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OG-Tahiti

FlySight GPS

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I often wear my flysight on a regular flock just to see how I can max things off at breakoff. More than a few times I thought it was a bit of a waste of effort just taking it on a flock...well NO MORE!

Last weekend I had to chop a spinner. It was pretty gusty and I watched as my canopy floated off East into the swamps of Zhills.

As with many dropzones there is a local trekker who can find pretty much anything. I was able to use the GPS track of from the Flysight to show him exactly where I had chopped. That was interesting because we first used the video and thought it was somewhere else. He did a few calculations, went off and found my main and freebag!

It only took him an hour to find it...but 3 more to get it down from the tree.

Thank You Flysight! All skydivers should wear one!


*I bet someone dogs on me for maxing it out after breakoff.....
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did it really need to be a $250 flysight?

would any of the $20-40 keychain gps thingy's do?



I didn't read the details of these lower end devices but what you need (in Simon's example) is to record GPS data and have a record of the path that you followed. I think some smartphone apps might do that already.

I will say that I have a Flysight and the tones that it can produce while you fly/fall can be a great help to learning/training. One of my first uses was to vary vertical freefall speeds as a student doing solo jumps.
Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

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The FlySight does a better job than any other GPS I have tried for getting and keeping a signal. It is almost as if it isn't as picky as some GPS devices.

All I can say is my $250 FlySight and the $200 reward still beat the $2000 Storm with only 35 jumps I thought I had written off!

Of course the FlySight was purchased for other reasons. This just happened to be a bonus.
Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

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but u said "More than a few times I thought it was a bit of a waste of effort just taking it on a flock...well NO MORE!" and "Thank You Flysight! All skydivers should wear one!"

ALL SKYDIVERS? just to gind chopped canopy? (if - big if)
any gps would do
all gps now do hot start in 30 s or so
enough even for wingless skydive

r u flysight dealer by any chance))))))))))


update: ding ding! http://flysight.ca/dealers.htm
wicked wingsuits flysight dealer

ok now.... ALL SKYDIVERS BUY FLYSIGHT FROM WICKED WSUITS!!! lol

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Another Flysight story:
I did a 22,000 foot jump and went out with 2 friends for a 3 way belly jump. We were put out by a jumpmaster about 2 seconds between groups because of the high speed of the aircraft. We broke off at 4,000, I started tracking and saw opening canopies closer than desired. I reported it to the jumpmaster later that day as feedback that I thought he might need. He asked me some questions and I just was not sure about some of the specifics that he had queried me on. Later I remembered I had my Flysight on for that jump. I got a ground track image from the viewer and emailed it to him with the answers. They are nice to have. And no, I don't sell them either.
Instructor quote, “What's weird is that you're older than my dad!”

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ok guys your use cases convinced me to buy flysight from wickedwings one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Receiver-Location-Finder-Display-Keychain/dp/B0050FXF52/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1362280900&sr=1-1&keywords=keychain+gps

slap it on your wrist on altimeter strap..its so small
chop? press a button record a waypoint BOOM! (oh dont forget to deploy reserve 1st lol)
bad spot? press a button tell pilots coords
lost in the clouds look at the scrren! it iwll show direction and distance to dz
*all without computer!!!*
30bucks wiht shippign

face it 250 hard cash is way too expensive these days for a gps (even if it has audio)
for this money u can buy recon hud
-way more advanced tech than just a gps with audio plug
for gods sake u can watch porn on hud on the way up lol

but for "justincase" things u mentioned a $30 tiny thing would suffice or even be better (screen and all other extra funtionality, also useful while hiking biking running etc)

$250 is WAY TO HIGH PRICE

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ok guys your use cases convinced me to buy flysight from wickedwings one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Receiver-Location-Finder-Display-Keychain/dp/B0050FXF52/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1362280900&sr=1-1&keywords=keychain+gps

slap it on your wrist on altimeter strap..its so small
chop? press a button record a waypoint BOOM! (oh dont forget to deploy reserve 1st lol)
bad spot? press a button tell pilots coords
lost in the clouds look at the scrren! it iwll show direction and distance to dz
*all without computer!!!*
30bucks wiht shippign

face it 250 hard cash is way too expensive these days for a gps (even if it has audio)
for this money u can buy recon hud
-way more advanced tech than just a gps with audio plug
for gods sake u can watch porn on hud on the way up lol

but for "justincase" things u mentioned a $30 tiny thing would suffice or even be better (screen and all other extra funtionality, also useful while hiking biking running etc)

$250 is WAY TO HIGH PRICE


In my experience most GPSs fail to lock signal in aircraft (unless you just happen to sit next to the pilot on each jump, sticking your GPS far under windscreen) and only acquire it when you open your canopy (clear view of sky + almost no speed). SOmetimes you even have to wait until you land to get a signal.

If this 30$ GPS works for that will be great, but IMHO you will have spent 30$ for no effect, so spending 250$ on flysight and knowing it will work is much cheaper.

But then again, do you really need a GPS on your jumps?
I understand the need for conformity. Without a concise set of rules to follow we would probably all have to resort to common sense. -David Thorne

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Feel free not to get one. I don't care one bit. I sure am glad I had mine on that's for sure.

