Wings Unfurled: The Making of a Parachute Jesus

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Trucks, campers, skydiving.
Oh my, this is going to bereally, really tough tonight.
Guys, my voice is shot.
It's the Grouch at 14,000 feet.
Next on Live Free in Ham Allright, well, hello and welcome
to Live Free in Ham podcast.
This is our weekly show wherewe discuss ham radio topics in
New Hampshire, new England andbeyond, and we're thrilled to
have you here, whether you're aregular listener or tuning in

(00:20):
for the first time, and thanksagain for joining the episode.
All right, well, let's get inthe show.
I'm your host, uh, ericcallsign n1j.
You are, and I'm with theskydiving fiend n1og the grouch
and the general all right, coolguys.
Well, uh, we are going to getinto a little bit of the basics

(00:43):
here before, uh, we start theshow.
First and foremost, myapologies on my voice.
I am, you know, I felt likeI've been in a concert for, like
you know, 24 hours straightscreaming my lungs off like a
teenage girl.
However, that's not the case.
I got a call from my wife andapparently that's the part of
the package deal.
So, yeah, that is just the wayit is, guys, you got the deal

(01:06):
All right.
Well, anyway.
So that's why we're going to betalking all around Paul tonight
.
So, you know, I can save alittle bit of my voice.
So, as we always like to say,you know, head on over to our
storefront at livefreeandhamcomforward slash shop, check out
all the merch, pick up somebacon you know them, a bacon
pack of our hammies.
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Make sure you keep your eyespeeled for some of those new as

(01:31):
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Also, if you want to connectwith our community, you can do
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We love to have you guys joinour live stream every month as
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Um, you know, we'll definitelybe announcing that soon, so make
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(01:51):
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And all those links are alwaysin the bottom of our show notes
and on our website.
So if you'd like to support ourshow as always, you can become
a patron member and you'll get aton of free stuff I should say

(02:12):
a buck ton, because that'sactually a metric calculation
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early releases are uncut andunedited version of our video
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And, as Bob cough always saysand I am on the what the heck I

(02:38):
got to go to the right screenhere this would be great if I
actually had the right key up.
So, anyway, as Bob cough alwayssays and I can't press the
button because it's notprogrammed anymore, damn it.
All right.
Well, anyway, you can join forless than $3, as Bob always says
, and we always appreciate thatif you want to support the show.
Okay.
So we've got a couple of thingsthis week.

(02:58):
So let's dive into the firstone here.
Why am I all over the map?
Into the first one here.
Um, why am I all over the map?
Ladies and gentlemen, can Iplease have your attention?
I've just been handed an urgentand horrifying news story.

Speaker 2 (03:12):
Everybody, we got some news slow down, boog, let
me handle this.
We've got some news, I've gotbad news and bad news.
I have reviewed ship'spersonnel captain.
Congratulations, you've gotYou've got mail, all right.

Speaker 1 (03:25):
Well, you got some mail, right, todd?

Speaker 3 (03:27):
Yeah, we got a voicemail from I think it's
W1TED Tango, Echo Delta, andhe's one of our club members.
So, Eric, can you play it forus?
Let's see what he has to say.
Sure here we go.

Speaker 4 (03:43):
Hey guys, it's Ted W1TED.
I was driving home listening tothe podcast and you advised to
stop listening to the podcastand leave a voicemail.
That's what I'm doing.
It occurred to me that it's alittle odd that a New
Hampshire-based amateur radiopodcast would have a
Massachusetts area code, of allthings, or the voicemail phone

(04:04):
number.
Just think maybe that'ssomething that should be
considered.
Talk to you later.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
Well, Ted, I'm going to have to tell you.
When I first saw the phonenumber, I mentioned that to Eric
, Like why did you get a massnumber?
Why didn't we get a NewHampshire number?

Speaker 1 (04:20):
And I guess it just has to be with the voicemail
system, I guess, right, theydon't take new hampshire numbers
well, as far as I understand, alot of the new hampshire
numbers are pretty regulated interms of the phone world,
because I do a lot of voice overip stuff for customers and, um,
if you're getting a free numberwhich we got apparently 978

(04:41):
numbers are plenty available.
So I went with the last sevendigits that were easy to
remember.
Um, so you know you're welcome.
Uh, you're welcome, ted, there.
You know, that's simple as that.

Speaker 3 (04:54):
So if you'd like to, if you'd like to donate to our
voicemail phone bill, we'd beglad to get a 603 number because
it's actually it's astronomicalyeah.
Well, thanks for the voicemail,Ted.
That's awesome Like gettingthose and always wondering what
you guys are thinking of andwhere you're thinking, but

(05:14):
that's good.
So, yeah, we're going to stickwith the 978 number, unless
someone wants to pay the phonebill and we'll change it to a
603.

Speaker 1 (05:25):
Or yeah, 900 number.
You tell us We'll charge youper minute.

Speaker 3 (05:28):
Then All right Well you're going to have those
numbers anymore.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
I do that.
I don't know.
I, you know my.
My teenage years are long gone,so I couldn't tell you.
No, all right, well, with thatyou know.
Thanks again, ted, for you knowleaving us a voicemail and
following the rules to theletter of the law, because I
literally said, hey, just stopwhat you're doing and call the
phone number.
And he did exactly that.

(05:54):
So what's wrong with all youother jabronis?
You can't follow the rules.
Let's go.
We should be having a buttloadof voicemails showing up, and
he's the only one who followsthrough, so kudos for him.
All right, okay, so let's kickoff.
We got another.
Uh, uh, do good.

Speaker 3 (06:10):
So we're gonna kick the do good off doing good, good
doing good, that's good do good, do good, you're doing good
absolutely I do good, good, I'mdoing good, bob doing real good.
Right now my only outlet is myham radio.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
All right.
Well, hey, we haven't done a DoGood in a while.
So we all aspire to do good inham radio.
So, whether it's assisting adisaster, providing
communications for that localroad race, hosting a POTA meetup
, we all love to participate insome ham radio activities.
So, however, you know we hear aton of negative voices out
there, and they always try toovershadow our enjoyment.

(06:48):
So I'm going to raise my fist,and if I could scream anymore,
I'd probably really lose myvoice tonight.
So I'm going to say, just bringon the good teeth, guys.
This is the ASMR version ofscreaming.
And so we want to share a story.
So, paul, we've got one inWinlink.
Is that correct?

Speaker 2 (07:10):
We do.
We have an overachiever inWinlink and so this email comes
from AC1QDK and he writes Hello,todd, eric and Paul.
Here is my contribution to theDo Good segment of the show.
April 26th, members of theGranite State Amateur Radio

(07:33):
Association, kc1vym, kc1qdk,n1jur and KC1TLY spent Saturday
teaching the LDS youth group inPeterborough about ham radio.
We had a POTA demonstration, abunch of HTs, an HF rig and

(07:54):
learn your name in CW station.
It was a ton of fun and nice tosee young people interested in
the hobby.
Anyways, great job guys.
I love the show.
Signed your biggest fan, timKC1QBK.
True that, Tim.

Speaker 1 (08:14):
Very cool, Tim Awesome.
Yeah, I know that.

Speaker 3 (08:17):
He wants to be on the podcast then.

Speaker 1 (08:20):
Well, he's going to, you know, we're going to have to
, you know Well, so we have await list now, Like we must have
.
Almost I don.
Well, he's going to, you knowwe're going to have to, you know
well.
So we have a wait list now,like we must have.
Uh, almost I don't know if it'sa full, like huge long list,
but it's, it's starting to buildup some steam there.

Speaker 3 (08:32):
So you know we'll find out podcasts for our wing
link uh dedicated woodlink folk.

Speaker 1 (08:38):
Yeah, so, yeah, so, uh, if you're interested in
seeing that whole event actuallyfunny, if you're interested in
seeing that whole event actuallyfunny story is.
I created a video on my channelof it and I can't tell you how
much.
I've had so many comments backon that video and all of them
were like, oh, that wouldexplain the N1 IMO repeater that
I was on and I heard a wholebunch of kids talking to adults
and I couldn't figure out whatwas going on.

(08:59):
But it sounded really cool andI'm like, oh yeah, now it makes
sense.
I get to see it real time.
So if I'll post that video, um,from my channel in the show
notes, so if you want to gocheck that out and see what that
is, or you can always head overto my channel and check it out
um, it was a fun, fun, fun time,even though it was, uh, raining
.
Would have been nice to do itoutside, but all good, all right

(09:20):
.
Well, without further ado, um,we're going to jump into it.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
It's everyone's favorite segment.

Speaker 3 (09:37):
And now a little something extra with Todd W1STJ,
still a general.
So tim tim, at the club meetingon friday, told me that I
should really just slow down onmy study, and so I stay a
general, because he thought thiswas one of the best parts of
the podcast.

(09:57):
He goes what?

Speaker 1 (09:58):
are you gonna do if you become an extra?

Speaker 3 (09:59):
he goes, that whole section will be gone.
Nah well, like I said, we'llhave to evolve it.
What are you going to do if youbecome an extra.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
He goes, that whole section will be gone.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
Nah, like I said, we'll have to evolve it All
right, we'll turn it into the VQuizmaster section or something.

Speaker 1 (10:16):
Yeah, we'll hack it or become like one of those
things that we just kind of pullout when we do like live
streams or go out in the publicor whatever.
And you am, amex is coming upin the summertime, so you know
it's always that and you knowyou can always do men on the
street type stuff.
So always looking forward to iteither way.
But you know and and you knowthe, the real answer, todd, is

(10:36):
not what are you going to dowhen you turn an extra.
You're going to do the samething you were when a general,
because how often you're goingto go into those parsons of the
band that you're so longinglywant to go to?
I mean, I got there, checked itout and went, oh cool, and I
don't think I've been down therein a long time it's not so much
about going to the bands, it'sjust about getting to the same
level.

Speaker 3 (10:54):
Oh, it's a status symbol.

Speaker 1 (10:56):
Yeah, it would trust me.
Do you feel any different?

Speaker 2 (11:00):
all that, you're an extra no, and and honestly, in
so many ways I consider myselfto be an extra class moron.
Yes, that's a good point.
I understand the theory behinda Smith chart and all of that
stuff, but I haven't had thehands-on practicality of it yet.

Speaker 3 (11:23):
Nope me neither.
Tim said he still hasn't goneon the extra bands.
No right.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
That was my next point.

Speaker 3 (11:31):
I had asked him like do you have any contact on the
extra band yet.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
No, not yet.
So there you go.
You might not realize that youhave to be an extra, but hey,
that's totally okay.
All right, so let's get intothe generalities here.
So you've always heard it.
This is where we help Toddstudy for his extra class
license.
Each episode, we always pickthree questions from the extra
class question pool to test hisknowledge, hoping he gets his

(11:55):
upgrade.
You can always follow along andhead over to hamstudyorg, which
is a great resource to helpprepare for your test.
It is recommended by four outof four volunteer examiners,
because we won't ask anybodyelse for their opinion when it
comes to VE testing, becausethey're the ones and the
authority.
So, all right.
So without further ado, I handit over to our skydiving master

(12:17):
and VE quiz captain.
We'll call you more than that.
Whatever, take it away, paul.

Speaker 2 (12:28):
Skydiving newbie.
Uh all right, todd questionnumber one from the uh all
questions question pool.
What type of satellite appearsto stay in one position in the
sky?
Is it A geostationary, b, heo,c, leo?

Speaker 3 (13:01):
or D geomagnetic.

Speaker 1 (13:04):
There we go.
All right, did you just wave meon?
What Did you just wave me on tolike?
Yeah, I was waiting for themusic.

Speaker 3 (13:13):
All right.
So it's definitely not the Pope, so I'm going to go with A
geostationary A is correct Nicethere we go.

