Blind people have big balls!!!!

[dgskydive 0]

I jumped with him before, but it still amazes me. "Blind" John Flemming is an incredible person.

This weekend we had our annual Blue Skies for Future Eyes fundraiser. Over 8,000 dollars was raised and fun was had by all.

19 way that looked like an eye in the sky. Really cool stuff. They showed a bit on it on the evening new Saturday.

The guy can launch a three way from inside no problem what so ever. I have seen sighted jumpers that can't do that. He smiles more then any person I have ever seen in Freefall. Maybe LTdiver will post a picture for us to see. Photos came out great by the way Lori!!!!!! Good job.



You haven't jumped till ya jump with a blind guy!

Dom

[Yoshi 0]

that would take big brass ones..

does he deploy higher than most people??? the control checks would be HUGE considering he only has to go by feel to see if anything is wrong... when does he know to flare?? and how does he know where to go to get to the dz?? radio??

I dont know if I could do it solo...but I would definately go tandem if I became blind...
-y

_________________________________________
this space for rent.

[beezyshaw 0]

I made a small donation to the American Council of the Blind (ACB) because as a skydiver I have imagined jumping (living, for that matter) under John's circumstances and it just reminds me of how incredible it is for people who lose or never were blessed with sight to live such full, rich lives. I'm sure it's not too late to give the price of a jump ticket for this worthy cause. If prevention of blindness can happen through research, let's step up to the plate if we can. I think this is the link to donate...
http://www.acb.org/donate3.html

[mx757 4]

... when does he know to flare?? on his web page he say's "Flare when you hear the cricket's"

[mx757 4]

read this:

http://crw.boxofclue.com/skydive/dan/three.txt

[cocheese 0]

That's the coolest story i've heard in a long time. Thanks. inspirational. Nice work on the fund raiser.

[mx757 4]

http://weblogs.asp.net/kenhiatt/archive/2005/01/06/347740.aspx

http://crw.boxofclue.com/skydive/dan/record.txt

http://crw.boxofclue.com/skydive/dan/beautiful.txt

[soulshine 0]

Quote

http://weblogs.asp.net/kenhiatt/archive/2005/01/06/347740.aspx

http://crw.boxofclue.com/skydive/dan/record.txt

http://crw.boxofclue.com/skydive/dan/beautiful.txt

Bombing for peace is like fucking for virginity!
~DEVIOUS BEEF~~FGF #69~

[QuickDraw 0]

Evolution always finds a way.

-- Hope you don't die. --

I'm fucking winning

[dgskydive 0]

Quote

does he deploy higher than most people??? the control checks would be HUGE considering he only has to go by feel to see if anything is wrong... when does he know to flare?? and how does he know where to go to get to the dz?? radio??

WE broke off for this jump at 5K. The base people hold on to him and shake when it is clear. Then he dumps. I'd say he pulls most of the time between 5 and 4.5K. Radios to talk him down. Two radios actually. One in each ear. Same frequency but two units.

It's obviously a big ordeal when he jumps. Some days he comes out and get in a jump because there is now one that he and the DZ trust available to talk him down. He keeps good spirits when that happens though.

Dom

[dgskydive 0]

Quote

I'm sure it's not too late to give the price of a jump ticket for this worthy cause. If prevention of blindness can happen through research, let's step up to the plate if we can. I think this is the link to donate...

I don't think will turn down help at all Beezy. The guy that was there to collect the check said that not many groups help them out like we do and they where very apprecitative of the funds. Great group of people!

Dom

[livendive 8]

Blind John is one cool dude. Also, Dan Rossi (who has done a 2-way with Blind John) used to post some fantastic stories on rec.skydiving. This thread seems like a good place to post a couple of them.

Here's one:

Quote

Hello everybody,

Allow me to introduce myself. I am Dan Rossi. For those of­ you
that don't know me, (pretty much all of you), I made my firs­t jump
a little over nine years ago. I have made about 160 jumps s­ince
then. Nothing to interesting there except that I have been ­totally
blind for the last 18 years. I am usually quite low-key abo­ut my
participation in the sport, (except for a very obnoxious pos­t a few
years ago about getting a blind four-way team together), and­ I
pretty much vowed to never post any of my incidents directly­ to
rec.skydiving. However, I recently wrote a letter, to a fri­end,
which contained the description of my latest encounter. It ­turned
out to be rather humorous so I figured what the hell, maybe ­other
jumpers will get a laugh or two. Well, here goes. I hope y­ou
enjoy reading this.

