The Rimrocked Blog

Today the fine folks at rimrocked are proud, excited and a little frightened to announce the future of GPS and mapping through rimrocked’s revolutionary new mapping through ASCII. There was a time not long ago when every pixel on a map was represented by a limiting square. Sure the square might be small and colourful, but it was just a square. With rimrocked and ‘the power of ASCII’ (TM) those pixel’s days are numbered. Freeing users from the tyranny of the box, ASCII characters replace each pixel for a mapping experience unlike any other. But don’t take our word for it, take Andrew’s:

According to rimrocked cxo, Andrew Draper, “Up until now we’ve been limited by pixels, with the addition of 255 characters this will really take the web surfing experience to the next level, it’s a quantum leap in computing .”, Andrew says

“Yes, we’re bringing it all together” responded Amit.

While mobile computing platforms have been rushing to bring 2D and 3D to handheld devices, they’ve missed the crucial 1D user experience.

“What do Apple’s iPod nano, Nintendo’s Wii and the next big thing all have in common? They’ve all mastered the dimension of dimensions” Amit Nandi from rimrocked says obtusely. “They are so far gone in their respective dimension categories, that they’re not even there.” Indeed. Citing ‘responsiveness’, ‘unparalleled rates of refresh’, and ‘class-leading memory consumption’ Andrew goes on to expound the advantages of this modern-day miracle.

When pressed for a working demo of rimAscii (pronounced Rim-raz-key), Andrew pointed to www.asciimaps.com. “Well, it’s true we didn’t develop this technology, but they’re the equivalent of google maps. We believe that we’re the first people even thinking of licensing this technology and have a killer application for their building block technology.”

Added Amit, “We think this will perfectly position us to be of great interest to potential investors.”

Time will only tell.

As of a few minutes ago Rimrocked is officially open for business all day, every day (even Christmas) - no more invitations needed, you can sign-up all by yourself and start using Rimrocked (of course if you’d still like assistance just email us and we’ll respond as quickly as possible).

Also, as part of opening up sign-ups we’ve made a slight change to our commenting system, you used to have to be a friend before commenting on a trip or journal entry of another person, however, comments are now open to anyone who has a rimrocked account, which means you should sign-up, sign-in and start socializing with everyone at rimrocked!

If you have any questions, comments or bugs to report please email us as we’d really like to hear anything you have to say - good, bad or otherwise. Not because we’re starved for social interaction (although this might be partly the case) but because we value your insight into what we’ve created and would like to make it even better.

We have lots of announcements to make over the coming months, so stay tuned to this blog, we’ll be announcing them here first.

Update: A slight adjustment to the above, although the invites are gone, sign-ups will now require a ‘webcode’ for your new account to be activated. Of course this puts the onus on us to provide webcodes, so without further adu, if you’re reading this and would like to sign-up, simply go to the Rimrocked home page, click “Sign-up” and use the webcode “blog”.

We at rimrocked extend our congratulations to Rich for another world-record setting flight! Experience Rich’s adventure through his words.

Adventure of the Heart III

By Rich Jaworski

Setting world records is never easy. In fact the record we intended to improve by this flight, the AX-4 duration of 23 hours 11 minutes which Adventure set in 2007¹, was never challenged by this 19 hour 3 minute flight using basically the same equipment. This 2008 flight happened to cover a distance of 250 miles and unintentionally surpassed Oscar Lindström’s 2001 record for the AX-4 distance of 210 miles. (Sorry Oscar!) As noted by Bill Bussey who had several problems during his 1996 AX-6 duration flight², “Murphy Lives.” Our 2008 flight was full of “Murphy’s.” For safety sake, contingency actions to address in-flight problems were pre-planned and utilized. Unfortunately problems with fuel consumption calculations, weather, temperature/velocity profiles, and terrain were encountered. All of these combined to put the pilot in a situation which was intended to be avoided. Somehow our shot at improving flight duration ended up as a “Mulligan” which landed in the dark Wisconsin night with a distance record as a consolation prize.

Because the 23 hour flight in 2007 was shortened by the accumulation of 100 pounds of ice in the envelope, modifications were made to limit ice formation. Two test flights were made in Nebraska at warmer temperatures which confirmed the operability of these modifications. All we needed to improve the 2007 duration was the right weather! Unfortunately last year’s minus 27°F ambient temperatures were not in the Grand Forks, ND forecast during January, 2008 so we decided to fly with the first minus 10°F weather available. It also happened that the minus 10°F weather occurred during full moon which would enhance night flight vision.

Launch preparations went smoothly with the help of Grand Forks’ aeronaut, Duane Hanson and his family; the Grand Forks Flight Support who let us practice our inflation procedure, without envelope, in their hanger; and the Grand Forks Country Club who allowed us the use of their wind sheltered parking lot and club house.

All went as expected for the 9:30 AM launch and first eight hours of the flight except the air temperature was warmer than desired. At eight hours the first fuel tank expired. A total distance of only 39 miles had been traveled. During that period, altitude was maintained as low as possible (50 to 500 ft. AGL) to keep the balloon in the surface inversion at speeds of less than 10 mph. The real “surprise” was that the “eight hours” was expected to be “nine hours” or more. Also, during hour eight, the surface winds increased to 15 – 20 mph, not predicted, and the sun set as predicted. A recalculation of the fuel consumption rate re-confirmed adequate fuel was on board to fly through and beyond sunrise the next morning.