Speaker 2 (13:35):
So, to give an explanation, a geosynchronous
satellite is actually movingalong its orbit just like any
other satellite.
It is at a height and positionsuch that this orbital rotation
matches the Earth's rotation, soit appears to be stationary.
Leo means low Earth orbit andHEO means high elliptical orbit,

(14:01):
and both are not relevant tothis question.
A geomagnetic orbit is not athing.
I I think it's really not.
So thanks there, uh, kd7 bbcfor that.
Uh, explanation.
Very cool, oh boy, here we go,just just as I was mentioning

(14:25):
smith charts.
Oh boy, and they appear.
So, todd, on the smith chartshown in figure e9 terminate.
Is it called a the impedanceask axis, b, the polar axis, c,

(14:58):
the prime axis, or D, thereactance axis?

Speaker 1 (15:03):
There's no E option.
The evil axis.

Speaker 2 (15:12):
So yeah, this outer ring is what they're referring
to, you know.

Speaker 3 (15:19):
I want to say E, but I think it's C, because E, I
think this's C, I think this isone I was going to use for D.
I was positive it's C.
I'm going to go with C.

Speaker 1 (15:41):
I'm going to go with D.
It's either A or D.
I'm going to go with D.

Speaker 2 (15:48):
It's either A or D.
Well, I will tell you, todd Cis definitely not it.
So Eric says D and D is right,it's reactants.
It measures impedance andreactance.
Yep, yes, and so if, if, if you, if you remember um it's, it's

(16:11):
reactance, all right, so 50there, todd.
The third and final question ofthe evening how does a switch

(16:31):
mode voltage regulator work?
Is it?
A?
By alternating the outputbetween positive and negative
voltages.
B by varying the duty cycle ofpulses input to a filter.
C by varying the conductivityof a pass element?

(16:52):
Or D?
By switching between two Zenerdiode reference voltages?

Speaker 1 (17:00):
I need the music for this one Switch.

Speaker 3 (17:12):
Alright, I'm going to go with D.
I would say A.
That's my second guess.
It's either A or D.

Speaker 1 (17:22):
Well, the good news is you only see the question
once.

Speaker 3 (17:25):
What you only get the question once.

Speaker 1 (17:26):
What you only get to answer once.

Speaker 2 (17:29):
I know so final answer Todd, I'll go with D.
D is incorrect, all right.
Eric said A Yep.
A is also incorrect.
Okay, a is also incorrect.

Speaker 3 (17:45):
Okay, okay.

Speaker 2 (17:49):
It is.
B by varying the duty cycle ofpulses input to a filter, and so
to explain a switch mode.
Voltage regulator switches thesource voltage on and off in
varying amounts of time.
The amount of time it's onversus it's off is known as the

(18:11):
duty cycle.
You are then left with apulsating voltage and so a
filter is used to smooth it out.
So your memory aid, which truckhas S mode, switch mode?
That's Ford Super Duty, I guess.

Speaker 1 (18:30):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
I don't know if that helps you, but there you go.

Speaker 1 (18:38):
Well, todd, you are and always will be Kaylee
fucking Jones.
Yes, you will.
Alright cool, alright well.
So, with that, if you're on thejourney to studying for your
technician general or extraclass license, in that case

(18:59):
hamstudyorg is an awesomeresource for getting your ticket
and, as we always like to say,if you recently received your
license or upgrade, let us know,and we actually have one.
So, mr N1OG, care to do that.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
So huge shout out to Matt KiloEcho9, Charlie Whiskey
Lima.
He let us know on the 6th ofMay that he just upgraded to
Extra and is pretty excitedabout it.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
So congratulations, Matt congratulations we always
like to revel and rejoice withyou guys.
As you've learned through thesetrials and tribulations with
Todd, it's a struggle sometimesto get to that next upgrade

(19:50):
there in your class license.
We want to make sure that youget the recognition you deserve,
and we'll do the same for Toddwhen he finally gets there too
as well.
With that, you can always emailus at livefreeandham at
gmailcom or post over on ourDiscord and let us know that you
got upgraded and we will makesure we mention it on our next

(20:12):
episode.
And thanks again for being partof the crew.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
All right, hey, when you do you guys ever watch the
Cash Cab?
Yeah, a long long time ago,yeah, well, I guess they now
have a woman doing it in chicagoand it's like you can do your
mobile call out or your out thecar call street shout out yeah,

(20:41):
can I make a recommendation tothe ham radio community that I
should be able to make a mobilecall out and a street who?

Speaker 1 (20:48):
are you going to mobile call out?
You're going to mobile call outon the repeater.

Speaker 3 (20:55):
Yeah, I'd call out bill.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
Oh, I see If you have your army, of army of test
takers on the wedding on standby.

Speaker 4 (21:04):
So if you need to make a mobile call, but which
actually might help some of ourother challenges we were going
to do.

Speaker 1 (21:09):
We were going to try to do some live repeater QSOs,
you know.
So that would be a gooddovetail on that.
We could really expand on thisquite drastically Interesting.
All right, Well, we'll put thatone in the back of the memory
banks there and hopefully we'llmaybe integrate it.
We'll see how it goes.
All right, Well, in our usualformat we like to get into our

(21:30):
ham radio weeks.
We'll give Todd the floor herefirst, because we know Paul is
chomping at the bit.
He's had a freaking busy weekand we are super excited to hear
about it.
We'll dovetail right into him.
He's just going to excited tohear about it.
Well, we'll dovetail right atthe end.
He's just going to have to talkabout ham radio specific.
If he hasn't done any ham radio, that'll be it With that go

(21:53):
ahead, Todd, How's your?
Ham radio week been.

Speaker 3 (21:55):
It has been pretty nonproductive.
I'm in the process of hookingup my laptop to a docking
station and I can't get thestupid monitors to work, but
docking station work because itcharges it and everything else
seems to be working.
So had to order some new cords.
They came a little late butI've got them, so hopefully by

(22:19):
next week I'll be back on themic.
So this is.
I'm doing this podcast just formy MacBook.
It seems to be doing alright.
I haven't really done much hamradio.
I went to the club meeting,which was good.
Eric did a nice presentation.

Speaker 1 (22:38):
Thanks for running the PowerPoint there for me.
I appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (22:40):
Yeah, the clicking.

Speaker 1 (22:42):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:45):
It wouldn't click.
That is like the oldest laptopI've ever like.
How old is that thing?
Like 20 years old.

Speaker 1 (22:50):
It's going on probably 20 years.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Yeah, it's pretty old .
I kept clicking it, it wouldn'tgo.
I'm like why isn't it notworking?

Speaker 2 (22:57):
Did you give it a next slide, please?
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Next slide, please, oh Todd can you do that, Todd?

Speaker 1 (23:06):
go ahead.

Speaker 3 (23:09):
Todd Todd.
So it was good I wasn't goingto be at the meeting because I
thought I had baseball.
But we've had so much rain herein New England that the You've
decided to become a water polocoach.
Well, my whole yard I cut thegrass today.
I could only cut like threequarters of it because a quarter
of it's underwater.
My fire literally has like afoot of water around and in it

(23:33):
like the big fire pit like whereI threw all the brush and stuff
.
I was like holy crap, yeah, allthe water just ran down.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
It's been so luckily missing out on all that so yeah,
so there's no baseball.

Speaker 3 (23:45):
I got to go there and then I was supposed to go down
to Marshfield Mass and that gamegot called, so all I had to do
was drop Zach off for practiceat the Bedford football field.
Great.
We have our guy, one of our guys, corey.
His son is on the team and heruns the athletic department for

(24:07):
Bedford, so we get priority.
So our kids practice on therainy weather on the Bedford
High School football turf fieldNice, so it's pretty cool.
But yeah, so that's that andprobably not going to do much
this week either.
I've got a baseball every dayof the week.

(24:27):
I got three games and tryoutsfor all stars, so I'll be on a
repeater to and from work.
And oh, and I did clear outWell, I had it cleared out, but
I cleared out even more where myDX commander is going.

Speaker 1 (24:42):
Oh yeah, I'm coordinating.
Actually, funny thing is youmentioned that because I'm
actually trying to finishcoordinating with Jason and
Shane at the same time to do atrifecta live stream of all
three of us assembling the DXcommander classic and the first
one to get it up to then make acontact and make the farthest
contact on it wins.
You know, the, the, the, theultimate, or yours.

(25:06):
I don contact on it wins.
You know the the the ultimateis mine or yours.
I don't have mine anymore.
It's.
It's been just talking about,yeah well, you haven't built
yours, shane hasn't built hisand neither has hem radio 2.0.
So I said, dude, let's stopbitching about the idea of, like
, you're gonna do it somedaywith shane and blah blah blah,
I'll put it up and just run ashort piece of coax to the a91
dude.
Whatever it is, you we're goingto do a triple live stream all

(25:28):
of us at the same time and we'regoing to see who gets the damn
thing built first and then whogets it on the air and makes a
contact.
That'll be the deciding factorhow far you get.
Yeah, so we're coordinatingthat, so stay tuned.

Speaker 3 (25:41):
Oh nice.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
Cool.

Speaker 3 (25:44):
I haven't even opened the box, not even from the like
.
It's still sealed with the tapeand stuff.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Well, all three of you guys are pretty bad.
I mean, jason's has his in abox and Shane's got his over the
corner too.
So you know, it's no big deal,no surprise.
So all right, well, you know,since you had a little bit of
ham radio.
I'm most only going to playthis once, welcome to another
Tales of the Diamond by Todd W WS T J.

Speaker 3 (26:17):
Hey, I want to know.
I want to know honestly, I wantpeople to respond, send emails,
do our things.
What do you think about mybaseball stories?
You guys, baseball, baseballstories.

Speaker 1 (26:26):
Are you guys done with?

Speaker 3 (26:26):
baseball.
I don't know if some of youguys made fun of me about
talking about the flying club,but it's baseball season.
It's all I do right now.

Speaker 1 (26:34):
That's why I have this little segment.
When baseball season is gone.
It might be tales from thebasketball court or tales from
wherever.
We'll have to create one forthe flying club.
People love to hear that we do.
We're just trying to createmore space for other segments.

Speaker 3 (26:48):
Eventually, the extra is going to go away todd's
baseball yeah you know, and wecan't, I got 15 kids, I gotta
drop it down to 11 we can't bepigeonholed into this.

Speaker 1 (26:59):
We only talk ham radio all the time, you know.
Come on, we do.
You know, we're not gonna belike any other ham radio show oh
, you should see me today.

Speaker 3 (27:07):
I was blowing up, uh, I was burning stumps, because I
have to get these stumps upfrom last year and I tried to
kill them by putting like bleachin um perox, you know whatever,
just trying to rot them out.
I had them covered with bed,these things.
I got holes drilled into them.
So today I was like it, I'mjust throwing, uh, gasoline down

(27:28):
them and I just lit them onfire and then they would burn
and then they'd go out.
I'd throw more gasoline on it.
And so tomorrow I'm picking theday off, I'm taking my axe and
I'll chop the crap out of it andhopefully it, uh, it's going to
break apart a little easier.
But then it's like they're justshallow roots Nope, nope,
shallow roots.
They're freaking huge.
They're like this round.

Speaker 1 (27:50):
It's time to get a stump grinder.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
Yeah, I know, and you know my neighbor down the road.
He's got like everything and Igo to him and go hey, you don't
by chance have a stump grinder,do you?
He goes no, I don't got one ofthose.

Speaker 1 (28:02):
You need to buy one, then let me borrow it.
That's the way it goes.

Speaker 3 (28:06):
Well, my old neighbor , before he moved he had one.
He got one like dirt cheap.
And he just goes around andcharges people and he just drags
the thing around.
It's awesome the way they work.
I mean, a stump goes away inlike 10 seconds.

