Altitrack

Done almost all jumps with this. granted if you like digital go digital, but as far as analog goes it's the best. granted did a zero g in the plane and it messed up the recording portion of the altimeter, but it still pointed correctly. Also did a a number of hop and pops that it didn't record at all. It still pointed to the correct altitude, which is all that matters to me in the end. Plus, you can add the jump info to it later.

I bought my AltiTrack from ParaGear at winter and did a couple of tens of jumps with it.
In May, I was doing a hop'n'pop from 5500 ft.

During the climb to altitude, the device was showing correct values, but then around 5000 feet the arrow suddenly dropped to zero.

When I was under the canopy, the arrow was pointing at 11000 feet then about 18000 feet after the landing. I also noticed that the back screen was "blinking" in a weird way. The battery was full.

I sent it back to the manufacturer and had an awful customer service experience. I called L&B several times to find out if they received the device, and I was told to e-mail them. The e-mails were literally ignored for many days and I couldn't get a reasonable response from them.

It's August now and I still don't know the current status of my altimeter and whether I'll get it back any time soon. Beware.

This is the best solution for who likes the analog alti in free fall but also wants a precise digital one with logbook incorporated. Simply as. Has heaps of functions and it's really precise. Comfy on the hand, has an angle of 45º so you don't need to turn your hand to look at it.
Only one cons: price! It costs a bit but eventually it's worth it!

Got a great deal on an almost new 2nd hand unit with cable and software - too good to turn down. Love the fit and fact that you arrive at DZ, turn it on and not have to worry about zeroing it before every dive. I still check it before every dive to make sure it is at 0ft before boarding. Check it when climbing and matches my Quattro at 1,000ft and the alti on board the plane at various heights up to altitude. Don't really use the playback function; but do download all the jumps to computer at the end of a weekend. Sync it with video which is kinda nice too. The software is not great, a bit outdated; but it works. I had a question I emailed to L&B and got an answer from Mads Larsen within 2 minutes! Now that is customer service to be proud of! I might supplement it with a digital alti and it'll be a Visio from L&B for sure!

I've made my first jump with my Altitrack in 2007. I bought it because I'm really in to gadgets, but it's more then just a gadget.

I like to simplicity on the "analog" side. During freefall you don't need to know your exact altitude and the big numbers and the colours (4000ft and below) make it easy to read.
On the other side (inside) it has a very easy to use and extended logbook. I personally don't use the playback functions. Just freefall time, heights and speeds.
Like some other people wrote before, I also had some problems with the software which L&B fixed very fast and appropriate.

So here are a couple of things I don't like about the Altitrack although it is an awesome altimeter and highly recommended!

- I used it in 2007 and 2008 for about 31 jumps. I didn't jump some years and started again in 2012. This year (2013) I had to replace my battery.
- I don't like the Jump-Track software. It has a very old fashioned look and it is not really user friendly.
- Some jumps with a short freefall (hop & pop) where not detected by the device.
- I would like to see a different way to attach the finger loop. The current velcro doesn't work 100%.

That said, I love my Altitrack and my other L&B products! This product is highly recommended.

Blue Skies!

I have owned my Alti-Track for two years now and have not had any issues with it what-so-ever. I've used it in all kinds of weather, rain ( at altitude ) and snow. All different temperatures from 22 degrees on the ground to 98 degrees on the ground, bright sunlight, night jumps and about everything in between. It has preformed flawlessly. It has never missed a jump, even a hop and pop from 2900 got tracked. I did have a problem loading my jump track software for it on a new computer with windows 7 and got in contact with L&B. Steffen e-mailed me back within minutes with the answers I needed and arranged to send me an update disc. They are a great company with great products.

I was looking at one in a catalogs, but it was hard to believe that one little thing got so many options, but when my friend let me jump with his Altitrack, and showed me time,speed,alti,etc. I knew
it was true, so I got one for myself too.
There's a couple of things I couldn't understand in a last couple of years with my Altitrack, but I still LOVE IT, and will recommend it to others!

