skibug

This will sound funny; but, I may have some scrap Ti plate at work. I will have to check tomorrow. If I don't, I know I have a supplier and all the free machining I want. Maybe I will look into this.

I get the idea. Obviously there are many factors involved. I have machined down .093 fin to .082 just to see what happens. If it works out; I am looking at doing some post hardening to give it some strength and then anodizing for protection. I am just messing around with stuff to see how it reacts. I assume that you guys went through a lot of this when starting with the Carbon Fins?

I don't know if I agree with this statement; but, it has been said that if your have the wing set at anything less than 7 degrees, you might as well not have it on the fin.

Does anyone have information about the performance of a ski based on the thickness of a fin? How do manufactures design the thickness of the fin stock? Is it just based on standard aluminum plate that can be easily stamped out in mass production I can buy a D3 blade (.093) for $12 a blade. The older HO Xtreme tournament blades were (.083); but, new HO blades are (.093). There has got to be some effect.

2003 Malibu Response LX - 335 Monsoon engine. I ski @ 34 mph.  Scoke - did you mean .01 or .1? Was that at the split? If you actually meant .1 then you were really, really hot. I would expect the boat driver to noticably feel the boat gearing down after 3 ball to come in with a near actual. Do you have a short set up; or could the driver be hammering the throttle and the boat doesn't have a chance to fully settle before the entrance gates?ÂÂÂ

Ah yes....I thought I might start a new revolution.......there have been enough advocates of the loosing the wing thing; but, you gotta be REEEEALLY good to go with out the fin.

I may run a set or two with the fin removed and see what transpires.  I like the idea of getting even wider and carrying more speed through the turn. It seems like things will need to happen earlier in the course, meaning letting off the pull, initiated the turn, etc. Have you found this to be true?

Are there any adjustments to make if you decide to remove your wing (i.e. length, dft, Front Binding, depth)? I am assuming you can't keep the same numbers with or without the wing.

So what happens to PP and....what about the SG line?

Ed,  I can't tell the difference either. I was just inquiring because I don't have access to a ZO system and I was wondering if the times were coming out with some of the same deviations. I am not going to mention any names; but, I ski with two pro event drivers and they seemed to think that the deviations they were seeing may not be acceptable. I sort of find that hard to believe since all segments were in tolerance. There belief was that ZO gave perfect segment times, all the time. Which again, I sort of find that hard to believe as well. There has got to be deviations based on how the boat is reacting to the load a skier puts on the boat. Just my thoughts. I may be way off.ÂÂÂ

lkb, That would mean that the second half would be hot since the system has to catch up to make the exit time. Did you notice where it was losing and gaining, sort of like what I listed above?

I have a question to all the GPS and speed control gurus out there. Is it possible to have "actuals" for all the segments, all the time? I am told that ZO is perfect on every segment time, all the time, and it shouldn't matter how, when, or how long someone loads up the line. Since these systems are all reactionary, or at least that is how I percieve them to be, wouldn't logic follow that there may be some variation in the segment times; but, overall the system is going to "react" enough to come in for the overall at 16.95. For instance, my last set behind SG today I had: 1.76 = -.01 4.45 = .00 7.15 = +.02 9.82 = .00 12.50 = .00 15.17 = -.02 16.94 = -.01 Some of my other sets varied a little more or less depending on if I was scrambling or smooth. Do these numbers seem too out of line? Some opinions is that they are. Any comments??

Maybe all of the pros can come up with "course" nick names like Seth "the Slasher" Stisher could be "Triple S" or Chris "knell before me" Parish could be the "Minister of the Course" or Will "I'll leave you in ashes" Asher could be the "Cremator of the Course".....you get my drift. I remeber all of the old wrestlers like Ricky 'the Dragon" Steamboat and Jim "Hacksaw" Dugan...he carried around a 2 by 4 as a prop. You need something catchy. ike when Goerge "the Animal" Steele would tear appart the ring turn buckle with his teeth after a victory......maybe there is a pro out there that would be willing to do the same to a turn ball........

