Jockeyshifter63

Two questions: What chemicals are used to fracture a well? Why can't plain water be used? ----------------------------------------------------------- Many different chemicals are used and the formulations of most of those are proprietary. They range from harmless to toxic. Isopropyl alchohol is a pretty common ingrediant for example but is usually part of a more complex compound. Plain water is used in many fracturing treatments and water is the biggest component of most fracs unless they are using an energized fluid such as nitrogen or carbon dioxide. A common frac in my area is termed a "Slick water Frac". Basically the water is treated with friction reducers. The purpose of a fracture treatment is to try and connect as much of the target formation with the wellbore. To do that you push the water at a high rate to create fractures in the zone of interest then you start introducing a proppant such as sand in with the fluid. The proppant does axactly as the name implies, it props the fracture that you created open with a permeable media. After the frac is shut down the hope is that the fracture will remain "open" due to the proppant. Alot of the chemicals are used to create a gel to carry the proppant into the fracture. (Think of gelatine right before it turns into those neat little cubes cubes we eat.) We need this gooey viscosity to carry the proppant as far as possible. The real trick is for the gel to "break" and turn back to water after a certain time period. Usually hours. Then the hope is that you now have an permeable fracture that the oil or gas or both can travel thru to the wellbore and then up and out and on to market. The simple answer to your second question is we could use just plain water but it would not be very effective and the well would most likely not be very commercial. Hope this helps.

Gasland is so full of misinformation and outright lies. I have lived and worked in the Oilfield my entire life. I am 3rd generation oilfield. I moved my wife and children smack dab in the middle of a gas field I developed. EVERY SINGLE WELL was hydraulically fractured. I had the best water well in the entire county, in fact I had to add hardner to the water so my hot tub chemicals would work properly. The industry has been hydraulically fracturing wells for over 40 years. People have been living in those areas for that length of time and continue to do so. My family has lived in one of the largest gas fields in the US since the 50's. The biggest problem is the industry has done a poor job of trying to educate the public. This is a very complex industry and frankly even if we did try to educate the public we would be called liars, because you know we are just greedy bastards, so we just don't bother. Never mind the fact that if 90+% of the wells drilled today are not stimulated they are not productive. What that means to you is you will either need to import more of your energy or go live in a cave. If fracturing was as bad as Gasland says then Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah would be uninhabitable. (I mention these areas because this is where I work) Did you know there are oil wells in Hollywood California and have been since the turn of last century. Yes there are wells in downtown Hollywood, people don't see them because movie stars don't want to be reminded that they are sitting on top of one of the larger oil reserves in the nation. So they are required to put buildings over them. Now I am sure I will be villified but I am just so tired of all the bullshit the left puts out about the industry that heats your homes, cooks your food, lights your houses, even powers the very computer you are using, not to mention fuels the airplanes we use to jump. What do you think your parachutes and equipment are made from.......petrochemicals. OK rant over. Damn I feel better. BTW for the record I think we should develop all our energy sources, Coal, Nuclear, Wind, Solar, Hydro etc. We have the ability to be energy independent but we are to busy stabbing ourselves in the eye to see it. I gotta run. I have to design another frac job...really.

