Beach
Web
- March 2008
Today
is Friday, 28 March, 2008:
TODAY Mr. Bill had his new "personal best" / record-breaking Hang
Gliding flight - 1 hour / 20 minutes in the air !!!!
(well - let's get technical - 1 hour, 19 minutes, 38 seconds (wheels
off the ground to wheels back ON the ground))
4,250 something feet maximum altitude - pretty spectacular flight for a
neophyte like me! - I picked a perfect day - the lift was VERY VERY
GOOD and there were other things that were good (but the temperature at
/ above 4,000 feet was on the very low side of 60 degrees F - so I was
CHILLY up there but it sure was fun.
more information about ALL flights at this web-link: http://www.flightlog.org/fl.html?l=1&a=28&user_id=3737&user=Bill+Schell
and the flight listed in the top of the list should be "03 - 28" - this
March 28th flight - and if you click on the little glider-icon to the
left of the date - you'll get all sorts of statistics to read and play
with - here's a couple that you can use that you'll like:
1.#=>) IF you have "Google
Earth" on your computer (Windows PC or Macintosh (or even
Linux)) you can click on the blue-link in the middle of the page that
says "Tracklog in Google Earth format". That link will both
download the tracklog (where I went (in 3 second increments) as well as
open Google Earth on your computer - then if you use the little
left-to-right slider at the top-right of your Google Earth window -
you'll be able to 'rotate the view' in Google Earth and see the
track-log (overlain on top of the Google Earth ground-images in 3D -
it's pretty slick stuff...
2.#=>) IF you do NOT have "Google Earth" (which the basic
version is
"Free") - then you can still enjoy SOME viewing: there's an
altitude
graph (and some other graphs) - at the bottom of the above noted page
click where it says: "Tracklog statistics" (in blue) - and/or you
can click-on the blue link where it says "View in Google Earth" - which
does not require any additional software on YOUR computer - but it will
open the tracklog overlain on top of a "Google Map". There will
be two little 'pin-markers' on the map - one says "S" = Start (or
launch) the other says "L" or "Landing" (or end of flight)...
3.#=>) OR HERE - there is a
simple 2D version of the tracklog overlain on top of the Google Earth
(2D) image
4.#=>) AND - I landed (3 times) with my NEW
Wheels! - which are VERY NICE and
much better for landing on than the previous set of wheels - which I'd
had for almost a year...
5.#=>) AND - there is / are / also some Videos
on my Gallery page:
scroll to the bottom where it says "Movies" and pick any of the three
short movies with "HG_28Mar08" as the first part of the title...
Today
is Friday, 21 March, 2008:
and it was WINDY today!
SO I went kiteboarding at the US Sailing Center of Martin County.. -
tried a 9 meter kite - it wasn't enough - so rigged my 13 and it was
just barely enough but it was VERY ENJOYABLE for about 2 hours - then
the wind died and I helped Mr._Smitty with an oldie but goodie 16 meter
kite that he had some problems with - then I came home.
here's today's track-log file overlain on top of a Google-Earth
background image... (click for larger)
Today
is Tuesday, 18th of March... - did a LOT of "things" today... -
--- started out wiring up the mini-van for my new iCom 2200h 2-meter
radio that was my reward to myself for passing the 'Extra' class exam
this past Saturday morning - the 15th.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
AND I went Boardsailing - UGH UGH - got there late - everyone said was
good earlier (but I was wiring the minivan (and I was making breakfast,
and cleaning house, and feeding the cat and cleaning-up the yard,
and painting boards for the garage window-repair and cleaning-up the
garage, and emptying the trash, and petting the cat, and so-on and
so-forth (yeah - excuses - excuses!)...
anyway - I decided to 'try anyway' - and spent over an hour
slogging-around on my 6.0 cambered sail - with not enough wind - ugh
ugh - it was supposed to be 20-30 mph today with gusts to 35...
