Comments on: 12/10/12 – Macerator Falls

By: Muzhik

Muzhik — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 00:33:39 +0000

@War Pig, your descriptions (esp. of the HAHO) jumps reminded me of one of my favorite scenes in the “Dies the Fire” series: the good guys are trying to figure out how to take a fort guarding a bridge. The fort was built buy a guy who really knew his 14th century structures and knew how to apply modern things like ferroconcrete to make it impregnable. Trouble is, he was so focused on the 14th century he forgot that he lived in the 20th/21st century. All the good guys had to do was to find some hang gliders, and drop homemade napalm on the tar-covered roofs. (All the while, the archers are picking off the enemy troops pouring out of the burning buildings. Gotta love lo-tech solutions!)

By: Sensei Ken

Sensei Ken — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:38:11 +0000

(Ballooning contd:) But you can get champagne on some of the flights, so I suppose you could take macaroons also!

By: Sensei Ken

Sensei Ken — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:36:47 +0000

On the “tamer” side of extreme adventure, I’ve been looking into hot air ballooning. The good news is there are several places near by that offer rides. The bad news is the rides begin “shortly before dawn” to avoid the heat of sunlight.

By: War Pig

War Pig — Mon, 10 Dec 2012 10:10:34 +0000

You have to try HALO jumping (free-fall). It Means High Altitude, Low Opening. I did it in the service. You go out the plane at 20-30,000 feet, fall and open the chute at a couple hundred feet. For up to 2 and a half minutes, it is like flying. At first you fall at 250 MPH or so, depending on air pressure. But as you go lower the air is thicker and you slow to 120 MPH or so. You can rotate and somersault and all that, too, at least in practice, but not on a mission. The best is going out at 30K over the ocean at night, It is still daylight where you are up there, but you fall into an inky black void. You open, hit the water, get your gear and bearings straight, then swim into shore, sometimes as much as a mile. Then there are HAHO jumps, where you open your very large, wing-type chute at 10k feet or (usually) higher, and parasail for up to 20 miles. That depends greatly on the winds. You can jump three miles offshore and sail several miles inland, at night, of course. You and your gear are covered in RAM to absorb radar. Pretty cool.