If you do buy one I normally refer people to Sunshine Factory or TonySuits. We are a dealer but don't keep them in stock except for special occasions.
Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

Try before You Buy with Wicked Wingsuits - WingsuitRental.com

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$250 is WAY TO HIGH PRICE



I should probably pass this up, but really wanted to set the record straight on this one if I can.

As many people here know, I'm the manufacturer of FlySight.

The reason FlySight is more expensive than the keychain GPS you linked is because it serves a much smaller market, but has similar development, testing, and production costs. Keeping those costs in mind, my main goal in pricing FlySight has been to offer it at as low a cost as I can, while still ensuring that I can afford to offer you all the level of service you deserve.

I have a "day job" that pays the bills, but also offers me enough flexibility to continue working on FlySight. FlySight is something I do because I love it, and because I love the community it serves.

Whether or not you buy a FlySight is, of course, 100% up to you. If it doesn't add value to your skydives, I wouldn't dream of convincing you to buy one--you just wouldn't happy with it. However, for those who find the audible feedback and/or reliability in freefall useful, I will continue to build them.

I hope I've helped to clear up any misunderstanding about why FlySight costs what it does.

Thanks!

Michael

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Good reply!


And just to answer sky12345, I have a Flysight and a similar gps as the one you linked to.
I like them both, I use them both, sometimes both at the same jump.
But they serve me in different ways, one does not make the other useless.
And as Michael said, you can't compare the markets of these devices and therefor not the prices either.
You can't really compare the price of a golfcart and a SUV, they both drive but serve you in different ways.

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http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/swiftnav/piksi-the-rtk-gps-receiver

Hey! Use this chip, charge $700 as a high end option and then you can really piss the cheapskates off.

In all seriousness, I'd scrounge for the premium model of it is actually as accurate and responsive as the Piksi people claim. Though, I have no technical knowledge on the subject, so this could be a scam or it could be incredibly difficult for you to implement.

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shveddy

In all seriousness, I'd scrounge for the premium model of it is actually as accurate and responsive as the Piksi people claim. Though, I have no technical knowledge on the subject, so this could be a scam or it could be incredibly difficult for you to implement.



:)
As a designer, there's a subtle distinction that comes to my mind:

  • On the one hand, we have systems like the Piksi, which measure your position with centimeters of absolute accuracy. With a system like that, you can say precisely where you flew.

  • On the other hand, what if you could measure your actual path with conventional GPS, but measure small deviations from that path with higher accuracy using a second technology?


With the second option, you don't know with high precision where you flew (because you can't determine it accurately by adding up the small deviations), but you do know, e.g., if you suddenly move a few cm to the right.

What I have in mind, of course, is a GPS combined with an inertial measurement unit (IMU). This gives you the big picture (GPS) and fine detail (IMU), but without the ability to put the two together. However, I suspect that in our application, this tells us everything we need to know.

When you start measuring with that kind of accuracy, one more question comes up, though: Precisely what point do you want to measure? If you mount such a unit on your helmet, as we usually do, and then you turn your head, does that count as "a sudden dodge to the side by a few cm"? The more accurate your measurements are, the more important this kind of question becomes.

I suspect that, if this information were truly useful to us, we would have a ready answer for this kind of question. We would know exactly what we want to measure, and the rest of the design would follow. For example, commercial aircraft use a couple of RTK GPS receivers--one in the nose and one in the tail--to determine both the position and orientation of the plane very accurately.

We're a little more squishy than a 737, so it's hard to say exactly what is meant by the "heading" of a wingsuiter, except to say it's the direction they're moving--something conventional GPS tells us quite well.

Anyway... You can see I've given this a bit of thought, but have run against some obstacles--e.g., "What exactly do I want to measure? What am I going to learn from it?"

If you have some idea of what you'd measure with a device like the Piksi, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe there's a standalone solution that will do the job just as well!

Michael

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My personal interest is to measure BASE starts in far more detail than a video or gps can currently provide.

At 3 seconds exactly how far have I traveled and how much altitude have I burned? What about 5 seconds and 7 seconds.

To answer your question that would mean that the "where" does not have to be exact but the details of performance would need to be trustworthy.


* I am not saying that this is to measure MY starts...but it is to measure starts!;)

Summer Rental special, 5 weeks for the price of 4! That is $160 a month.

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Exactly, stick a base unit at some of the more popular jump sites around the world, and then with a big enough sample you can make a bell curve displaying the probability that you will be x feet away from the cliff at each increment of y vertical distance fallen and then you can know with 99.9% certainty whether you are ready for other more technical sites.

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Michael

I got to try my FlySight on a wingsuit jump on my RBird. It wouldn't work with the motorcycle helmet speakers probably because of not enough battery power but it works well with a pair of Sony earbuds. I found the device to be pretty intuitive. The little buzzy beeps were coming at a crawl and I knew when I was flying correctly. This device definitely makes the learning curve a lot easier.

Cheers

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crwper

Indeed. It's been a while in development, but it's finally here. I am happy to answer any questions you guys may have.

Michael



Finally got around to getting one ... can;t wait to go out an play .... nice one Michael.

(.)Y(.)
Chivalry is not dead; it only sleeps for want of work to do. - Jerome K Jerome

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