Speaker 1 (28:19):
Oh yeah.

Speaker 3 (28:22):
They get obliterated fast.
It's crazy.

Speaker 1 (28:26):
Cool.

Speaker 3 (28:26):
Eric, how was your ham radio week?

Speaker 1 (28:28):
Well, I know you normally go to me, but do you
have any ham radio stuff at all,paul?
I know you have a little bit.
You can touch on maybe some ofthe stuff with Mike and Chris.
Those were podos, so I'm goingto pass it over to Paul first
before he goes to me.
So over to you, paul.
How's your ham radio week been?

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Well, all right.
So ham radio wise.
Yes, I turned some states green.
Yes, you did so.
I activated New York with Mikeand 2MAK and I got the sticker
to prove it.
Nice job.

(29:11):
Was that given to you before orafter you decided to take the
water plunge?
That was before, yeah.

Speaker 1 (29:14):
Okay just wanted to make sure it wasn't a sympathy
sticker.

Speaker 2 (29:20):
No, it was.
Honestly, it was great.
Mike came out to the farm.
So through my travels I stoppedat different farms and stuff
it's called Harvest Hosts and sohe came out.
He met up with me, even thoughit was sopping wet and freaking

(29:40):
cold and miserable.
We got to activate inside ofhis uh, rental jeep, wagon air,
which, honestly, that was myfirst park activation from a
vehicle oh, so in luxury too, sonot bad yeah, um, so that was
cool.
um, and then, um, yeah, so thatwas monday.

(30:02):
And then, um, yeah, so that wasMonday.
And then on Wednesday, um,while I was in Ohio, I met up
with Chris Bricker.
Uh, he came out to the, uh, thefarm that I was staying at and,
um, we went to Punderson StatePark.
So, mike and I, we didPittstown State Forest.

(30:22):
Uh, chris and I did, I didPunderson State Park Absolutely
beautiful park and a lot ofjokes were made.
So Chris is an Air Forceveteran and he's been licensed
for quite a while and he hasnever made a sideband contact.

(30:45):
What, yeah, what, wow.
So I popped a sideband cherry.
Wow, holy moly what did he use?
what did he do?
He's, he's a, he's a digitaloperator, he, he loves, he loves
to operate digital um, and sothat's that's his thing.

(31:07):
And I said, all right, well, uh, I'm not gonna try and and do a
a dual op digital I know theywould have you know, uh.
So I was like I'm I hate to doit to you, but I'm gonna.
I'm gonna make you a new sideband and dude that was awesome.
so, yeah, so and um, the, thepeople that we made contact with

(31:30):
were absolutely fantasticbecause, um, they could tell
that he was a little unsure ofhimself initially.
Um, he did find his rhythm andhe and he and he got it, he got
it going, so it was a fantastictime.
It was great to hang out withhim.
Of course, I think he didn't gohome until about midnight that

(31:53):
night.
Cool, wow, cool, yeah.
We hung out for a good longwhile.

Speaker 1 (31:58):
Did you cuddle after?
Because after you got him onsideband I'm sure you had to.
It was kind of like give himcomfort, you know, because after
you got them on sideband I'msure you had to.
You know it was kind of like,you know, give them comfort.

Speaker 2 (32:06):
No, we, we, uh, we, actually we, we attended the um
the the toads uh members meetingum on zoom.
Okay, yeah, so that was kind ofcool.
Like you know, we were in thethe the toads members meeting uh
wednesday night uh, him and Ifrom the rv, um, so all right.

(32:31):
So, ham radio, ham radio, allright.
So the next ham radio thingthat I did was yesterday.
I made a uh, one, four, six,five, two contact with kilo n
Niner Oscar Lima ParachuteMobile from.
Rochelle Illinois.

Speaker 1 (32:49):
Very cool, nice.
We should just leave that thereand let it hang out there for a
little bit to let peoplemarinate, so people understand
where, if you haven't followedalong for a while, why he's down
that way.
Yeah cool, that's awesome man.
I'm very jealous that I don'thave a 5-2 contact from the
flying mexicans, so eventuallyone day I will.

(33:11):
I promise it's on my bucketlist when it comes to pepper or
we, or we go to dayton.
One of the two.
You know, it's the way goes ofDayton 2026, right.

Speaker 2 (33:27):
So yeah, so he's actually.
He's going to be headed toDayton Wednesday and if the
weather's good, he's hoping tomake you know some parachute
mobile jumps out of Dayton Verycool the drop zone just south of
Dayton.
But yeah, it was cool tofinally get a parachute mobile

(33:49):
contact in the log.

Speaker 1 (33:51):
Now here's the real cool catch.
If we can make it work with you, if you finish up your Class A
and finally get it locked inwhich you're probably on track
for that you could be the secondscheduled jumper in Dayton in
terms of giving moreopportunities for more to make
contact.
And now they can be the grouchand the flying Mexican.

(34:12):
You know, making 5-2 contacts.
That would be kind of cool.

Speaker 2 (34:16):
Parachute, jesus, you got to get it right.

Speaker 1 (34:18):
Oh sorry, I keep saying that I thought it was my
mistake.
Parachute Jesus the formal Okay, cool, all right, my mistake.
Parachute jesus the formal okay, cool, all right.
Well, we're gonna get in a heckof a lot more with that.
Um, you know, in a couple ofseconds here.
So you know my week.
Um, yeah, outside of you know,capturing this cold, this past
weekend I had, uh, got a chanceto go back to my old stomping

(34:41):
grounds and arlington because Ihad a client down there outside
the boston area and there was apark used to hang out as a kid
and I figured, heck, I'm gonnago over and activate it.
Activated, it was a blast, Ihad fun, the bands were so, so,
but you know for what it wasworth, it was more just about
the experience.
And, yeah, a chance to go checkout a couple of, uh, old places
I used to hang out in myteenage years and stuff.

(35:03):
Yeah, it was all fun doing that.
And then, yeah, outside of thisweekend, being sick has somehow
compelled me to bang out likethree videos.
So I've got the spool antennacoming up, which I'm super
excited about.
That'll be launching, probablyWednesday, hopefully, if I
finish up the last bits of it.

(35:23):
And then I got a couple othertwo videos bookending those on
Tuesday and Thursday, so thatshould be good.
If you're a Patreon member onmy channel you'll definitely
have already seen them, or on myYouTube channel either one.
So if you're interested ingetting early access to that,
cool.
But as Todd alluded to, yeah, Iended up doing a POTA
presentation with our club.

(35:44):
It was kind of surprisingbecause I usually do the, the
introductory poda kind ofpresentation where I'm teaching
people how to do poda.
But I figured there was enoughpeople in our club that would
already know how to do it and itturned out that that wasn't the
case.
There were a bunch of peoplethat did, but not enough good.
Yeah, I was surprised at howmany people had never done it

(36:06):
before yeah, I mean, especiallyafter I did the poda
presentation almost a year agoand all of the people that were
like, oh, I'm gonna go out anddo it, apparently a year late,
two years later, they didn't,you know, actually get around to
it.
But all good, I mean it wasawesome because I really did it
kind of more as a tips andtricks and hacks kind of thing.
So I talked to Les and he onlydid it in 30 minutes and then we

(36:27):
just had a whole bunch of extratime to, you know, sit around
and talk about gear and people's, you know setups and all that
stuff.
You know Tim brought his 6200,and his Alex Loop and a couple
other guys brought their fulllike QRP kits and you know it
was a blast.

Speaker 3 (36:46):
It was just really really good I brought my, my
photo gear.

Speaker 1 (36:48):
Oh, you did.
Okay, I didn't get a chance tobounce around how I?

Speaker 3 (36:51):
I said look at, you can get 100 watts in a backpack
with room to put your clothes infor an overnight and a bug
zapper and a bug zapper.
That was good bug zapper, itwas pretty good.
It was cool to see some of theradios.
I really liked that electriccraft.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
The electric craft.
You mean, I don't know anelectric craft, but it's not a
vacuum.

Speaker 3 (37:19):
It's like I've been out freaking mowing the grass
doing a lot of work.
I'm exhausted.
To be honest with you, yeah, Ido, but they're so expensive.
It's like I've been outfreaking mowing the grass doing
a lot of work.
I'm exhausted, to be honest,yeah.
Yeah.
I do, but they're so expensive,you know oh yeah, you know
pretty pretty man and thenthere's like all these add-ons.
So bill was showing me like theadd-ons that he's got and my
god, is that extra.
Oh yeah, that's actually.

(37:40):
Oh yeah, that's actually so.

Speaker 1 (37:43):
Ellicraft always equals extra, extra.
That's just the way it goeslike holy crap like all this
stuff.

Speaker 3 (37:48):
And then we were sort of talking about the acu with
the 100 watt you could put in.

Speaker 1 (37:55):
That's expensive I felt bad.
I felt bad for the zoom peoplebecause I forgot to pivot the
camera towards me.
So while paul, while todd wasdoing all the slides, the camera
was still faced where ralph wasstanding doing all the business
stuff.
So they'd hear me talk, butthey wouldn't see any of my
slide present.
They saw the slide president,but they didn't see the video.
So I was like, okay, don'tworry about it, I'll have a full

(38:15):
video all sudden, you know, andpost up on the website.
So they hopefully that'll.

Speaker 3 (38:19):
Uh, you know ease some of the people.
You know.
What was pretty awesome is likewe're spending some money in
the club, which I was shocked.

Speaker 1 (38:28):
So our club is funny.

Speaker 3 (38:30):
So the big debate of the of the night was for field
day, are we going to rent a?
What do they call those?

Speaker 1 (38:38):
20 by 40 wedding tent 20 by 40 wedding tent.

Speaker 3 (38:42):
And if we are, are we going to set it up and take it
down ourselves or have someonecome and do it for us?
And my view was we're going tohave someone set it up and put
it down because you felt thatway, okay.
Yeah, I voted for the.
Have someone carry the right,but I don't have to worry about

(39:02):
it, cause I said cause.
What's going to happen is isall these people are not going
to be there at the end, and it'sgoing to be like me and eric
and probably paul taking it downand trying to put it back
together, because that seems tobe like what it is almost every
year.
It's like the same people youknow most.

Speaker 1 (39:19):
There's a lot of people that help tear down field
day and it goes down prettyquick, but it's a set of stuff.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
It's a huge like.
That's not like an easy task,especially if you've never done
it before.
So then, yeah, so it passed.
But the few people that didn't,I was like, oh yeah, if it
thing didn't pass, I was goingto be like, so I'm going to take
your names please.
And you are on the takedowncrew at the end of the field day
and responsible, since youvoted that you didn't want to

(39:47):
spend the extra $100 or whateverit was.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
I thought somewhere along the line they got a little
confused because they thoughtwe were going to move all of our
station captains and everybodyunderneath it and I'm like I
understood where that came from.

Speaker 3 (40:00):
No, I didn't think that at all.

Speaker 1 (40:04):
I know you did't.
Everybody in the back thoughtthat they were like well, why?
not it's stupid, like you know.
I'm like why would we put, youknow, uh, steve's camper and all
the rest of the other peoplewith their small little stations
underneath the big tent, whenwe always put all of our station
captains out in the corral forfield day and that's where they
usually stay anyway?
You know, and the tent was onlyfor, you know, the education

(40:28):
pavilion and people to socializeunderneath it, not not for, uh,
you know, radio operating perse.

Speaker 3 (40:33):
So it's good to have either way, because if it rains
we have a place to hang out andstay dry, and if it's sunny out
it'll be cooler under the tent?