1.When a plane went down for a 1000 feet,
my logbook count it as a jump, which was a bizzare that looked like: exit 12500, opening alti 3500, freefalling 1000feet, freefalling speed 17mph. ???
2.When I did 5 HOP&POPS in one day the analogue display worked fine, but none of those been logged in. ???
3.All the hardware, sold separately, kinda pricey and I didn't hear a good thing about them yet...
4.Its a little bulky, so it makes it impossible to pack without taking off your altimeter, so you have to take it off and put it back on 10 times a day...

L&B is the best company I have ever dealt with in regards to customer service. I would definitely recommended this to any jumper, not matter what skill level

This altimeter is very well thought, and although some people said it is not intuitive to use, I didn't find it too hard to understand and get used to. After 15 minutes reading the manual I was able to use the computer easily.

I guess the commands are programmed in a way that no accidental changes can be made (i.e. if you want to turn off the unit you have to ENTER the menu, go to the OFF submenu, PRESS a button to start changing a variable, MATCH this variable to the number on the left side and press ENTER again - it's not very hard to understand, but it's not like a cell phone, thankfully).

Also, some things really impressed me (and reinforced what I said about being well thought):

1. the unit auto-adjusts itself to ZERO all the time, so you don't have to worry if your base ground is correct, it is;

2. It remains ON for 14 hours and then turns off automatically (so if you start jumping early in the morning, you don't have to worry about it anymore, and neither you have to worry about forgetting it ON for days...);

3. Can playback jumps! That's really cool (and useful);

4. Very easy to read, no matter the position of your altimeter relative to your eyes;

5. You can preset your accumulated total number of jumps and free fall time;

6. and all the other pros indicated by the other reviews...

But... I was very disappointed the unit came without a cable. This is not a cheap toy, and you have to buy along with a specific software to be able to download your data (AND to update the firmware).

And if you bought this altimeter, it's because you want to digitally log your jumps (and 400 minutes of recording is just enough to record about 385 freefalls or 60 freefalls+canopy, which is not a lot).

Of course it records all those jumps, which is great, but then it could have a larger capacity to store highlights about all your jumps, so you wouldn't loose these info when the unit starts recording jumps over the first ones stored.

Finally, the Altitrack can be set with a negative offset, but just to minus 3000 ft. So if you are going, for example, to perform a high altitude rescue you will have to manually zero the offset while on flight (I don't see the reason for not being able to set a bigger negative offset, as you can do with the positive - for example + 8500 ft).

This was my very first altimeter and wow, for the extra bit of money it was well worth it compared to a non digital type.

face is perfect size and with it fitting nicely on an angle on my hand it makes it all the easier to read without tilting my hands.

once you get used to navigating the display on the backside, the information this thing provides is amazing to say the least and I use the replay feature to give non skydiving friends a sense of the speed and timing.

all in all, I will buy again.
hopefully the software will get better so I can take advantage of that too.

Really great thing! Yes, it maybe a bit more expansive then other altimeters, but you get lot more then you pay for.

For the first its very great accuracy, since its digital.
But since it have a analog display, so it very easy to read. It have a clear and great display.
Also I like very nice background light. Very great for night jumping!
Also its have a logbook with lot of data. Exit alti, deploy alti, max/min/avg speed, ff time and much more!

Only thing I dont like is that I have to buy very expensive software to get my logs over to PC.

Otherwise Im super happy with it and highly recomend it for everyone!

Cannot enter negative DZ offset

I loved my Altitrack, but I think the JumpTrack software leaves a lot to be desired, and that takes away considerably from the package.

First, Altitrack works great, as advertised. It is beautiful aesthetically and ergonomically, resting nicely on the side of the hand. The analog movement is natural and easy to read. One comment: it does not show any more granularity than the typical analog altimeter at low altitudes, while technically it could.

JumpTrack is not so hot. First mistake: the product is Windows-only and uses Microsoft Access for its database. My software freezes or hangs or fails to import data at least once every time I open it.

As far as I can tell, the software will not import GPS.

I ran into a competitive product recently that looks superior: Paralog (www.paralog.net), which runs on Linux, Mac, or Windows, imports from GPS (jumps viewable in 3D on google earth), and supports digital logbook signatures (not sure if those are accepted by USPA, though I think not). Paralog, however, does not import Altitrack data, only ProTrack, Neptune, and a few others.

The Paralog software looks so good to me (and supports publishing to web!), that if I had it to do over, I would go with a lesser instrument than Altitrack so that I could use superior software.

