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Howard Wood's tips on "Aerial Panel Beating" "Having obtained council permission to extend my shed the first step was to pump the water out of one of the two above ground tanks into the main inground tank. I would then move the empty tank and transfer the water from the other tank into it and so on. So one Sunday I started the project. The idea was to use a small bilge pump to get the water out of the tank (13500 litres of it) and the easiest access (I thought) was by way of the shed roof. After about 4 trips up the ladder onto the roof all was proceeding well when I decided I needed something else from the garage (can't remember what it was) so I proceeded to walk across the roof to the ladder. Well my mind must have been on the project and I zigged instead of zagged and trod on one of those opaque Alsynite panels that let light through. I can now tell you that they let the human body through also. So down I went, initial point of impact was my right hip on Trumpy's front guard (hence the dent - in the guard) my back then crashed onto the bonnet near the windscreen and finally I bounced up, did a small twist, and finished on my left hand side on the concrete. I yelled for Pauline and as I lay there I checked I could move my arms and legs and that I wasn't coughing up blood. All was ok in those areas. Pauline duly arrived, trod on my leg and said "What have you done this time?" Ah, such sympathy! I asked after Trumpy and was told he was dented a bit. Eventually got up went inside and lay down for a while. Later went back to the garage and as best I could pushed the offending panel back into place. Eventually went to bed. Next morning couldn't get out of bed for pain, but I thought it was just the back muscles in spasm. About midnight I had to get out of bed, had a shower and returned and we decided that I should probably go to hospital. So it was the Tuesday morning that I was ambulanced to Kempsey hospital where with a lot of pain they said I had two broken ribs, a collapsed lung and they also put 5 stitches in a gash in my leg. I was then taken to Port Macquarie hospital where I spent 6 days in the recovery ward with a tube poking out of my chest. I'm still not 100% and Trumpy has yet to be fixed, hopefully that will be a task for 2008. So my roof walking days are now certainly after. Thanks to Pauline who, after her initial treading, was just the best nurse I could have wished for. It could have been worse, if Trumpy had beed parked the normal way I would have landed on the roll bar, I don't even want to think about that!" Howard Wood. (Thank you for sharing that with us Howard - the next episode will include a section on the use of a parachute to minimise panel damage) |