I am going to jump in on this since it is something I have knowledge and experience with. First a little back ground; 1982 I was diagnosed with a stage IIe Hystiocytic Lymphoma. In the early 80's this was a death sentence. I was young tho and was offered an opportunity to be a chemotherapy experiment. Needles to say this treatment protocol was VERY aggressive. At that time the only anti-ematic available to me was Compozine. Honestly I couldn't stand the stuff and just elected to tough it out. A couple of months in I was asked if I wanted to participate in the Lynn Pearson Theraputic Program. This was a program in place thanks to Lynn Pearson who lobbied the State of NM to legalize THC but unfortunately passed from his disease. The program was administered by the University of New Mexico Cancer Research and Treatment Center. To my knowledge it was one of the first legal medical marijuana programs. To say it was a lifesaver is an understatement. I had dropped from 150 lbs to around 116 on a good day. I was essentially starving to death. I had never smoked weed before and to me it was a new experience, but I viewed it as any of my other prescribed drugs, like Demerol, Morphine or Tylox. The last two months of my 8 months of chemo hell I actually gained some weight because I had less nausea and actually had an appetite due to the THC. (I know UNM was working on an athsmatic type Inhaler to administer the drug but I don't know where that ended up.) After the chemo and the subsequent radiation treatments were over I didn't use THC again............Until 5 years ago. At that time I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Now I discovered there are many, many more anti nausea medications that work, much better than the THC did, which are currently on the market. Having said that I believe that THC should be one of the choices. I just wish there was a better delivery system than smoking. Anyway, I had more surgeries and chemo. I am in remission again but all the damage from surgeries, chemo and radiation treatment has left me in constant pain. (Don't want to get into where because it is a bit embarrassing) I am currently prescribed and monitored for Vicodin. Problem is that Vicodin causes me sleep problems. I tried every sleep aid imaginable but found with the Vicodin it just made me a zombie for most of the next day. Luckily I reside in CO. I visited with my doctors and they were unanimously in favor of me trying THC to help put my pain aside long enough to fall asleep. For me THC does not relieve the pain but allows me to ignore it. Hard to describe but suffice it to say it works for me. I currently have a card and I do use THC right before I go to bed. It has been a godsend. I want you to know I am not a stoned out bum. My wife and I have raised two very fine and productive children. I have owned and still own businesses. I have good standing in the communities where I live. If I hadn't told you I use THC you would never know. I do feel that the program is being abused and I fear it will be outlawed again, because it is being used as a step for full legalization. That frustrates me because I feel we are being used as a pawn by both sides....yes I feel the full legalization crowd is using us to further their agenda and frankly that pisses me off as much as the people who speak with authority that it has no medicinal benefits. I personally believe in full legalization but feel it is a separate issue than the medical legalization. BTW, for the record medical THC is legal in the state of CO but is still illegal as far as the Federal Govt is concerned. It is doubtful the Feds will start busting patients but they do go after growers and distribution facilities. Just thot I would chime in. In my opinion there is quite a bit of misinformation out there. Thanks,

And I do not want a CCW because I am "afeerd." I want a CCW because I accept the fact that there are people in this world that wish to do me harm, and I would like the tools necessary to prevent them from doing so. ----------------------------------------------------------- I have a CCW. One day a friend asked me what I was afraid of..........I said "Not a single thing!" At a social gathering the CCW topic came up and I was asked why I carried a gun. My answer, "Because a cop is just too damn heavy". A Cop friend of mine almost bust a gut laughing at that one. No person has the right to tell me how I may choose to protect my family, period! And for the record, you will never know when I am carrying or not......as it should be. Just throwing gas on the fire :-)

Makes it extremely difficult and messy to puke in free-fall during the 9th point of the sunrise load while fighting a 'tequila with bourbon chaser' hangover...ya end up lookin' like a tuna in a goldfish bowl full of beef stew. ---------------------------------------------------------- OMG I needed that visual today! I am still laughing. Damn you are funny! And for the record this newb likes the wind in his face. Not sure I could do the full face, I would feel too closed off. Plus when I land I like having my hair sticking up thru the holes in the top of the helmet.

---------------------------------------------------------- That is how we used to keep the doghouses on the drilling rigs warm for years. Wouldn't want to do it in a house tho......YIKES! We use real burners now, usually catalytic safety heaters.

Just a couple of things and I will try to keep from geek speak; -Propane is a "hotter fuel". It takes a smaller amount to put out the same heat as butane. That is why the propane orifice is smaller. -Propane IMHO is more efficient and burns cleaner. More efficient in that the same liquid volume as butane will last longer because it will generate the same heat with less gas used. -The working pressure stated above relates to the pressure rating of the vessel (cylinder) used to hold the gas/liquid as well as the valves, regulators and piping required to safely deliver the gas to your end device. The higher pressure propane cylinders are needed to keep the propane gas in liquid form until needed as a gas. In liquid form these gasses take up much less space. -Propane works much better in cold temps because it will still want to reach equilibrium in the cylinder which means the liquid will still want to go to the gas phase at lower temperatures. Temperatures at which Butane will want to remain a liquid. Hope that helps.

------------------------------------------------------------ Thank you, Thank you, Thank you for being so considerate. Having had the "C" twice with all the treatment that entailed has left my immune system a wreck and nothing I do seems to help much. Your co-workers thank you. If they don't I will for them. I absolutlely dread the cold and flu season, almost to paranoia.