- Well about 3:10- 3:30 p.m. it started to HOWL - wow - what wind - so
I changed my sail to a 4.5 with no cambers - went back out and even
that tiny sail was too big?!?!?! - I should have been on my trusty 4.0
sail - but it's delaminated (it's only about 12 years old) and so it's
going to come-apart the next time that I sail it...
- UGH UGH UGH _ Ms. May and I need to buy a new sail or two? - huh?
anyway - small picture here - with track-log overlain onto a (new) Google
Earth picture. Google
Earth has got some new pictures - this picture shows the new bridge
(and the west and east
islands where we sail) so
- that's good - now Google Earth's picture(s) are only about 2
years out of date (instead of 5 years out of date)... Max speed
on this track-log is about 27 mph (with 3 second integration) and the
'extents' of the tack(s) are about 1.1 miles (max)... - this is one of
7 track-logs taken today - most just show me 'slogging' around in front
of "West Island" where we launch...
Today
is Thursday, 13th of March... - lots to do today!
Mr._Bill spent most of today housecleaning (no pictures,
sorry!), and more housecleaning and mini-van cleaning and more
house-cleaning - amazing what one finds (and can throw away) when one
does this!...
AND FINALLY received some new wheels for his Wills Wing (Sport 2 - 155)
hang glider, (after owning it almost a year!). I JUST HAD to
adapt these (for the "VG") and fit them on the control-bar (this is NOT
something one wants to do right before one flies!) That was an
engineering challenge (in the shop).
ALSO, finally (after using for several flights) did the
'sticky-back' thing for the speakers in my helmet for my (2 meter
(144.xxx Mhz) (Amateur)) radio, AND adapted his harness for the
radio-cable(s)...
a picture with both wheels (for comparison)
(on the right-hand-end of the control-bar)
a picture of the old wheels - (now for sale)
a picture of the hang-glider while I was working on it
Today
is 8th of March - Saturday - and we are TIRED!
TERRIFIC Boardsailing today
- our 34 second
iMovie is here - the wind was excellent (a little puffy but mostly
pretty good (pretty strong (20-30 mph))) from the WNW - at our
"East Island" location...
Ms._May joined me after her Tai Chi class, and I'd already had about 90
minutes on the water with a 4.0 meter sail (very old)...
Ms. May went out on our even OLDER 3.2 meter sail. BOTH of
these sails are delaminating, now - so I suspect their life is limited
and we'll have to buy a new sail - perhaps a 3.8 or so... but it will
be good to have a new, small sail when the winds pick-up again, and
they surely will!
There were - apparently - some great still pictures taken, also, by a
friend's parents; with a HUGE lens on their digital still camera...
They are not 'quite' available - should be considerably less than a
week, we hope, then we can share those pictures with you...
Good day boardsailing yesterday, also... - 18
seconds of video
is here - (on Mr._Bill's .Mac account web-gallery-site) the wind
was DEFINITELY Up (25 mph) and down... (15mph), and we kept changing
sail-sizes (4.5 / 5.5 (both seen in the above video)) but - well
- that's to be expected to some extent... Today it RAINED
from about 04:30 a.m. til about 06:30 a.m. and it is still drizzling
and COLD
outside (but to us COLD means less than 75F... but - we're cozy
inside - have lots planned for today - but to start with - French
Toast
- ( Large French Toast Picture
(more tasty!) ) most probably ...
Today is the 6th of
March - a Thursday - and today Mr._Bill re-built the window-frame
in the Garage (had to move it because of the new roof); and installed a
24" high by 36" wide vertically hung window in the loft of Ms._May's
pottery-studio....
(older picture (and we went south of the bridge, not where the
blue-line is - that was
a January day) but of the same place we went boardsailing the
last few days)
(shows the MANY sandbars we seem to run-aground upon!!! (but only at
VERY HIGH SPEED!)
Boardsailing - we went on Mr._Bill's_Birthday - Monday, 3rd, and on
Tuesday, 4th - both days were good - Tuesday might have been
better!...
another picture - just to get the 'flavour' of what we're doing
(chatting about something in the COLD!)
