IslandGuy

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone of the Texas Flock, the folks at Spaceland, and the Skyfest gang for hosting one helluva great boogie and making it one flocking great time. It was awesome.

Jumping the tailgate was a blast. Great to see all the new birds being trainined up. Very nice flocking with new faces too, great talent, all fun. Of course, and, as always, great to see and fly with all the old birds that came from all over the country once again. It just keeps getting better.

Yup, everything was just about perfect except for the rain Sunday morn. But even that was fun as it turned the landing area into a series of lakes (or islands) which ultimately led to endless entertainment as folks selflessly steered themselves into the ponds ending at times with spectacular results to the uncompassionate delight of the onlookers.

Thanks all, looking forward to the next time!!

Instead of a new canopy - maybe check out the new design Tony Suits with the new break-away wings (for lack of knowing what they are officially called). As it has been described to me, this might address your concerns in dealing with spinners.

Maybe Jeff or Tony can add something here.

Just a thought. Hate to spend money on a canopy when it could be spent on wingsuits.

Excellent - works for me...

Now, who's going? 1. Scott B. (Notsane)
2. Mike M. (Gray Mike)

Hey Agent,
The flockers are not hard to miss - they will be the guys having the most fun at the boogie.

Show up, introduce yourself, and you can pretty much be assured that in no time at all you will be having the time of your life. No worries...
Mike

Last year it was Sept. 22-24. Those dates seemed to work out nicely. Since we are on the edge of July, it's really not that far away and should pick the weekend soon. Folks want and need to make plans - it'll definitely be a great time, not to be missed.

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I've had a bit to play with my 201 and based on that experience, I can not endorse Klauss' Paralog software enough. It is the shit. Using the 201 with it was effortless. If it wasn't for TimeMachineX's ability to alter the settings of the 201, I'd say junk it and just go with Paralog.

-Blind

Agreed, it's a nice program, I've been using it with the Foretrex 201 for some time now.

Problem is that we are now wanting to look at the data at the DZ, get feedback on each flight. We have multiple GPS units to deal with and different computers. So with all the different GPSs and laptops and home computers, it would require about a hundred licenses to make it work, and that's on a slow weekend.
Right now, we're just trying a few different things. Not sure what we'll end up doing. Just beginning to check out options.

I also have been using the WBT-201 for things other than jumping (biking, etc.) and find that Time Machine does everything I need it to do without any problems.

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how did you set the sample rate for more than 1/sec ?

When you select time, there is a field box that you can fill in. Are you trying to set it to log points more than once every second?

Yup, got that - set the time - but the fastest sample rate I can enter is 1 Hz. According to this forum:
http://www.gpspassion.com/forumsen/post.asp?method=ReplyQuote&REPLY_ID=532337&TOPIC_ID=76813&FORUM_ID=64
the uBlox chipset (which, from what I have read, is the heart of the WBT0-201) is capable of sampling at 4Hz.

The WBT-201 wasn't mentioned specifically, but thought that since the capability existed to achieve the higher sample rate, that there might be a way to set it. Thought maybe there was some special syntax or format that I didn't get.

Please let me know if you've found a way to do that.

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Some weird things I found.

You need to adjust these items in time machine.

It's a fantastic little unit and quite affordable.

I agree, for less than a 100 bucks, it seems like a lot of capability.

Using Time Machine, how did you set the sample rate for more than 1/sec ?

Hi Blind,
I got a WBT-201 and tried it this weekend. Basically out of the box, turned on, and placed inside the wing of my Mach 1. (Heffro - Jeff Nebelkopf - wore my Fortrex 201 and he got some good data too which he'll hopefully post.)

I had no idea what I was going to get in terms of data, but I was pleasantly surprised when I downloaded the tracks and there was something actually there to plot.

I used the USB port to download (don't own anything with Blue Tooth). The latest versions of the required USB Driver and (lacking alternative tools) their device management program called "Time Machine" may be download from here:

http://www.wintec.com.tw/en/support_detail.php?cate_id=11&support_id=65

Install these per their directions. Also, download the manual for the Time-Machine program - it's not the best but a better than nothing.

After I got all this set up and got the device connected (I think it helps to turn it on when you open Time-Machine for the system to recognize it) I was able to easily manage the tracker and the data it collected. Not real sophisticated but functional.

Some weird things I found.
1. I found that the highest time resolution I could set was one sample per second and for some reason I was under the impression from reading some of the GPS blogs that it would sample 4/sec. So, I set it to 10 meter resolution and so maybe this will increase the sample rate to its maximum when flying.
2. As a default, the sampling rate is determined by heading change of 5 degrees which I didn't think was the best.
3. Using the wall charger didn't seem to charge it for the first time - I had to use the car charger. I may have a bad wall unit. The USB port on the computer charges it well though too.

The data is downloaded and can be converted to any number of formats using the Time Machine Program. GPX formats I think are good for Tracking Derby and up-loading to Motion Based, the kmz formats are for Google Earth, and the htm works for Visual Earth. All kinds of plots, and graphs are available using these sites and software.

