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My Max Speed Reading


roogie

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Car: 147  Beat those numbers! Haha..

 

As mentioned above, my driver and I averaged 154.89 MPH over a 90 mile open road course (only other racers were on the road at that time). I can't remember what top speed was but it was in the neighborhood of 175 MPH.

 

I don't believe we got 30 MPG, though. :lol:

Edited by Mudinyeri
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Didja know that if you jump up at the last second when an elevator is free-falling, you can save yourself?

True wisdom from a rocket scientist who took up space in high school :(

 

How far can you jump up? A foot or two? You have just added a foot or two to the total distance of your fall, making your fall even worse.

Edited by cachew nut
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I once took a Boeing 777 flight from Seatac to Denver. The max speed was 642 Mph. I assume because we were traveling from West to east, that we had a good back wind. We even arived ahead of schedule!

 

-LM

 

BTW - is anyone into advanced model rocketry? how fast are one of those things on lift-off? I would love to see someone put a GPS in a rocket & track speed & all that jazz, then post the results.

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I once took a Boeing 777 flight from Seatac to Denver. The max speed was 642 Mph. I assume because we were traveling from West to east, that we had a good back wind. We even arived ahead of schedule!

 

-LM

 

BTW - is anyone into advanced model rocketry? how fast are one of those things on lift-off? I would love to see someone put a GPS in a rocket & track speed & all that jazz, then post the results.

That'd be an expensive rocket.

 

I hope you use the shute thingy, and adjust for weight! You may end up with one of those two piece GPSs. They look cool, but I doubt the functionality... ;)

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I'm taking mine on the plane when I go to Japan, so we'll see what the top speed is then. Not that it's really interesting - I already know how fast planes fly and such - but it'll be neat to see.

 

On my snowboard I reached ~37km/h before deciding that looking at the GPS while snowboarding that fast probably was not a good idea. I don't know whether or not the original eTrex keeps track of a "maximum" speed, but if it does I don't know how to check it, so I don't know how fast I've actually gone on my snowboard. I know it's a lot faster than 37km/h.

Edited by Tidalflame
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Didja know that if you jump up at the last second when an elevator is free-falling, you can save yourself?

True wisdom from a rocket scientist who took up space in high school ;)

 

How far can you jump up? A foot or two? You have just added a foot or two to the total distance of your fall, making your fall even worse.

Hmmm... I hope my Chicago buddy doesn't read this and think I actually meant it. I love Myth Busters....

Edited by Markwell
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I had an old Magellan Blazer 315 back in the day. I actually have no clue to this day what happened to that thing,,, but here's the story associated with it:

 

In highschool, I was a little obsessed with my cars. I had a Merkur Scorpio, and it's little brother, a Merkur XR4Ti. For those who don't know, these are essentially German Fords. The XR4Ti is basically an 80's Mustang out of Germany. They even had the same 2.3L Turbo engine. The Scorpio on the other hand was similar to a Ford Taurus. There were many many upgrades, and much German engineering which made the Scorpio very different then a Taurus. The Scorpio had a 2.9 Liter engine and an automatic 4 speed transmission. For a little engine,,, this car was incredibly fast! One night, my friends were all having a party out in a field near Wyoming, MN. (this is probably around 1997 or 98) We ran out of supplies, and had to make a run into Wyoming. My friend and I decided to go, and took my Scorpio. On the way back, we were on County Road 36 traveling through the Carlos Avery Wildlife area. This is a really straight stretch of road, and has swamp on both sides, so you don't have to worry about deer jumping out. I flipped on my highs, and had my buddy hold and monitor my old Magellan. I held the pedal down as long as I could possible stand it. I still managed to hit the sharp corner at the end around 90-100 MPH, but survived... When we slowed down,,, I looked over at my friend, and his eyes were glazed over. He reported that our speed (and not just a hiccup, but continuous reading) had been 147.5 MPH!!!

 

These days, I keep the speed in my Geo Tracker under 60 or so,,, but I am proud to have traveled that fast by land (and not in some racetrack either). I'm still not sure how I survived highschool,,, but here I am 5 years later, and slooooowing things down a bit... :tired:

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I got , I think it was about 570 MPh on a flight from Fredericton to Toronto.

What I thought was more interesting was watching the speed increase when we started our descent... even though he throttled way back (I think we were gliding?) it jumped about 50 or 60 MPh. I also downloaded the track when I got home and was amazed how far from the destination he started descent.... and the actual approach used into the airport.

 

I also noticed that the recorded altitude on the track maxed out at 29,000 or something, but I remember reading the altitude during the flight as being about 34,000.

