Anyone teching out with GPS receivers yet???

[lmontejo]

This seems to be an interesting GPS for our sport:

http://www.navman-pcn.com/index.php?product=17



It is also suited for regatta type kiting as promoted at the St. Francis...


Leo

[charlie]

or this one
http://www.navman-europe.com/sporttool/ ... ?page=a300
it has alt

[lmontejo]

Charlie, this is the same device, but with an altimeter. Are you getting air that is that high???

On a more serious note, with such devices, I believe we can start another breed of kiting in the bay - x-country kiting. No different again than what we do on sailplanes. We could use similar techniques. The advent of that has been the Crissy-Berkeley downwinder. Of course, this could get far more complex, i.e. Alameda-3rd Avenue-Alameda, all in one afternoon. That is some 34 miles, and I suspect such a trip on a well chosen day, would take a couple of hours. In sailing, as in sailplanes, distance is interesting, but what really separates the men from the boys is speed.

In other words, once we learn how to do these crossings safely, our next goal will be how fast we achieve them.

Of course, we could start simple. Buoys or waypoints near Alameda, we set up a course, and we see who can do it the fastest. This is already being done at St. Francis.

This would also have the added benefit of moving the sport away from its current gymanistics, short stature, 14 year-old direction, to a very different slant and one more in tune with sailing and gliding. And by the way, you could still get some jump or two during these competitions - ideally turning around buoys. Anywhere else and you would lose time!

Finally, this all takes us again to what kind of kites are we looking for, their performance, etc. A sailplane for aerobatics is very different than a sailplane for x-country, and sailboats also vary dramatically depending on what we want them for. Right now, we seem to have a vanilla flavor in kiting. One kite (or quiver) fits all. I still don't know where the crossbow fits in all this, but any kite with a wider range will always be better suited for x-country than our current "C" kites.

That's all for now.

Leo

[charlie]

i wish the gps could read a 20 feet jump

[windhorny]

Yeah, I want to know exactly how high I jump. The problem with most gps units, at least mine, is that they refresh every second. Which is good for determining a constant direction or rate. But with something like surfing, your changin too much to get accurate readings. If you get a gps unit that was military grade I am sure it would tell you how long your dick was from 10000 miles away. They fortunately/un fortuneatly degrade the accuracy of these units for the public. Albeit still very accurate. My unit was a few years old and it would map 2 seperate lines for driving both directions on a main street from work and back.

Y

[charlie]

no mapping on the navman sport tool.
comes in like 6 flavers
check them out
http://www.navman-europe.com/sporttool/ ... SPORT.TOOL

[bdawg]

I have found a killer GPS software. It is pretty damn powerful. They are mainly supporting Garmin gps.

Here is the site

Motion Based


Here is an example from a mountain bike race (be sure to play with the dashboard and the map player functions)

Whiskytown 9 to 5

I think this software would be cool for snowkiting. I will try it out this winter.

Blair

[Guest]

OK... I've really found it. Charlie, eat your heart out. This is IT! This GPS gives you speed, compass, barometric pressure trend, temperature. All this, and you wear it as a watch...

With a USB cable, you can download your day's activities to your computer and review them with bdawg's MOTION BASED software...

check out waht I'm talking about at:

http://www.suunto.com/suunto/main/produ ... 3905879652

I think I'm placing this one on my Christmas list.

[OliverG]

Time: Calendar, 3 alarms, dual time, stop
watch, GPS time synchronization
Weather: Absolute barometric pressure, last 6 hour weather trend graph, temperature, 7-day memory, weather alarm
Compass: Bearing, bearing tracking, bearing to waypoint (when navigation is active), declination correction
Sailing: Speed, heading, distance, GPS navigation data, MOB function
Navigation: Memory for 50 routes and up to 500 waypoints, guidance to waypoint
Racing: Sailing timer, start line bias, distance to start line, lift / header calculation, distance to layline
Rechargeable Li-Ion battery
PC software + USB cable, charging battery possible from laptop with the USB cable
Full access to suuntoports.com

Lots of features, but not cheap! I found one listed at $499.

[guest]

there's a timex watch called ironman speed+distance that comes with and external GPS unit. Not sure if the GPS unit is water resistant but it's cheaper than the suunto watch. I think it's retails for $200 and I saw one on sale for $100.