Absolutely LOVE my L&B Altitrack. Lots of people think it's just a normal analog alti - it's SO far from that. I prefer the analog style, but I wanted more info about my jumps without having to have a 2nd alti to record that info - this fills all my needs. In a previous review, I read that you can't do a neg. offset - first day out of the box I checked that and had no issues setting it. Tells you more about your jump then you'd ever need to know - max/min/avg speed, freefall time, exit & deployment altitude, and then after your jump you can replay the entire thing to see all the little details about your jump, like how much alt. you lose doing a full toggle 360 or a front riser dive. If you want an alti that reads like an analog and has a full computer, get an Altitrack!

First off I love my Altitrack and would recommend it to anyone who wants an analog display with digital accuracy and a computer. I would just like to inform potential buyers about a known issue with negative offset entry. If you are jumping into an elevation which is higher than your take off altitude be advised you cannot enter a Negative Offset into the device. Example - our DZ is 490ft higher than our takeoff altitude, so I would need to adjust minus 490 on a regular altimeter. According to L&B this is a known issue and they are working on an upgrade to be released around August 2007. The suggested workaround; "The way you should do is manually adjusting the Altitrack to ”0” when you climb in the plane and pass the altitude of the DZ where you are going to land.".
cheers,
Paul

I had a Protrack prior to purchasing my Altitrack, and wanted to keep using my JT software, the software is the cake, and the Altitrack is the icing, IMO.
These guys really planned this product out well.
And when my cable to connect the Altitrack to the computer disappeared, L&B was willing to help me out so I didn't need to buy another copy of the software just to get another cable. GREAT customer service.

I have bought EVERY accessory that L&B has ever made. Their customer service is A+++++++++ (actually PERFECT) and their products are great. The non linear face on the Altitrack is a very useful feature. It doesnt require wraparound conversion to figure out your altitude if you are above 12K. It also spreads out the low altitude portion to give you good angular resolution where you need it most. They use a solid state pressure sensor, a microprocessor and a digital stepper motor to do this. The back lighting is nice, not overly bright. The hand mounting works well, although I prefer a wrist mount. The jump logging features are awesome, everything the Pro track does and more. I like to have an accurate altimeter from TO to landing and here is the one shortcoming in the current version of the product. For about the first 500 ft after TO it stays on zero then jumps up to the right reading and is fine after that. Maybe L&B will fix this in a new software version. When you consider all the work that went into the product. the amazing number of useful features and the relatively small skydiving market, it is a good value at $299. I think it is out of kindness towards the Cypres mfr that L&B does not make AADs. Clearly they have the software and most of the hardware to do it already. The Altitrack is a great device which is useful, fun and very accurate. Buy one, you will not regret it. I love knowing that if something goes wrong, even after warranty expiration, L&B will treat me right and keep me happy, just as they have always done. They truly deserve my business and set the gold standard for taking care of customers.

Once I was signed up for and paid for my AFF course I started to look for my first piece of gear. My only other experience with altimeters was on my introductory Jump with a chest mounted altimeter. After looking at various models and prices I decided that the cost to get the ALTITRACK to have an easy to read analog faces but with the log book features of a digital would be worth it. In 3 past days did seven jumps of my AFF and found it extremely great to use.

For jump tracking purposes you can put in a starting jump number and accumulated free fall time from previous jumps

On my first jump with it I found that the needle did not move on take off right away which had me a bit concerned but on flipping it over I did find that it was showing it was in flight mode and showing the altitude climbing on the digital display. At about 500 feet the needle jumps and then moves smoothly from there this was pretty much standard I observed on all takeoffs. I did find that on Saturday being 33 Degrees C extremely humid and 4 jumpers in a C182 makes for a sloooow climb to altitude that the needle at times would not always move and then jump at increments but the digital was always showing the correct current altitude extremely accurate I compared this several time to the planes altimeter on different jumps. One of the jump we got up too 7000’ and hit a cloud ceiling popping up through a break in the clouds and climbing to 8500’ and the top of the cloud base it was deemed the break wouldn’t be in a location for a good spot so the pilot dropped down to 7000’ pretty aggressively the ALTITRACK did not record this as a jump (I had it and AFF mode) but some of the other modes may pick that up as such. So there is a jump deletes feature to erase a jump for such a case VIA the menus screens on back or if you loan it to some one that way your jump # a free fall time remains accurate for your use.