It was just another boogie. The cessna-411 came in and star­ted
flying jumpers. I kicked around the DZ being bored because
everyone was getting on big dives and I couldn't put togethe­r
enough good jumpers to get off the ground. I sat around lis­tening
to dirt-dives and b-s-ing with everybody. One thing I notic­ed was
that I was always hearing canopy opening without hearing the
cessna-411 go over, (OOOO, foreshadowing). I eventually got­ so
bored that when a call came that there was one slot left on ­the
411, I yelled, "hey! put me on it to 6 5". I had had bad
experiences before during boogies so I knew I would have to ­be
careful. I would just ride up to 6,500 and hop out and do t­wenty
seconds of free-style and dump, (dramatic theme music begins­ here).
I went up to manifest and asked for a couple of radios. Bac­k down
to the packing area to rig up. Take my shirt off and put on­ my $35
radio harness which I had made due to the fact that I lost a­ radio
once while hanging up-side-down off the wing of a cessna. T­urn on
the radios. Check the radios several times. Throw my shirt­ on, my
gear on, set my dytters.

"Hey Gary, keep an eye on Mike for me. I am going up on the­ next
lift to 6,500".

"OK Dan, have a good one".

"Jill, I'm going up to 65 keep an eye on mike for me".

"OK Dan, what's it worth to ya?".

"ho ho"

"Dan, who is spotting for you?"

"I think they said xxxxxxx".

"Better check it out".

"Who the hell is spotting for me".

"I am".

"Great, don't fuck up".

"Don can you be back-up radio if Mike can't make it"?

"Sorry Dan, got a student. Get Bobbo".

On the way out to the plane....

"Hi Dan,"

"Hey Mary Kay. I'm going up - keep an eye on Mike". "Jill­ and Gary
already know so keep an eye on them too". "Hey tell Bobbo t­o be
backup for Mike". "Hey Gary and Jill - I'm going now". "Is­ Bobbo
around?" "I'm going now, I'm going up now, I'm getting ready­ to
leave now, don't forget me, I'm going to 6.5 don't forget"

OK, OK, I think we have the picture. I was very thorough in­ setting
up my ground people.

Out to the plane we go......CRACK!!!!

"Watch out for the wing Dan".

It's a good thing I keep my face in front of my brain or I c­ould
have gotten hurt there. As usual I go over everything in my­ head
to make sure every thing is taken care of before I get in th­e
plane. I try to look for any signs of impending problems. ­I guess
I missed The earth trembling and the voice like the sound of
thunder saying, "DON'T GO DAN. PEOPLE ON THE GROUND HAVE MIS­SED
EVERY EXIT BECAUSE THE PLANE IS TOO QUIET. THE GUY SPOTTING­ FOR
YOU ISN'T VERY EXPERIENCED. IT'S A BOOGY AND EVERYBODY ON T­HE
GROUND IS BUSY INCLUDING YOUR RADIO MAN."
Not noticing anything wrong I blissfully hopped onto the pla­ne.

Take off, climb, climb, wow! this plane is really quiet and
comfortable.

"We're at three grand Dan".

check my dytters. Great, they're both going off right aroun­d
3,500.

"OK Dan, we're turning onto jump-run"

spot, spot, spot, spot, cut.

Hey! I don't think I heard a cut there. Well, out the door ­I go.
WOOOOOO!!!!!!! 150mph in my face...on my back....in my face.
Backloop, backloop, fronloop, daffy, ah return to face down ­and
stop spinning, spin like crazy to the left, spin like crazy ­to the
right, backloop, dump.

Return of the dramatic music.

Reach up, release my breaks. Ok Mike, anytime now.

"Dave, I want you to do a 90 left"

Damn he is talking to a student.
...still talking to a student.
...still talking to a student.
...still talking to a student.

Damn, he hasn't said anything to me yet. Maybe he thinks I ­am one
of the students because one of them doesn't seem to be respo­nding.