With the flight’s night time heading and speed, the chase crew, composed of Matthew Grote, Orv Olivier, Wayne Mohring, and Gary Hendrickson, projected the track to the Northeast and a forest landing very close to Lake Superior. After long conference calls with weather consultant, Brad Temeyer, the crew recommended flying at 1,000 ft AGL or higher to avoid the North’s more dense woods and the Lake. After discussing the basis of the recommendation, at the cost of flying for a shorter duration, the altitude was increased and maintained at 1,000 ft AGL with a resulting heading of 115 degrees.

As I watched the balloon’s moon shadow race through the snow filled woods below at speeds as high as 35 mph, I wondered how one would ever land without significant damage to the balloon and the pilot who was sitting in a harness freely suspended above the fuel tank. It was comforting to know that the fuel consumption calculations had been reviewed and adjusted for the reduced duration of the first tank and still projected landing well after sunrise. Landing during the night did not appear to be a good option.

Through the night, the icicles formed on the mouth lines. The chase crew radioed to announce their departures to get around large wilderness areas or where they were as I passed over. I was mentally counting down hours to sunrise, “Only eight hours of night left! . . .” No one was counting miles.

Fuel tank inventory is monitored by spring scales which begin to indicate when 10 gallons of fuel are left, enough fuel to fly for two or three hours.. The first scale movements began around 3 AM and were definitely confirmed as true by 4 AM. Speed: 22 mph at 600 ft AGL. I radioed the crew that we were not able to fly to sunrise.

Several years ago in a discussion with Nebraska’s gas balloonist, John Kugler, about the high wind landings frequently encountered by gas balloonists, John said, “You just have to land it, you just have to.”

Landing preparations, putting on a helmet, and stowing equipment took about 10 minutes. Speed: 17 mph at 200 ft AGL. The crew radioed that they were about a mile ahead of me on a tree-lined highway — between me and the brightly lit town of Siren, Wisconsin. They advised not to land too close to town in order to avoid power lines. And some good news, “The last flag we saw looked like about 7 mph.”

Depth perception is always difficult over a large flat surface and it is impossible in the dark with the intermittent burner disrupting the little night vision gained between blasts. I was surprised when the fuel tank crashed against something and pulled the top as I was thrown onto ice and drug for 50 feet across a wonderful one-mile wide lake. I hadn’t felt this lucky since I walked away from my one power line contact in 1979. Other than unsteady legs from reclining in the harness for 19 hours, all body parts were functional!

As a result of our 911 call to the sheriff requesting directions to access the lake, the Siren Volunteer Fire Department initiated a rescue drill at 4:30 AM on a cold and clear Sunday morning. After our crew had packed up and carried the equipment a quarter mile across Big Doctor Lake, about 15 firemen met us and ordered the pilot to lay down in a transport cart pulled by an ATV. After a quick medical check in their ambulance and signing a refusal for additional medical assistance, we posed for pictures, finished packing gear, and headed for the heated fire station. And — oh yah, we just set another world record!!

References:

1. “Adventure of the Heart 2007”, Ballooning, March/April 2007

2. “Murphy’s Law is Alive & Well”, Ballooning, May 1996

Launch Preparations: immediately following hot inflation

Launch Preparations: Crew Chief Matthew Grote equips Rich with Instrumentation Package

Launch Preparation: Ready for ascent from the Grand Forks, ND Country Club parking lot.

Hello and welcome to rimrocked. If you’re reading this you might be at least a little interested in what we’re doing. This being the first post, I’ll try to set the tone for what will follow in the coming months. Rimrocked comprises the efforts to date of Andrew Draper, Martin Senger and me, Amit Nandi. We are being supported by Guardian Mobility and it’s management team, but you can think of rimrocked as a separate entity. This will let me off the hook for the different tone of posts and the fact that we will be far more open about what we’re doing. What we’re creating, simply, is a place to share your adventures.

So a good place to start today is our mission statement. Thanks to Ben and Jerry of their eponymously named chain of happiness delivery, for their mission statement structure. I was on vacation and my family happened to be filling up on ice cream at their flagship Burlington, Vermont store when I saw the writing on the wall, so to speak. Their blend of a good product constantly improving coupled with a deep respect for its employees and the community that they’re a part of attracted me. Andrew and I had a common view of mission statements being, well, cheesy. A waste of time and energy. But when they’re sincere and talk of more than profitability I think they’re valuable. In this case we’ll try to use this as our compass, if you’ll pardon the unintended pun.

Over the last few years Guardian has done some remarkable things in partnership with people doing even more remarkable things. We have worked with the Canadian Search and Rescue community to create a personal tracking device to aid rescuers and recreational users alike. We have helped adventurers such as Anne Marte Pensgaard relay her cross-Greenland skiing adventure. We have tracked Yves Leblanc on his Guinness World Record Snowmobile trip, helping establish his record. We have watched Martin’s son Kim and his Frozen Five friends on his adventure across the Svalbard Glacier. And I could go on about Cain’s Quest, the Baja 1000 and balooning records, but you’ll just have to see these on rimrocked and discover these amazing feats of human perseverance, ingenuity and bravery for yourself.

In a sense, rimrocked is the realization of these connections that we have made with people doing interesting things and we have realized that there are thousands of people across the world wanting to share their experiences in a similar way. So today is my daughter’s first day of school and it feels like that for rimrocked too. We’re starting to make people aware of us, and we’ll be sharing our experiences on designing it, our partnerships with organizations and the experiences with our users.

We hope you enjoy the trip- please subscribe to this blog.