SAR Techs, Snow Tires, and other things I'll never fully understand

I got a ride on the Buffalo today with 3 SAR Techs on board. I've gotta say, those guys are some crazy Mo Fo's.
We went up towards Port Hardy and they did a free fall jump from 10,000' which in itself isn't so unusual, until you take into account the fact that they jumped into a small airstrip surrounded by high trees, water, ditches with water in them, and it was -20C at altitude. Yeah, and they think this is fun. Oh and by the way, this is considered 'easy'.
After a monstrous bowl of soup (more on that later) we headed back to Comox at roughly 1000' above the water, crawling down along the coastline on a beautiful sunny day at about 220kts. For those non-flying people, that's a smidge over 400km/h. I swear I'm never forgetting my camera at home again. BC is georgeous from the air.
After we got back to Comox, the Techs had the bright idea to do a 'confined area' static-line jump from 1500' above the ground. At free-fall velocity, that's 7 seconds to a sudden stop should there be nothing slowing you down. To top all this off, they did a 'full kit' jump, meaning they jump with a whole crapload of gear that they would carry with them on a no-shit rescue. Think of a bulging, heavy 60L backpack (big in other words). Now think about strapping this thing onto your chest, and jumping nuts first out of a perfectly good airplane and landing in an area no bigger than a tee-ball league baseball diamond surrounded by trees, powerlines, and oh yeah, the baseball backstop. They all stopped within 20m of each other. These guys are good. Crazy, but very very good.

We had snow here in Comox all day, which turned into about an inch of slush... which, when the sun went down, turned every paved surface into a skating rink. Somewhat amusing if you have a safety-bubble whithin which to make your own mistakes, however when you see 8 cars in the ditch, you kind of wonder what's really between you and them. In this case, not a whole heap!! Luckily there was a cop car and about 3 tow trucks with their lights flashing warning everyone to slow down (or stop) which I thought was (relatively) easy.
You know that last 1m of stopping your car? Normally the car just kind of bobs and halts? Yeah.. today, the front end of the car mysteriously starts sliding towards the ditch... at barely more than a walking pace. It's one of those "hmm... perhaps I should make another evaluation of the conditions" moments where you calmly recognize the fact that if you had misjudged the beginning of your braking, or if the guy in front had hit his brakes just a little harder, you probably would be part of that flashing-light parade. Snow tires don't mean diddly in this kind of weather!

Now about that soup. Called the "War Won Ton Soup" at the Airport Grill in Port Hardy, this is a massive presentation of spicy pork, tonnes of won ton's (it's a math joke, get it?), slices of chicken, and assorted chinese soup veggies in a bowl that was originally sized to hold a generous serving of whole fruits. We're talkin' big here kids! Allegedly this is the 'initiation' dish for the new guys to Port Hardy. Quite delicious actually. At least, I think it was good. I can't really remember due to the food-induced partial coma I'm still suffering from!
Is there such a thing as a partial coma?
So far I've been exposed to the Flying Beaver in Vancouver (simply being there is the initiation), and now the War Won Ton at the Airport Grill in Port Hardy. Next, I'm told, is the Spitfire Grill in Victoria where my next dish is to be the "B-52 Burger". I'm rarely intimidated by portion sizes, but after the soup... I'm wondering if I should go on a 3 day fast before heading down to the Spitfire!

Fat and happy!

Blog vs. Rant?

