From: BillB
Sent: Sunday, November 09, 2008 10:54 PM
Subject: Re: [arsabq] altimeters

Kevin,

Here is my list of my altimeters past and present:

1) Adept ALTS25 (1) - Good altimeter. I have had it since 1998 with tons of flights.
I have replaced the battery holder once and had to re-attach the on board capacitor
due to hard landings and forgetting to add a little tape around the battery to
secure it better.

2) Adept ALTS25 (2) - Same age as #1 but two years ago it just decided to go into
deployment mode, ie set the charges off on the pad, and didn't work properly afterwards. 
I modified the holes a long time ago to accept 4-40 screws instead of the 2-56 and 
Tommy Billings with Adept won't repair any altimeter that has been modified. Tommy 
is an acquired taste but seems to always be available and I have enjoyed all the 
units I have purchased from him.

3) Adept ALTS25 (3) - Forgot to arm and that's all I have to say about that. DOA

4) Adept ALTS25 (4) - I used it in a contest rocket and I didn't put a large 
enough BP charge to push out two large parachutes. Nothing much to add to that. DOA

5) Missile works RRC2 25K - Great unit, lots of flights. Uses external 9V battery 
so a little on the heavy side. I have had it since 2000.

6) Missile Works RRC2 40K - Same comments as #3 with the exception that I purchased 
it in 2002.

7) Missile Works RRC2 Mini - Another great unit. I purchased two of these last year 
and they have performed really well. They record max altitude, max. vel., time to 
apogee, number of flights ( I really like this since it is nice to know how much 
the unit has seen). Currently, I have one with 7 flights and one with 8 flights. 
The flights have included everything from slow and low, hybrids, and well past mach. 
The units also have a bunch of settings for deployment as well as multiple audible 
settings for people like yourself that are a little hearing impaired.

8) Missile Works RRC2 Mini - Same as #5

9) Adept ALTS1-50K (dated 1994)- Great little unit. It will fit in a BT20 tube so 
it is great for 29mm minimum diameter stuff. Tons of flights and still humming along.

10) Adept ALTS1-50K (Dated 1999) - Same comments as #7.

11) Adept ALTS1-50K (Dated 2001) - Same comments as #7.

12) AltAcc - Good altimeter and you pretty much know its history. I was using this 
unit when I first got into rocketry for a job and when the job went away, so did 
the rocketry hardware. Don't know it's current whereabouts.

13) Emmanual Avionics IX96 - Great recording altimeter for its time with tons of 
features as. It has it's little quarks but is strictly a DOS based unit and don't 
have a lot of need for it now. It's become more of a museum piece than something I 
would ever think about putting back into a rocket.

14) Missile Works RRC2 Mini "Alpha unit" - This was given to me by Jim Amos with 
Missile works to beta test. It has the same components as its production unit but 
it has a little different form factor. I think I have about 10 flights on it and 
it still works like a charm.

I guess the reason for me going over my altimeters, past and present, is to show 
that I have used quite a few of them and what their long term history has been. I 
have also used the PerfectFlight (http://www.perfectflite.com/) ones and don't really 
have anything bad to say about them. They are pretty compact little units. I will say 
that I have seen more Olsen units turned into junk than any other altimeter brand. 
Missile works makes the Co-Pilot for Public Missiles Ltd and I would assume would 
be a reliable item.

You know that I fly a lot and I use altimeters in most of my flights so reliability 
is a must and the brands I stick with are Adept and Missile Works. One more note, 
I was told by Jim Amos with Missile Works that the next version of the RRC2 Mini 
is suppose to have the upgraded capability of full flight recording. I think it 
will be a perfect package at that time.

Bill