Dated two months, married in 8 months, no kids til 30 yrs old and still married after 24+ years. Wouldn't trade it for the world but probably wouldn't do it again. It helps to be married to a badass Lady with a very positive outlook on life. But, I still do most of the cooking.........for several reasons. Thanks for putting up with me for all these years Honey!

could you or anyone on the load not see the ac prior to exit? --------------------------------------------------------- Our Jump run that day was east to west and we exit facing south. The plane came from the north. Honestly from 12500 AGL and him at 1500 AGL plus if he had come in from quite a distance north I doubt we would of seen him even facing north. What was interesting to me was I didn't even hear him til he was right there. I like the horizon tip and plan to use it in the future.

OK So "No shit there I was", (at least that is how I think I am supposed to start this), anyway last Friday I was Under canopy at 1500 feet keeping an eye out for the canopy traffic and anticipating starting my downwind leg, looking up, down, left, behind left, right, behind right, forward and holy crap! right again and all I see is propeller. My hand goes to my cutaway but then I think shit I am just under 1500. Not good - really not good then at the last second the pilot must have seen me and goes hard right and up. Damn that was close! Here is the thing - I was exactly where I should have been. Following the canopies before me in the landing pattern, I was parallel with but south of jump run and our runway and about even with the middle of the runway. A Tandem instructor and a couple of others saw it all and told me the plane was a blue and white 172. No one got the tail #. Later I was told that the pilot was following pretty standard procedure for navigating airport to airport. He crossed the runway perpindicular in the middle at 1500 feet. The only thing my pilot buddies that jump said was he must not have seen a note on his map indicating a drop zone and he sure as hell wasn't monitoring radio traffic. I am not a pilot and am a noob skydiver. Is this std for pilots navigating and if it is it sure seems like a disaster waiting to happen. I am amazed that when he avoided me he didn't get someone else. We had all just left a full Otter minutes ago.

My Wife and I started jumping this year. We are both sub-100 so we don't even qualify for the "100 jump wonder" moniker yet. The other day she put on her rig, after doing a rig check, and the first thing she did was start pulling the leg straps to tighten them. A very well known canopy coach and swooper (not to mention a good guy) was walking by, stopped and told her to "stop right there", "Always do your chest strap first and double check it, then do your leg staps". My wife passed this on to me and we both have incorporated this into our routine. After thinking about it, it makes sense. You (and others) are more likely to notice your leg loops slopping around as you walk than you would a half done or misrouted chest strap. Just throwing that out there as food for thot. BTW I will always ask for a gear check from someone else at least once after rigging up; a holdover from my climbing days. I always ask for a pin check before going out the door.

Thanks for the explanation. That makes sense.

That was the most challenging landing conditions I have ever encountered. Winds that went from 0 to light and variable to 10 mph variable with density altitude of up to 7500 feet. _________________________________________________ Thanks for the input folks. This brings up another thing that I know nothing about. Please explain density altitude to me. I heard this term but don't know what it means. My home DZ and the Boogie DZ are within a couple hundred feet of each other in elevation (approx 5000') but I was told later that the Boogie DZ has a higher density altitude so it was like landing a couple thousand feet higher. Lots more experienced people than I were having trouble standing up their landings at the Boogie too.

After I was on the ground and had a minute to think about it, I figured that I had made my problem worse, but I wanted to check. Thanks.

I plan to ask my instructors this weekend about this but I wanted to throw it out there. I did search the forums for this info under downwind landings but could not find what I wanted to know. I am a Noob. Just earned my "A" and as of right now I have 44 Jumps. I am pretty conservative and do listen to my coaches but I just cannot remember if this was taught, and I cannot find it in my notes. (We were taught that while upwind landings are preferrable, you can land downwind or crosswind if necessary to follow the canopy traffic. Anyway, here it is; I was at a boogie this weekend, my first. I rented the rig (the only one) and it had a PD 260 canopy. No worries, bigger than I have been jumping but I like the ride down anyway and I thot if it takes longer it will keep me out of the traffic jam in the landing area. We were instucted to land "with the arrow" and I did. It just so happened that it always seemed to be downwind. Granted, the earlier jumps had a ground level wind from 0 to 4 knots. I was digging the learning experience of down winders and with the bigger canopy I was almost always the last down. One jump I really almost made it my last. I was leaving lots of room for my approach leg on these landings but this one when I was about 200' I got a pretty good tail wind gust. I thot I still had plenty but was wrong. I was about 50' up and I had 4 choices, none good. On the left was the hangers, middle left was people vendors and asphalt, right was a transformer and power lines and middle right was a 50' diameter hole. I took the hole. Not pretty but no body was hurt. Here is my question. When it looked like I was long (100') my training kicked in and I instictively went to 1/2 then 3/4 brakes trying to bleed off altitude. Was this correct or did I exacerbate the problem. (I do know the real answer is don't put yourself in that position, but "No shit there I was......")

