Flyby, This one's nice...

This is great Holy Cow nice stuff. No doubt if the guy saw it he was hard backsliding, but the timing of the opening makes it all look pretty durn off the cuff.

Wing's clean now...

Well I had a chance yesterday to get out and kite the wing some. Generally speaking after taking a flight, especially a sandy flight, one needs to take the opportunity and get the sand and or insects out of one’s equipment. Yes it’s been something like four days, but in that time one can pretty much assume any of the insects will have died and all that is needed is to remove their little carcasses. This I have now done. You see, if you don’t remove the little insects, in all likelihood they will decompose and when they do they will damage the wing. I know this because it one point I put the wing down on an ant bed and the end result was one little cigarette burn sized hole that had to have come from a decomposing insect. If it wasn’t it was the ants ate the stain caused by a decomposing insect and either way the result was still the same. It was an easy repair as they make rip stop tape for just such a purpose but doing so makes you a little less confident in your equipment condition. Because of this learning experience I am now much better at being sure that the wing is clean and clear within a few days of flying it. Usually immediately after a flight you’re busy packing the gear up rather than inspecting it because you have flown so long in the day that conditions don’t give you the chance to inspect. Read that as it’s too dark to see the wing.



So I tried a new way of cleaning the way down and that is flying it upside down. Normally I would have just laid the wing out flat on the ground and step by step and flipped it over in such a way that everything in the back of the cells would come out the front. That wasn’t the case this time. Instead of all the time consuming playing in flipping, I simply set the wing up to kite and did so with reverse controls using a technique I had seen a year or so ago and had good results with that. Having a second person would have helped but it can be done with one. After getting all the sand out of it I took a few minutes and kited it free hand. This is without using a harness and control (for me) isn’t as good. I have seen people kiting FreeHand use the wing and actually do back flips using the harness hook-ins as if they are Olympic rings and letting the wings support them as they perform. By no stretch of imagination is this something I could do. At best I’m able to move the wing a bit side to side jockeying for position and getting it restaged for flight. Kiting FreeHand can also be a safety tool. If you cannot kite the wing safely without a harness, Winds are probably too strong to fly in.



So the wings all clean, the weather’s beautiful, if I didn’t have somewhere to be tonight, I know where I would go…

Sunday evening flight

Well I made it out flying tonight and it was wonderful. Had the chance to get some pics (been meaning to) of the Eco-Wing and I'm only about half happy with the results. In this one I'm of course sporting my Uber-geek Combat Eyeglasses and very retro cloth flying helmet. The reason I'm not so keen on the pics is about half of them were fuzzy. Oh well. Doesn't matter though, the flying was great. Winds were about 7mph and nice and smooth from the South. Looks like there was a movie (or commercial) production going on and happily I seem to have arrived after the shooting was done for the day. Everyone waved or waved back and one or two observers seemed to get a real kick out of foot dragging I was up to. Note here: foot drags are something close to landings, but instead of landing and coming to a stop, you continue to fly along the ground and drag a foot or two. Hence the name. One young lady stuck out her thumb in hitch-hiker fashion (I thought that was cute) but when I yelled "Come on!" she didn't. Guess she knew I was kidding just as much as she was. So a good time was had by all. Talked with three different couples; residents, tourists and recent transplants and everyone was a real pleasure to chat with. I hope people like this keep coming. Everyone was really enjoying the day. Now that the temperatures are getting more Fall like, it's the perfect time to.

You'll love this one...

Dissuade-Yourself-from-Becoming-a-Blogger

How to Dissuade Yourself from Becoming a Blogger
What a buzz all the bloggers are making these days! It seems like just about everybody is pouring their musings into a text box. Are you feeling tempted to start a blog of your own? Here are some ways to bypass the trend.