Speaker 2 (40:45):
I don't know I would put the stations in the tent and
just run long coax runs outthree different directions to
the antennas.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
I really like or triplexer here's the.
Okay, triplexer, yes, triplexer, you know, here's you know.
Okay, triplexer, yes, but howmany people actually remember to
use the proper cable becausethey can't, you know, afford two
seconds to go over and switchbands, because they just are
like lazy and uh.
The other issue is is that Idon't want people closer to me,

(41:20):
I want our stations spread out.
I like having our like, I liketo be rowdy and loud when we
want to be rowdy and loud whilethe other guys are over there
pounding the brass or doingwhatever.
So, yeah, no, it was never likewe.

Speaker 3 (41:31):
for me, I don't think it needs to be, and I no, we
don't, it doesn't.

Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, we we're not like one of those clubs that
like all under one tent and weall have full audio.

Speaker 3 (41:44):
Do you ever get clarification?
Are campers allowed or notallowed this year?

Speaker 1 (41:50):
Let's table that.
We'll talk that offline.
No comment for right now.
I'm not the coordinator thisyear I'm an advisor to the
coordinator, which, mark, is agreat guy.
He's doing an awesome job.
Yeah, I was talking about that.
You see Paul's raising hiseyebrows there.
We'll talk offline.
I don't want to put this on thepodcast.

Speaker 3 (42:11):
Anyway, you didn't know about this, paul, you
didn't know, I was like poorPaul.

Speaker 1 (42:16):
No, you just keep poking the bee's nest.
Huh, we'll talk later, anyway.
So now that we've uh stirredthat one up, let's kind of dive
into, uh, what we're going totalk about tonight.
Because you know, I'm sure ifyou've been following along for
quite a while, you know thatn1og has been prepping, he's
been preparing, he's beenscrimping, he's been saving,

(42:37):
he's been doing everything underthe sun to get ready for this
day, um, and as he's beenleading up to it, he's been
letting us know what's beengoing on.
And so, yeah, we're going togive him the show to catch you
up.
But, like we had said, we weregoing to do as not so much this
episode, but I think in ourfuture episodes this kind of
time goes on, because where he'scurrently at he's going to go

(42:59):
into more detail, but he's goingto be there for a little while.
So you know, we're going to doa little quick updates from time
to time.
That way you know, if youhappen to catch those updates
later and you're like, well,what's the originating story?
Well, you can go back to thisepisode and listen to the full
end to end and get yourselfcaught up.
So you know, we've developed asegment and that new segment,

(43:20):
and for this one it's the fullepisode of the show, but you
know we segment.
And for this one it's a fullepisode of the show, but you
know we're gonna call it.
Watch up with mnoj now, asegment where we catch up with
paul on his travels.
All right, well, there you go.
So you know, I I'm super excited.
I, you know I've been gettinglittle bits and pieces.
If you're following paul onsocial media, um, and his
youtube channel, um, and at thispoint I I have to apologize up

(43:44):
front because I didn't know youwere subscribing to my channel.
So I'm an ass for notsubscribing to your channel and
bitching hey, why can't I seeyour members-only video?
So I now have to turn aroundand subscribe to your channel so
I can catch up on all thevideos that I'm going.
Why can't I watch them?
So, yes, we'll get thatstraightened out very quickly
and you've heard it publicly.
I've announced, you know, n1juris a total dick for you know,

(44:08):
basically calling Fallout.
So, anyway, with that we'lllead into so dude, elaborate,
start with day one and bring usup to current.

Speaker 3 (44:19):
The quote on Discord that I thought was the best is
like I pulled the parrot, atleast I pulled the parachute
cord, or whatever, like what yousaid.
You're like at least I paid, atleast I pulled the cord or the
parachute cord.
I was like, well, thank god youdid, because you wouldn't be
here right now if you didn't itcame up on my phone it goes, but

(44:42):
at least I I pulled theparachute cord or I pulled the
cord, or I pulled the chute,something like that is, that one
who he's talking about isredoing his jump yeah, and he
said, at least he pulled thequarters yeah, I, I said, I said
just just finished.

Speaker 2 (44:56):
My first jump failed, but I pulled the chute on.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
I was like oh, that's the way to go If you pulled the
chute and you landed safely.
I questioned that too, but Iwas like he's going to tell us
anyway.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
All right.
Well, let's start at thebeginning, shall we In the
beginning?
Okay, so last year, what was it?
April, May when we had our K9OL?

Speaker 1 (45:25):
Okay, yeah, man crush , crush.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
That is when it all started.
Yep, so we had our.
We had our episode that wasspecifically about k9ol carlos
uh and his parachute mobile uhantics.
And I had said, just like I hadsaid for years and years in the
past, like someday I want toskydive.

(45:49):
Like I, I've always beenfascinated with flying, and what
better way to fly than to flyyour own body?
Right like so, you know, carlosuh didn't hold any punches and
he told me straight up that thatepisode he said what are you
waiting for?
You know?
Like, stop saying somedayyou're gonna do it and just

(46:11):
start making a plan to do it,and uh.
So then you fast forward tooctober, where we had reschedule
after reschedule, afterreschedule after reschedule of
the first tandem and the livestream attempts that three times
over yep, I think.

(46:33):
I think everybody was just asfrustrated as I was at that
point because it was like, whenis this gonna frickin just
happen?
And so after that first tandem,I really I was hooked.
I wanted to skydive in theworst way.

(46:54):
So I started looking andPepperell's got a terrible
reputation.
Like, just being honest,pepperell has an absolutely
terrible reputation so I didn'twant to learn in.
Pepperell has an absolutelyterrible reputation so I didn't
want to learn in Pepperell.
So my other option was SkydiveNew England, which is in Lebanon

(47:14):
, maine, and that's about athree, three and a half hour
drive from Merrimack.
That would have been doable,but from Merrimack that would
have been doable, but I wastalking with.
Carlos about it because I wantedhis input.
He's got the experience, he'sgot the knowledge.

(47:36):
I wanted his input.
He was like, well, not fornothing, but Chicagoland skydive
center is one of the top 10places in the country.
Um, you know, like, if you'regonna, if you're gonna have to
travel anyway, uh, you know, ifyou can make it work, this is a

(48:00):
good option.
And so, um, I looked it up, Iwent on their website.
They've got a free falluniversity is what it's called.
It's a training program that isspecifically designed to get
you your A license from zerojumps to the end, a license from

(48:27):
zero jumps to the end.
And so, yeah, so I startedreaching out to the drop zone
and I said, okay, initially, theplan was for me to do this in
June, where in June I was goingto road trip to Illinois and
just enroll in the program andbe here until it was done.

(48:47):
But my plans changed, lifechanged, so I didn't end up
going to Florida for the monthof May, so I bumped my timetable
up a month and I said, well,why wait, right Like, why wait,
why wait, right Like, why wait.
So, um, may 5th was when Iofficially left New Hampshire on

(49:09):
on my road trip, and I'll I'lltry and uh remember to to keep
my my face pointed towards themicrophone, cause I know, uh,
the last episode, uh, I turnedaway a few times.
I turned away.
I turned away and it cuts.
It cuts the audio, uh, but so,yeah, so, um, so I left.

(49:32):
May 5th, monday, may 5th, uh, Idrove.
I planned it out so that it wasno more than four hours drive
time each day because I wantedto make sure that I didn't burn
myself out and like, while I'vedriven cross-country numerous
times, um, I've I've never doneit.
Towing a 30-foot camper, uh,you know, it's a, it's a giant

(49:56):
sail that you're just towingbehind you, you know, um, and so
, um, I should have taken thetime at nearfest, while I had
other people handy, to finalizemy, uh, my off-grid preps, right

(50:18):
.
So I, I bought a, uh, I bought auh a power inverter so that I
could convert the dc voltagefrom the batteries to power, at
the very least, my outlets, sothat I could have coffee in the
morning and whatnot.
The studio is all powered fromthe all-powers power that's.

(50:43):
That's a completely separateentity and you know I can.
I can run that off grid.
Come to find out if I'm notusing the computer and I'm just
powering like the radio and andthe star link, these all powers,
power stations, will go forabout nine days, wow.

(51:06):
So yeah.
So, even even when I got here,the all powers still had life
left in them.
Now, the 12-volt deep cycle RVand marine battery that was
mounted on the tongue, that didnot last very long at all.
That failed absolutelymiserably.

(51:28):
To put it into context, you'llhave to bear with me.
My ADD brain is going to kindof bounce around in this
timeline.

Speaker 1 (51:39):
Go with it.

Speaker 2 (51:40):
All right.
So yesterday, um before before,I was able to move into an RV
slot where I am currently, I wasjust in the parking lot.
And so yeah, um so, likeliterally, I I took up, uh, I

(52:04):
don't know, like 10 parkingspaces and I I just that's where
I, that's where I was residingfor that, that, uh, you know, a
couple of days.
But, um, after four days oftravel and boondocking like it,
it wouldn't have mattered if Ihad run the truck to try and

(52:25):
charge the battery up or if I,if I, yeah, and, and we, we
didn't dude, my whole travel wasall fucking rain, non-stop rain
.
and when, when I, when Ieventually get through my
footage?
Um, because I, I took my, Itook my gopro hero session and

(52:48):
I'm, and I mounted it like adash cam and so I, anytime, like
I was, uh, you know, on theroad going through someplace
that I wanted to record it, Iwould just turn it on and you
just get your dash cam view.
But, of course, when I'mpulling into the drop zone, I

(53:11):
hit the record button and I seethe light start flashing a
little bit saying it's recording.
I'm like, all right, cool.
Nope, I get off the the highwayand it is not recording because
the sd card's full, oh boy,technology I love it yeah, so I,
I, I captured all of the uh,the the trip, uh, up to up, up

(53:36):
to up to the end.
And then forgot the yep, um, Iwill say.
One other giant pain in the assis now.
My truck is gas, and apparentlymost people who tow an RV buy a
diesel, of course.
And so when you stop at truckstops and you stop at a you know

(54:00):
gas stations, you've you've gotthe nice big areas to pull into
for your diesels gas not somuch.
Yeah, so there was a there wasmore than one, uh or two little
gas stations that I pulled intoand I was like, oh my God, how
am I going to get out of thisgas station?
I pulled into and I was like,oh my God, how am I going to get
out of this gas station?

(54:21):
I know Right.
Yep and uh yeah, I.
I was praying for something likea Bucky's like.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah give me.
There's not much going downthrough Jersey and everything
else like that New York there,yeah, forget it.

Speaker 2 (54:41):
Yeah, and everything else like that in New York.
Yeah, forget it.
Yeah, and I was getting so upuntil I hit the flatlands.
It was like seven miles to thegallon, oh, ouch, yeah.
Once I got into the flatlands Igot about eight and a half
miles.

Speaker 1 (54:56):
That's a lot of headwind.

Speaker 2 (54:57):
That's a lot of headwind for sure well, and
because of all the rain, it waswindy as well, and so, like you
could feel it like the wind wasblowing me around.
Anytime I'm in a headwind, likeI'm, I'm consistent, like just
tacking 3,000 RPMs for 100 miles, and then I'm like I need gas.

(55:23):
Oh my gosh, yep yeah.
Oh dude, I get paranoid, right?
If my truck gets below a half atank, I start panicking.
I need to find fuel, because ifsomething goes wrong and I
can't find fuel, I've only gotso much to get me to where I'm

(55:46):
going.
Twice I was.
I was like uh, I filled up.
When I finally found the gasstation, I filled up and I have
a 26 gallon tank and I wasputting 24 gallons into the
truck.
Oh uh bring that one right downto the wire.

(56:10):
Um, yeah, and I, I absolutelyhate doing that.
It drives me nuts Like so, yeah, uh, so there's that.
Um, I will say though, likedude, upstate new york
absolutely beautiful, yeah,absolutely beautiful.
Um, you know, so I got video.

(56:31):
Sorry, what are you doing?
Huh, what?

