with disabilities) i would of stopped reading this stuff a long time ago.

To become active member in the Bonus Days Club you must very narrowly escape eternal freefall ... one exciting time.)-Pat Works

He's prolly just bent out of shape because he's up to his ass in that cold, white stuff and all the planes up there are frozen solid to the ground. Just can't stand someone else having all the fun!

FYI re: our cold asses and planes.
We jump year round-every weekend (as long as we got altitude and there isn't a blizzard-but certainly we jump in light snow, and in temperatures @ -12C on the ground-go up to 8,500 in a 206 (without a door-the climb to altitude is the worst of it all-we're very happy to get out and into FF where the temps with wind chill factor woud freeze any exposed skin quite quickly.

The cold doesnt stop us-we jump because love to jump not because its warm and cosy.
-slight snow fall doest stop us-as long as we got altitude before the cloud cover starts to hinder deployment altitudes.
-as a paralyzed skydiver E've jumped in Feb. out of this door-less 206, and will continue to do so...

were Canadians, we don't need warm & fuzzy feelings to along with our jumps,
we just need a plane-door or not (ome of us ofcourse dont even need the plane), enugh altitude to satisfy the BSR's and our own personal comfort level as to deployment altitudes and winds etc.-just as in the summer.

I could post tons of winter skydiving photos from our DZ but since this is the skydivers with disabilities forum-i wil stick to sharing two photos of me jumping in the winter... including one where we are getting ready to take off in our 'doorless' 206.


If anyone really loves skydiving and doesnt have some medical condition forbidding them to be outdoors in the winter-why stop jumping just because there's snow on the ground and the temperatures are colder-that's what all those extra layers of clothing are for.... simple solution to a simple problem-your cold add more clothing.

So no worries-we have lots of fun every weekend up here year round.

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Thanx for your support, I did 2 solo jumps that day. The 1st freefall went ok, I had two instructors go out with me but and I was sorta stable and then one fell off and I was actually more stable with only one instructor and he was holding very lightley. Had some trouble with the 1st pull only because that dam hacky was flapp'in more then I was used to and my instructor was doing his job by gabbing my hand and trying to place it were it needed to be, but by doing that it through me off some so he ended up deploying it for me. The 2nd time it was just me and TK and the FreeFall went much better. Still some trouble deploying but I did it myself this time and things were just GREAT!!. I think with anything, practice will make things so much better for me and I will continue to learn from the people have been there done that.

can you tell us what happened so that "one fell off"?
was it stability? (meaning were you going up and down-what we call potato chipping-as in head goes up higher to look to the skym then lower, to look towards the ground-over and over again).

I'm very interested in the the fact that it you were "more stable with one" instructor.
It sort of happens to me also... when I did a dive with 2 AF instructors for some points (needing to move forward towards them to grab a hold of them, then let go, move backwards and then move forwards again to get a hold of them) I noticed that during the moment of letting go-there was instability for a moment-that "potato chipping" for a bit.

I have hard for about 2 yrs of your determination to get to this dive-
(like I said, I heard of you on my wind tunnel trip in April 2008, when TK was asking if Angus could come down and do AFF with you-but it just didn't work out then for what ever reasons)

so to me, reading of your dive is like as if it was my dive-like my 1st AFF dive was-such a long wait and finally it happened.


I AM SO VERY PROUD TO KNOW YOU THROUGH THIS FORUM, and glad you finally showed up here to share of your story.

I NOW REALLY WOULD LIKE TO SEE DALE COME TO THE USA AND I WOULD TRAVEL DOWN AND WE COULD ALL 3 JUMP ONE AFTER THE OTHER IN FLORIDA (besides FL is a place I want to do some other jumps-been planning that trip for a while now)

representing 3 countries, 2 continents- and to think that this all really started back in 2007 (me) then 2008, (Dale) and now 2009 (you)....
it would make a good video for many reasons-

-if we could only drag Lonnie along for the trip that trip to jump...would make it sweet-but Lonnie is a busy guy-(and perhaps doesn't read these forums often-)

you should be!!
THAT WAS TOTALLY AWESOME THAT YOU WENT TO 1 INSTRUCTOR AND THAT YOU DEPLOYED ON YOUR OWN.

as for landings-check out the videos i got up on youtube
extremewheelchairs is the name on there.
ook for them and see the landings on the vidoes where i am diving alone.

it is sort of a PLF-but not really because now that ive done so many jumps i slide on my butt for quite a distance (and am praticing blind man landing-i practice the turn around and control of toggles up high at approx 5,000f -i usually depoy at 6 grand on the days i want to practice something new for canopy control so i have lots of altitude if it all goes to shit and i have to go for the reserve=which hasnt happened yet).

anyways, as long as my legs are strapped up high enough-that my butt is the lowest thing to the ground i can slide as long as i winds let me

Great job dude! I'm SO proud of you-working so hard to make this happen-and im sure your friends and everyone around were total exstatic about it =...
yes the freedom is nothing ever to be able to explain-you just got to do it to understand :) great job-keep on going forward.

tell me how the free fall was.... did your instructors deploy for you or did you?

im so stoked to see the video!

Thank you, and same for you Pookie,'may you have a great holiday season and exceptional weather coming up this weekend :)

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....my instructor and friends are worth more to me alive then dead...

absolutely! good call on that one Pookie.
So where are you doing this jump -im confused.
I thought i read somewhere that its going to be in arizona-but then think its in Zhills-because isnt that where you and TK been working on this?

just curious if your at the same DZ as you started.

keep up that positive spirit, and believe in yourself....

Sat. will be an awesome day

Pookie-keep that determination you have
-you've WORKED HARD FOR 2 1/2 yrs to get to this point,
Saturday is truly as important as the countdown to a NASA launch is!

YOU have the spirit of a skydiver,
you have not quit
(I know of two fellows who wanted to start skydiving as paralyzed individuals but found the work too overwhelming-they couldn't do it-mentally-they never did a single solo)

YOU ARE A SKYDIVER regardless of what happens on Saturday-you've done 29 jumps (tandem I assume)...
ONE makes you a skydiver!...

keep up the spirit-I am counting down the days with you dude!, and surely many who read this forum also are.
I'm sure your friends @ Zhills are, I'm sure TK is looking on with pride in you for how determined you are to keep on trying.

Please remember, that no matter what happens on Sat. YOU ARE A REAL INSPIRATION....

I don't know of anyone-paralyzed or not- who has worked for 2 1/2 yrs to get themselves ready for their first solo skydive.

Be proud of your accomplishments to date.

If you find it difficult, boring, or just plain not liking to write much-would you consider telling verbally to one of your friends at Zhills what youve done so far, and that person could start a thread sharing your progression, what you have done so far, the things I wrote about in the previous post (your 6th day thread)

I understand writing is not everyones favorite activity , so that's why I said maybe one of your friends can help with the writing if you dont like writing much, and share your story-details-of your progress to this date.

Like I said before, what your doing IS SO IMPORTANT to know about-we're not just being nosy, but the details will help someone else some day who has similar level of paralysis as you do.

KEEP ON WORKING AT IT POOKIE I'M SO PROUD OF YOU, and glad you came online because I heard about you 1 1/2 rs ago from Angus who is friends with TK ( that was April 2008), and since then have often wondered what has happened....

and here you are-and here you belong, your one of us!