"Jim, 90 left, 90 left 90 left Jim 90 left"

Oh maybe he thinks I am Jim....90 left

"OK Jim that's better".

Let me make sure he thinks I am Jim.

"Jim, 90 left".

Oh, the test.....90 right.

"OK Jim that's perfect"

Oh SHIT! I'm not jim. He doesn't know I'm up here. I've be­en
flying off into never-never-land while Dave and Jim are head­ing
comfortably back to the DZ. Where the hell are all my back-­ups?
OK, OK, slow right turn. Feat and knees together. Hang on ­there,
about another 90 seconds. Level out, quarter breaks,

Dramatic music really revving up now.

You know, I learned that there are three good indications th­at you
are about to land in trees. First, you hit all this major
turbulence. I mean some serious turbulence. The kind when ­you're
in three quarter breaks and the mother is still throwing you­ around
like a rag. Secondly, you hear this sound. It is actually ­a very
pleasant sound. It reminds one of warm summer breezes and b­lue
skies. That is... until you realize that that sound is your­ feet
dragging through the branches of the shorter trees on your a­pproach
to the huge tree that you will inevitably land in. Third, a­nd most
dramatic, is the branches smashing across your face and ches­t as
your canopy tries its damndest to drag you through that tree­ and
into the clearing on the other side.

OK, I'm in a tree. Damn! I bet those bastards are going to ­make me
buy a case for this. OK, no broken bones or spurting blood ­so I am
in good shape. Mike was talking to students the entire time­ I was
under canopy just until I went into the trees. I can only a­ssume
that no one saw me fly off into the wild blue. Maybe I shou­ld do
something. Climb down? hmm there must be ground down there
somewhere, but just how far away is it? Hell, I could be si­x
inches off the ground and just hanging here happily. OK, it­'s
obvious they don't know where I am and I'll be damned if I a­m just
going to hang here. Pull over to the trunk, grab the cut-aw­ay,
hold onto the tree and pull. OK, now we are sitting in a tr­ee
instead of hanging in it, (not much of an improvement). Put ­the
cut-away in my teeth climb climb climb.... climb..... climb
climb... maybe this was a bad idea, hug that tree like it wa­s
Michele Phiffer. Little did I know at this point that I was­ *now* six
inches off the ground. Time to climb again. Hoh, that last­ six
inches were the scariest for a second.

Well, now I'm on the ground. Luckily I was happened upon by­ a pack
of wolves who took me in and raised me as their own. Oh, wa­it a
minute -- different story. Well, what now? I have
absolutely no idea of where the hell I am. What's that soun­d?
Aha, a small plane coming over at tree-top level, they're ou­t
looking for me at least.

And now what is this new sound? Ah the tinkling of a female­ voice.
This must be my angel of mercy coming for me now with such ­words as,
"Oh my, you are hurt and lost let me take you back to my pl­ace and
comfort your wounds with my kisses."

"Hey! what the hell are you doing in my yard"?

Hmmm, that's not what she was supposed to say.

Actually, the lady who did happen across me was very nice al­though
somewhat surprised to stumble across a strange man wearing s­ome
funky black and gold harness lurking in the trees in her yar­d.

"Ah, I see you've got a little problem".

"Ah, yeah, but actually I have another little problem. I'm ­totally
blind".

"Excuse me?"

"Um, like I said, I'm blind I just landed in a tree over her­e, can you
show me to a phone or a road.

Well, she took me back to her house and introduced me to her­ brother.

"Hey, this guy just landed in a tree and he's blind".

Great introduction.

Call the DZ.

"Hello, Cleveland Sport Parachute Center".

"Ester?"

"Yes"

"I am gonna kill everyone on the drop zone".

"Oh???"

"Ester, It's Dan!"

"Oooh! here it's him".

"Dan, you're alive?"

"Hi Dave, where the hell were you guys?"

"Sorry Dan, We're out looking for you now. Where are you?"

"I have absolutely no idea. Here talk to the nice people th­at
found me".

Well, that pretty much is the whole story. My friends came ­and
picked me up. I got grounded for a while. And then later g­ot my
jump status back when I promised to jump with an air-horn an­d
promised not to jump at boogies anymore.