One easy use but important feature of the ALTITRACK is the altitude is adjusted automatically for you DZ location but if you are taking off from one altitude but jumping in to a different one you can put in this altitude off set in to the ALTITRACK to factor in the elevation difference.

On the Back you get displayed Date Time change screens you get total jumps and freefall time. As you scroll through the jumps you get exit altitude, deployed altitude, freefall time and dive type and speed Max Min and Avg. On the dive screen you can replay back the jump with pointer movement in real time ¼ speeds or double or view the digital read out of the jump playback showing the Altitude and speed.

On exit and during free fall the needle moves very smoothly and the position sits on such a nice offset position my hand that that it was very easy to glance at so much so that I had to start turning my head for altitude checks as my instructor wasn’t sure I was doing them

I had set mine to track both free fall and under canopy. This reduces the number of full jumps as it can track. There is not a jump number limit but a time limit of 400 minutes that it will log and then start over writing the first jumps once that limit is reached which it wasn’t a concern for me as all the details are downloaded in to JUMP TRACK.

Jump Track 3.0 software and the USB adapter for the ALTITRACK the setup was pretty straight forward and went without issues (I’m in I.T. by trade so the computer stuff comes second nature to me) but looking at the instillation instructions it has all the steps that most non computer savvy people should be able to install without issues. The Various settings for the ALTITRACK such and MPH/KPH/FPS Meters or Feet for altitude on the digital readout, Fahrenheit or Celsius ect. can be change VIA screens on the ALTITRACK itself or the JUMP Track software allowing you to change all the settings on the ALTITRACK. The back up feature is very easy to use all you need to do is select the folder to back it up to and the click! I would strongly suggest doing this on a regular basis and save it to a CD or USB thumb drive (2 gb can now be gotten for $60 or so) loosing all you electronic log books to a computer crash is something that can be easily avoided buy this step. Jump Track 3.0 now uses standard Microsoft Access Databases for the log books now so all you advance computer users of Database people will see a wealth of opportunities this opens for presenting the data form jumps. The default reports are pretty decent to start. There are several other great features in Jump track that I like such as Gear Track which will track and alert you to repack cycles cypress maintaince cycles ect. Linked with the jump track will track number of jumps on your gear. It can track a number of different rigs at once. Also tracking gear costs and serial numbers in one handy place. I had down loaded the Demo from L&B and found all the tings it could do was going to be worth the cost. You can enter all you jump DZ’s you jump at Jump ticket prices to track all your costs and so much more

The battery is a fairly common one to find LS 14250 Lithium and L&B says it should last 2 years through normal use or less if you use the backlighting. They say the ALTITRACK really only needs to be turned off when on a commercial flight or driving in the mountains. The backlighting is not overly bright to affect you night vision but not to dim either (haven’t done a night jump but have tried it dark and dimly lit room) The finger loop (black glued surgical tubing) that came with it is sized for single finger but a a two finger one is available or due to it being attached via Velcro pretty much any type of finger loop you want could be easily be but on. The wrist loop I found to long about 1 ½” even wearing over jump suit cuff that I will be cutting it with a hot knife and a quick sew to keep the Velcro from separating. The wrist loop is very secure with long length of Velcro in contact and is very easy to replace. I have fairly small hands and found it sits fine for me with no issues.

I order from http://www.skydivestore.com the shipped it Via USPS witch I’m extremely happy with. I live in Canada it did take a little longer for it to arrive the Fedex or UPS (If your in Canada do not ever use UPS if you don’t want to be gouged by customs brokerage fees!!! and this is from more than one costly experience I cite this from) Via USPS it took just a week to arrive but only cost me $28 GST and $5 customs brokerage fees.

