Tuesday, May 19, 2009

May Update




Everyone,

Well the snow has slowly diminished here in Cedar Rapids the lilies are blooming, the bugs are out in full effect, and the grass is finally starting to grow. The white faded to brown and is now being replaced by green! Hooray! It has been a busy month for me up here. I am completely immersed in work but trying to stay sane by picking up a few new hobbies. The latest hobby that i picked up in the past few months or so is skydiving. If you have not tried it, look up the nearest skydiving facility and go check out a tandem jump, i swear it is the best minute of your life! I am getting my licence and doing very well in my coursework. I have completed 8 jumps now; four tandems (the first two were in Daytona, Fl. and Monterrey, Ca.) and 4 solos. The first three solos I completed with an instructor holding onto the side of me while the last solo he jumped out and let me fly alone. I have done basic maneuvers (RT/LFT 90 degree turns and Practice Rip Cord Pulls [PCRPs]) and started into some more difficult maneuvers (360 degree turns, back loops, and tracking forward and backwards) in my last two jumps. I have three more jumps to complete my Advanced Free-Fall (AFF) course and hope to complete them this weekend 9weather permitting). I absolutely love it! I have jumped with three different instructors; Matt, Junkyard Dog (more of a drill Sergeant that an instructor), and Jason. I even got offered a job flying jumpers on the weekend for discounts on jumps. They don't pay much ($7/jump run) but it is free stick time and I can bank the cash for jump fees! They will also check me out in a Cessna 182 and Cessna 206 and give me my high performance rating for free. Sounds pretty lucky to me! It will be a good way for me to get back in the cockpit and stay current.

Other than that, Brody is doing fine. We had some issues with the boarding facility that took care of him while I was at an Army conference in Nashville, he got a bacterial infection in between his paws but recovered only to get a bad case of the runs. Kind of messy but we got him some medicine that will hopefully make him feel better. He is a whopping 35 pounds now and still growing at an alarming rate. His training is going good and I couldn't ask for a better pup.

I don't have much else than that but I will continue to keep everyone updated on Life After Florida. One of these days I will have to change it to Life in Iowa but we will see. I hope all is well with everyone and I plan on getting out to MD this summer so look for me in the lists!

Love,
Evan

1 comment:

  1. Hey Evan...
    Jumping out of an airplane. Let's see... uhhh... that would be no. At least not in this lifetime. For as many times as the backup plan to my backup plan has failed, it just seems so much more permanent when the chute won't open. Glad to hear Brody is doing better. Does he jump out of planes? Sensible dog.

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