So I was recently accused of aiming to create a rant site as opposed to a blog. That made me think, what is the difference really? This prompts a visit to the local Wikkipedia...
The following definition is taken directly from http://en.wikipedia.org
A blog is a website for which an individual or a group generates text, photographs, video, audio files, and/or links, typically but not always on a daily or otherwise regular basis. The term is a shortened form of weblog. Authoring a blog, maintaining a blog or adding an article to an existing blog is called "blogging". Individual articles on a blog are called "blog posts", "posts", or "entries". The person who posts these entries is called a "blogger".
And from http://dictionary.com
Rant ( P ) (rnt)v. rant·ed, rant·ing, rants v. intr.
To speak or write in a angry or violent manner; rave.v. tr.
To utter or express with violence or extravagance: a dictator who ranted his vitriol onto a captive audience. n.
Violent or extravagant speech or writing.
A speech or piece of writing that incites anger or violence: “The vast majority [of teenagers logged onto the Internet] did not encounter recipes for pipe bombs or deranged rants about white supremacy” (Daniel Okrent).
Chiefly British. Wild or uproarious merriment.

Ok so let's see here... a Blog is a collection of posts, thoughts, links, basically anything I want to put up here. A rant is.. well, a blog post in an angry tone. Now I don't plan on making this only rants, unlike this guy who clearly has some unresolved issues: http://maddox.xmission.com/
But that makes me wonder some more. Is this how he deals with his issues? Would posting these rants (and pretty much only rants) make him a better human being in the real world by giving him a non-judgemental forum in which he can state his opinions and views without having to directly deal with the reactions of society?

Will this Blog make me a better person?
Unlikely. It's probably just going to waste more of my time. But then again, Dear Reader, you might find it enlightening to read where MY thoughts take me when I'm not faced with the judgement of society or any other listener!

Stay tuned...

Politicians need a wakeup call

I'm in a line of work that requires self sacrifice. You sign up for the job knowing this and not only accept it, but attempt to make it part of your life. Politicans are not only elected to represent the views of their local constituency, but also to improve this country as a whole.
Or am I wrong? Is a politicans sole purpose to serve their own voters and damn the rest of the country? The issue that prompts this line of thought is the current debacle that is developing around the aircraft procurement process for the Air Force. We need new fixed wing SAR aircraft, we need a replacement for the Hercules fleet, we need a medium lift helicopter for the army.
I used the word 'need' not 'want' deliberately. This isn't an option, this isn't something that can be put off until the next administration agrees with it, this has to be done now. Realistically, it should have been done years ago. The Airforce had come up with the best solution available to them now, namely the Spartan (C-27J) for SAR, the new Hercules (C-130J) and new Chinook helicopters. Will they work? Do they fit the operational requirement? Do we need them? Certainly. Do they happen to fit into certain domestic corporations bottom line? Absolutely not. Should the Airforce care? Nope.
But enter the politician (insert cheesy villian music here). Certain provinces feel it necessary to delay the process to promote their own local businesses. This is the purpose of electing local politicians as I understand it. But, in my humble opinion, it is not the job of these politicians to stonewall every opportunity for the Airforce to get the kind of Kit that it needs.
Insisting that the bidding process is bias is just sour grapes. If your company does NOT produce an aircraft that can fit the bill, then you DON'T fit into the bidding process! Don't start whining to parliament that you're being excluded because we don't like your company. You're being excluded because YOU CAN'T MAKE AN AIRPLANE THAT WILL DO THE JOB!!! But... thanks to the way our system works, the bidding process is being CHANGED to suit the whiny parties. The people who are going to be the end users of the airplane can see the writing on the wall. We're going to get a sub-standard airplane shoved down our throats to satisfy the regional, political, and corporate will of entities and individuals that have no interest in the good of the country or of the Airforce.
Someone needs to go into parliament, and just run up and down the aisles giving every politician in there a good smack upside the head. Except for Bill Graham. I never thought I'd say that about a Liberal MP, but I actually get the impression that he's working his ass off to get the Airforce what the Airforce needs.
To any politician who may stumble across this: Please consider the effect of your actions upon the people who are going to have to work with this equipment. Believe it or not, they, and the people who will be served by these people and aircraft (i.e. the rest of Canada) are MORE important than you getting re-elected using this topic as your flag-du-jour.
Pessimistically hopeful as always.

first blog EVER

yeah... so this is basically a test to figure out if I can do this correctly or not!
more to come.... same bat time, same bat url!