acho

Skydive Mesquite is the only one that will allow fun jumpers. It is about 100 miles north from Vegas. All the rest are strictly tandem oriented

It looks like he is streaming the video from gopro to the ground to me

Las time I spoke with Sammy abot 18 months ago he said that they will open in couple of months. From the article it seems like they are still to open. I hope he will open soon

I have a friend who tried very hard to poen drop zone here in Vegas but finally he gave up. He told me that getting all the permits and approvals is next to impossible. People with money comming to vegas are 99% tandem customers, not fun jumper so the tamnedm factories you mentioned don't care at all - sad but true Mesquit is the only place in 10 miles radius that I am awere of but it is very friendly place. Brad is very nice person!

Not many options for fun jumpers around Vegas. The only place is Skydive Mesquite - great small DZ. In the winter they got Caravan, rest of the time is 182. The only down side is that it is about 100 miles north of Vegas. For the tandems you can go to Skydive Las Vegas - it is located at Boulder city /about 20 miles or so from Vegas but they offer shuttle/. This is typical tandem mill but they use pac 750 whic is good. I hope this info helps

Where can we find more info about this? Is it available commercially?

It is not only one jumper who chopped and recovered the main. The one with most so far /two/ cutaways is testenig prototype canopy so cutaways in prototype stage are more likely to happen. He most likely can pack with his experience of over 12 000 jumps If he disn't learn by now how to pack It is hopeless There is link to the thread with his post about it: http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4805843;page%3Dunread&utm_source=Viber&utm_medium=Chat&utm_campaign=Private#unread

It is cool to use drone but not always possible and not cheep to have it and learn to fly it. This is why I made my litle canopy locator. Passed few to my friends and already there are bunch of chopped canopies found even in field with 7 ft tall sunflowers. So far 100% recovery rate in 15 mins or less and this is with no rush :) But I admit that searching with drone is way cooler

Michael, Thank you for the information! just out of curiosity - what is the range of the bluetooth device you are planning to install to your rigs? Thanks

Hi Michael, I was left with impression that adding such a thing to a rig is fine since you stated that you are going to install bluetooth trackers to all your rigs in the spring

I realy don't care much about mi chopped main as long as nobody is injured. I don't know why you are you looking for confrontation with me. I am not looking for that. Just be safe and don't worry about me. Again, if I offended you please accept mu apology.

You got me wrong - I am not trying to gain interest on it - just want to complete the project. I am not trying to convince anyone that this is great idea and everyone should have such device. Regarding the "standard operating procedure for cut aways" - I don't feel good about some one chasing my cut away risking to get injured or worst by landing in not so landing friendly area.

Let me see if I am following you. You have developed a glorious prototype of a product that is already available in all shapes and sizes and can cost anywhere between $10 and $1200. Now you want to revolutionize the skydiving industry by attaching it to a parachute, which has been done many times with devices of varying complexity and while seeing minimal results. Several people show you example of where this is being or has already been tried, and pointed out all the reasons why it is just no necessary or feasible. You have also witnessed possible conflicts with the legality of modifying equipment for experimental projects. Then your approach was to start a new thread on it and see if they had changed their minds? Or were you just hoping for a different audience this time? RopeaDope, Your post above looks interesting but to answer your question - no, you are not following me. Let me clear myself a bit. I did not mention the price of the device since it is not for sale at this moment. I never intended to revolutionize anything - I am simply not that smart. What I did is I had an idea which was challenge at first to build something that my work for the purpose. It is not another attempt to adapt existing device to work - it was built for this. Several people you are talking about was trying to convince me that it is better to look after cut away with RC aircraft. It may not be necessary or feasible for them but for me this is my project and I always try to finish my projects. I never witnessed "possible conflicts with the legality of modifying equipment for experimental projects" but somewhere in the back of my head I am aware that such conflicts may exist at some point. This is the main reason to start new thread on the subject - to ask people with more knowledge, experience and most important qualification on the subject. Please note that if I was so ignorant as you describe me the post most likely was going to be something like: "Dudes, I invented the hot water and the wheel all together which is going to change the skydiving industry forever and attached my device to my rig and jumped it" And to answer your last question - I am not looking for audience. I am grown person who has job and family, not 18 years old who has not personal life outside the Internet. I hope I answered all your questions about my project. And to clear up some future questions - English is not my first language which is the reason that I may sound funny. P.S.In this post I did not intended to show even grain of disrespect to RopeaDope or anyone. If anything in my post sounds offensive to anyone I would like to apologize. Regards, Stan

Folks, This is very interesting discussion but with all my respect I would like to point back to the original subject :) In resume: i developed small, stand alone tracker for cut away canopy which does nor relay on any third party network, it dictates the gps coordinates with voice so for "base stantion" a off the shelf /cheep/ walkie talkie is used. It weights about 1oz and the range is about 2 miles. I need help to find a good way to mount it to the canopy /deployment bag. I am looking dor qualified rigger who is willing to help with that. Thanks :)

I am no worried about someone stilling my idea and getting rich. In fact I posted about it here some time ago but people tried to convince me that this is very unnecessary. http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=4759769;#4759769 I hate to abandon projects in the middle so I would like to finish it. The device is fully finished /out of prototype phase/ and working. The coolest thing about it tha you don't need special receiver. It works with off the shelf walkie talkie an the range ground to ground is not bad - about 2 miles. Deployment bag is my idea too but as I said I am not rigger so my idea might not be good

I am not a rigger, not even close but looking for someone who knows what he is doing. I try not to mess with the stuff I don't know.... If the above desorption of master rigger is describing you and you are willing to help It would be great

I developed cut away canopy tracker which has to be mounted to the rig somehow. Have some ideas but need rigger in order to find the best way to do it

Hi, I need rigger who can help me completing my project. I live in Las Vegas so prefere someone local but this is not a must. Thanks

I will just use my device, listen to the coordinates, enter them in mu GPS/smart phone and go and get it Sorry, couldn't resist :)

can you post link to video from actual skydive please?