Is there a lesson to be learned here? Yeah, "shit happens."­ This
was the third time I landed without radios and about the ten­th time
I landed off the DZ. No matter what safety precautions I pu­t in
place this kind of crap is always going to slip through, but­ I
think it is more than worth the risk.

Hope you enjoyed my little story.

Flare when you hear the crickets.
Dan Rossi B14030

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[livendive 8]

and another:

Quote

EEEEE!!! HAAAA!!!

Yes I will pay up my beer for this weekend. I'm sure I coul­d get hit up
for several cases but I think I'll just put up for the bigge­st of the
little events. I did my first Mr. Bill this weekend. What ­a blast!

A good friend of mine had done a couple of these in recent w­eeks with a
little 100 pound female jumping a small rig. When he offere­d to do a
Mr. Bill with me I pointed out that there is a bit of a diff­erence
between a 100 pound girl wearing a 20 pound rig and a 160 po­und guy
wearing a 40 pound rig. He said that it shouldn't be a prob­lem. So we
rigged up and hopped on a student load, after going through ­the exit a
few times first.

We got up to about 4,000 Ft. and climbed out. I got in the ­V of the
Cessna 185, (a first for me...shut up). My buddy got out in­ front of
me. I grabbed his harness, wrapped my legs around his waste­ and off we
went. I was a bit concerned, having heard all the stories a­bout how
hard it was to hold on. I actually had no problem hanging o­n through
the opening.

So there we are. About 370 pounds of people and gear under ­this PD210
which was flying like a rock. I can hear my radio man talki­ng to a
student and so we decide we better get in touch with him bef­ore I drop.
My friend is trying to get the two-way radio out of his jump­-suit, ...

"C'mon man. What the hell are you doing?"

"The radio is stuck under my chest strap. We're at 3 5."

"Stop screwing around. I want to get out of here soon."

"Okay, I got it." "Hey ground are you down there?"

"yeah. What the hell are you guys waiting for? And turn aro­und you
fruit-cake. You're flying off the DZ. It looks like you gu­ys are about
4 grand."

"We're at 3 grand, Dan. Let me get us turned around. Don't­ do too long
of a delay."

"Yeah, thanks."

"Allright, 27 .. go."

I let go and dropped away. Went off vertical and couldn't s­eem to fall
over. Even kicked my legs once or twice like a flailing new­bee. Bent
my knees and rolled forward. Dumped when the wind started s­ounding like
wind. Took for ever for my canopy to open. My buddy said t­hat he could
see it trying for a long time. " The three center cells inf­lated and
then after a while the next two decided to inflate and theee­n finally
the end-cells opened."

From my point of view I could tell that I was under some kin­d of canopy
but it wasn't all there. I waited the few seconds while thi­nking about
my handles and tentatively tugging on risers.

The only other interesting part of the day was an experiment­al exit from
the Twin-Bo. I went front float with one foot on the wing a­nd one in
the door. My friend went rear float with me grabbing his ri­ght arm with
my left hand. On "GO!" he stepped off and turned toward me.­ I turned
toward him and dove off the wing. I expected to blow it and­ flip over
the top but it actually went off a lot flatter than I expect­ed. The
rest of the jump was pretty mild. Just practicing flying si­deways. I'm
finding that I can do well with rotational movements but tra­nslational
ones are much more difficult. Mostly because I can easily t­ell when I'm
turning but can't tell when I am sliding or driving.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell folks about the Mr. Bill. It ­was a lot of
fun. Glad I finally got to do one.

WOW! I just realized that my parents annaversary is coming ­up this week.
Do you know what that means? It's hard to believe, but I ma­de my first
jump 15 years ago. EESH! I must be getting old. NAH! Can­'t be.

Flare when you hear the crickets.

Dan

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[livendive 8]

Watch the screen get all fuzzy reading this one, from a thread entitled "dropzone scenery" in which people were discussing which DZ has the most beautiful view:

Quote

Yeah, I know, I'm the last guy you'd expect to have somethin­g to
say on this topic. But in the spirit of all the story telli­ng
that's been going on around here, I thought I would share so­me
thoughts with the group.