Speaker 1 (56:36):
are you doing?

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Nothing.
My phone is going off.
I took it off the charger.

Speaker 2 (56:53):
Polishing the old torpedo, sir.
Anyway, move along, continue.
Yeah, all right, so, yeah, so,absolutely beautiful.
I stopped in eastern New Yorkthe first night, Boondocked at a
farm.
It's beautiful.
I put pictures, I think, onInstagram.
What does boondock mean?

(57:14):
You just crash there.
So boondocking is you're,you're camping off the grid, so
you've got.

Speaker 3 (57:23):
You've got no water and no power oh, is this like a
random farm that you just pulledup into, or is it a place that?

Speaker 2 (57:30):
allows you, so uh.
So this is a program for ourviewers called harvest hosts.
Um and so uh, because I had, I,I had intended to use harvest
hosts for this trip.
I it's 99 for the year, butthen it each place you can stay

(57:50):
one night for free, like theyallow you, the.
It's a deal that the, the farmor the vineyard or the
distillery or the brewery orwhatever it is, they make the
deal with harvest hosts and someof them do have, you know,
power and water and or thecombination, you know one or the

(58:11):
other, but so, yeah, so, like Imean this place, it just
happened to be, I think, theyraised a bunch of cattle, so
they had a whole bunch of cowsand they had a farm stand and
they put me up by their hay barn.
I had a nice flowing creekrunning alongside the trailer,

(58:41):
flowing creek running alongsidethe the trailer and, um, after,
uh, after I rolled my ankle, Iwent, soaked my foot in that
creek.
Yeah, you know, because, well,what do you do when, uh, when
you don't have ice and an icepack, right, right, you use
mother nature, will provide, uh,it's ice, cold water flowing
from up above as as mothernature tells you to wear better

(59:03):
supporting sold boots, butanyway yeah, uh, definitely
listen, okay, uh, I'm, I do,dumb sometimes.

(59:23):
Sometimes it's okay.
I knew 100.
I knew when I looked at thislog going across the the the
creek at pitstown state forestwith mike I I looked at it.
I was like all the bark is gone, it's wet, it's got to be
slicker than shit.
I'm wearing cowboy boots withno grip or anything.
I'm wearing cowboy boots withno grip or anything, yep.
But on the other side there wasthis absolutely beautiful

(59:50):
emerald green pool of water andit was like a little well, a big
eddy offshoot of the littlestream that that was flowing
through.
But the color was so perfect Iwas like I want to get pictures
and video over by this, thispool.
So I looked at mike and I waslike what a bet I can make it
across oh, there we go there.

(01:00:11):
You screwed yourself he's likenope, I don't, but I mean go
ahead if you want.
And I was like, yeah, all right, here we go.
And I mean, if you saw mike'svideo, he, he, uh, he, he
captured it wait.

Speaker 1 (01:00:26):
He waited till the end.
He waited till the end, thoughthat was good he's like I was
gonna say uh 56 to 1 let's put alittle pause there, because I
got a bone to pick with you andthank god, I got a tough skin
because I heard my audio back inthe video and I'm like what the
what the fuck with the fiveseven?
My gosh, come on, really.
Like I deserve way better.

(01:00:48):
I hang out with you, I, we, weoperate together.
A five seven.
Mike's like, yeah, you're fivenine.

Speaker 2 (01:00:53):
I'm like, yeah, damn right, I'm a five nine because
I'm here in the video you were,you were, you were, you were
good, you were between a sevenand a nine yeah, thanks, you can
never give a nine, can you?

Speaker 1 (01:01:06):
you never give a nine , to be honest there.

Speaker 2 (01:01:10):
there are so many times where, like I'll be, I'll
be reviewing my, my video andI'll go uh, I shouldn't have
given that guy a five, nine,like that was definitely not,
but I wanted, I wanted to, Iwanted to, I wanted to fuck with
you a little bit, cause I heardyour call and, and, and then I

(01:01:35):
picked up somebody else and andthen you called again and so it
was like what?
Oh, somebody, somebody, waydown to the noise there.
Yeah exactly.

Speaker 1 (01:01:45):
I was just like I'm like dude, you guys were booming
in.
It was literally like we'rehaving this conversation now.
It was clear as day.
There was no static on thebands, there was nothing.
I was just like this is rarebecause, like every time I hear
mike on 10 watts, it's just likewhy is it?
It's like you were booming in,he was booming in and I was just

(01:02:05):
like this is an opportunity.
I can't be like as bad as hesays it is.
And then, you know, I heard thevideo and I was like, yeah, I
think it's much, but all goodyeah, it was, uh, it was cool.

Speaker 2 (01:02:18):
Uh, I got to use a 705 I had.
I hadn't used the 705 before,um, but um, so, yeah, so fast
forward from there.
Uh, the next day, the next dayI kind of I took a, I took a
relaxed day, um, so I droveanother four hours.

(01:02:38):
I stopped in, uh, bergen, newYork, um, which is, uh, it's
just Southwest of Rochester.
Um, I stayed at, uh, at a, at abeautiful little vineyard, and
I picked up a bottle of cabcabernet sauvignon.

(01:02:59):
Uh, you know I'm like he pouredthat stuff out and put whiskey
in it well, no, so so the thebottle of cabernet is for my
wife, okay, um, I.
There was another bottle thatwas, uh, it was a, a bourbon
wine, and so I gave the bourbonwine to Carlos' wife Pam, for

(01:03:33):
being so gracious to host me onThursday night, and I had also
picked up a little breakfastbasket thing from the first farm
and, yeah, so the vineyard, itwas a really nice place.
But, man, I was so sick of therain by that point, I was just

(01:03:56):
wet, wet, wet and everything inthe RV was a mess, and I didn't
have any water left in myfreshwater tank by that point.
Oh nice you had to go, okay.
And so, fortunately, when, whenI first started living in the
RV in in February, I wasn'tusing the freshwater tank so I

(01:04:18):
had empty water bottles onegallon water bottles so I filled
them from the spigot at thevineyard so it at least gave me
some water to get by.
And then, yeah.
So then I drove four hours fromBergen, new York, to Chagrin

(01:04:39):
Falls, ohio, and I stayed at theMessenger Farm.
Let me tell you, this place wassuper cool 70-some-odd acre
farm run by a Vietnam veteranand his wife.

(01:04:59):
And they text me, you know, likethe morning of.
And they were like, hey, listen, because of all the rain, we
have to put you someplace elseon our farm.
And so they were like the GPS.
What you've got for GPScoordinates is going to be a
little, you know, short or longof where we want you to be.
And so we're going to throw twotraffic cones out at the end of

(01:05:23):
the road where we want you topull in.
And I was like, all right, no,that's cool.
Uh, so I I pulled in, I parkeduh over by one of their barns.
They happen to have powerhookups, oh nice.
So I was able to at leastrecharge uh the battery
overnight there.
Um, I had wonderfulconversation with uh with with

(01:05:47):
the owners.
I wish uh, my memory didn't suckso bad and I could remember, I
could remember their names, um,but the, uh, the gentleman, uh,
the gentleman, like you know.
So the next morning, uh,thursday morning, I, uh, I got
up and they, they invited me tocome down to their farmhouse and

(01:06:07):
sit on their porch and havecoffee and, uh, and some,
whatever bread that they hadmade, you know breakfast bread,
um, and yeah, the old man cameout and we shot the shit for a
couple hours and he was like youknow, just take your time,
there's no need to rush off.
You know, like, well, I, yeah, Ikind of schedule, gotta keep

(01:06:31):
the schedule.
So yeah, so that was reallycool.
Do you have a question about?
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:06:42):
I did.

Speaker 2 (01:06:42):
No, I'm good all right, um so, uh.
So from chagrin falls, ohio, touh, to the fort wayne area in
indiana's and as about anotherfour hours, it was super cool to
meet Carlos and his wife.

(01:07:04):
Obviously, we get to see eachother online.
We interact all the time inDiscord and everything else.

Speaker 1 (01:07:14):
Carlos and I we text on the side because of the
skydiving stuff that's what bffsdo yeah, there's nothing wrong
with a man crush man I'm notknocking out circle of trust,
man, circle of trust I, Iapplaud, uh, I applaud him uh

(01:07:35):
tremendously, like he he's, he'sgot, he's you know he's a
military veteran he doesn't.

Speaker 2 (01:07:43):
He doesn't put it out there a lot, but he was in the
army, as was his wife, but justyeah, just really, really cool
to hang out there.
Watson got to play with, withCarlos's dog, gracie, which was
cool, you know, like she's, uh,she's, she's a little bit older,

(01:08:04):
um, but you know they, they hada ton of fun playing and, um,
one of the interesting things isso carlos has, uh, his screens
for on his screen doors to go inand out of the backyard.
They're cut at the bottom sothe dogs just go right through.
Watson would sit at the screen.

(01:08:33):
He did eventually figure it outafter a couple times.

Speaker 1 (01:08:37):
What does Voodoo, this dog, keep disappearing.
I can't understand it.

Speaker 3 (01:08:42):
Carlos' dog comes to, like someone brings it to
someone's house and they got thescreen through and the dog just
like bolts right through itParallel through.

Speaker 2 (01:08:50):
Well, so that's what he said to me.
He's like I apologize if atsome point like your dog just
goes straight through thefucking screen door because
learned behavior nice but yeah.
So that was awesome, really,really great to just kind of
have some downtime and and hangout with them.

(01:09:13):
I get to see, you know,carlos's his work area and I get
to see his garage and hisstudio and his radio shack and
all of his antennas andeverything.
A lot of fun, that was great.
And then Friday morning Carlosmade a fantastic breakfast.

(01:09:34):
Carlos made a fantasticbreakfast and then about noon I
headed to the drop zone.
So it was about another fourhours we're.
It should have been four hours,but oh man, the highway all

(01:09:56):
around Chicago was a freakingnightmare.
I'm talking four lane highway,left hand exit, right and left,
and packed I mean packed withsemis, and so I mean I got my CB

(01:10:16):
on.
I'm listening to the trucks.
I got my two meter on.
I did put my call out manytimes throughout the travel.
You know, hey, n10g mobile onthis highway, you know on 152.
Nope, nobody, nothing.

(01:10:37):
Not one person answered my call.
Dudes, not surprising.
Yep, whatever, um, I, I, but Idid have aprs running.

Speaker 1 (01:10:47):
So you know most of the the travels is is all
tracked that way, uh yeah, it'sfunny, when you got into the new
york area you kind of got alittle sketchy, because there's
just not enough digipeters upthat way.
But yeah, it kind of pieced itall together.

Speaker 2 (01:11:05):
So, yeah, not surprising.
And yeah, I pulled into theparking lot.
Jesus, it was like a littleafter 430.
Now we're central time here andso the, the, the time change
kind of fucked me up a littlebit.
Yeah, One hour behind, Okay,but ground school started at

(01:11:28):
5.00 PM and I pulled in at like4.30 and I'm like I, I don't
know where I'm going, I don'tknow what I'm doing.
I the only thing I've done ispay for ground school and so, um
, the this place is awesome.
It's amazing.
The people here are super nice.
The, the skydivers are allsuper friendly and super helpful

(01:11:51):
.
Um, it, literally it's like ifyou took the best people from
the ham radio community and youput them in an extreme sport
they run an HRO, yeah, orwhatever, yeah.
Yeah, and a lot of them actuallyhave interest in ham radio.

(01:12:12):
Like I mean, I must've talkedto four or five people that were
like, oh yeah, I, you know, Istarted learning.
Or you know, I I took mytechnician test and I I didn't
pass.
And you know, I'm thinkingabout getting back into it, you
know?
Or I was, I was learning hamradio when it was code, and you

(01:12:33):
know, and I'm like dude, there'sno code anymore and you can
test online.
It's super easy.