By activated I mean it is listening for call and yes, user can set the frequency so it is not one frequency for all. It broadcasts only after call from walkie talkie - you have to broadcast tone to activate it and yes, even the ones sold by walmart can do it. In the event of cutaway and multiple devices on same frequency at the DZ they can easy be deactivated by: a. pack and close the container or b. by putting magnet close to it to imitate packed and closed container. EDIT: I was thinking about the idea of busy Saturday and came up with idea to have it broadcast coordinates every 20-30 minutes without call so you can hear it even if multiple devices answer the call /chances that all the active devices have the timers to expire at the same moment are very slim/

So if it's installed in the D-bag it would activate every deployment? What would that do to battery life? Bolding mine. It's not illegal to operate within 5 miles of an airport. You just have to notify the airport authorities. FPV also isn't illegal. It's perfectly legal to operate an R/C aircraft with FPV, as long as it remains within sight of the operator. Using "video goggles" as the sole means of seeing where the aircraft (without someone else on a "buddy box" maintaining visual contact) isn't legal. But that's not what was suggested. FAA Regs Don't kid yourself that movement is what breaks stuff. It's G-forces. No matter how 'tight' everything is, you give it enough G and something will break. And please don't misunderstand my criticisms and questions. I think it's a cool project. Actually getting one of these to work, at a reasonable cost, without interfering with the rest of the operation of the gear is a pretty admirable goal. wolfriverjoe, all the critics are welcome - this is how the truth is born :) You are correct regarding 5 miles rule but I had in my mind bog commercial airports where if you call tower and ask for permission to fly near the airport they will deny it. In DZ case it is easy to obtain approval :) Regarding FPV - this is what I had in mind, you can use it but can not fly only relying on FPV googles - you have to have visual contact with the aircraft at all the time. Small $100 ish aircraft is very hard to see if 1000' away and even if you can see it it is very hard to know the heading just by looking at it. The above does not stop people from flying way beyond line of sight ;) And one more thing to add to RC solution - you have to be good RC pilot :) G forces make unsecured thinks to move. I admit that I have no ground to make statement that my device will survive it until it was jumped enough times to prove it strong enough for this abuse

The range is about 2 miles tested on the ground outside the city but close to it and some power lines near by. I guess if used from the air the range will be more magnet activated means that there is no mechanical switch which can fail, not in the classic meaning of the word. It uses reed switch which stays open when magnetic field is presented and closes when away from the magnet which powers up the device. If magnet can be installed in the container so when packed to be against the device in the d-bag it will work like this - d-bag out of the container device is active, d-bag in the container the device is inactive. This also can help locating of site landed jumper and it is good potion if the jumper is injured and need help. It is true to some point but not 100%. In the US FAA makes it illegal to fly RC aircraft in 5 miles radius from the airport. They also required RC aircraft to be operated in clear eye sight and FPV is not so legal. Even this is not an issue if the RC aircraft crasshes with the gopro you are looking at ~$500 losses. Thanks for the warning. I am optimist about the device's survival since inside the box everything is very tight packed and secured to the box with screws so little to no room for movements and the movements are what destroys things. Will test it and will see. If I builded one I can build another one ;) The first link is GSM based which brings some weak points as it has to have sim card with active plan, cell coverage in the area and if you travel and jump abroad activated roaming and the above conditions too. It has mechanical switch activated by pulling out cable attached to the container. The switch can fail easy and I try to avoid physical tethering to the container. May be paranoid but in case of emergency I don't want to have something extra that have to separate from the bad main. In other hand the price for it was $199 for early bird orders and $239 for normal price if I get it correctly. On top of that you have to add the subscription which pumps up the price even more. In my case the price for parts and some labor for my device is around $200 without volume discounts on parts and no subscription whatsoever. Yes, this is the price which I paid to build the device including some labor and no R&D but again I made it for me and R&D is performed by me in free time when I can work on it so it is "free" to me ;) the second link is cool device, but the home base has to be connected to the internet which is not always possible. The device is priced right IMHO. The third link is cool and cheap option but it has range of 300 feet by it's own. It can expand but it again involves third party networks. The idea originally came form friend of mine who is skydiver and jumps in Europe. I accepted it as a challenge. Now both of us will have it and I am happy that the idea turned out inn to real working device. Again, this was side project for fun and making money was not part of the idea behind it.

I found this product but the price is high for fun jumpers. It also involves two pieces of custom equipment. My aproach was a bit different - I wanted to build something simple that will tell you the coordinates and will work with off the shelf receivers/walkie talkie. It is not about making $$$$, it is about challange and thinking outside the box. If I calculate the time and money spent for this project it does not worth it but the morale reward when it first answered my call is priceless :)

I had two ideas behind this project: 1. To proove that I can do it ;) 2. To make it easy and fast to find the chopped canopy It was all about fun in first place /as skydiving in general/. I love chalanges an I love aimple solutions. Since the first point above was achieved I just wanted to share with you. I feel some kind of pride that the device works and that I managed to squeeze it in this small box. Now I have to find the best way to install it to the rig ;)