It was a number of years ago, back when I was living in Ohio­ and
doing a lot of jumping at Cleveland Sport. It was late Octo­ber and
the season was winding down. I sniveled onto the last load ­of the
day just to grab some air. I was only going up to 6.5 and w­as
wearing just my sweatshirt and jeans. It was cool but not v­ery
cold yet. That certain temperature where you know winter is­ on
it's way but you've still got some time before the first sno­ws
cover the run-way..

I can't say I remember anything about the plane ride or the ­free
fall itself, probably just another 20 seconds of style serie­s or
something like that. The canopy ride was uneventful and wou­ld not
have stuck in my mind except for one thing.

I was just drifting around enjoying the cool air. I could e­ven
smell the leaves on the ground. I remember thinking that wa­s
pretty neat and decided to slow down the canopy and hang in ­the
quiet air for a while. I sunk into deep breaks and just let­ the
canopy hang above a stall. It was so quiet and the air was ­just so
crisp and smelled so wonderful, it was a very peaceful momen­t.

Suddenly, my radio crackled to life. Now the guy who usuall­y talks
me down is not known for his "mildness". He is usually hara­ssing
me, telling me he's going to have me try to do a hook-turn l­anding,
just generally joking around and so on. Well anyway, on thi­s
particular talk-down he was apparently in a thoughtful mood.­ In a
much softer and mellower tone than his usual bark I heard hi­m
saying:

"Hey Dan. The sun is just about going down. It will probab­ly be
down by the time you get on the ground. If you could look o­ff to
the west you'd see it setting. It looks real nice. And the­ moon
is just rising in the East. You can see it very clearly. A­nd
below you all the leaves have turned color and are all these­ great
shades of red and yellow and gold. It's really beautiful."

It was perfect timing. Hanging under that canopy in the coo­l air,
smelling the leaves, picturing the scenery. It was really
beautiful. I could see it in my mind as clear as day. The ­way the
sun looks when it's setting. It looks like the edge of the ­world
is on fire. All those shades of red and yellow shifting and
sliding down the sky. The big mottled grey face of the moon­ slowly
creeping up to replace the sun. And those leaves. The imag­e of
those leaves was very powerful. I'd seen them before. I'd ­seen
them from above just like I was seeing them now.

You see, I haven't been blind all my life. It was back in th­e late
fall of 1974, I was seven years old at the time. The time w­as
drawing near for me to go into the hospital to have my secon­d eye
removed. My family was trying to expose me to many visual st­imuli
so that I might remember them in the future. Trips to Manha­ttan,
out to the ends of Long Island, relatives, all that stuff. ­Well,
one of the last things we did was for me and my dad to go fo­r a
plane ride. I believe it was a 172 but don't remember
specifically. We flew around the island a bit and even got
permission to fly over Manhattan. I saw the twin towers, th­e
Empire State building, the statue of Liberty, and the hospit­al
where I'd be going. But when we flew over Long Island on th­e way
back home I remember looking down and seeing carpets of red ­and
gold leaves. Some of them in the trees and many on the grou­nd. It
was a beautiful sight. One that has stuck with me all these­ years.
And when my radio-man mentioned it, that vivid flash of colo­r came
into my head again. I'd seen this before and it was just as
beautiful as it had been long ago.

So, for all of you jumpers living in areas that get to exper­ience
the magic of the changing of the leaves don't forget to stop­ and
look around when that time comes. It can truly be an inspir­ing
view.

Blue skies and colored leaves.

Flare when you hear the crickets.

Dan

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[livendive 8]

And to end on a funny note:

Quote

Hey folks.

I thought I'd drop a note to tell everyone about the latest
innovation in my skydiving toolbox. I have now successfully­ used
a Seeing Eye Crew Dog.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the moment I set foot on ­the
Kapowsin dz I was set upon by a howling pack of crew hounds.­ Once
they had heard that I'd done a couple of crew jumps they wer­e
literally slavering. I told them I would eventually do some­ crew
with them but I desperately needed to blow off some rust and­ dust
first.

