cruisers2

I met Todd Thursday. So did my son. Todd took my son aside and spent 20-30 minutes discussing turns and other things associated with a D jump. I also watched him coach a couple of A jumpers. Note: he wasn't jumping with these guys (or us); he was just helping and imparting his great knowledge and experience to us newbies. Wow. What a guy. Blue Skies Todd. Thanks for entering our lives...

Thanks for all the Great advice/replies! I went to the drop zone today for the first time since my injury. Ahh, the magic! My son went to jump, and I went to discuss (bullshit), and study landings. I learned a lot. Interestingly, the wind conditions were nearly identical to when I got hurt. Very light, variable winds. Guys were coming in hard, and one guy with 93 jumps broke his ankle.

I was on the radio. One way. I heard "Flair! Flair!" (I think!) But maybe I was flairing and he was saying Don't Flair! (-: I do still have confidence in my instructors and the dropzone. After I landed, I heard on the radio, "Wave if you're OK!", because I was right to the end of the dropzone, quite a ways away from the clubhouse and my instructor. By the way I did wave, because it didn't want my wife and son to freak out. The cart still came out and picked me up, however.

Yep. had the 'plasty! The verts feel good now, but the soft tissue still hurts quite a bit. After the procedure I got off the Percocet and Flexoril and can now get around with just a good dose of aspirin.

My wife took picture a second before landing. Looks like I stalled. Scary part is I didn't realize I was going to hit that hard. Had no idea how fast I was going...

I did my 3rd AFF 3 weeks ago...the first this year. Exit was great, signs and turns were great, good pull, nice canopy...BUT...I entered my landing approach too high, came in on half brakes, and flaired too high. Wow, did that hurt! I found out what wonderful things Docs can do for crushed vertebaes. I can't get back up fo at least a couple weeks. I know my mistakes started at 100 ft, and the one that did the damage was at about 30 feet. My instructors didn't have much to say to me, other than compliment me on all the good stuff I did. Giveme some critism, please, and point out my mistakes to me.