Speaker 3 (01:12:38):
I know, right so paul did so.
You said when you were atcarlos's house, to this jump
place is this jump place thatyou go?
Is that where carlos jumps from?
He's four hours away from thisplace, four hours.
So every time he wants to drophe's got to drive four hours,
jump and then drive home fourhours.

Speaker 2 (01:12:59):
No, so what he does is, if you follow his channel,
he did a series last year wherehe turned the bed of his little
truck into a camper.
Right, he built himself alittle bed, he's got like a
fridge and all kinds of shit Acouple of really great videos

(01:13:20):
but what he'll do is he'll drivehis truck here and he'll just
stay the weekend in his truck.
That way he's not driving backand forth, back and forth this
weekend.
One of his buddies let him usehis RV so he gets to sleep in

(01:13:42):
the lap of luxury for theweekend.
Not bad, yeah, but yeah, so allright.
So I did ground school Fridaynight.
That ran from 5 pm till about11 pm.
That ran from 5 pm until about11 pm and then we got to hang

(01:14:03):
out kind of socialize for alittle bit.
About midnight I was like I'mdone because the morning comes
early.
So, yeah, 6.30.
The sun was waking me up beforemy alarm.
Anyways, about six my alarmwent off at 630.

(01:14:24):
But yeah, I got up Saturdaymorning and the drop zone
officially opens at, I think,830 on the weekends.
So by 8, I was in the classroomand we were starting to review,
go over all of the things.
Um, you, you would think, oh,it's, it's not that much to

(01:14:49):
learn.
You know what I mean.
You're just falling through thesky out of an airplane, right?
Like no, there is a lot tolearn, um, and so, yeah, I, I
don't know, I don't know if Isaid it during during the
podcast or or if it was for thepatreon before um, but I, I've

(01:15:13):
been studying the uh, the sim,the skydive information manual,
uh 2025 edition since sincemarch.
So I've had, I've had a coupleof months to really go through
the book multiple times to toput in my mind the things that I

(01:15:34):
need to know.
Right, like, how far away doyou have to be from clouds?
How far away do you have to befrom other people?
Um, you know what is theprocedure for this, what is the
procedure for that?
You know how are things couldgo wrong with, with the, the
canopy when it opens up, and howdo you deal with those things
and what is the emergencyprocedures.

(01:15:55):
And so I had, I had theknowledge in my head, but I
didn't have the practical use ofit, and so that's what all of
this was and it was fantastic,like, um, they get these little
dummy vests that you can put onwith the, the emergency handles
and, uh, you know so, drillingover and over and over and over

(01:16:19):
and over, drilling, drilling,drilling, drilling.
Uh, carlos showing pictures,he's like okay, so, uh, 6,000
feet, right.
So you, you, you, you lock onyou.
You look at your altimeter5,500,.
You wave off to let otherskydivers know that you're going
to deploy your parachute.

(01:16:40):
You reach and throw, okay, sowe're practicing.
And he goes, okay, so yourcanopy opens and this picture is
what you see, and it'd be likea really fucked up parachute.
Okay, now the parachute isn'tgood, I need to get rid of it.

(01:17:03):
So, emergency procedures.
So you look down, your cutawayhandle is on your right side.
You look down to your right,you grab the handle with your
right hand, you take your lefthand, you put it over the top of
it and then you look to yourleft, because your left side is
where your reserve handle is.
And so you hold the look onyour left, while with your right

(01:17:28):
you peel away the the handlefrom the velcro and then punch
it down.
And when you punch it down,what what that does is it pulls
the cords that are attached tothe risers and it just
disconnects everything so thatthe parachute can fly away from
you.
And then it gives you thechance to grab the reserve on

(01:17:52):
your left and do the same thing.
You peel it away from the Velcroand you punch it down, and that
deploys the same thing.
You peel it away from theVelcro and you punch it down,
and that deploys the reserveparachute.
And so I'm super happy, like Igot to do all these drills, all
these drills, all these drills.
It made me feel more confidentin my ability, should something

(01:18:15):
go wrong, that I've got a way tosave myself.
Um, so we started with, uh,with two student tandems, and so
, like the, the tandem that Idid in October, like, literally,
I didn't learn anything from it, it was just the experience of

(01:18:36):
flying the.
You know, this time around the,there was objectives to even
the tandem and it was okay, likeyou're, you're gonna reach
behind, as if you're gonnadeploy your parachute, but
instead of being a parachute,you know there's a guy there and

(01:18:56):
he's got a ball on his hip inthe same kind of location
roughly that your, your canopyuh pilot shoot would be, and so
you grab the golf ball and youknow, you know that it's there,
okay they're only the size of agolf ball
they're not.
No, literally it, it, it's, itlooks like a golf ball.

(01:19:18):
Yeah, okay, yeah, it literallylooks like a golf ball.
Dimples and all Um and and so,yeah, so, but it's just, it's
just that practice motion of ofreaching back to grab it, um,
and then I, I got to pull thetandem parachute, oh.

(01:19:40):
And so then I pull the tandemparachute when, when we reached
the correct altitude, and uh,the, the, the instructor behind
me, uh, cause I can't reach the,the, the brakes, the toggles
for the brakes, they're wayabove my head.
So he reaches up and he pullsthem down and they have two

(01:20:03):
loops, so he's got one set ofloops, and then I get the other
set of loops and so he hands methe toggles and he's like, okay,
you get to fly the canopy, nice, and you know.
So, like we knew, okay, I haveto.
Now, granted, okay, so you're,you deploy at 5,500 feet by the

(01:20:29):
time the chute opens and youmake sure that the canopy's good
and it's controllable andsteerable.
You're 4,000 or so feet at thatpoint, and so you need to fly to
where you can hang out in aholding area so that you're in

(01:20:53):
the right place to start your uh, your landing pattern, and the
the landing pattern isessentially it's a, it's a it's
a long.
J.
Uh, so you, you, you start the.
You start the process at athousand feet and you go
downwind and you travel downwindwith the wind until you get to

(01:21:19):
600 feet and then you make aturn, a 90 degree turn, and you
go crosswind until you get to300 feet and then you make
another 90 degree turn andyou're on your final leg.
And then, when your feet areabout 12 feet off the ground,

(01:21:43):
your, your eyeballs are not 12feet off the ground, but when
your feet are 12 feet off theground, right is when you,
that's when you start to to to,you know, you, you pull the
brakes down to about your chestin preparation for landing.
And then, when you're aboutfour feet, your feet being four

(01:22:05):
feet off the ground, you punchit all the way down to your
crotch as hard as you can, likefull brakes, so that you get
that nice, easy kind of rest,know, rest down.
Um, the tandem parachutes sohard to pull it because it's

(01:22:27):
such a big parachute, becauseit's holding so much weight,
like dude, all right, so I'm,I'm, I, I get it, I get it down
to to my chest and I'm like allright, good, and then I, I go to
push it the rest of the way andI just couldn't do it.

(01:22:48):
So the instructor helped me out.
But one thing, um, you know youdon't think about it in the
moment because you're holding itlike this right and so your
natural reaction is to pull downin that same way when you're

(01:23:13):
using all the minor muscles todo that motion, whereas if you
rotate your wrists then you, youstart working, you know, with
your lats and your, your upperback, where you can really get
that, that push um, so I learnedthat and, uh, this second

(01:23:37):
second tandem jump, um went,went, really, really, really
well, uh, super happy about it,like I did everything right and
they're like good, you'recleared for solo.
Unfortunately, wins wouldn't.
Let me do solo yesterday.

(01:23:57):
Um, so 6 30 this morning I'm up, I'm ready, going solo.
And yeah, we started in theclassroom reviewing, reviewing,
reviewing, going back over theemergency procedures, practicing
, practicing, practicing.
And then, um, they have these,they have these um like

(01:24:21):
imitation doorways set up.
There's like three of themaround the drop zone where you
can go and you can practiceexiting the plane through this
fake doorway, uh, and then youknow all of the movement that
you're going to do.
So we drilled, drilled, drilled,drilled, drilled, um, you know,

(01:24:43):
um, I'm, I'm saying all thethings right, I'm doing all the
things right, I've got it down.
It's in my memory, Like I'm,I'm walking through the motions
of the flight and everythingLike literally like walking,
like, oh, okay, I'm flying to myholding area, I'm flying to my

(01:25:06):
holding area and I'm walking tothe holding area and then, okay,
I'm checking my altitude andCarlos would tell me what
altitude I was, you know, intheory at.
I'd be like, okay, so I got, Igot some time, so I'm going to
do some practice, flaring andflare, and check my altitude,
and carlos would tell me over myshoulder okay, this is what

(01:25:29):
your altitude is now and, allright, I got time, I can, I can
practice again, check myaltitude, what's my altitude,
and he'll give me anotheraltitude reading.
Okay, I got a little bit moretime, I can do it again.
And I'll be like, all right,altitude, he'll go okay, 2,500.
Okay, well, 2,500, allexercises stop.

(01:25:51):
You got to get ready forlanding, okay.
So now I'm waiting for 1,000feet and I'm waiting for a
thousand feet and I'm waiting,all right, okay, thousand feet,
900.
Here we go.
I'm starting my downwind andjust being able to physically
walk through it like it helpscement it in.

(01:26:11):
So my jump went absolutely shitsideways.
Um, I came, all right.
So, uh, I did good things.
I did good things, but allright.
So coming, let's we'll.
We'll go through it in detail.
Coming out of the plane, um, Ihad I had two instructors with

(01:26:35):
me.
One was there to you know, justkind of observe and help, and
he was going to hold on to oneside.
Carlos was going to hold on tothe other side.
So I've got the one instructorthat's observing on the outside
of the plane and then I've gotCarlos on the inside of the
plane.

(01:26:55):
I move into the doorway and Iget myself ready and they call
it a hotel check, right.
So you check in, you check out,you make sure that both
instructors are good, then youbring your body out of the plane

(01:27:19):
and you stand up so that youcan see the propeller and you go
up, down and step out.
So I wasn't as tall as I shouldhave been outside of the plane
and I was holding on to the doorframe a little too tight.
Oh shit, dude.
The plane's flying on the edgeof the door outside

(01:27:45):
of the plane hanging on.
Why wouldn't you hang on?

Speaker 3 (01:27:47):
tight.

Speaker 2 (01:27:49):
Yes.

Speaker 1 (01:27:52):
Instinct tells you to .

Speaker 2 (01:27:54):
The plane's, I think, traveling about 90 knots at
that point, um, because it slowsdown for for the jumps, um, but
yeah, so on on exit, um the theinstructor, that was a little
bit far back and I wasn't archedenough.

(01:28:19):
So when I came out I came outunstable and carlos lost his
grip because as he was comingout of the plane, because we
were already kind of offkiltered, uh yeah.

(01:28:39):
So his his parachute, uhcontainer, caught the door and
like really slowed him.
And so then we're out and I'm,I'm tumbling, I'm spinning, I'm
trying to like get stable andI'm trying to to do what I'm
supposed to do and and I'm likeI, I wasn't freaked out, to be

(01:29:03):
honest, I wasn't freaked out, itwas not a moment of panic, it
was just how do I get stable?
How do I get stable?
And I just kept feeling like Iwas being thrown around.
Carlos tried to catch up to usand he just couldn't because of

(01:29:27):
the way we were spinning.
But so again back to things.
I did right, I was checking myaltitude right, because that's
regardless your number onepriority is to pull at the
proper altitude.
Stability doesn't matter atthat point.

