GPS under canopy

[nigel99 144]

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here is one of my jumps at couch freaks, i have made some modifications to the settings since this jump to make it more accurate....

Attached
Pic 1 My entire jump
Pic 2 Close up of just the canopy flight

That is quite nice. What canopy were you jumping? Have you bothered to look at things like glide ratio etc?

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[spikes2020 0]

that was a spectre 170 at a 1.05 ratio

I did some tight turns as i was still filling out all my boxes for canopy flight on my A card =P

My next jump ill try and fly strait and level as much as posiable and get the glide ratio.

Seems like a very cool project.

I uploaded my wave points, you can simply plug them into google earth. I am sure with excel it wouldnt hard to find the glide slope.... (ps everything is in meters)

https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6s0GEYskZ-TNWMzNTg5ODktMzRkNy00NTkwLTk4OWYtNzlhNTVlNDAyOTYx

Cheers

Jon W

[aarco 0]

The military has a lock on some of that stuff- build software and canopy together

Having something never beats doing (>|<)
Iam building things - Iam working on my mind- I am going to change this world - its what I came here 4- - -

[nigel99 144]

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The military has a lock on some of that stuff- build software and canopy together

Sorry I don't understand your post?

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[bqmassey 0]

Hey Nigel!

I wear a Forerunner 610 when I jump now. I like it for a few different reasons. For instance, it picks up the GPS signal when I'm in the Otter. I have the center of the DZ set as a waypoint and can tell what the spot is before I get to the door. Of course, I always double-check visually, but on high-wind days where the spot is pretty far away and under the aircraft, I know exactly where to look for the DZ once I get to the door. At an off-airport LZ, like The Farm, which can blend in to the surroundings, that's pretty helpful. I also like knowing that I have some sort of backup plan in the case that I lose sight of the ground. In about five seconds I can have a display that gives me a distance and direction to the LZ. Helpful if low cloud rolls over or on cross-country high-pulls. (Obviously this isn't my primary navigation instrument, just a backup I like to have).

Like you, I was pretty interested in my speeds. I wanted to figure out roughly what my glide ratio is in different configurations (by combining GPS and altimeter data) and how much cleaning up the wing (bringing slider down, loosening chest strap) affects glide. Also, Peter and I were curious what kind of glide ratio we were getting when we were tracking. (He came up with a number once based on geographical landmarks and altitudes, and I wanted to see if GPS data said the same thing). None of it is really vital information, it's just purely curiosity. My intent was to record it and analyze it on the ground. It worked for the most part, but my GPSr, being a running-oriented device, does some weird averaging/smoothing things sometimes.

Obviously, don't get too wrapped up in watching it when you're under canopy, I know that you know that. I don't think that you need to keep it in your jumpsuit the whole time, though. As long as your focus is flying your parachute, an occasional glance at your GPSr is not going to make you crash and burn any more than an occasional glance at your altimeter.