1-Blog
a journey through space and time

Rocket Man
Posted 15th May 2008 at 9:06pm by M1ke, tagged as Skydiving, News | Commenting Closed

Some people go fishing on their day off. Yves Rossy likes to jump out of a small plane with a pair of jet-powered wings on his back and loop the loop above the Swiss Alps.

Rocket man flies over Alps with jet-pack strapped to his back | News | This is London

One of the reasons I love skydiving so much is that it has always been my dream to be able to fly, myself, not just in an aircraft. Whilst skydiving is to flying as a water slide is to a sailing boat, the height and the amazing window on the world is there - it just doesn't last long and takes a lot of effort to get there. This man, however, has really flown - using jets strapped to wings he was able to climb as well as fall, reaching fast horizontal speeds as well as controlling his height. He was also apparently able to land the creation.

He intends to do a crossing of the English channel and then fly the grand canyon - the latter task will require him to increase significantly the manoeuvrability of his wings. If it was me I'd be working on a way to take off from the ground - as yet he still needs to be dropped from a plane to begin his flight. They say it isn't commercially viable yet - but developments like this can easily effect new thinking in the technology business. If no one else does it first, I want in on this!

Finally, a Skydiving Video
Posted 15th May 2008 at 5:04pm by M1ke, tagged as Video, Skydiving | Commenting Closed

As someone who likes to have photographic or moving-photographic evidence of everything I do I've been wanting to get a video of one of my skydives for a while now. That time has come, and whilst it isn't the best video (apparently I fall too slowly so the instructor had to go below me and on his back), its a video nonetheless and its good to finally have one. I look forward to getting better ones in future, but I'm happy with this for now.

Points to watch for are my turns when Dave (the instructor) was on his back underneath me, and my canopy opening (which was unfortunately made all unfocused as we went through some mist, but you see my legs flailing wonderfully).

What are you doing?
Posted 13th May 2008 at 11:33pm by M1ke, tagged as Photography | Commenting Closed

What are you doing?
Originally uploaded by Inferno.M1ke

I went on a wee exploratory bike ride today, starting out with the intention of visiting my llamas. Unfortunately they weren't in their usual place and I considered giving up - but I soldiered on! The result was not only did I find two llamas (different from my previous meetings, but llamas nevertheless) but also a barn full of lambs!

In the second part of the ride I explored some strange places buried in the forest, all completely deserted but always with the impression that someone had just been there - somewhat eerie and certainly intriguing. To make it more interesting I filmed some video too, which is also handily supported by Flickr now.

See more photos from my ride in the Exploring Around Houghall set on my Flickr account.

Emergency Party Button
Posted 13th May 2008 at 6:56pm by M1ke, tagged as Random, Technology | Commenting Closed

The Emergency Party Button began as a novelty idea that has become the focus of every event that goes on in our home. A big red button is, by human nature, an object of compulsion. If you see it, you are overcome with the desire to push it. But what happens when you do?

Emergency Party Button

There's little I can say about this other than that it's awesome and I'm so doing something of this ilk come summer.

Electric Planes Replace our Cars
Posted 11th May 2008 at 6:15pm by M1ke, tagged as Technology | Commenting Closed

The solution to gridlock on our overcrowded roads is to take to the air in a plane-car hybrid that will revolutionise the way society works.

BBC NEWS | Technology | Heading skyward to beat gridlock

It's certainly an interesting idea, and whilst the logistics of the public having access to personal flying vehicles is rather insane I'm happy to see that development is being done. I agree with the comments that we are long overdue to find an alternative to the combustion engine - rising prices of oil, a growing scarcity of resources and damage to the environment are all convincing factors why we need to get off the sinking ship quickly.

As a skydiver I'm pleased that within a few years we may have electric planes available to us, which whist not the transport replacement suggested in the majority of the article, will be more environmentally friendly and cheaper to run than the planes we currently use. I suspect that air sports will be some of the first to take to these craft, as they don't have large scale public considerations to worry about - its at the choice of individual airfield owners and the private pilots who fly from them. Certainly something to watch.