ToeUp

Hey guys, how's the weather? I'm sure you guys are already having fun without us. Anyway, I could use a ride from PHX sometime after 3:20 pm on friday (AW#357), but am flexible. Can wait till Paulie and Beth come in if needed. Will call you guys directly once the sun goes down. Oh, and did you guys know it's my birthday on friday

I assume you're still using a pressure sensor to determine altitude and vertical speed? Doing that with just a 2-axis accelerometer would be pretty much impossible. But I've considered some very similar projects and have done a few projects with accelerometers. Mostly I have used the ADXL311 from Analog Devices, which is cheap ($6.38 each), but only measures up to 2g. They also have some cheap 10,50 and 100g devices though. I think that 2 axes would be sufficient to register opening shock if mounted correctly, since you generally wouldn't experience much sideways force during deployment. But you would probably have to mount it somewhere on the harness because the flexibility and motion of the human body will dampen the opening shock. To measure peak opening shock you should be able to use just a single axis sensor mounted on the riser, since most of the decelerating force will be parallel to the riser. Anyway, I don't think there would be a very big market for the added information, especially when you consider that retail price will normally be at least 4 or 5 times part cost. What parts are you planning to use? I'm working on a gadget right now and am shopping for a good pressure sensor and maybe a good ADC. I've used the Motorola MPX5100 before, but I'm looking for something smaller.

What's JP looking at?

Damn, what happened last weekend. Did I already forget? Time flies when you're drunk. Anyway, bumping this thread by request. Here's some pics. What's Meeker looking at? No shit there I was, thought I was gonna die. Sunset cross-country, Mark's VX tried to eat me. He still got a better story though .

No, this is entertainment.

Oh yeah. I can't wait till she gets home, so I can really help her break it in

Hehe. You have a good eye for detail I have some other shots too, but decided they're not suitable for publication .

Booyeah! Eat your heart out! All DZ.com men envy me! Yes! I am the first man in GFD's new bed! And it's quite the ride too. See attached! Woohoo!

I have been thinking of building a real-time glide angle indicator for some time, incorporating a barometric pressure sensor and a handheld GPS unit. But how to present the data? I do have a helmet mounted display I could use, but that would definitely get expensive. How about a series of LEDs that show your performance relative to a preset glide angle? Any other suggestions? Oh, and does anyone feel like sponsoring my R&D lab?

Only 4 left. I mean 3. No, I meant 2

Yeah roomie, stay at work, I don't wanna catch it. Actually, I was a little sniffly this morning too, but I've been taking vit.C and will start on the Zinc lozenges. Those usually help me really well if I start early enough, and I'll probably have plenty left when you get back. I think there should be some soup left in the cupboard too. Get better soon.

Hey, where's the good old 640x480 option ? My regular work machines usually do 1024x768 or 1280x960, but I still have some old boxes doing 640x480. Oh, and my head mounted display is still only 320x240 .

About 340 ft at the Perris pond during a practice run. 270 turn on my crossfire, and only loaded at about 1.7, but it turned out I had a 13 mph tailwind. Managed to stand it up

Here's another one. It's one of my favorite back of the otter shots. Yes, that is an otter full of girls , woohoo! My other favorite back-of-otter-shot is in my chicks rock photoalbum at www.vanos.com/pa03/crb03/. You'll see the one I mean. (May not be SFW!).

Another good thing about hybrids is that you really don't need all that much experience. Small ones can be very easy, especially for the belly-flyers. You can even do a hybrid with just two people, one flying belly, another hanging on a legstrap and a chest strap. To get into the hanging position it'll help if you know how to fly on your feet, but basically you hold your buddy's straps and swing your feet under. It's also fun to switch roles during the dive, or doing it with three; 2-way belly round with shoulder grips and one person hanging on the chest straps of the other two. But before trying any of this, make sure your rigs are freefly friendly. A loose bridle while you're spinning around your friends can really ruin your day. Also, make sure your chest-straps are secure, really watch out for those handles and be aware of everyone on breakoff.

As I said, it's still building. The guy in blue is not a camera guy, but he's going for a foot. We did complete it, I just couldn't find a complete photo so far. And we wouldn't call this a hybrid, as everybody was flying a vertical body position. The term hybrid is generally reserved for a mix of bellyflyers and freeflyers. Here's a pic. Go try it, hybrids are fun.

Here's a photo of a 4 level dive building at Project Horizon 2. It was shot by Craig Amrine, his album is here. I think we built 5-levels as well, but haven't been able to find any evidence yet.

Hell yes! Gotta reprazent yo!

It's at www.redbullairforce.com Great site. You make have to look around a little to find the desktop pics, but it's worth it.

Okay, here's two of mine. ToeUp

Booyeah. Here's a quick pic from the carnage at Tim and Jen's B-day dinner. Hookitt and a few select perps are raging down in the city right now. Not sure why the hell I came back home already. Happy B-night Timmah.

Oh yeah, the black rock desert, where burning man takes place, is something else for sure. The dust is so fine, it gets absolutely everywhere. Your tent, your food, your drinks, your cameras. I can still smell it when I turn on my car's AC. The sights are quite amazing though. And the elevation is about 4000 ft, so the swoops are hot . I have more photo's at www.vanos.com/bm/. Also check out The Burning Sky website and the official Burning Man site.

I did a few jumps on a Xaos 27. Openings were great and the surf was sweet too. But I didn't like the sensitivity of the toggles much, just too twitchy. It might just be something I would have to get used to. (Unless Icarus releases my new dream-canopy while I'm scrounging up the money for a new canopy).

Another hot swoop pic. Does it count if it was taken by me, rather than of me ? Anyway, that's 8 camera's pointed at me while I'm landing at Burning Man. Woohoo.

Maybe they're working on a canopy with crossbraced performance but with the smoother opening characteristics of the crossfire. If it is, I want one! I've been wanting to switch to crossbraced for a while, but can't quite let go of my consistently snivelling crossfire yet.