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By trial of pain and suffering, we earn the right to utter our righteous tales of “So there I was…” Here are a few tips I gleaned as I wallowed through the middle-ground of purgatory called the ER and during my hospital stay:

1. Congratulations! The worst has already happened. You crashed, but didn’t die. If you had simply been hustled off-stage by Joe Black, you wouldn’t have to deal with all the pain that is coming due on your account. Smile. It can only get better…after you wait 13 hours in the ER.
2. Trust the wisdom of Triage…the healthy looking guy going in before you is truly worse off.
Your arm is snapped in half like a twig. The neck collar is stabilizing your spine because your head helped to break the impact of your fall. It’s probably not all that bad, so when they call “David Turner” four or five times, twenty minutes after you signed in, don’t get overly concerned when his friend explains that he is “outside taking a smoke break.” Trust the system…the guy’s all busted up.
3. The 45 minute wait to get checked-in is simply your opportunity to steel yourself for the 13 hour wait. Learn to laugh at your pain. Everyone else is.
4. The purpose of the waiting room is to make your ass so sore that it takes your mind off of the pain from the broken bones that keep rubbing together. The morphine is for your ass.
5. After a couple of days in the hospital, you will be plenty ripe. Nonetheless, keep putting off grandma Moses. Candy-striper-hotties with sponges are one of life’s small rewards.
6. Never fly the day before you leave for that long-awaited, week-long family vacation. You are simply tempting the gods. Place at least a week between your crash and your vacation.
7. Stay on your flight path and get on that high wing!!!!!
8. Your belief that something is wrong with you and all of your friends is fully confirmed when you find yourself figuring up how long this bump in the road will keep you out of the air.
9. Life doesn’t really flash before your eyes…just that sickening thought that “this is gonna hurt real bad.”
10. We choose these risks and make them our way of life. You can’t soar if you don’t step out of the nest. Sometimes, we graze a wing.

Looking forward to stepping out of the nest again, albeit, with better results. Happy soaring.

to John, Eric and especially Debbie for getting my broken carcass out of the LZ and to the ER. Congrats to Shane on his long flight!

Glad to hear you got out of jail alive Rick. It's good to have you back. One of the benefits of going to the ER or being in the hospital is that it helps you appreciate being anywhere else.

Glad to see you have a positive attitude towards the sport. I remember my very first day out on the training hill in California, 19 years ago. The moment I arrived I watched a student launch, turn back into the hill, and break his arm. We made a splint out of battens from a hang glider called a 'Raven'. He later returned and became a competent pilot.

Perhaps you have been blessed with an experience that will make you take the sport a little more seriously, and therefore a little more safely than many who never have a problem when they are just learning.

Heal well. The thermals will wait patiently for you and will lift you skyward upon your return.

Yes glad to hear your doing well and are still going at it! Im sorry i just went and flew around when you were hurt but i just didnt think there was much i could do.

But cant wait to see you at the hill again!

No apology needed or accepted, Shane. Before we headed out, I saw you in the air. It brought a smile to my face. I would hope and expect everyone who was set up and ready to launch would do so. Trust me, were the situation reversed, I would have done the same. It's what you are supposed to do. I'd be bummed if you hadn't flown.

Glad to see you have a sense of humor (it really helps) and that you're over the worst part. Speaking from experience the only way to avoid the 13 hr emergency room wait is to get beat up real, real bad and catch a helicopter ride to the E.R.
Gunter