update

The last week has been exciting for me. I finished the final prototype of the Wills Wing "Covert" before starting to build 4 team harnesses signifying the "pre-release production phase".



This being the first that will be flown, I felt pretty strong satisfaction boxing it up and shipping it off to Florida to get some much appreciated feed back from Dustin. It's too snowy to access any of the flying sites here in Missoula so it was a huge benefit to have someone, who's opinion I respect, ready and willing to test it out for me. I decided to simplify the overall package to make for clean lines while retaining the same chute deployment layout and structure. I was pleased with the understated result and based on the finished proto, am looking forward to building the harness that I'll race on this season.



Dustin has the lay up dialed for the back plate and the boot. Apparently, the back plate is strong enough to kill a donkey with. He said this morning, "I could drive up onto this thing with my car to change the transmission". Sounds pretty freakin strong. It will be nice to not have to worry about mid loop carbon failures on the back plate! Believe me;-)



I will have at least a couple finished to see, hands on, at Demo Days later this month and plan to be ready to take orders and measurements during the event. I'm really excited to start building custom harnesses for pilots around the world and am happy with where we are at in the progression toward achieving that goal. I will make sure to post "in air" photos as soon as Dustin is able to get some.



On a bit of a whim, I took Saturday off to go and "celebrate" a little. Haven't been doing much in the way of exercise lately so when my friends, Jim and Lori Chase, called to see if I wanted to go run the "SnoJoke 1/2 marathon" with them, I said, why not. It's an annual winter event that makes a lap around the scenic Seeley Lake here in western Montana. Not a real long one, but over 500 people showed up and it was cool to have good conversation with new people while running in a beautiful place. There was less snow and ice on the course than most years so it ended up being really pleasant and a great way to enjoy the afternoon.