Steps
Find five completely random blogs, and read them daily for a month. After thirty days, you will absolutely dread your self-imposed requirement to read all that dreck. Any blog you create will most likely be on par with what you've been reading. Don't put anyone through that.
Consider that your voice, even if it is truly a good one, is a tiny peep against the massive wave of tripe out there. The odds of anyone you don't already know finding your blog are low.
Write on a regular basis in a text editor instead. If that doesn't satisfy your urge, and you feel that you must post your blog online, then you might just be craving attention and validation--which you'll never truly find in a blog. If you give up on your Wordpad journal after about three days, you'll do the same with a blog that just takes up server space.
Ask yourself if you really have the time to commit to a blog. What about that treehouse you wanted to build? Or the book you wanted to write? Or the car you wanted to fix up? Or the restaurant you wanted to take your significant other to? Or the new career you wanted to pursue? Instead of writing about pretty much nothing, or whining about all the things you wish you were doing instead, start doing something that'd actually be worth writing about. And if it's really worth writing about, you'll be having too much fun doing it to tear yourself away from it.



Tips
Rest easy in the knowledge that it's perfectly okay and respectable to not have a blog at all.
If attention and validation are what you're looking for, know that you will get neither from blogging. As above, very few people will ever know that your blog (or you, by proxy) exists. The remainder of comments posted to your blog will be sappy treacle, which you won't trust as being sincere anyway.
Consider writing on a wiki instead.

.....................................
There's more, but I think that last one's the kicker. And why I linked this "how to"... Go have a read my fellow bloggers, And then go out there and enjoy your weekend.
-Rob

Three Year Anniversary!

Three Years.
I've been flying powered paragliders for three years now.
3rd Anniversary was yesterday.
Boy has it changed my perspective.

Important things aren't as important as they used to be. Little things are. Things like appreciating a beautiful sunrise or sunset. Watching the flow of the tides, insects in toil, a cat grooming itself. Taking a moment to see life, not just see it go by. Anything is possible.

The Sky's the limit.

Pelican Cases

All right let’s begin.

Recently have realized there are some things in the world that are just nice to have. One of those things would be a good quality waterproof box. As it goes relating to waterproof boxes there’s just one name you need to know: pelican cases. Boys and girls if there was ever something that you wanted to protect this is the way to do it. I’ve been using them for twenty plus years and I don’t know why I haven’t shared with you before now.

You see pelican cases are waterproof, super tough, and I think military specification. In English that means the toughest case you can find to protect something. Originally the cases were of various sizes with an O-ring seal and included foam padding. Nowadays they’re still in various sizes, they still have O-rings, and they can still be found with foam padding. But the manufacturer has added pressure relief valves to most of the line and has added even smaller cases to include items as small as cell phones or I-pods.

The smallest cases run somewhere between $10.00 and $12.00, and the larger cases can go over $250.00. Depending on what you’re protecting, this is money well spent. Say your palm pilot or digital camera cost you $200.00. Would a waterproof case that shock resistant and looks like something you might take on safari (or into outer space) be worth 12-15 dollars? In my case the answer is a resounding yes! Say you’ve got a GPS unit that ran a couple of hundred, again in my case it was worth $15.00 to know that critter will be safe ( as long as I remember to put it back in the case when I’m done using it).

Another thing the company’s added is a broader color choice. When recently I went to my local boating supply store to look for a neon green in case I instead found cases in gray and tan. These two colors I had not seen previously so I bought both. When I got back home a little bit of time and a handy stiletto and I had cut the pick and pluck to form fit a Glock 26. $20.00 case protecting $400.00 - $500.00 pistol, a pretty good deal.

The fact that the case is a nice tan color makes the whole deal look like some sort of a survival issue item for a pilot in Iraq. Strong latches and able to take padlocks (depending on sizes) they’re secure as well.

I’m not kidding folks, if you’ve got something that needs super tough protection, these pelican cases are what you need (if it’s SOMEONE instead of something, go with the Glock)…


Here ends the lesson.

Cure for Cancer?

The latest ramblings:

Amazing things have been happening the past few weeks and I have missed the opportunity to write on almost all of them. Here’s to making up for lost time.


