Hang tight while we fetch the video data and transcripts. This only takes a moment.
Connecting to YouTube player…
Fetching transcript data…
We’ll display the transcript, summary, and all view options as soon as everything loads.
Next steps
Loading transcript tools…
Flowing Air | Big Cedar Media | YouTubeToText
YouTube Transcript: Flowing Air
Skip watching entire videos - get the full transcript, search for keywords, and copy with one click.
Share:
Video Transcript
Video Summary
Summary
Core Theme
This content chronicles the profound journeys of individuals who have faced life-altering accidents, focusing on their resilience, the challenges of recovery, and their determination to find new meaning and purpose, particularly through the pursuit of paragliding.
Mind Map
Click to expand
Click to explore the full interactive mind map • Zoom, pan, and navigate
there's a little bit of anxiety that
comes with returning
here of having a headline that might
read paraglider pilot that survives
accident returns to place to have another
one I couldn't help but to look
around at the fog and the clouds and
think this is so similar am I tempting [Music]
[Music]
fate so I took off had a nice buttery smooth
smooth [Music]
[Music]
launch and we flew for about an hour and
then the winds were suddenly
accelerating and I saw myself going back
behind this Ridge and my whole canopy
got caught in what we call rotor and it
just balled up 80 to 100 ft up and I
began a free fall [Music]
[Music]
I didn't know what his quality of life
was going to be like if he would have
that joy in having Adventures being able
to walk being able to talk and think we
didn't think he would survive and if he
did survive what state would he be in I
sat by his bed in ICU all day long
his hand closed over my fingers and we
knew that he was still fighting in there
I landed with my right foot first which
provided enough energy to drive my femur
into the pelvic ring until it snapped
the pelvis off of the spine and was
pushed up toward my abdomen a rock came
in through my helmet fractured my right
eye orbit and then I had a double
compound open fracture of my right
joint there's one thing I did a lot when
I was in the hospital and that was
visualizing and over and over again I
was just visualizing getting back to
Flying and that's part of what motivated
again less than a year after that
I just got rid of my cane a few months
ago in October at the same time I got
this brace it's pretty much the
highlight of my life it's called the
Ideo device it's designed to capitalize
on the areas I do have control over and
help the other ones function like they
too I still have the job title smoke
jumper I'm just on light duty and I
don't think smoke jumping and taking on
the impact is something that this body
would be up for at this
point this fire season might be my last with
them if I pass the pack test then I'll
be red carded and that means I can go
back out on wildfires and I can use some
of my other qualifications to help out
the fire Community there's only one set
of parameters that's 45 minutes to to
back the closest I've gotten to is
5140 if I don't get red carded this year
it's going to be hard to justify
year so most my right leg is paralyzed
the only real muscle group I have much
control over is my quad so when I lift
my left foot forward it's pretty much a
every step I take I I drive my knee into
[Music]
minutes go
let go got to make up now 20 seconds we
that it's time now got to be FAS got to
come one minute let's go come on come on
go that's it ah W
W
I missed it by about a minute and 22
seconds so I never got qualified for arduous
arduous
Duty I'm going to have to resign my
position at the jump base I'll
additionally be done with the for
service and now I've really had to come
to terms with the fact that my nerves
throughout my right leg just might not regenerate
even though my accident has majorly
changed my life I'm not really able to
jump and all these other things I once
took for granted but I can do one thing
fly when I'm up there
flying I can turn left I can turn
I'm just trying to think of when the
skin was Disturbed to open the door for
an infection the only time I'm familiar
street my first flight back at the side
I wrecked that nicely done can hear
laying in the back H hell yeah yeah we
didn't actually meet till after both of our
our
accidents and uh we just kind of
connected and started talking about our
experience with the spinal cord injury
and there's not many people that could
even begin describe what you're talking
about what you're feeling with nerve
pain and this Hardware in your spine I
left the
hospital after about about 2 months and
I wasn't moving my
legs with a incomplete spinal cord
injury like that um every's body responds
responds
differently the physical part of
it it's just something you got to deal
with but but the hardest part is just
stuff sure I could have kept taking
the opiates and pain pills whatever
