Europe trip!
I'm back in Iraq. Europe was awesome. Story: Spacey Tracy pm'd me that I could hang out with him when I got there and and he and his wife Jane would take care of me. They ended up putting me up in a hotel down the street from their house (that they paid for for 3 nights) and we hung out every day seeing the sites and drinking a ton of German beer for the first four or five days. Then he hooked me up with Hartkor_Fakker another base jumper from Munich that hung out with me a ton too. Awesome guy. He's also a helicopter pilot and we ended up renting a bell 206 and flying around a bit, he taught me a lot about helicopters and I'm stoked to get home and use some GI bill money to work toward a heli pilots license. Hartkor_Fakker ended up letting me stay at his place for a night too and offered a few other nights. I ended up saving a ton of money from people that let me stay at their place or in Tracy's case paying for my hotel. I tried to pay but he wasn't having it. One of the nights a Mucho Base guy came up to hang out with Tracy and we all went to dinner. This guy, Maestro, was great and ended up letting me crash at his place in Italy and took me around the town he lived in for beers and dinner, and hooked me up with unclecharlie95 the next morning to go jump ITW. It was a little snowy and since I don't have a lot of mountaineering experience it was kind of sketchy in parts, luckily unclecharlie95 made steps for me in the descent part which made it a hell of a lot easier. He was jumping a V3 and I got to watch his awesome flight. The jump was amazing. My longest freefall before this was 8-10 seconds from a 1500ft A. This was 12-14 seconds with a perfect launch and awesome scenery. I progressively laid into the tracking position and ended up rolling my shoulders forward. At about 8-10 seconds I started kind of teetering head low feet low, so I dipped my head a little and pulled my shoulders back, which seemed to give me more stability. Perfect opening, very fast but not too hard and directly on heading. Flew out, burned off a little altitude and had a nice soft landing next to unclecharlie95 in the grass field across from the bar. This place is so gorgeous and amazing. It was a life experience I will never forget. Drove back to Munich, hung out with Tracy, Jane and Hartkor_Fakker some more. I had always wanted to learn how to solve a rubics cube but could only get two slices, Tracy taught me how to finish it. I also hooked up with Flummi one night for a beer. I spent about $4000, but $1100 was the rental car I put 2200 Km (about 1400 miles) on, and I also bought some awesome Hanwag's, a nice coat, and some badass gloves. Almost forgot, I had a few small tears in the ZP nose of my black jack and Tracy hooked me up with Hans Ostermuenchner who had it patched for me in two days, despite how busy his shop was. Ate and drank like a king and stayed in some really nice hotels. Amazing trip. I don't know if Maestro post's on here, but Maestro, unclecharlie95, Hartkor_Fakker, Tracy and Jane, thanks for everything. Seattle is great too if you ever want to visit.