 

The track also showed our path as a bee-line from Freddybeach to Toronto through US airspace (Maine) and back into Canada. I guess I thought maybe the guy would just sorta follow the Trans Canada highway and then the 401 into TO ( well I'm not a pilot ).

B)

 

So there's a lot of interesting stuff to see. Plus playing with the GPS on a plane is better than reading those In-Flight magazines a dozen times.

<_<

 

edit: Oh yeah, I also flew over some Geocaches.

Edited by davwil
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I'd like to put a GPS in a model rocket with an oversized rocket engine to see how fast the rock travels

Actually, I am a model rocketeer.

 

There are units sold, the size of a small logbook, that will tell you acceleration, altitude, have radio tracking, and are really useful. I can tell you that some higher powered rockets have gone well past mach, and most average 2-300 MPH.

 

Plus a GPS's weight would, if placed in the back of a normal rocket, make it unstable and an effective skywriter, and if placed in the nose would make it extremely overstable and also probably do some skywriting. Please, if you want to record a rocket's flight, don't use a GPS. There are $600 gps tracking systems, but a $100 altimeter/recorder will do just fine.

 

:laughing:

 

Blue

Edited by BlueNinja
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...watching the speed increase when we started our descent... even though he throttled way back... was amazed how far from the destination he started descent.... and the actual approach used into the airport.

Don't they usually ask you to turn off electronic gizmos before descent? I was most interested in this part of the flight, but the ol' seatbelt light came on well before he throttled back.

 

Jamie

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I also downloaded the track when I got home and was amazed how far from the destination he started descent....

What GPSr do you use? Mine is a Garmin Vista and it records track logs too, but the altitude is based on air pressure, not on sat readings.

 

The altitude shown on my GPSr in an airplane isn't accurate because the cabin is pressurized. If I want to know true altitude I have to recalibrate the altimiter, but it quickly is incorrect again.

 

How did you record your altitude correctly?

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According to track log I topped mine out at 102.5 mph when driving on the bonneville salt flats. Ok, yeah, that's not hugely impressive for a car, although I'll at least plead that it was a Jeep Grand Cherokee, so you wouldn't want to make any abrupt turns at that speed. (Speedo was reading about 105, wobbly)

 

Does make one hell of a salty mess of the underbody though. Even after spraying the bottom we were still dropping salt for quite a while later.

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Then what is that whole mass x velocity-thing? I mean, if you are in an auto accident, the mass of a human body increases exponentially during an abrupt stop, or did I misunderstand that science class completely?

Your MASS wouldn't increase at all. In fact, depending on how scared you get, it may actually decrease a little bit.

 

:laughing::)

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I also downloaded the track when I got home and was amazed how far from the destination he started descent....

What GPSr do you use? Mine is a Garmin Vista and it records track logs too, but the altitude is based on air pressure, not on sat readings.

 

The altitude shown on my GPSr in an airplane isn't accurate because the cabin is pressurized. If I want to know true altitude I have to recalibrate the altimiter, but it quickly is incorrect again.

 

How did you record your altitude correctly?

Ok, who wants the pleasure? Too funny.

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I also downloaded the track when I got home and was amazed how far from the destination he started descent....

What GPSr do you use? Mine is a Garmin Vista and it records track logs too, but the altitude is based on air pressure, not on sat readings.

 

The altitude shown on my GPSr in an airplane isn't accurate because the cabin is pressurized. If I want to know true altitude I have to recalibrate the altimiter, but it quickly is incorrect again.

 

How did you record your altitude correctly?

I believe a Garmin12 will do the job pretty well. I have done it many times.

And it is pretty amazing how far away they may begin to descend.

Unfortunately, since my Garmin12 is now buried in silt in Monroe resevoir, I am stuck with on of the new-fangled vistas. The mapping software, and WAAS is pretty cool, though.

 

BTW, if my memory is correct, the fastest I ever recorded on my old GPSr was 575 MPH at an altitude of 17,500 (ft.). :laughing::)

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I also downloaded the track when I got home and was amazed how far from the destination he started descent....

What GPSr do you use? Mine is a Garmin Vista and it records track logs too, but the altitude is based on air pressure, not on sat readings.

 

The altitude shown on my GPSr in an airplane isn't accurate because the cabin is pressurized. If I want to know true altitude I have to recalibrate the altimiter, but it quickly is incorrect again.

 

How did you record your altitude correctly?

I believe a Garmin12 will do the job pretty well. I have done it many times.

And it is pretty amazing how far away they may begin to descend.

Unfortunately, since my Garmin12 is now buried in silt in Monroe resevoir, I am stuck with on of the new-fangled vistas. The mapping software, and WAAS is pretty cool, though.