they're giving me and just sitting in my
chair but I knew in my heart that like
that kind of Life wasn't for [Music]
me you have that amount of passion for
something nothing will stop you from
I have this part-time job called getting well
well
which is very time
consuming have to do this three times a
day it's an
antibiotic and this has
certainly forced me to travel into an
area I had never planned on visiting the
world of the ill the world of the
impaired the world of the injured the
world of surviving it's a pretty
daunting world
there are so many different fronts to
this recovery and honestly
surviving surviving just might have been
[Music]
part I have bad days thinking about his
life in the way it has changed I mean he
was on the fast track
to retire as a smoke [Music]
[Music]
jumper as his mother I don't really want
him flying
[Music]
choice it was very important to him that
I fly with him that day even though I
w [Music]
I guess I've always heard that it was
like one of those Daredevil type things
and a lot more peaceful [Music]
[Music]
and emotional than just the thrill you
know just the adrenaline it's not just about
about
adrenaline it's about the beauty of the
experience in the sunless setting and
when I consider the fact that it's been
6 years I get a little self-conscious
and um reflect in this way that says
well what do you have to show really
I've just been trying to survive the
years what I'm doing right now is I
create fire training videos that are
required training for all Wildland
firefighters to get get red carded every
year and then I work as a paragliding
instructor most of the
year you know I'm paraliz below the
right knee so I'll get these cuts and
not know it and they'll get infected so
I had one major wound on the top of my
foot that took 6 months to heal and when
you have to go to the hospital three
you I haven't
2018 this year a lot of it's going to
leg I think there's been a a solid case
that's been built for considering an amputation
[Music]
a bka as they're calling it a below the knee
amputation the big thing with the bka is
whether or not he can make a socket for
me so that's essentially turning my
severed limb into a nice [Music]
stub I want to get this done so I can
move on so I can make a new plan with my [Music]
life it's definitely pulsing through
here I don't know if you'd be able to
[Music] [Applause]
today I had to air on the side of
playing at conservative when I wanted to fly
[Music]
I've been substitute teaching this
winner I'd say about twice a week on a
day like today I probably should have
said no I can't sub cuz I have a
doctor's appointment inste I'm try to do both
both [Music]
I hear of stories people get a below the
knee amputation then they get new
infections and then before they know it
they're cutting above the knee [Music]
[Music]
the quality of life could be more
challenging I could find myself worst
case scenario you know in a
wheelchair and so October 18th at the
Seattle VA we're getting it done
there I am moving I'm going to be a
full-time resident of horese Ben flight
Park going to be living uh in a tiny
house right there in the landing Zone
so it feels really awesome to be able to
[Music]
hey girl
um it's me [Music]
[Music]
I'm so sorry and I wish I could be there
to hug you
um I I still can't believe it and I'm
um I'm
just wanting to let you know that I'm
here for you [Music]
I'm not one to cry easily but since his
passed every single day day for the past
rough this is the impact site from his
fall I was in EMT mode kept ey out at
chest compressions for about 20 minutes
and then the flight nurse put her hand
on my shoulder and said you can stop
chest compressions [Music]
now yeah that's what it says right Aira
yeah it's the aera and it's it's the
small and and I got the small medium and
I know Justin got the neck size
down this was just a wing that I've been
desperately looking
for to me it would mean a lot for Lane
to fly just because they gone through a
lot together and not to mention that he
was the last person to try to help
Justin you know
so being under this Wing if I were to be
in the air with it there's no doubt like
[Music]
Justin he was so much to me he was my
boss he was my buddy
I've never had a friend that [Music]
[Music]
close it's like now what [Music]
[Music]
let's see that's West that's North so
between the flight Park's been shut down
and that's my primary source of income
I'll be right
down what am I going to do vocationally
what's going to happen with my lower right
Justin's death was traumatic for a lot of
us so Justin had a parachute and he was
bailing out of his paraglider and
throwing a parachute kind of like base
jumping off of the bridge or or these
Cliffs something wasn't connected so
when he went out of the
paraglider nothing opened
overhead I looked over in time to see
the part of his bounce when he came back
time I had that rare opportunity to damn
near put my family through that grieving process
it it's my first time back since
