Barnett Ghost 400 Crossbow Fun!

Video of the fun!!

"Do you want to sight in the bow?" says my buddy David Loshny.

"You bet!"

"I'll be there by 3:30!" comes the reply.

You gotta love an offer like that, in this day of everybody being so busy a break like this is greatly appreciated, and we get to play with cool toys!


Getting Ready To Shoot

The Barnett Ghost 400 is a crossbow capable of firing an arrow at over 400 feet per second, quite fast for a bow. My old PSE bow was pretty good in its day at 250fps, and allowed accurate shots up to 40yds or more on calm days.

David arrived, we grabbed the bow bag and headed out in the field with a target.

"Where should we start?" Dave asks.

"How about 30yds? I watched our last video (filmed on a windy day) and we were about 6" high at 30yds with the top crosshair." I reply.

Flying Week

Glider for wheelchair - good trade!

Well, last week was the Edmonton Soaring Club's soaring week, what a pile of fun!

Monday we arrived in the field and put my name on the list to fly, and Trevor stepped forth and volunteered to man the back seat for me. My arm strength is on the weak side so I need help with the tow, as it sometimes requires some strength and full movement of the controls to stay behind the tow plane .

Trevor supervising my landing.

At first it did not look like there was going to be very much lift, but as we got in the air the clouds were forming.   The lift turned out to be pretty good, and all that Condor practicing seemed pay off , we stayed up for 94 minutes !

"I'll fly with you anytime! " said Trevor after the flight , I took it as a huge compliment to hear that from such a good pilot !

 Tuesday I headed back up to the field, and when I arrived I noticed that nobody was flying .

" How come nobody's in the air? " I ask .

 "The air is flat, there appears to be no lift ." comes comes the reply.

  "Okay, we'll go do our sausage run and then come back , hopefully there will be lift by then . "

 We load back into the van and take off for a nearby town that has a fantastic sausage shop,  within an hour we are back of the flying field.

 " Well  there still doesn't seem to be any lift, did you want to go for a flight anyhow? " I'm told .

" Sure do! I'm here so I might as well fly! "

 It takes About 10 minutes to load me into the glider, there is no hurry because nobody else wants to fly yet anyhow . John volunteers to ride in the back with me, brave soul!  We put my cuff on so that I can grab the stick, get me all positioned and strapped in and away we go! John in the back does the tow, and at 3000 feet above ground we release from the tow plane.

"Okay, get yourself organized," John says from the back.

A Great Day Soaring!

 

The End Of A Great Flight

Well, global warming in Alberta (-40 with 4ft of snow for about 7 months) has now begrudgingly given way to the monsoon season. Those of us waiting all winter for the spring soaring season have had little to cheer about, even the Soaring Week at the Edmonton Soaring Club had more hours logged shopping than flying. It  seems our friend Murphy was well rested after the winter and eager to try for the 'Employee Of The Year' award.

Last Wednesday I was thoroughly enjoying (not) watching the Weather Channel for a few hours, from the comfort ('not' again) of a dentist's chair. I thought that maybe I was either confused or drugged. The Idiot Box showed steady rain for our area, but a glance out the window revealed blue skys dotted by cute little puffy clouds. To a glider pilot, this means 'drop whatever the heck you're doing and get to the field, it's go-time!'.

Terryll shows up to pick me up after my joyous (you guessed it - not) morning, "Looks like flying weather to me."

"Yep," I reply, "Wanna go?"

"You waited all winter to go, let's try!"

A dash home for a call to the club and gimp-flying-supplies (us quads don't do anything without tons of supplies/adaptations/misc crap, only we know what it's all for and we're not telling) and we're off!

I was rewarded with a 1:32 flight with Bob in the Puchacz, and got to practice the thermal-finding skills that we honed all winter! What a great day it turned out to be!

Icloud Saves Marriage

Iphone lost for 24hrs. House turned upside-down, vehicles overturned in search, inappropriate accusations flying, marriage survival unlikely ... then ... www.icloud.com pinpoints the delinquent communications device (green dot on photo, lost while weedeating) ... disbelief ensues (we haven't been out THERE) ... but a click of the "Play Sound" button produces it's mournful cry for help from said location ... rescue imminent, household bliss ensues, apologies accepted, marriage repaired ... all's well. Try icloud.com if you lose your iphone, free but priceless!

A Day Spent Fishin' Is A Day Added On To The End Of Your Life

My buddy Dave came by the other day for a visit. We hashed out the usual problems that life throws at us. You know the ones, the noise that causes us to lose sleep when we know intellectually that there is no immediate solution, no immediate danger, and losing sleep is just dumb.

"Do you want to b.s. while fishing?" I ask, not trying to railroad my buddy into doing something he doesn't want to by using guilt (who am I kidding? I'll guilt, beg, whine, anything to go fishing! My friends know me too well and factor it into visits).

"I should probably go soon," Dave replies.

"No problem, maybe next time." I reply, knowing that the pond will get to work at its job of luring another fly-rod out of the trunk.

We continue to solve the world's problems with our immense intellect for a few minutes, noting that Dave's eyes are starting to wander towards the trout pond.

"Let's fish," he suddenly announces, "We can talk while casting!"

Within minutes, we're gently dropping our deadly barbless Doc Spratley flies into the clear blue water, still solving previously ignored world crises, but now there are long therapeutic pauses in the conversation to detect the subtle bite of a rainbow trout, and to land and safely release them.

Kw and Dave 1 - Life's Stress 0

Springtime Fly-Fishing

Yesterday's Catch

The calendar said spring arrived 5 weeks ago, Global Warming said spring arrived 7 weeks ago, I say spring is coming soon maybe. Summer is short here (I hear it falls on a Tuesday this year), so we don't want to waste any of it!

Fly-fishing/Ice-fishing is a uniquely Canadian sport. Where else would you cast a bug into an opening in an ice-covered lake, trying to convince a normally-intelligent Rainbow Trout that this is a plausible natural occurrence. Yesterday was a great day to give it a whirl, what a blast!

Spring is officially here!

Springtime ... yay.

Ah summertime! The time us Canucks enjoy the things in life that the rest of the world brags about all winter on Facebook! There's camping in the mountains, fly-fishing, hiking, flying gliders, beautiful sunsets on the deck with the aroma of the bar-b-que. Here it is, April, the time that the grass starts growing, the flowers pop and the world comes to life.

I emerge from the bedroom this morning, nicely coiffed with fresh coffee steaming in cup. I arrive at my computer desk with smile on face, gaze out the window at the gorgeous springtime ... wtf? ... the window's fogged ... no ... wait ... it's friggin snow! The wind is howling, snow is a foot deep, the grass is all buried again! A quick check of the calendar reveals that yes, it is April, but snow? Blizzard? A glance around the room and there it is, my fly-rod in the corner, waiting patiently, not in any hurry to get to work.

I find a video in the far corner of my computer and dust it off. It was taken last summer for just such an occasion! While camping in the mountains, we mounted a camera on my hat (imagine that, it's hard enough for us gimps to look cool let alone letting somebody strap a camera on our head), and I travelled a 17min loop down nature trails. I now sit and watch the video with steaming coffee and smug grin, daydreaming about summer weather that may make a guest appearance some day. Isn't global warming great?