Christmas isn’t that far away. If you still don’t know what to give away - this is one of my favourites! See more info here: www.ais.fraunhofer.de/KURT2/cleaning.htm.

…and after hitting Google, I found that these machines are already available on a commercial level and can be really handy: www.roombavac.com!

Wanna make sure you don’t get a victim of laptop thievery? Here’s something rally cute for you: the powerpizza.

Pretty nice weekend in sunny Oregon! Yesterday has been a non-cloudy day since one week so I went out to the drop zone, did my level 5-8 jumps and therewith completed my AFF (Accelerated Free Fall) license! #8 was the first jump without any jumpmaster and really exciting though. Did some back flips, forward flips, turns and all these funny things… Today, I started my coaching program for the USPA license with tracking - which I still have to practice Went in a big turn instead of going straight…
Next weekend, Uli will come visiting me for the extended weekend of 4th of July. Great to see that dude again!

While reading this news item, you will most probably notice that something has changed, right? Yes, I changed my news blog to the WordPress implementation which now gives a wider variety of really nice features like categories, calendaring and comments. Right - you can post comments to that now! Soon, this site will also offer a guest book, so you don’t only need to read my stuff - you can ping back as well. Hope you like it!

Hmmm. Weather got worse again. We only had one week to get used to the fantastic sunshine before the clouds took over on Monday again. Seems that this weekend there’ll be no skydiving

So maybe biking? Or hiking? Would like to go clubbing as well, what I haven’t done for weeks now.

Monaco went on holiday to Ireland again and posted some nice pics of his trip here.

BTW: gerritquast.org has moved to a new server - thank you, Helmuth! Already started to update the site and add new functionality. Probably next week you’ll benefit from cool new features!

Yesterday I had a great day at the drop zone. Blue sky all day and temperatures around the 30°s C. My comprehensive review started at 9:00, so it was quite hard getting up that early - but it definitely was worth it! After all, I did 4 jumps completing my AFF Level 2, 3 and 4. Like my Level 1 jump on Wednesday, the Level 2 jump was done with 2 instructors and the objectives staying stable, doing practice handle touches (touching the pilot chute release grip and staying in a stable position) and keeping altitude awareness. Went really fine and I was happy to proceed to Level 3. This one was really more exciting, since it comprised changing the body positioning for a forward motion by stretching the legs out, pointing the toes and putting the arms and hands a bit backward. After the forward motion part, the jump masters released me for the first time. Opposed to grabbing me and holding me more stable, I was really keeping stable on my own - of course it was a little bumpy, but cooool!

Level 4, first attempt: After level 3, it wasn’t that late and I really wanted to jump again, so I planned to do my next level, training turns! Turning is not that easy as I had to see on this jump. The exit from the plane was amazing - the first jump with only jumpmaster. The reserve JM who is usually exiting the plane first, is not necessary starting from this level. What a great experience! I was the one exiting the plane first, looking done and pointing to the drop zone, which gives you a feeling of self controlling everything more than before. Great exit, getting stable was no problem, but then the turns started. Right turn was ok, but then I started turning left and couldn’t stop it. So I was turning and turning out of control until my JM stopped me by grabbing my leg. Huiuiui. Turning like that in high-speed freefall is really frightening! But I got stable again and the rest of my dive was ok.

Level 4, second attempt: Didn’t want to finish the day like that and checked in for another try - the very last jump of the day. Took some time to think through what I’ve done wrong, getting my legs under control and mentally going through my next dive. Although being quite tired of all the jumping, I did want to do it right and was sure that this time I would. Only a few people in the plane, so sitting relaxed. Nice exit and got stable pretty quick. Toe tapped to really feel my legs and feet pointing properly. Had a big smile when shouting out my altitude to Theresa. Practice handle touch really smooth. Then the first right turn. Didn’t start, so I tried harder and it worked! 90° done and stable again. Theresa released me and I did my second 90° turn and stopped it! Ouuh, now the left turn. Still feeling the uncontrolled turns of the last jump, I tried cautiously, then harder and it turned out cool and stable! (I feel it while writing this :-)) I did all this and was so aware of my legs and everything around me and felt so great. It’s an amazing feeling to turn and see another person who is first stably located beside you, appearing in front of you! Then the pull and a great long parachute flight watching the beautiful landscape colored by the evening sun. Canopy control is really great now and I did my first standing landing. What a great feeling to finally have the dive realized as planned. I felt even better than after my first flight. It’s just amazing, how clear the mind already gets after these few jumps. You see more, are more aware of what’s happening around you and can enjoy things much better without the big rush.

My drive back was really relaxed, the smell of summer, my favorite 3 Doors Down songs and the sun lowering to the horizon…

Today I found out that the mountain see from my apartment is not Mt. Adams - it’s Mount St. Helens which is even more famous since it blew up in 1980 and lost abt 1000ft of height during the erruption. On my pictures you can see that it’s pretty flat at the top opposed to the peak of Mount Hood. Find some information and pictures on this site: http://www.fs.fed.us/gpnf/mshnvm/.

Yesterday I finally did my first solo skydive! After the according class took some longer on Saturday and weather was getting worse that afternoon, I had to wait some days. Now we’ve got really great weather here, almost no clounds since Monday. This really is a rush! See the gallery feature…

On Saturday I had my skydiving course which was incredibly exciting! Learned all the basics on body position, how to exit the plane, canopy control and landing and of course emergency procedures. The whole class took abt. 6 hours and when it came to be finished and me being “ready to skydive!”, the weather didn’t want to be my friend. Sky lowered to less than 9000ft and so I waited invain for my first jump. AAArgh.

Today, the sky looks brilliant - no clouds, just sun, but nobody on the air field on Tuesdays. So I will probably have my AFF Level 1 skydive tomorrow. Can’t wait it!!!

During this week, I added some new stuff to the site, mainly in the gallery section. See pictures there from the Rosefestival’s firework and Starlight parade, the “First Thursday” happenings in Perl District, a feature page covering our trip to the West Coast and Crater Lake.
I started picking my best pictures and assembling them in a feature page as well.