The documentation for every FAI altitude record must include a calibration/compensation report for the recording barograph used for the attempt. Prior to our record attempts, I studied all available hardware and decided on a Suunto altimiter watch based on its specifications. I contacted AMA and got approval to use it. I took the watch to a certified FAA instrumentation lab for testing. After the results were tallied, I asked the tech who had run the tests what he thought about the watch. He smiled and gestured at another instrument on the bench. "That", he said, "is an altimeter out of a Lear Jet. It costs in the neighborhood of forty thousand dollars. It's not as accurate as your watch - and it displays much more hysteresis". Sadly, I had to actually buy my watch (ebay). Suunto gave Bob and me each a hat and t-shirt for setting the record. The Suunto watch does have some nice features like the ability to download flight (ski run) history and graph, export to excel....It is a LOT smaller than the old paper-spool & pen barographs! MM
________________________________ From: CapnCrunchie [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Sat 8/26/2006 4:41 AM To: soaring@airage.com Subject: Re: [RCSE] how high really When using these altitude watches be sure to read the included instructions very closely. Many of the ~$100 watches take pressure readings periodically only once every 2 mins. (or greater) and are made primarily for hikers/skiers. Suuto makes watches that can be set by user to take readings in intervals up to every 10 secs. but at the cost of battery endurance. However, by the time you get to this level of watch performance the price is approaching that of a piccalario! But then again, I am not going be to taking my vario with me as I am launching off into Black Diamond mogul filled torture test in sub freezing temperatures, either! ;^O) ......................................... Blue skies, Capn Crunchie ________________________________ Get your own web address for just $1.99/1st yr <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=43290/*http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/domains> . We'll help. Yahoo! Small Business <http://us.rd.yahoo.com/evt=41244/*http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/> . RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