Justin's passing I feel it was more
exciting than the first time I ever flew
for some
reason oh my God ever since he passed I
don't think I could bring myself to fly
anytime soon really just because there's
like this emptiness you know like
I just had to remind myself that my
decisions affect others and looking at
this image this may well be like one of
the first images ever taken of me has my
mom she's probably 19 years old and my
twin brother and I also fly with Justin's
Justin's
ashes you know just to keep them with me [Music]
every time you launch you're flying out
into the unknown you don't know if
there's going to be a thermal out there
or not and same thing with this
amputation I just don't know what's on
the other side but I'm going for it [Music]
[Music]
all right so for the blood draw I'm
picking at the right arm sure beautiful
things I get my aerobic exercise through
you're you're still paragliding oh yeah
that was my motive to walk again just to
fly I don't feel any disability when I'm
air sense of Freedom while you're up
[Music] he'll
he'll
come I'll figure out how to fly whatever
it takes as long as I'm conscious and
can control any part of my body I will
get back in the
air his focuses on lifestyle
mobility and yet for us we tried to keep
that tissue Al it just seems destructive
for what we work so hard to save you'd
call and you'd say Mom I found a scar
here what's that from what's that one
from and this was a a deep old scrape
that they didn't even worry about cuz
the rest of it was their bigger priorities
priorities [Music]
[Music]
[Music]
so we're told about 4
hours hopefully anytime
soon it's going to be interesting to
walk in and see his leg though missing isn't
isn't it
wow yeah [Music]
so as soon as I had the strength I'm
like oh it's 3:30 I went under
anesthesia around 1 and I toss the
covers off I'm
gone oh
Lane hey we support whatever you do we
have to trust you thanks Mom yeah got to trust
trust
you I hope it gives them that Mobility
that he's hoping for and that release
is now that I have my right leg
disabled I think it just makes other
people uncomfortable cuz I think it
smacks people in in the face with the
this fo yourself
forward so no changes yesterday before
and after wearing it beond the blister I
feel as though the bone was bruised by
just all those reps I was doing with leg
extensions so it's super tender the only
place we found redness you can see it
right now I don't know what bone head that
is we found the cause of the pain I
thought I had this bony prominence that
was just really rubbing hardcore on the
socket and it hurt they pulled up my
x-rays and saw that I had some Hardware
Hardware I didn't even know I have what
I thought was a bone is a tip of a
screw so the screw is still in there but I'm
walking this is the longest I've gone in
the last 5 years without flying [Music]
it's like nothing's changed Sky's still
there but more than anything it just
felt great to leave the ground to just
feel my weight get transferred into this
Justin's Wing is is the wing for
today when I saw Lan pulling it out I
just saw Justin so it brought some
happiness back but yeah so now Lane is
flying it and it's a perfect size for
him he'd be so thrilled to know
that that I'm using his wing and I'm and
I'm doing better because of it because
it's it's a better fit for me and then
also in this personal meaning
of just having my
bro lift [Music]
[Music] [Applause]
me yeah think about Justin a lot he
laughed and smiled more than anyone I've
ever met so I'm determined to do more of
that with my
life I do find Comfort being around all
these Pilots hearing about him it's like
knowing that people hasn't
forgotten it's still been
tough and it's going to be for a while
I'm not sure for how long [Music]
[Music]
this virus they're calling
covid-19 has forced some of the greatest
um lockdown measures because removing
the hardware from my knees not a
lifethreatening sort of thing my uh
surgery's been
cancelled and I don't know when it's
going to happen again [Music]
there's something about coming back here
that makes me
deciding to amputate was one of the best
decisions I've ever made if you stay
within your comfort zone you're going to
[Music]
I fly for the sensation and the freedom
and the endless boundless opportunities
that are out
there it's a big world when you're up high
high [Music]
[Music]
I am so grateful that I have the
opportunity to have a second life [Music]
Click on any text or timestamp to jump to that moment in the video
Share:
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
One-Click Copy125+ LanguagesSearch ContentJump to Timestamps
Paste YouTube URL
Enter any YouTube video link to get the full transcript
Transcript Extraction Form
Most transcripts ready in under 5 seconds
Get Our Chrome Extension
Get transcripts instantly without leaving YouTube. Install our Chrome extension for one-click access to any video's transcript directly on the watch page.