(01:29:48):
You need to pull at the properaltitude.
And so, as I looked down and Isaw I was at 5,800 feet 55 is
when I need to pull theinstructor that was still

(01:30:10):
attached to me holding on, hegets.
So he's flying backside downlooking up at me and I'm flying
belly down.
He, he gives me the finger, andthe one finger pointing out
means full.
And so, like I was already, Iwas already there in the motion
of reaching for the pilot shootand I saw him give me the and I

(01:30:35):
was like this, is it Go?
And man the parachute openedand did you breathe a sigh of
relief for a moment, thank God.

Speaker 3 (01:30:49):
And you look up and it's like Now, when you so, when
you pull the parachute, thatguy is underneath you falling on
his back and he just keepsfalling.
So then he has to turn around,right, do the same thing On his
parachute.

Speaker 2 (01:31:05):
So what he had to do was he had to flip back over.
He's an instructor himself, sohe's very good at flying.
Yeah, he could fly upside down,head down, up down, it doesn't
matter, he's, he's good atflying.
Um, yeah, but so he has to getaway from me so that he can pull

(01:31:28):
his chute and then, like, beatme to the ground and so, yeah,
so I'm up and I'm I'm okay, letme check the parachute and go
through the motions of all thethings that I I learned all
right, parachutes, good, where's, where's my holding area,

(01:31:52):
where's the place that I'msupposed to be?
So I located it by lookingaround and I fly to it and I'm
like, okay, just breathe, thisis the coolest fucking thing in
the world.
Honest to God, I want to getlicensed, not so that I can do

(01:32:14):
free fall, I want to do it justto fly a freaking parachute,
because flying the damnparachute is so much fun.
Um, yeah.
So I, I did some practicemaneuvers, um, and then when, uh
, when the time was right 900feet I started my downward leg.
I was a little too far northwhen I started my leg, and so

(01:32:42):
the runway runs roughly east towest, and so my downward leg was
to the west, and then I wasturning right to the north and
then right to go east into thewind for the final.
But as I make the right-handturn to go crosswind, I'm not

(01:33:08):
losing altitude fast enough andso I'm going to fly over the
runway.
You cannot fly over the runwayat under 1,000 feet.
So I'm like, well, I have toturn early, and so I turned
early.
I turned, I think like 750 feet.

(01:33:30):
I turned and started flyingeast on the final approach.
And started flying east on thefinal approach, yeah, yeah,
because I should have turned at300.
And I was at like 7.
So, yeah, I turned and I waslike, whatever, I can't go over

(01:33:54):
the runway, I flew it down.

Speaker 3 (01:33:57):
Why couldn't you go over the runway?

Speaker 2 (01:33:59):
Because the planes constantly take off and landing.

Speaker 3 (01:34:04):
Do they go right away though?

Speaker 2 (01:34:07):
No no.

Speaker 3 (01:34:09):
Air traffic control guys say there's a parachute
coming in.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
No, it's not tagged, but it will be picked up.

Speaker 3 (01:34:17):
It's like when you're boating like a sailboat has the
right-of-way over a motorboat.

Speaker 1 (01:34:22):
Yeah, but a sailboat can't stop on a dime.
Like a motorboat can, true, butlike a plane, in its takeoff is
not going to be able to shutoff engines and come to a
screeching halt, especially whenit's like halfway in the air.
Shut off engines and come to ascreeching halt, especially when
it's halfway in the air.

Speaker 2 (01:34:38):
Because you got some moron that flew over the runway
All right.

Speaker 1 (01:34:43):
But really it all boils down to.

Speaker 3 (01:34:45):
You're 700 feet, it's okay.
His penis is okay.

Speaker 2 (01:34:49):
Oh, my God Sorry.

Speaker 1 (01:34:50):
Sorry.

Speaker 3 (01:34:53):
Now you're heading down, you're going to overshoot
the landing gear or the landingspot.

Speaker 2 (01:35:00):
In theory, yes, I would have overshot it because I
turned early.
It actually worked out wellthat the way that I came in
where I landed was almostexactly where I needed to be.
I was, I was in, I was in theright area.

Speaker 1 (01:35:26):
Um and he was in the neighborhood.

Speaker 2 (01:35:29):
So I I got the, I got , I got the landing video.
Um, it's uh, it's four minuteslong.
Uh, if, if the internetbandwidth will allow me, I'd
like to try and share it withyou.

Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
Yeah, give it a shot.
Well, let's see how it goes.

Speaker 2 (01:35:52):
I will share it without audio and I'll let you
know what's being said.
All right, so that's me rightthere with the big orange
parachute, and so Carlos istelling me that I should be

(01:36:16):
close to 600 feet, which iswhere I need to turn.
I wasn't.

Speaker 3 (01:36:23):
How are you talking to Carlos?
He's not.
This is after right.

Speaker 2 (01:36:28):
No, no, no.
So he had a radio to talk to me.
Oh and yeah so all right, so,and yeah, so, alright.
so right there where I justturned to face him, he's telling
me alright, 300, or before therunway right because 300 the

(01:36:55):
white line on the right handside, that's the runway, and so,
yeah, so, like I said, I I hadto turn early because I I was
gonna go over the runway, sothat he was telling me he was
coaching me through it like 300or before the runway, so nice

(01:37:17):
and easy.
So here he's telling me feetand knees together, keep my
hands all the way up, so weremain in full flight.
And so I'm just trying to keepit straight, trying to keep the

(01:37:38):
canopy level, and I'm coming in,and I'm coming in, and so here
we go.
I kept kind of giving it alittle break and here it is.
So there's my first flare andpunch all the way, and I so I

(01:38:02):
could have, I could haveactually stood up that landing,
but I decided to just sit it sitit out and relax.

Speaker 1 (01:38:12):
That's awesome, dude.

Speaker 3 (01:38:13):
That's freaking amazing so I'm just telling you
right now if you like the flyingof the parachute.

Speaker 2 (01:38:25):
You're going to be wingsuiting it in the future.
We'll see.

Speaker 3 (01:38:26):
It takes 200 200 to to get to the wingsuit.
I know, I'm just saying if youlike, if you, if you're like I
like flying that, like thoseguys they fly like an airplane,
like like superman, oh yeah upand down and an airplane like
like superman.

Speaker 2 (01:38:43):
oh yeah, up and down and yeah, but so my, my first
thought, right when I'm on theground, is oh my god, yes, this
is amazing, right?
I?
I let out a loud yeah, and thenI go.
What did I do wrong?
Everything, no, no, he wouldnever hear that, but yeah.
He says to hell with that.

(01:39:04):
He says what did you do Right?
Yep, yep, fuck that shit.
What did you do Right?
Those were his words, yeah.
So yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (01:39:24):
Very cool.
That's awesome dude.

Speaker 3 (01:39:28):
So you, you soloed out of an airplane.
That's, that's sweet.

Speaker 1 (01:39:34):
He's a bird.

Speaker 3 (01:39:36):
So, so now how so you've done now three.
You did three tandem jumps andthen one solo right.

Speaker 2 (01:39:45):
So you have four jumps now, so yeah.
So I did a fun tandem inPepperell, I did two student
tandems, so that's three, andI've done one AFF jump, uh,
which I have to redo what is aff?

Speaker 3 (01:40:02):
advanced free fall oh , so do you have to keep, like
you know how pilots have to keeplike a log?

Speaker 2 (01:40:09):
yes, you keep a parachute log of all your jumps
and and my instructors have tosign off on on each jump and so,
yeah, so my log right now hasthe, the three plus the ground
school, because my ground schoolalso got added to the log.
Um, and and in in the log right.

(01:40:33):
So you know, like carlos wrote,you know all the things that I
did right, and and he wrote likeexited exited in a bad arch
needs to have a good arch,because you, you want your
pelvis towards the ground asmuch as possible, and so now I'm

(01:40:55):
going to be doing pelvis drillsto like get that feeling.

Speaker 3 (01:41:01):
And let me tell you, dude, my lower back is fucking
tight yeah, I don't think Icould do this because I've got
that's where I have my arthritis.
Like when I just stretch, likethat, I can feel it.

Speaker 2 (01:41:14):
Oh man, I just feel like a wet weight I mean you,
you could do a tandem, because atandem, uh, it's, it's, it's
very different because you'reyou're flying with a bigger
parachute for one, but you'reit's also got a drogue, and the
drogue is what helps keep youbelly down, and so I don't have

(01:41:38):
the drogue.
I have to make my body do it.
But like you could, you coulddo a tandem, you know.
So I'm not, uh, I'm not, I, Ibeat myself up about it for a
little bit.
I'm, I'm not, I'm not upsetabout it in any way.
It was, it was a learningexperience.

Speaker 3 (01:41:57):
Um, I, I, I landed well that you land and you're
still alive is a.
That's a good job, it's asuccess in my book.
I mean shit, I mean you'refloating down here all by
yourself.
You had to steer it and landand yeah the shoot.

Speaker 1 (01:42:12):
I mean it is freaking amazing, dude.
Like you know, I, all of usleft pdm guys are super proud of
you.
Man, that's awesome that you're, you know, following through
with that.
That's great stuff, dude.
I am blown away.
I'm looking forward to uh, youknow, once you finally get what,
how many total do you need toget to your class a?

Speaker 2 (01:42:32):
so I'm.
So every, every jump hascertain objectives that I have
to meet, all right.
So the objectives that I didnot meet with this one was the
flight stability, so that Icould do three practice.
So what you do is you know likeyou have to be able to fly

(01:42:54):
stable, you know like you haveto be able to fly stable, and
then when the coach tells youthat you're good, then you have
to reach back and you have totouch the pilot, shoot three
times.
Yeah, and that's that's whatyour, your, your requirement is
to pass level one.
And so, because I couldn't flystable, I couldn't do the

(01:43:16):
practices.
So, while, yes, I I didsuccessfully pull my own chute,
I missed the mark, so I stillhave to do it again.

Speaker 1 (01:43:26):
That was your first job, dude you are no one in the
planet.
I'm sure you pulled it offperfectly.

Speaker 3 (01:43:31):
If you had flown stable, like you were supposed
to do, you wouldn't have pulledthe chute.

Speaker 2 (01:43:36):
The instructor would have oh no, I still would have
pulled it.
Oh yeah, but but I would have.
I would have been able to dothe three practice, touch, and,
and then it would have.
It would have been a successgot it yeah, but uh, you know,
at the very least, you know, Imaintained my altitude awareness
.
Uh, so, and, and I had asuccessful landing so hard on

(01:44:02):
yourself.

Speaker 3 (01:44:02):
I think it was a success.
I mean, you jumped out of anairplane by yourself.
You you were in a crisis oftrying to stay stable and you
still were able to keep youraltitude and pull the chute and
then fly it to the landing zonewithout going over the runway.

Speaker 1 (01:44:18):
I agree with Todd a hundred percent.
I mean your first time dude.

Speaker 3 (01:44:23):
That's pretty awesome .

Speaker 1 (01:44:24):
Just just stay away from words like failed, because
you don't want those wordsincorporated into a flying or a
parachute.

Speaker 3 (01:44:31):
You're like I failed, but at least I pulled the chute
.

Speaker 1 (01:44:33):
I know, like, like, okay it's not, but at least I
pulled the shoe, the shoe.

Speaker 2 (01:44:36):
I know you can't miss that one.

Speaker 3 (01:44:37):
That's the most important one.

Speaker 2 (01:44:39):
How about this?
For any of our people listeningor watching that have been in
the service, you understand gono-go.
Each of the 25 jumps is a gono-go.
Number one was a no go, sowe'll redo it until I'm a go and

(01:45:09):
then we'll go to two andcontinue on.

Speaker 1 (01:45:10):
So for the rest of our audience, basically, by the
time you leave there, you willbe Class A certified and able to
do it on your own.

Speaker 2 (01:45:19):
I will 100% leave here with my class.

Speaker 1 (01:45:23):
That's totally freaking awesome.

