Category: Activities

Kayak Racing: 22.87 – I’m in love

Sorry, Vicki, I didn’t know how to break this to you, but I’ve fallen in love. One of the racing team members, Frank, is selling his old Necky Looksha II kayak. It’s 20 feet long, 20 inches wide, weighs about 45 pounds, and as the time above shows, fast as hell, and beautiful.

Considering how much of the time I was worrying about tipping over rather than concentrating on my stroke, the fact that I was 1.26 minutes (76 seconds) faster than last week shows just how fast this kayak is. My split after the bay portion of the race was only 21 seconds faster than last week, which shows that not only was I wasting more time adjusting to the new boat out there, but also the lighter boat allowed me to keep more energy for the second half. This the first time I haven’t had to stop for a drink of water during the race. And obviously, after I learn to paddle it without worry, I’ll get even faster.

So here’s my plan:

  1. Finish the Pygmy Boat kit this fall. Try it out a bit and see how I like it.
  2. Next spring, sell either the Pygmy Boat or the Skerray.
  3. If Frank still hasn’t sold his Looksha by then, buy it. Otherwise look for something equally fast and challenging.
  4. Profit?

Kayak Racing: 24.13 Woo hoo! I rule!

Last Thursday I went for a private lesson with Dan. It went so well that I confidently boasted to somebody that not only would I beat my person best, 24.60, but I’d demolish it with a 24.30. Instead, I not only demolished it, I jumped up and down on the pieces. 24.13. My split was 11.88, compared to my previous best of 12.00, so much of that improvement came in the second half, where my improved technique on both halves of the course meant I had more energy and didn’t have to stop paddling to take a drink several times in the last quarter as I’ve done so many times in the past.

I took a stop watch this time and recorded split times at both buoy turns as well, but I forgot and reset the watch before I recorded them. Oh well, maybe next time.

With my technique and conditioning improving, I’m convinced that the only other factor I need to work on is the fact that I’m paddling a heavy plastic boat. Time to get back out into the garage and finish my Arctic Tern 17 Hi.

Kayak Racing: 25.00 – Not a personal best, but still fun

Ok, I was slower today – 25.00 instead of 24.60. Most people beat their personal best. I guess that’s what I get for missing a week. But we’ve had so much rain this summer that the creek is still running well, and there is still a good crowd coming out, so they’ve decided to run the races for a few more weeks.

On the way out, I was trying to paddle right, but as I passed the split, Dan yelled at me to push the paddle in at the catch and then pull, instead of pulling as the paddle went in, or words to that effect. Once I figured out what he meant, I fixed my catch and also started working on what my upper arm was doing on the power stroke, which gave me better rotation. And it was good, the boat was moving fast. Unfortunately by that time I was too tired and I could do a good stroke about 5 or 10 strokes and then had to rest. That’s why my split time was 0.30 slower than my previous best, and my total time was 0.40 slower.

AvMap EKP-IV complaints and kudos

I’m using this post to track the problems and user interface deficiencies that I’m having with the AvMap EKP-IV.

  • The damn CF card is busted, and they they’re currently giving me a run-around instead of sending me a new one! was busted, and the replacement came with a return envelope that wasn’t postage paid.
  • There should be a single keystroke to get to the currently active flight plan, instead of having to hit “Menu”, “Menu”, “Flight Plans”.
  • You should be able to name flight plans.
  • Calling the button for the nearest airport “Page” is stupid.
  • Hitting the “nearest” button twice should take you to the nearest airport button instead of forcing you to hit “Page”, “Menu”, “Airport”. If you need the nearest airport, you generally need it FAST.
  • Why do I keep end up in the cursor mode just about every time I go to the map page, even if I haven’t touched the joystick? It should only be in a cursor mode if I move the cursor with the joystick.
  • The joystick is way too sensitive.
  • There should be a half-arc on the display with DTK and TRK on it like the Garmin 296 and 530W have. The only thing close is to use up a lot of screen real-estate for a HSI display.
  • The way the vertical navigation works is stupid – as far as I can tell, you have to put in the top altitude, the bottom altitude and the glide slope every time you use it. In the Garmins, you just say “I want to be at 1000 AGL when I get 3 nm from the airport, and I want to descend at 500 fpm”, and it calculates where to start your descent based on your current altitude and the altitude of the airport.
  • The manual wasn’t included in the box, even though the Quick Start booklet said it would be.
  • The manual, which I downloaded from the web site, sucked rocks.
  • The power switch evidently turns itself on if you just breathe on it. I’ve discovered the batteries dead numerous times, and it’s just sitting on my flight bag.