I'll know a lot more next weekend after now having some experience with the device and how it works.

Also, acquisition was pretty fast - like less than 30 seconds (sitting in co-pilots seat) - but once it got locked, it continued to collect data even while inside the plane (T-Otter). I did try to keep it near a window though as I got zipped up and moved back toward the door.

So far I'm liking it - will know more next weekend.

Let us know if you are having any luck with yours.

-Mike

The Current Skyfest Wingsuit Count:

1. Chuck Blue (Z-Flock Wingsuit School)
2. Jason “Voodew” Weisberg
3. Doctor Theopolis
4. Jenn Hinson
5. Robert Jones (Morpheus)
6. Jeff Nebelkopf (Tony Suits)
7. Tony Uragallo (Tony Suits)
8. Nick Rugai (EG Wingsuits)
9. Scott Gray (The Brothers Gray)
10. Chris Gray (The Brothers Gray)
11. Travis Jones a.k.a "Chunks"
12. Jean'mudbug'Dupre
13 Bob Futrell
14 Jen D.
15. Doug D.
16. G. Richard
17. Zach
18. Jason R.
19. Susan
20. Tyler
21. Dave
22. DZ Tom
23. Mike M. (Gray Mike, Z-Flock 9)

Looks great guys - very nice. Seems to be well balanced too - slightly smaller leg wing and slightly bigger arm wings?? or is that an illusion?

With a little luck, will catch you out there Sunday and we can play with a few towering cumulus. I want to take a look at that suit up close and see how it performs.

Excellent Brian - thanks for putting that together and posting. Wish I were there flying with you guy - hopefully next time.

Damn Matt - FANTASTIC!!! The vids, they just keep getting better - well worth the wait - awesome job. You are the best. THANKS!!

Very cool Tero - Thanks!!!

Was really hoping to but have a scheduling conflict. Maybe next year if it happens again.

mike

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Got my new Mach1 on Wednesday.

The best part is I let a buddy try it out and he fell in love with it too. He's ordering one this week so I'll have someone to flock with now.

Looks great!

I can see why your bud fell in love with it. I don't think I've had my S3 out of the bag but once since I started flying the Mach 1 in Puerto Rico.

Has your bud got his Mach in the mail yet?

mike

You can still find feathers around the DZ.

Very fine pic Dan - a view we see here at the Hills often in the summer. Definitely looking forward to cloud season.

Thanks for coming out and joining us and glad you had fun. It was a blast flocking with you - hope to have the opportunity to do it again soon!

mike

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You've got nothing on Mike (IslandGuy) and his "taxiway mayonaise"

No "special sauce" - just aircraft lubricant

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.
Yup - the turkey was my favorite!! Yum. Worth going to TX for, in and of itself. Hoping to fly with you guys soon.

Hi AveE,
I tried taking data with the Forerunner (I mistakenly bought the Forerunner 201 instead of a Foretrex) and was unable to get it to do what I wanted. The worst thing was that there was no way to set the sampling interval, it was all automatic (in the Fortrex you can set it to once per second).

Secondly, it seemed complicated (maybe impossible) to get he data groups right - I could never get it right. With the Foretrex, you simply have to turn it on and off and it automatically places beginning and end of file markers. With the Forerunner - who knows?

Anyhow, maybe you will have better luck with it than I did, but I ended up swapping it out for the Foretrex 201, never could get things to work right. Good luck and wishing you the best.
-mike

Tease is appropriate. Can't wait for the full-up version - excellent!!

Thanks again you guys for the feast - we had a great time!

Also, hope Scotty's motorhome made it thru it one piece - thanks to him for hosting it.

Good cooking Jeff!

Birdhouse with beers, or beerhouse with birds, either way, I'll definitely try and be there.

Awesome work Matt! Thanks for taking all them beautiful pics - and thanks too for organizing all the other camera flockers so it came off so well.

Looking forward to the video!

Can't say thanks enough to everyone who traveled near and far for making this MY most memorable wingsuit event ever. It was a treat and a pleasure to jump with each and everyone of you.

Special thanks to Scott for leading the organization and setting the tenor and flow of events (Hope your voice has recovered
Thanks, of course, to all the sponsors and folks that brought suits to demo, Rob, Kathy, Robi, Tony, Jeff, and EG Suits (sorry, forgot your name ) – really cool stuff. Plus for the beer, door and prizes.

Thanks to the load organizers and cameramen that turned the birds into flocks and captured awesome video and pics to debrief with - Scott, Chuck, Rob, Robi, Matt, Scotty, and everyone else who wore a camera. Can't wait to see the compiled results.

Then, thanks to the entire infrastructure:
the pilots (Mickey, Julie, and Matt) who did one helluva job, especially in the formation loads,
the packers who provided no reserve rides and quick turns,
manifest for keeping track of all the bodies and planes,
the café that made heaps of good food, and,
the weather gods that provided perfect conditions and even a few clouds to tease us with.

In one word – AWESOME - Life is too short to let another year go by to do this again – I’ll see you all at FnD 3.5 in the fall if not sooner some place else.

--mike