I don’t have a lot of experience with gear but after talking may people at the DZ this weekend many who use various digital altimeters the response about the ALTITRACK I have gotten I don’t feel any buyers remorse about the product or the price I’ve paid and feel I’ll get a long and good use out of this altimeter. I would have no problem recommend it to others who want a very detailed computer for jump tracking with the extremely easy to read Analogue face. Overall looking at it you’re getting 2 very high end products wrapped in to one

I will update this latter as a I get more use in the different jump mode and one of the wing suite jumper would like to give it a try

ok.. you can read about what the features are but I've already used a few of them..
1. the log booking feature.. basically the same as the protrack.. but since I make a lot of jumps in a day I like having it to keep track..
2. the single biggest selling point for me is you can playback your jump using the needle.. esentailly you can use it for an accurate altitude simulator.. GREAT for student.. and decent even just for dirt dives..
3. the backlight is electronic, and very visable.
4. the fit is great.. a simple rubber gasket on the back makes it 100% more comfortable than predicesors.. not that they were even uncomfortable.. but that's L&B always raising the bar..
it is a little spendy for a newer jumper, but if you concider the logbook functions combined with the jump playback for training and the backlight.. in my opinion it's worth it..

The altitrack comes in a clear plastic throw away box together with a little bag to store it in, an embroided patch and three manuals. One real manual, a quick start guide (just enough to use it as an altimeter) and a "road map" paper that shows all menus and how to navigate them.

The manual (70 pages, each 12x9cm) explains everything together with images of each menu in an easy to read style, but it is rather wordy and some of the information is repeated a few times. There is a good index in the beginning so one can skip most of the hand-holding and go directly for the thing one is interesting in.

The altitrack comes in a few colours, black or silvery-goldish were available when I got mine, and the face comes in four different versions: meter or feet and a symetrical or asymetrical scale. I choose the asymetrical meter scale and mine shows 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40 and 50 x 100m. There are half way marks between each number.

The face also has the pro-dytter's "access" and "low battery" leds, both work just like on the pro-dytter. On the side there are two keys to be able to manually adjust the elevation (it does that automaticly by default) and to turn backlight on/off. There is also a rubber covered connector for the USB-track cable. The size is about the same as a barigo and the rubber on the back is designed so it can fit nicely over the side of the hand, near the thumb. The display is rotated 45 degrees compared to the barigo, making it slightly easier to read.And that's it, until one turns the unit over.

The backside is the interface to the loggbook and setup features. Here there are three more keys, "left", "right" and "dot". The display is an old-school LCD with pictures and 7-segment numbers, so no fancy graphs are possible to display. It is easy to read, but there is no backlight. Navigating the logbook and setup is easy and quick, pressing dot to switch screens and left/right to navigate the current screen. It is probably not too hard to accidently enter the setup mode (just hold the "dot" key for three seconds), but all important settings are well protected and almost impossible to change by misstake (one has to change a number to match a "matching number" and then press dot). The keys are near my knuckles when I'm wearing it and if I press the display, the "dot" key is pressed, but it requires some force. One can chose to have things displayed in meter or feet, mph or km/h, Celsius or Farenheit. Like the pro-track airspeed can be displayed in both SAS and TAS.

Before jumping, one can set the kind of jump (there are 8 different kinds, two of them change how the unit works - student, for logging short delay jumps and "slow" for birdman jumps) and while looking throw the logbook, it is displayed.

So, what's good and what's bad?

On the front's two keys, one is used to enter height adjustment mode and one is used to turn on/off backlight, but which does what isn't marked in any way. If one uses the wrong one when intending to turning on the backlight, it stops to automaticly adjust the height until after the next jump.

Log menu #2 (there are three) is used to look at the log for a specific jump and play it forward and back (and also to start analog playback). The playback is first played back at 1/4 of normal speed and can be increased by pressing left/right more times. Unfortunally one can't slow down the speed again or stop it. Pressing the other key only changes direction of the playback. Not a big deal, but slightly annoying.

The manual claims the clock has a precision of +-4 MINUTES / month! Sure, one will not use the altitrack as a regular clock, but still +-4 MINUTES can be the next/previos load after a few months into the season unless one remembers to set the clock now and then. It is however easy to set the clock and I often just change to the Xth jump of the day.

Unlike the Neptune, one has to pay more to be able to access the unit from a computer and afterwards it is a bit hard to put the rubber protection back over the connector (on the Neptune an IR interface is used, which almost all laptops have and the program is gratis for Neptune owners).

The unit feels solid and looks quite good (mine is of the silvery-goldish kind), but on close inspection there are a few rather visible casting marks around the buttons and strap holders which look less good. I don't know if the colour is painted on or if it is the plastic that has been coloured.