 

BTW, if my memory is correct, the fastest I ever recorded on my old GPSr was 575 MPH at an altitude of 17,500 (ft.). :laughing::)

If I am not mistaken, some gpsr's can calculate altitude when they have a lock on 3 or more sats. In this situation cabin altitude which is maintained by mechanical air pressurization would be irrelevant.

 

In case you have never noticed, another dead give away is when after a 4.5 hour cruise on a 5.0 hour cross country flight, the pilot suddenly decreases the engine thrust and the nose of the plane drops slightly......you have just begun the decent portion of your flight.

Edited by Team cotati697
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I believe a Garmin12 will do the job pretty well. I have done it many times.

The GPS12 will give you a reasonably accurate altitude on the display (albeit with the old Garmin systematic error of about 30'), but it doesn't record the altitude in the tracklog. The newer Garmin (eTrex/eMap and later) and Magellan units do record the altitude of trackpoints. So any of those units, except the Garmins with pressure sensors, would be suitable.

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If I am not mistaken, some gpsr's can calculate altitude when they have a lock on 3 or more sats. In this situation cabin altitude which is maintained by mechanical air pressurization would be irrelevant.

 

In case you have never noticed, another dead give away is when after a 4.5 hour cruise on a 5.0 hour cross country flight, the pilot suddenly decreases the engine thrust and the nose of the plane drops slightly......you have just begun the decent portion of your flight.

All GPS receivers can determine altitude based on a lock on a minimum of *four* satellite signals (they need to simultaneously solve for 4 variables: lat, long, altitude, and time). However, the Garmin models with pressure sensors will always use the pressure-derived altitude when recording the elevation of trackpoints.

 

BTW, I was under the impression that the "decent" portion of the flight begins with the arrival of the beverage service. The descent comes later.

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If I am not mistaken, some gpsr's can calculate altitude when they have a lock on 3 or more sats. In this situation cabin altitude which is maintained by mechanical air pressurization would be irrelevant.

 

In case you have never noticed, another dead give away is when after a 4.5 hour cruise on a 5.0 hour cross country flight, the pilot suddenly decreases the engine thrust and the nose of the plane drops slightly......you have just begun the decent portion of your flight.

All GPS receivers can determine altitude based on a lock on a minimum of *four* satellite signals (they need to simultaneously solve for 4 variables: lat, long, altitude, and time). However, the Garmin models with pressure sensors will always use the pressure-derived altitude when recording the elevation of trackpoints.

 

BTW, I was under the impression that the "decent" portion of the flight begins with the arrival of the beverage service. The descent comes later.

3-4 whatever, the point still stands. Thanks for the correction.

 

Would that be 'cabin' pressure?

Edited by Team cotati697
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Car: 147  Beat those numbers! Haha..

 

As mentioned above, my driver and I averaged 154.89 MPH over a 90 mile open road course (only other racers were on the road at that time). I can't remember what top speed was but it was in the neighborhood of 175 MPH.

 

I don't believe we got 30 MPG, though. :laughing:

What type vehicle were you two operating? When will you be racing again? Where? Pretty hot stuff.

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Didja know that if you jump up at the last second when an elevator is free-falling, you can save yourself?

True wisdom from a rocket scientist who took up space in high school :laughing:

 

How far can you jump up? A foot or two? You have just added a foot or two to the total distance of your fall, making your fall even worse.

I hope you're kidding about this one! :laughing:

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Didja know that if you jump up at the last second when an elevator is free-falling, you can save yourself?

True wisdom from a rocket scientist who took up space in high school :laughing:

 

How far can you jump up? A foot or two? You have just added a foot or two to the total distance of your fall, making your fall even worse.

I hope you're kidding about this one! :laughing:

Does anyone actually know? I have thought about this before too.

 

I should start a thread...

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Does anyone actually know? I have thought about this before too.

 

Even assuming you could time your jump properly, you can't impart enough vertical speed with a jump to counteract the downward speed of the elevator. A person jumping up is only getting about 2-5 mph (briefly), while the elevator is falling far faster than that.

 

As mentioned above, mythbusters did a pretty good job on this one. Some of their "proofs" at time have to be taken with a grain of salt, but in this episode they did a fair job of showing the math showing that it's a hopeless cause. And Buster the crash-test dummy was pretty good evidence that you didn't want to be in the elevator. (They rigged him to "jump" right before the elevator would hit bottom.)

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But wouldn't gravity be <1 ? You would think you'd hit your head on the ceiling.. Anyways. Either way, doubt you'd survive. The lights and overhead stuff would probably crush through to the vator floor.

 

Back on...

 

Could you test your speed by GPS in an elevator? I doubt you'd get a signal.. Maybe a glass one on the side of a building..

Edited by Marcie/Eric
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