I got a stopwatch for $20 at the local sports store that had a proper countdown / count through mode. They are out there but you have to look for them. But it, too, lacks the rotray 'set' dial.
I've also got a Timex "Ironman" wristwatch which has numerous count and timer modes. Its actually a small computer that can be loaded with additional home-made applications. I had nothing much to do last Christmas so I programmed it to be a flight timer (I also added in some code to compute flight points). (If anyone has this watch and wants a copy of the code they're welcome to it.) The Robic looks amazing, I'm tempted to get one. It doesn't have that rotray dial but that's not as useful as it looks, most task times don't appear on the presets, you have to select '*' and set the time by pressing the buttons. I have no problem using an ordinary stopwatch to time tasks. The 'real' task time is a count up value, you're only using countdown to provide seconds indications to the pilot during the last minute. There's a lot of inherent delay in reading a watch and calling out the time -- its at least a half second -- so the minimal extra time involved in translating things like '55' to '5' doesn't affect the countdown. But people are so conservative -- if you're not using a countdown stopwatch with a setting dial on the front then you're not timing! (BTW -- I had thought of starting the displayed countdown in the Timex program with a half-second offset because of the timer/pilot commuincation delay but I thought this might be regarded as cheating.) Martin Usher > > I know I have seen this tread before about a > > reasonable priced countdown stopwatch but I can't find > > one (Paul) > I have a Robic 707 from Tom Copp at Composite Specialties. > http://www.f3x.com/ (Andrew) 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.