Speaker 3 (01:45:24):
Now, when you, when I say means that you can come
home, you can go to pepper andthen jump, correct?

Speaker 2 (01:45:32):
Yep, I'd have to rent , I'd have to rent a shoot, but
yeah, I could go anywhere.
Yeah, and so once I have my Alicense, if I go, do they keep
you at the shoot and stuff, Iassume.
Yes, I will have a packingclass, and you do have to pack

(01:45:56):
your own shoot at least once tobe able to get your a license uh
, now, after you get your alicense, are you allowed to do
tandems with other people or no?
no, no, that's, uh, that's,that's a whole other level.
So, um, so it uh 50 jumps, I Ican take the test for Class B

(01:46:21):
and then, at 100 jumps, I cantake the test for Class C.
And after Class C is when youcan start getting different
ratings.
Ratings, um, and then I think,uh, I think D is kind of like

(01:46:44):
where, where it's at Like, ifyou want to, if you want to be a
, an instructor, like do tandemsand you know AFF and all the
fun stuff, teaching other people, uh, examiner, and that's the
license that carlos is isgetting right now, or yeah, I

(01:47:15):
mean he's uh so he's, I applaudhim and everybody else that's
here like.
This place is just a wealth ofknowledge and and amazingly
experienced pilots very cooldude.

Speaker 1 (01:47:32):
yeah, that is pretty impressive.
Uh, you know, and I know youwould say something oh, I saw
your mouth moving.
I thought it was you weresaying something with no audio.
No, dude, we're all blown away.
I'm totally like super stoked.
Just the fact the wholeadventure is, you know, only a

(01:47:55):
start to something, and then youknow wherever it goes from
there it's going to be freakingamazing.

Speaker 3 (01:48:01):
So this was day one.

Speaker 2 (01:48:03):
Essentially, I mean Friday with ground school was
really day one, right, but thiswas day one of being able to
jump solo.

Speaker 1 (01:48:20):
Very cool.
Very cool, dude, that's afreaking lot.
That was like an itinerary anda half of stuff and all of it
was jam-packed with everything.
So, yeah, thanks for drivingheadwind into all that crappy
rain, because it all slowed downwhen it hit New England and
then we've been sitting in tothe point of like, hey, when's,
when's the arc rolling through?

(01:48:41):
I was at the point of thinkingdropping ham radio and getting
to shipbuilding.
It was getting so bad aroundhere.
It was pretty bad so hey, isthere?

Speaker 3 (01:48:49):
is there an emergency kind of mechanism like let's
say you passed out or somethingthat you shoot would
automatically deploy?

Speaker 2 (01:48:56):
yes, um, so part of the uh, the the process is there
are four gear checks um, yourgear gets checked before you put
it on, your gear gets checkedafter you put it on, your gear
gets checked when you get in theplane, and then your gear gets
checked again before you get outof the plane.

(01:49:17):
And part of that check is theAAD, the automatic deployment,
whatever it is.
But so if you are still in freefall and you're at 1,100 or 1
1150 feet, something like that,above ground, the AAD will

(01:49:42):
automatically fire your reserve.

Speaker 3 (01:49:45):
Fire the reserve.

Speaker 1 (01:49:47):
Yeah, you don't want to do the main one because
you're knocked out.

Speaker 2 (01:49:52):
Yeah, no, that's your emergency is the reserve.

Speaker 3 (01:49:55):
What do you mean?

Speaker 1 (01:49:56):
you wouldn't want to do the main one well, if you're
passed out, you know, or sayyou're not passed out and
accidentally you're like tryingto do something and you know the
altimeter screws up orsomething like that.

Speaker 3 (01:50:05):
You don't want your main firing, you know, because
that's what you usually havewell, if you have the reserve
and it doesn't open, can you goback to the main?
No, so why wouldn't it open themain one first?

Speaker 2 (01:50:20):
well, because that that's.
It's not set up that way.
You, you, you should bedeploying your main on your own
right, um, but so there, thereis, um, there's, there's
altitude marks, that that wehave to know.
So 2,500 feet is the absolutelowest.

(01:50:42):
That is the critical pointwhere you have to decide if your
main can be landed.
If your main cannot be landedby 2,500 feet, you have to cut
it away.
Employee reserve but ifsomething was to go wrong where,
like, I didn't have the abilityto pull my reserve and I'm in a

(01:51:05):
fast fall because my maindidn't open when that AAD fires
off that reserve, now thatreserve could get tangled up in
the main and I could beplummeting anyway, you know.
So, like, yeah, you, you reallywant to be altitude aware and
making those decisions wellbefore you get to the minimum,

(01:51:26):
yeah it's pretty awesome, man.

Speaker 3 (01:51:29):
It's a lot to learn.
It's not just like jumping outof a plane and free falling and
pulling a chute and floatingdown and having fun Nope.

Speaker 2 (01:51:44):
Yeah, and it has been recommended that.
I make the drive to Chicago anddo 10 minutes in the tunnel.

Speaker 1 (01:51:48):
Oh cool.

Speaker 3 (01:51:51):
Now you know, we have one of those in Nashua.

Speaker 2 (01:51:55):
Yes, I didn't use it, nashua, yes, I didn't use it
though.
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:52:13):
It probably would have been to my benefit to have
it gone and tried it.

Speaker 2 (01:52:15):
You know, just to understand, but yeah, well, yeah
, uh.
So apparently, though, um 10minutes in the tunnel equals
about the same cost as a jumpokay and so I was talking to one
of the other girls in the inthe in the school with me, and
she's, she's almost ready, she'sright, right at the end.

(01:52:36):
She's 26 jumps but she's stillgot a couple marks to hit.
And she goes to the tunnelevery Wednesday, every Wednesday
, and I was like, oh my God, howmuch does that cost you?
She's like, oh, $300 andsomething per week.

Speaker 1 (01:52:58):
Yeah, that's, crazy Ouch 10 minutes.

Speaker 2 (01:53:05):
I would assume she goes longer than that.
I think the 10 minutes is $130to $150, somewhere in that range
.

Speaker 1 (01:53:23):
It's expensive.
Zach did well.
You good news is you're alreadyused to it.
You know the hobby well.
Sadly was kind of.
You don't want to like buildyour own at all.
It's not one of those hobbies.

Speaker 3 (01:53:30):
But build your own?

Speaker 2 (01:53:33):
well, I definitely.
The the thing is, though, islike I mean, I don't.
I don't have endless freakingpockets you know.
So this is, this is where youknow if, if anybody appreciates
what the hell I'm doing.
I did.
I did update my my gofundmepage with, uh, you know today's

(01:53:55):
information and I was like, look, I hope everybody had a
wonderful mother's day.
This is what I did today.
Uh, I, I don't want to knowwhat it cost me to get here,
because to me that that cost isirrelevant.
My travel and everything thatcost is irrelevant.

(01:54:19):
The cost of the school is alittle over five grand, and if
anybody's willing to help, Iappreciate it.
Todd, thank you, because, yeah,it's expensive.

(01:54:41):
It is a very, very expensive,fucking sport.

Speaker 3 (01:54:49):
All right, you heard it here.
We want to see more jumps, sostart throwing your pennies or
your dollars into the go fund mepage.

Speaker 1 (01:54:59):
so, paul apparently, when I, when I command people to
go do certain things, it seemsto work.
So in this case, like I told uh, you know ted to go.
Uh, you know, stop what he wasdoing in the middle of this
podcast and you know, dial thephone number.
I am commanding everybody inthis podcast.
If you got a couple of bucks,head over to our
livefreeandhamcom website, clickthat button up in the top right
hand corner and go over andhelp.

(01:55:20):
Uh, you know, paul there getthe one step closer to
completing his class a and anduh getting uh his expensive
hobby but very fucking coolhobby period.

Speaker 3 (01:55:31):
Um that you know, look at you like your excitement
.
Talking about it is like I'mtelling you, it's like you, it's
like you're a different you, ohdude, that's just camping paul,
or the or the grouch.

Speaker 1 (01:55:42):
You're just like skydiving paul and it's like
like nothing this is like thethe hear no grouch, see no
grouch, speak yeah you'reinvincible, like nothing's gonna
stop you from like you're doingthis and it's happening.

Speaker 3 (01:55:54):
You know hell or high water, like it's you're doing,
you are and always will bekaylee fucking john.

Speaker 1 (01:56:02):
Yes, you will.
You would totally well.
No, dude, that that dude.
First and foremost, thanks forsharing.
You know I know it was a lotfire hose for those folks
listening, but, dude, it was afun time just waiting in
anticipation across the the linethere and uh, waiting for
updates and seeing what he's gotgoing on, and I'm sure he's

(01:56:23):
gonna have a shit ton of time ortry to find a shit ton of time
to edit all those freakingvideos he's gonna put together
with all the content that youknow he's backlogged on.

Speaker 2 (01:56:32):
Well, so the hours here right weekends it starts at
8.15.
On Monday, thursday, friday, itstarts at noon.
Tuesdays and Wednesdays areclosed.
So Tuesday, wednesday, I'mgoing to grocery shop and clean

(01:56:56):
the frickin' trailer becauseit's a mess in here and it's
going to just yeah, nothing butvideo editing this week.
I will say that next week Ishould be meeting up with Sean
Ham Radio Dude to do an Illinoispoda.

Speaker 1 (01:57:17):
Oh, very cool, yeah, nice, so you can get a.
Uh, see if you can get a.
Uh, you know a dude, uh, a hamradio dude.
Uh, you know mast and and youknow eval.

Speaker 2 (01:57:27):
We'll say well, I mean I've, I've got the photo 20
I I just need the uh, thelittle dude spike thing.

Speaker 1 (01:57:38):
Yeah, sweet.
Oh man, so jealous, so cool,awesome stuff, all right.
Well, my voice is shot, as youcan tell.
It's totally going and my coldmeds are starting to really wear
off here.
So I've got to go back upstairsand retire for the night and
hopefully I can fight throughthis crap, because I got a
couple other videos that I gotto do myself and I got to record

(01:58:00):
them and I can only imagine I'mnot going to be able to do
voiceovers.
It's all going to be ASMR only,and I don't know if my audience
is ready for that.
So with that, let's wrap thisstuff up, all right?
So, as always, thanks againeverybody for joining the Live
Free and Ham podcast community.
We truly appreciate everybodywho has jumped in and been part

(01:58:22):
of our Patreon crew or is overin our Discord.
We thank you guys all for thesupport and we appreciate you
guys, and I can't thank you guysenough.
And you can always connect withus by heading over to our
Discord server, joining theconversation links in all of our
show notes.
You can subscribe to ourYouTube channel if you haven't
already.
We have some awesome contentthere.

(01:58:42):
I know Todd's still working onsome videos and hopefully we'll
get a couple more.
Well, this week we didn't getrain days, but he'll get a
chance to get some of his videosdone there and those will be up
there soon.
And you can always leave us areview or just a message or
anything like WNTED did for us.

(01:59:03):
You can use our SMS linklocated in our show notes or you
can use our voicemail messagewith the 978 number, and we
apologize for if you say wecan't afford the 603 number.
But if you want to chip in,chip into Paul's stuff first
before you start chipping in forour phone number, because we'll
go on with life, we want to seePaul get his class A there.
Ian, you can always let us knowat 978-233-1142.

(01:59:28):
And, as always, you can supportour show by joining our Patreon
or buy us a beer and then youcan always head over to
liftfreeandhamcom learn aboutthe show.
Check out our list.
You can find everything aboutour host info and thanks again
from all of us at Live Free andHam and 7-3.

Speaker 2 (01:59:46):
7-3.
Thanks for giving me the show.

Speaker 1 (01:59:49):
Thanks, dude.

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Wings Unfurled: The Making of a Parachute Jesus

Are You A Charlotte?