Monday, August 15, 2011

An Awesome day at Cott!

A couple of photos, a committed take off and the GoPro on helmet.

Today at lunchtime it was on at Cott and it stayed on most of the afternoon. All the faithful were in attendance. Some great performances and much fun had by (nearly) all.
I had another chance to try out my GoPro camera and got a better angle when mounted on my helmet and also on the wing.





I did a really quick and rough edit just to get something online in the small amount of time I had.

Here it is:





Monday, August 08, 2011

Cott!

Getting chased by happy dogs.....
Fog inside the camera lens....
Exhibit A - How not to position helmet camera!

I had to cancel my Aerobatic flights this morning as the weather was not suitable.
When I got home I noticed that it was due west at Rottnest. I threw the glider on the car and raced down to Cott. It was a perfect westerly, but blowing 14-22knots. A little gusty but possible in a fun.

I set up the fun and checked the wind again, 15-20knots, worth a fly!

I had a look at Rotto before I took off and it looked like it was easing a little.

What actually happened was that the first 20 minutes were good, a bit lumpy, but fun. Then the wind picked up to the low twenties, now it was interesting flying. Then it swung south and the gusts got close to 30knots. I got blown backwards down the ridge and basically pinned at the Northern end for a while, it was hard work just keeping the wings level. I hung in there, confident that any time I wanted I could pull in the bar and land on the beach. I was hoping it would lull for long enough for me to get to the other end and top land. It dropped slightly and I managed to fight my way to just North of the take-off, then it picked up again and I did a graceful vertical landing on the beach.

I recently acquired a Go-Pro camera so that I can film aerobatic flights, it was the first time out with it hang gliding. I learnt where not to point it when it is attached to my helmet. I also learnt how to make it fog the inside of the lens. Next time will be better.

I was in the air for over 45mins, so I can't complain, and it was mostly good fun.

Friday, July 29, 2011

If the ABC was Relevant (Part 44)

This is beautiful, poignant, funny and sad, all at the same time. Ah Politics, how I hate thee. (I found this on the interwebs, not attributed)

(a John Clarke, Bryan Dawes skit) - (The Customer)
[Scene: A car yard. BRYAN is perusing the stock.
He is approached by JOHN]
John: Morning! Looking for a new car?
Bryan: Nope. Prime Minister, actually.
John: You're the third one this morning. Anything in mind?
Bryan: You know....... nothing fancy, reliable, economical family model. Something to get the country from A to B.
John: You mean like a Howard?
Bryan: Yeah....a little Johnny. Nothing flash, does the job. Low maintenance, economical, sensible. Runs for years, no troubles.
John: So.... you used to have one?
Bryan: Yeah. About 10 years. Great little model – don't know why I got rid of him --biggest mistake I've ever made…
John: What happened?
Bryan: Traded him in for a Kevin 07.
John: Big mistake…
Bryan: Lot of people bought it. Good political mileage.
John: How was the Kevin 07?
Bryan: Came with a $900 factory rebate – that was good.
John: Anything else?
Bryan: Not much. Sounded nice but nothing under the bonnet. It was a lemon.
John: Didn't stick around for long did it?
Bryan: Nah – had a factory recall. Shipped overseas and was never seen again.
John: What was the problem?
Bryan: Lots. But the final straw was the navigation system. Plug it in and it automatically loses its own way.
John: Whatcha got now?
Bryan: It's a Gillard-Brown.
John: The hybrid?
Bryan: Yeah. The Eco-drive system – not a good idea. An engine that can't deliver hooked up to a transmission stuck in permanent reverse…
John: Green paintwork with a red interior. And steering that always lurches to the left for no apparent reason – that's the one?
Bryan: The Fustercluck model.
John: The only one they made, Bryan. Not the vehicle of choice for the road to recovery – but did they finish up fixing the navigation system?
Bryan: Made it worse. Turn it on and it does a press release, heads off in all directions and goes nowhere.
John: So that's why you're here?
Bryan: That's right. I'm stuck with a government that's wasteful, expensive, ineffective and past its use by date. I don't suppose you've heard of the "Cash for Clunkers" scheme?
John: Join the queue brother.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Awesome Aerobatic Flights

The best part of my job is the Aerobatic flights, and what could be better that taking an old friend up for a flight. Adrian got some amazing footage, as usual. Check out www.digitalkinetics.com for more of his awesome work.



Sunday, June 12, 2011

Windows 7 Professional Disk Image

So I have this Acer laptop. It came with Windows 7 professional. I use the 64bit version of Ubuntu as my main OS. I sometimes use windows for games or testing.
So of course the first thing I do is make the Acer backup DVD's and then re-partition my laptop.
I make huge linux partitions and shrink the windows one, but keep it there so I can still boot into it.
6 months later and during an update windows starts freaking out and I decide a clean install is the thing to do. My Acer recovery disks only have an option to hose the entire drive back to factory. Not Cool!

So I search the internet for a solution and end up being forced to download a pirate copy of Windows 7. When I complete downloading it turns out to be a copy of Windows 7 Home and packed full of pirated software, trojans and virii. Better than gay porn, but still instantly deleted.

I was just starting to hate Acer and Microsoft for putting me in this position, when OMG I somehow managed to hit the exact search string to bring up a post on the Microsoft site with a link to the actual real downloadable images of their Windows 7 DVD's that you can use with your genuine product key.

Of course even though I try similar searches again and again it refuses to show in search most times, so here is the link.

http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_7-windows_install/replacement-windows-download/83dc99b3-b15e-4d7e-98c2-91c29b6c32dc

Tuesday, June 07, 2011

More Bakewell goodness


Karl and I got to Bakewell on the weekend, it was a good turn out. Karl flew my fun and I flew my sexy C4..

Monday, May 30, 2011

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Groote Island and back

I had the pleasure of being flown up to Groote Island and then flying a 172 back to Jandakot. There were several familiar airfields like Tindal, Kununurra, Broome, Port Headland and Derby and some new ones like Groote Island, Newman & Meekatharra. It was fun flying back, always made more interesting by a new aircraft with some issues.

I'm looking forward to bringing the 172 online with RolfAir so that we can double our capacity in the near future.

This is an amazing video of the VLT setup in Chile. If you have the bandwidth select the 720p option and go full screen and sit back and get blown away by the universe. I have been to a few remote places where there is no light pollution and you can lie on the ground and see a similar picture, but nothing as cool as this.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

All work!

This year has been all about getting my new business established, it has meant a lot of work. As a result I have had less chances to fly my hang glider (fun) or keep up my running fitness (brutal fun)

Last year I did my first official Ultra and it was the end result of several months training, it went pretty well considering.

Today i ran my first marathon, down at Bunbury. I managed to cross the line in a time of 3 Hrs and 44 Minutes. I averaged 83% of max heart rate for the run and it was hard work. Considering how little actual running and training I have done this year it was a pretty good result. My cardio was great, my legs were just about done at the 32k mark.

Of course Bernadette ran the 50k and took first female and set a new Canadian record, she came in 15 minutes after me despite having run an extra 8km!

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