Text 13948, 76 rader
Skriven 2011-02-05 22:12:45 av Stewart Arnett (3:772/100)
  Kommentar till text 13900 av Robert Bashe (2:2448/44)
Ärende: The Smolensk crash on April 10, 2010
============================================
Hello Robert.

04 Feb 11 14:05, you wrote to me:

 RB> Stewart Arnett wrote to Robert Bashe on Friday February 04 2011 at
 RB> 20:50:

 SA>> The main GPS on one of my Yachts...

 RB> _One_ of your yachts? Hey, Stuart, you aren't one of these "closet
 RB> millionaires" we hear about, are you?

not yet but I am trying (very trying at times)

 RB> "If you have to ask how much a yacht costs, you can't afford one" -
 RB> J.P. Morgen

Does making an offer count? both yachts I bought after offering the previous
ownes a sum of  money and both accepted I paid and ended up with two , one is
listed in the international 1/4 ton registry in England
(http://www.quartertonclass.org click on the fleet and look for my name it's
there with a photo), This is Auckland and every man and his dog has a boat of
some description. Last Monday was Auckland AnniVersary day and the regatta was
well attended Monday was the day after Tropical Cyclone Wilma passed through, I
worked all that week end so I didn't get out into it but one of the top
Americas' Cup sailors was here and said no wonder every yacht that matters has
a New Zealanded in the crew, Whole families were out in 40 knots and sailing
just for the fun of it! I had my first boat when I was 6 on the broads in
Norfolk England and have been sailing ever since, now I have 2 quarter tonners,
one is a special that I use for racing and the other is set up very comfortably
inside and I use it for pottering about and week end sailing PIP2 the one in
the registry has three GPS's one wired into the Autohelm so I can pre plot my
course and the boat will follow it, a 1200X300 LED Panel for the cabin light
and a few other LEDs round the place a Phillips mini sound system a DVD and
small TV plus a couple of reasonable sized solar panels to keep things charged
while the boat isn't being used. The other is a modified Compass Southerly the
builder was an employee of Compass yachts who bought one of the hulls and
finished it himself, instead of the standard Fibre glass decks he moulded the
decks out of Oregon timber, the weight saved in that was put into the keel
(160kgs) and the Keel extended by 150mm the rig was extended by 1.5.meters and
set up as a 3/4 fractional rig, very few 1/4 tonners pass her sailing into the
wind, first day I took it out I passed some one I should never have passed and
decided he didn't know what he was doing, some months later I took a month off
work and just went sailing and met the builder who let me into the secrets of
his creation "Kiarangi" (maori for a Noble person) When I bought Pip2 it was in
Opua up north in the Bay of Islands 120 odd miles north of Auckland It was June
and winter here I had a friend drop me off and did a few days work on the boat
and dropped it into the water then in a mid winter gale from the north sailed
it back to Auckland on my own with winds up to 60 knots over the stern, defore
I fitted the Autohelm, very exiting with double figures showing on the log at
times.

SA>> ... tells me it's elevation in one of the read outs, it changes
 SA>> with the tide so I guess they can read elevation above sea level.

 RB> Which is useless in an aircraft. The ground can have trees, cliffs,
 RB> gorges and all sorts of stuff. That's my problem with these claims
 RB> that GPS can determine "altitudes" - _what_ "altitudes"? In an
 RB> aircraft, only the height above ground level - _current_ ground level
 RB> - counts.

The GPS knows what ground level is as upto 12 salelites keep it informed,
elevation is the distance between the GPS and the general mass of earth below
the GPS at that instance in time unless you set it up differently default is to
sea level at a mean planet wide it can be et to read above earth level (so my
book says). It is pretty accurate allowing for the time delay of the
transmitted data updates, Latitudinal errors can cause grief and fatalities as
an Australian racing yacht found out a few years ago when it landed on the
Island it was supposed to go round because some one miss read the data from the
GPS and sailed onto the rocks leading to the death of 2 crew members and the
destruction of the boat.

Stewart

--- GoldED/2 3.0.1
 * Origin: The RockBBS Auckland NZ 64-9-5799604 (3:772/100)