A cure for cancer? As amazing as the sounded when I first read it a week ago, it looks like there is now going to be in our lifetime a cure for cancer. It seems biologists have found five molecules that will activate a self destruct mechanism in cancer cells. Now to get this right, cancer itself is the over growth of body cells. Cancer cells do not die as programmed and instead continue to grow in excess of the bodies needs. The cells apparently contain the necessary mechanisms to self destruct but are never triggered by the body to do so. Biologists, more specifically molecular biologists, have found a way to activate this self destruct mechanism artificially. They have done so with human cancers in laboratory mice and believe they can do the same in humans. Boys and girls, this is amazing. The world has changed and we all might have just missed it. The ramifications are mind-boggling. At first I was skeptical, thinking of previous instances where researchers had cooked the books to create unrealistic results, but this time I think it’s different. Only time will tell. Just think, at some point you may be diagnosed with cancer and prescribed a pill that you might take for up to two or three months and then you’re cured. The medication depends on the cancer and apparently needs to be tailored to the specific patient and cancer. Some cancers may need a smaller dosage of the the upcoming a medication while others may need larger. Initial results look promising.

Let’s all keep our fingers crossed and consider some reflective prayer, personally I can’t wait to see what comes of it all.



-Rob “live long and prosper” D.

AT&T is still EVIL, so is Wal-Mart.

Well here’s a second post, using the same dictating software of voice recognition stuff. And that’ll be the last of mentioning voice recognition.



So here’s to the jest of this post: Dollar Tree rules, AT&T is still evil. Why? I’ll tell you. If the posts ago I told everyone how Wal-Mart and AT&T sold me a 500 minute calling card that basically lasted only 30 some odd minutes to the united kingdom. That card cost around $25.00. A week or two later I found myself at a local dollar store called Dollar Tree. Funny enough, they had phone cards as well. Their phone cards cost only a dollar and after checking them out, they lasted 23 minutes to the U.K.I guess that’s kinda funny as similar performance from AT&T would have probably cost somewhere around $20.00.

Doing the math, $20.00 would have given us twenty of the dollar tree cards and lasted us somewhere near seven and a half hours of bargain calling time. So, somewhere in the mix of things there has to be a balance as the big guy rips us off and tells us tough cookies, and the little guy ( dollar tree) provides us with great service, bargain pricing, and a real value for the dollar.



Wal-Mart is evil. AT&T is evil.

DOLLAR TREE rocks!

Catch-up & Voice Recognition

So, there are a lot of things to catch up on recently with the blog. Here’s the beginning of what I’d like to tell everyone about. Have you ever noticed that you’d you’ll spend a lot of time typing and typing and typing and find yourself rambling? Every so often I find myself doing that. Usually it’s not a problem but sometimes, pasting and sniping large portions of text and as a result getting it out of order can become a real hassle. I’ve begun trying to use voice recognition software that is handily enough already installed on my computer and this post will end up being the result. I’m willing to bet that there’s going to be in later posting a lot of fun with voice recognition and the resulting errors that will be found as the wrong word is placed in my post although it will be spelled correctly and thus not caught by any spellchecking software that I would normally use. We’ll then be relying on the old favorite, proof reading.



I seem to remember something a long time ago in a new world almanac, no, in the whole earth catalog, you all remember that, don’t you? The whole earth catalog. Well it really was a whole earth catalogue. It was a large hardbound book that had the most amazing things in it and addresses and contact information for the companies that made those things. It had everything. The thing that I recall and am now sharing with you was from the nineteen eighties I believe. What I remember from it was the story of little red riding hood the funny thing about it was that the entire story was told by the use of the wrong words. For example, the phrase “don’t stop to talk with strangers”, was told by the use of the words “ done stopper torque wet strainers “. All in all it was quite funny and I look forward to finding it and sharing it with you all. Long story short, this speech recognition software thing is kind of like that story. As I’ve proofread what I’ve been saying from time to time, I’m seeing words that are not what I said only a moment before. It’s really kind of funny. So for the next couple of posts, or until you hear me tell you otherwise, please understand that I’m having a lot of fun simply saying instead of typing my posts. I hope that as a result my blog posting will be more fun to read, and not become some form of a manifesto or other craziness.



Pasting and sniping will be done at a later point and will of course look like I’ve just typed it. In all likelihood several posts will appear at the same time or only moments a part and if you see this, that’s how and why.