It is easy to find the information one searches for, both in the menus of the unit and in its manuals.

I don't know if it is good or bad, but the unit has a clearly marked reset key under the battery lid, the firmware version is displayed when it is powered on and the manual explains how to udate the firmware. Hopefully it will not be needed... :-)

The unit seems well thought out. Besides good protection of irreversible actions (and power off), the unit also refuses to do an analog play back of an old jump while in "jump mode". When the unit powers off, it puts the dial at 2000m and at power on it shows what kind of scale it expects on the front (in my case it says 6000 m). All to prevent nasty surprises.

On one of my camera jumps the minimum speed has been recorded as 105km/h, which seems really low (I didn't use any wings). Perhaps the unit got fooled by me putting my hands in front of my chest while speeding up?

Anyway, the display is easy to read and the height displayed matches my pro-dytter perfectly.

I wont go into detail about the features and functionality - they are great - read about them elsewhere. I'll talk about design:
This Altimeter gives you just what you NEED on the face - nothing more - and everything you WANT on the back (via LCD).
I'm new to the sport but am not new to technology (20+ yrs) so can recognize and appreciate elegant engineering and intelligent design. I first saw the Altitrack on a lovely wrist at Bay Area Skydiving in Byron, CA. Right away I noticed how easy it was to read - high contrast, pointer flat/close to the face, and the dial rotated so that the zero is parallel to your line-of-sight when belly down. On 2nd look I noticed the numbers (in 1000s) were not linear; 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 15, 18 - this means greater resolution at the more critical freefall altitudes and while under canopy (somebody was thinking). The whole device is also slightly tilted inward toward your face so you have to rotate your wrist less or not at all to read it. I dove with this altimeter and could read it while spinning and flipping and never missed a reading. Another thing I noticed about the design is that many itens are easily replaced: the finger loop can be replaced without sewing - it's held by a velcro loop. The wrist strap looks great and is also adjustable (not just the diameter) and can be replaced. My suggestion is to just try one on. Mine mounts on the back of the hand but you can buy different rubber mountings.
I will mention one feature - Jump Replay. On the back of the Altitrack is an LCD display through which you can review your jumps. New to the sport, I appreciate the ability to replay my jump - to see how well I controlled my fall rate - how much I was able slow down and speed up in freefall, exit and pull altitudes, etc.

If I could get them to change anything:
1. Thinner (but hey, there is a computer in there).
2. Price (it's worth it though)
3. Include the USB cable and software.
But I have no regrets.
I bought my Altitrack from Bonnie at GravityGear.com

- Angel

The Altitrack is a digital altimeter with a classic analog display, and let it be said immediately. It just works! Never again will you worry that you bumped your altimeter on something. Never again will you wonder if you forgot to zero it on the ground. Like the Pro Track before it, you turn it on and it will give you a fast and precise altitude measurement.

The finish of the unit is very appealing. The design is very classic but with a few twists. First of all the needle is very close to the scale. There is no noticeable difference reading the dial from different angles. The scale itself is not linear. The first half circle goes from 0 to 6000 ft while the second half goes from 6000 to 21000 ft. The asymmetric scale is an option but personally I find the added precision while under canopy to be a refreshing innovation.

Turning the altimeter over, is where you really discover what this thing can do. A large comprehensive display logs every detail of the jump (including the temperature). The altimeter will play back the jump for you afterwards both on the digital and the analog scale.

The back side is referred to by L&B as "ergonomically shaped" and indeed it does curve somewhat. I just didn't fit my hand too well. No matter how I positioned it I always had a knuckle or some other bone hitting the display. This, however, is the only minor inconvenience I could find. The first time you use it you might be a bit surprised at take-off, though. As the altimeter automatically zeroes itself to ground level it takes a few hundred feet for it to realize that you are indeed in an airplane and not just driving up a hill. The needle will remain at zero until this point, when it will align itself at the correct altitude.

I haven't had the opportunity to try all the options of the Altitrack. For example I haven't tried it on night jumps, but it is supposed to be able to light up. Also I haven't tried looking at the logs on a computer.

In summary this is by far the best altimeter I have ever seen. The fact that it is also the most expensive should not come as a surprise but in this case, you get what you pay for.