Yuppers! I agree completely.

Outstanding! I hope this happens everywhere. Blue Skys everyone.

I am humbled in your presence.

Pops, I apologize for not being clear with my "experienced" comment. I have to remember that just because I know what I mean, others may not. I put the "experienced" in quotes as a form of sarcasm. The people I meant are the 50 jump Sky Gods who know everything and love to tell you about it. The truly experienced folks in this sport have my respect and admiration, and I always listen when they speak up (kinda like that old EF Hutton commercial). I have a friend who has been jumping since the 60's with several thousand jumps. If I have a question I usually run it by him as a double check. He always gives me a no BS answer. Loved your story of your first solo after AFF. I did the exact same thing. Went out got stable on my belly and just enjoyed the flying, the view, and the absolute peace. At pull altitude I calmly waved and pulled then had a great canopy ride down. That ride did it for me also. Now I can not get enough. Blue Skys

I am currently in the Mile-Hi program and have two more coach jumps and a checkout jump for my "A". I am a bit puzzled why quite a few experienced jumpers think this policy is over the top. As a student jumper I love it. It is pretty apparent in this sport that the more I learn, the more I learn what I don't know. After completing AFF I did two solo jumps from 12500 AGL and one hop and pop solo from 5000+ AGL. After the exilarating rush and satisfaction of being able to do this without anybody with me I had to start the coaching jumps. That is where the real learning has been. The 5 hop and pop canopy class jumps count toward your "A". They are not "in addition to" as a previous poster asked. One of the things I personally like is I get to jump with several different coaches and each one teaches me something new but is consistant with the other coaches teachings. Every jump we work on something new; tracking, fall rate, linked exits, etc. I am appreciative that I am learning this from a coach and not from a well meaning "experienced" jumper that may or may not be giving me the correct instruction. I know that there is some extra cost involved but I would rather learn correctly than have to undo a potentially dangerous move. I would think that experienced jumpers would appreciate the additional do's and don'ts that we are learning, as our mistakes not only endanger us but can endanger others as well. I really do not think there is a hidden monetary agenda here. I truly believe they want their students to have as many skills as possible before releasing them on the rest of you. Even after the canopy class the instructors will still debrief me on my flight plan and landing when they happen to see me fly in. They do not receive any additional compensation for this. They do it to make me a better canopy driver. All the instructors are willing to help with questions or critique even when they are not on the clock. Anyway, thankfully we live in a country where you can exercise the right to spend your money with the vendor of your choice. I just happen to like the added attention I get from my vendor.

Pretty talented there. You caught my thots exactly when I started. Of course that was only 10 jumps ago.

Pops, I have been fortunate enough to participate in several sports and extracurriculars thru my life. In all of them we have to recognize the ones before us. I can't tell you how many times, climbing, that we would be on a very remote crag only to find a peice of gear that was left to rappell off of by someone before us. Pretty humbling.

Thanks for the welcome. Hope I didn't sound like my wife and I are in competition. I gave up, keeping up, with her years ago. I love the fact she is so Bada**. We are having a blast. I haven't seen her this jazzed in 24 years of marriage. Pretty neat.

Hello all. A 48 year old guy new to the sport and wondering why I didn't do this sooner. My wife and I just started and she is flat kicking butt. She is a much better athlete. I just passed my AFF-7, cleared for solo and was going to do one the same day but the winds came up. No worries, lots of time to review, learn and socialize. Wonderful DZ at Mile-Hi and the Instructors really make it great. Lots of real positive energy, and no BS reviews of the jumps! Love to read the forums but I always check things out with my coaches. Still, the discussions make the old brain start working again. Take care and thanks to the pioneers for paving the way for us new to the sport.