I’ll probably think of others.

To answer Gordon’s question in the comments below, what I like about the EKP-IV:

  • It has a really great screen. It’s big, it’s bright, and it’s very clear
  • Even better, it’s in “portrait” mode. My original GPS, a Garmin 195, was in portrait mode, and I never understood why they went to landscape mode for later models. I don’t know about everybody else, but I want to see where I am and where I’m going, not where I am and 30 miles to each side. And the AnywhereMap Travel Companion and the new Bendix King AV8OR are landscape mode too. I don’t get it.
  • It’s about the same price as a 296, much cheaper than a 396, 496 or even a 495. I don’t need XM WX yet, but if I do, I like the idea that it will someday be an optional extra on this unit, rather than having to make the decision at purchase time like the Garmins.
  • It was strongly recommended by a friend who had one, sold it to buy a 496 for the weather, but then wished he’d kept the EKP-IV.
  • It doesn’t have a road mode. That way I won’t be tempted to leave it on the dashboard of my car. Let the next car thief steal a Nuvi or other car type GPS and leave my aviation GPS alone!
  • I looked longingly at the AnywhereMap new iPaq Travel Companion, and while it had some amazing features, it was incredibly slow. This one looked like it had some of the features, without the horrible slowness.

Oshkosh purchases: a mixed bag

Update: Did I sound a little annoyed with AvMap when I posted this? Well, I suppose I was. But I think I’ve finally managed to convince the support person that I’ve done everything I can, so they’re finally going to send me a new CF card. So I’m a lot less annoyed. I still wish there was a way to get them to listen to my ideas about the user interface, though. It doesn’t seem right to open a support ticket for that, but there isn’t anything else I can see on their web page for other feedback.

I made three major purchases at Oshkosh.

  1. iCom A14 handheld radio
  2. Clarity Aloft headset
  3. AvMap EKP-IV GPS

It’s been a mixed bag.

The iCom worked out of the box, I was able to use it on the trip home, and now I’ve had a chance to go through the manual it looks like it will do everything I need and then some (I didn’t know about the automatic marine weather mode, for instance). It’s slightly annoying that the free headset adaptor is a mail-in thing, and I have to make copies of the sales receipt and registration card.

The Clarity Aloft didn’t work, and I didn’t discover that until I fired up the engine for the flight home. I wrote to them as soon as I got home and they were very apologetic. They shipped a replacement immediately, and it arrived today. I took it out to the airport to make sure it worked fine, and it did. They didn’t send a pre-paid return shipping slip, so I’m going to have to pay to return the broken one and get reimbursed. I’m going to keep the extra eartips from the first one as a compensation for my troubles.

The EKP IV did work, after a fashion. There are a few items of the user interface that absolutely drive me bonkers, and a few that are minor annoyances. After I got home, I thought I’d grab the latest firmware to see if some of the worst bugs have been fixed. That involves putting the CF card in a card reader on my computer and copying some files over. Seems simple enough. The manual suggests very strongly that you keep a copy of the files on your computer, so I did. But after updating the CF card and putting it back into the unit, though, the unit says “DEVICE not PRESENT”. (Yes, that’s the capitalization.) I tried restoring the backup files, but it didn’t help. I tried copying the files to a different CF card, and the unit boots with it, but can’t access the aviation database – that’s not entirely unexpected, because the aviation database is somehow keyed to the CF card. The problem is that I just can’t seem to convince the AvMap people that the CF card is toast and I need a new one. I’ve exchanged a number of emails with somebody in Italy where I set out my very strong evidence that it’s not what I’m doing, or the version of the firmware I’m using, and they send back instructions that basically assume that I’m doing something wrong or using the wrong version of the firmware. If they don’t ship me a new CF card in the next 24 hours, I’m going to go to my credit card company and get them to cancel payment on this. And then I’m going to buy a reconditioned Garmin 296 or a 496.