Jake's Learning Rate

[Patrice Maire]

I beg to differ with X.,.Pandora.,.X.
He said he wasn't much of a horse guy, but was born to fly. He even had dreams of flying while in the VA hospital.
From personal experience, some people have an innate sense and ability for certain things. When I was about 8 or 10 I went horseback riding for the first time. Without any lessons and only having watched tv, I knew exactly what to do and how to sit on a horse, even the handlers thought I was experienced.
Jake was a Marine and had a training regimen ingrained in his memory. I can fully believe he could ride a direhorse, fly an Ikran...even shoot a bow (I've taken archery and learned how to do it properly and hit a target in a month with only having class twice a week!) Remember that both the Ikran and horse had tsahaylu, that helps with the learning curve somewhat.
Just a note, basic combat training for the Army is what... 9 weeks? and what do they learn how to do? Shoot a weapon (with great accuracy in some cases), march together (in synchronization btw), field strip a weapon, hand to hand combat as well as tactical combat. I think Jake had plenty of time considering it was essentially an immersion course.
Now...as far as the hometree falling is concerned.... If they shot their HE missiles inside and hit the supports on the far side first, that's the equivalent of making a first cut on a tree before starting the actual cut. When they blew out the supports on their side, it would fall away from them.