Later
this week the winds will most probably calm-down and we might go
HANG
GLIDING - we hope...
And within the hang-gliding arena I'm seriously considering developing
a "RASP" (computer - weather-data) server.
This is a fairly high-powered Intel computer (running some
version of the Linux operating system) that would download
detailed weather data from NOAA, usually twice a day, for a very
limited geographical area.
Then the computer runs (crunches / calculates) numbers (for about 10
hours or so, non-stop). Then it creates some ...jpeg (image
files) that I would publish on a web-site so that people who are
interested could see them.
The 'bottom-line' is one hopes that by focusing a huge
number-crunching-effort on a very small geographical area (say a couple
hundred square miles) one might be able to get better data on if the
weather / conditions are 'soarable' (good for hang gliding) at / within
a fairly small (geographical) area (where hang gliding is currently
practiced in the state of Florida.....
HOWEVER, RASP server software / computers - require Linux - they
require some systems administration skills and some understanding of
the weather numbers that the server is going to 'crunch';
as well as some understanding of web-pages, displaying of graphics and
so-on and so-forth...
IT's a commitment of dollars and time that one has to think about quite
a bit before getting into it...
BUT - it's something that is definitely on my 'possibility' list!
Computering-thingies:
Mr._Bill is now attempting to learn ' MySQL
' - and/or "PostGreSQL" - both are 'public domain' / free-ware data
base tools...
The 'server' runs on a computer (in this case my desktop-computer - but
it can run on any computer on the
internet...) I have something (also on my
desktop computer)
called ' Navicat ' - which is a
programming / GUI / Query builder (query is how you 'ask' a database
what it has - (relative to what you want)) ...
- Navicat and MySQL are pretty slick - one of the best things is that
Navicat has a database you can connect to - (across the internet) but I
have also downloaded (and run on my desktop / server) another database
from the FAA...
Learning NEW THINGS is a key to my continued mental well-being
and learning (or re-learning) SQL is a great challenge but also a great
enjoyment...
This is a free-ware
thing from Berkeley University that allows multiple 'Projects' (like ' SETI
at Home ' (the
data-reduction-project that helps find "life on other planets")) to run
on your home-desktop-computer (when it isn't doing anything else
(useful)...)...) ...
The dual-processor G5 computer I have now runs about 8-12 'work units'
per day (pure number-crunching) - a far cry from anything I'd had
before which ran 1 work unit every 2-3 days ...
Found a good book at the Library - php
& MySQL for Dummies by
Ms. Janet Valade (ISBN: 0-470-09600-4). The one at the
Library was 1st edition and some things were just not 'quite right'
(like a 4 year old(er) version of MySQL was quoted) - and - well - some
other things were older. SO I bought the 3rd edition
at Barnes & Noble, and now things are more 'normal'.
She quotes / uses examples that I can relate to!!! - ANYWAY _ Great
book - even the older book taught me some good stuff but the newer one
is 'more relevant'.!!!
AND
- Ms. May has a pottery-showing and some training later this month,
up north. She'll be showing and learning and enjoying
pottery and people for a while.
ARRL-FCC
Amateur Radio License:
----
I PASSED THIS TEST on Saturday,
15th March, 2008 ----
(old-news, but interesting (web) links)
Mr._Bill is still studying
for his ( ARRL - FCC )
Amateur Radio " Extra Class " exam supposedly on the 15th of
March, here in Stuart, at the Stuart Hamfest ( sponsored by " MCARA
" ( Martin County Amateur Radio
Association ) ) I benefit from a couple of books, but
am mostly studying "on-line".
Last
7 'practice tests' were: 96, 88, 88, 82, 78, 72 (but
not in that order).
Whoops
- almost forgot to mention - two great birthdays this month...
Mr._Bill's
getting OLDER - but we won't say how much - and his
Mom is also getting older (again - we won't say how much older)...
last updated:
08:30 a.m. - Saturday - 11 October, 2013; revID:
1n