Then let's just pick out some poor bastard and label him as the sacrifical villain. The flip side to that is that there is always a contingent who cheer for the villain....so I guess it would be a win- win.

here is a place to buy Rx watersport eyeware. Don't know if this is an option for you. My dad uses them and he likes the way they fit and perform. http://www.spexusa.com/home/content/view/13/30/

Clinchers! They work just about as well if you take the dowel out of the fingers tips and it lessen the chance of a mis-handle or release.

OK, I am looking for some feedback. I got my updated SG and calibrated it. I did some timing runs (without a skier); they all came in 16.95 or 16.96. The troubling part is/was that everytime I got to 3 ball gates; the boat throttled back very noticably to the point where I felt it and heard it. This can't be good when you have a skier in tow.  Right now my only presumption can be that when you are pulling a skier, this will be less drastic due to the load and slowing of the boat for the first half of the course which should even out the consistancy of the pull. Does this make sense? The other troubling thing is that the splits all came out as "OK" when in fact the boat throttled back considerably for that second half.  Logically, I would have thougth that you would see hot 1, 2, & 3 or slow 4, 5, & 6. Any comments?? ÂÂÂ

I am just relaying what I was told by PP. I agree that if you keep adding more and more "tunability".....what's the point?  Other then a way to make more money on new technology...which is the American way. I can't hold that against anyone. In our business we call this technology challenge the "bleeding edge" (indtead of the "leading edge") of technology. Those that are the first, tend to bleed the worst.

FYI.....Email from PP below We are ready to start shipping StarGazer Upgrades. Please note that we require the replaced Master Module to be returned to PerfectPass within 21 days or full charges will apply. Given we are low on StarGazer inventory, we would appreciate your assistance in getting this in the mail as soon as possible. A Return Authorization (R/A) form will be sent with your new module which will need to be returned by you with your old Module. Can you please reply and confirm the following for me: 1. Boat Details: Year, Make, Model & Engine 2. Complete Shipping Address and phone number3. Credit Card Details – forward via email, phone or fax (whichever you are most comfortable with)4. If on Promo Team We thank you for your assistance and as soon as we get confirmation of all of your details we will proceed with shipping your replacement module to you. Carol Carol JoycePerfectPass Control Systems Inc.14 Trider CrescentDartmouth, NS  B3B 1R6Phone: (902) 468-2150Fax: (902) 468-8837

Talked to PP this morning and they are sending me the upgrade module. They seem to think that my problems stem from having the first version of software and the type of boat. Just FYI - my boat - 2003 Malibu Response LX w/335 Monsoon. We shall see if this fix works.  I did probe a little deeper and it seems as though they have added a couple more tuning adjustments. Now they are going to have a settings for "light" or "normal" skiers. Light = kids, and/or light (not so aggressive) pull Heavy = heavier adults and/or heavier pull  This is in addition to the KX settings. There is also some type of tunability for entrance, 3-ball, and exit gates. Not sure exactly what this will be; but, it was explained as a way to set the pull at those points in the course. Are we getting too smart???

THAT IS JUST WRONG....anyway you look at it......

Thanks for the input and advice. When you first fire up SG it puts you in a calibration mode and it instructs you to run through the course to adjust the RPM as necessary to bring the times in accurately. It would make sense that you could do this in the classic PP mode and make small adjustments in the GPS mode. The manual does specify to switch from a multi magnet mode to a single magnet mode depending on the course set up. Why is that? Unless it just has to do with running in classic PP mode?? I am still confused by this.

Has anyone tried to calibrate on a 3 magnet course? The one course we ski at the private lake has all ball timing magnets; but, the public course that we hit every once in a while has end gates and a 3 ball split only. I tried running the calibration on the public course and I kept getting really wacky times and very inconsistent; both fast and slow times. Anyone else experience this? Any suggestions? i am going to calibrate at the all ball timing course; but, what happens when I go to the public course that only has the 3 ball split. If I toggle to the single magnet setting; won't the 3 ball magnet screw up the times? Anyone know the answer to this one?

Looks like a racing stripe to me. Maybe he had some loose sheet metal and they used some 200 MPH tape at his last pit stop.ÂÂÂ

Skierfan,  Who can be a trusted source for information from PP? I called PP and talked to Mark. He did indcate that they were still working out some glitches and I would have to send back my module for a software upgrade when the fix was final. Do you have any more insight or information?