Well, I've been getting out to Kapowsin farely regularly for­ the
last couple of weeks so when I showed up on Sunday I asked a­ friend
if I could borrow one of his crew rigs to test jump. He tos­sed me
a Lightning 176. I thought that this would be okay, althoug­h it
did make my intestines squirm around a bit. I normally jump­ a
Raven IV loaded at about 0.6. Now I was about to jump this
Lightning thing loaded at just about 1.0.

I went up to 7.5K and jumped and dumped. A Lightning loaded­ at 1.0
may not be the fastest thing in the air, but YIKES! it sure ­felt
pretty snappy. I did lots of spirals, sashays, front and ba­ck
riser turns, and so on. I was particularly interested in fi­nding
the stall point. I wanted to make sure I didn't stall the t­hing on
landing. Well, I've got these gorilla arms and I was stalli­ng this
thing with at least six inches of travel left in my arms. A­nd this
baby doesn't stall like my Raven. On my Raven I can wrap th­e
toggles four times and the thing still just slows down, rock­s a
bit, and then folds up. On the Lightning, I inched the togg­les
down and it would just snap! from flying forward to flying
backward. Although, it did handle pretty nice in reverse. ­A lot
smoother than my Raven.

Anyway, after landing we decided it was time to grab some ca­nopy.
I went up with Chas and Jack. The idea being that Chas woul­d top
dock me and if all went well Jack would dock below me. Well­, I was
loading the Lightning a fare bit lighter than the other guys­ so
ended up a bit high on Chas after opening. Here's where Jac­k, my
faithful Seeing Eye Crew Dog, came into play. He "barked"
directions to me from his canopy. He had me do a few sashay­s, a
spiral, and a few small corrections. The final result being­ that
I pretty much ended up docking on Chas while he flew straigh­t and
level. Everything felt good so I signaled Jack to come in. ­ We had
the three-stack together by about four grand. We flew it do­wn to
2.5K and broke it down.

That jump had gone reasonably well so we decided to one up i­t and
go for the four-stack. We added Roger to the group and head­ed for
the sky. I apparently didn't blow enough of the rust off be­cause
I bungled the exit. I did manage to get my head back up hil­l
before dumping though. I had barely touched my toggles when­ Chas
top docked me. Seconds later, Jack was calling "in coming",­ with
Roger hot on his tail. We had exited from 7.5K and were doc­ked and
locked by 6 grand. We hadn't expected it to go quite that f­ast so
we all got kind of bored just flying around. We hadn't plan­ned any
rotations so we just flew the four-stack down to 2.5K and br­oke it
down.

All the landings went reasonably well, thanks to Jessy on ra­dios.
I never attempted to stand it up, I just went straight to my­ knees
and skidded for five or six yards. My personal goal being j­ust to
stay upright and not skid on my face. I threw my wallet to ­my
friend Ev before I even stretched out the canopy. The beer ­was in
the fridge before the last lift got off the ground. My pape­rwork
for my four-stack award was filled out before the night was
through. We figured that I couldn't submit it as a night-st­ack
because it wasn't night for everyone on the jump, but we did­ toss
the idea around at first.

It was all pretty awesome. Thanks to all the guys at Kapows­in that
made this possible. I hope to make several more crew jumps ­with
them before I move again.

Sashay when the dog barks twice.
Blue Skies
Dan Rossi

Blues,
Dave

"I AM A PROFESSIONAL EXTREME ATHLETE!"
(drink Mountain Dew)

[peregrinerose 0]

Dan's a hell of a guy. I'm on the board of a national organization for people with one eye disease. I asked Dan to write an article for the next newsletter, it was perfect and well received.

He sent me an email a week or so ago.... he just got back from a trip where he climbed Mt. Kilamanjaro.

Do or do not, there is no try -Yoda

[dgskydive 0]

Quote

Watch the screen get all fuzzy reading this one, from a thread entitled "dropzone scenery" in which people were discussing which DZ has the most beautiful view:

Sniffle....sniffle.....

Don't do that!

Makes you really appreciate the gift of sight doesn't it.

Dom

[YahooLV 0]

Here you go. Look under the ACB page. Apologies for the quality.(gotta protect the copywrite)

http://www.curtisglennphotography.com

[ltdiver 3]

Here ya go.
http://www.lightdiver.com/2005/050129.htm/pages/050129lt5137.htm

ltdiver

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon