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Hello Friends:

Just for fun, thought I would lean on comments as a central motif for this post.

I know darn well you are out there, Google tells us that www.skyaak.com is getting on average about 160 unique visitors per day.

And my old Web-Master said there was nothing we could (really) do to increase traffic flow.

Way back in 2008 the website formerly known as www.skyaak.com was marketed only with a few meta-tags and back-links. We probably got about 2 visitors per day averaged out. Which blows hard of course.

Things are much different now that I have taken over the role of ‘Web-Master’ for the NEW Skyaak website.

But it ain’t just me, Babe!

I’d be pooched without my back-room boys who are consulting, advising, goading, massaging, messaging  me constantly to get it right.

The way I see it, everybody needs as much help as they can get. And I mean everybody.

From the President to the average schmuck trying to pay off his mortgage, everybody needs as much help as they can get.

What I am asking today my friends is for YOU to take just a second and leave a comment here.

Why?

What kind of help (skill, service) do you need?

What kind of help (skill, service) do you have to offer?

BTW, this is not necessarily about volunteerism.

You all need to know that the Skyaak development team has its eyes on the prize(s), big time.

We all know that the time to crack this “javelin-atlatl-ring-wing hybrid” niche wide open is right there coming full blast down the pipeline.

Still, we need all the help we can get so please think about this for a second and let me know what you come up with.

Have a great weekend,

Michael Gaudet

Psst! Wish me luck, it’s tough to get people to leave a comment.  Make my day,  prove me wrong.

A couple days ago a Twitter friend turned me on to Elizabeth Gilbert and her take on the modern idea of ‘genius’.

In case you haven’t already heard,  Elizabeth Baxter has unleashed a monster new bestseller on the world called “Eat, Pray, Love.”

Without going into the sordid details, she points to the unrealistically high expectations that are placed upon the contemporary artist to over-achieve and constantly re-invent herself in a bigger, better way with each successive work.  In other words, you’re only as good as what you just did; or more dangerously, you’re only as good as what you are working on at any given moment.

Gilbert traces the roots of ‘genius’ back in time to when it was regarded as a ’state of grace’ when the artist/writer/scientist, etc. was in the presence of an inspiring slipstream, a sort of magical ‘fairy juice’ flowing through time and space that happens to intersect with the thoughts of an open mind.

So the person who is in touch with their ‘creative muse’ and has the courage and tenacity to commit pen to paper, paint to canvas or whatever the case may be while in this space BLASTS through self-doubt and hesitation to CAPTURE the MOMENT in a FLASH of GENIUS.

You might call it honoring  the ‘Aha!’ experience.

I am happy to see that this subject is back on the radar, to the extent that I want to blog about it!

Usually, the creative path is a series of ‘aha!’ moments with fairly rough terrain in between.  Sustaining the inertia of the project is what takes the steady effort.

You have to be willing, excited even, to put in the hours of dedicated effort and then hope that you hit the mark with a perfectly coined expression, a jewel of a painting, the hottest novel of the month.

On a more modest scale you just do your very best to follow your creative muse wherever it leads, even if it’s totally outside of your cozy zone. How many of us can really say we’re willing to do that?

Looking down the unsealed Skyaak Midi shaft

Making the Skyaak Midi Shaft

Front view of Skyaak Midi

Rotating the Skyaak Midi CW

Side view of Skyaak Midi

Skyaak DIY deuce. Compare scale w Skyaak Midi.

Three Skyaak scale units: (l-r) DIY deuce, Midi, Model 3

In case you haven’t seen it yet, here’s your first glimpse inside the Coraline Box 42/50 sent to boingboing.

(just passing this along from a friend it’s so cool.)

In a stunning and adventurous move, the driving force behind the Coraline movie have created an extremely limited edition number of boxes that they have sent off to select, eagerly salivating ‘mavens’ who are in the process, as we speak, of promulgating the fever-pitch excitement that this novel approach to marketing and brand promotion is generating.

There.  That’s one of the longest sentences that I’ve strung together for a while.

We are bringing this to your attention today as a perfect seagueway to the idea of building a small number of Skyaak Micro-Wing Compartments that will be mailed off (the whole concept of a physical mail-out with tangible contents is heart-warming indeed and has ALWAYS yielded such incredible results for us!).

When we send physical mail-outs the response yields tangible results with a big honkin’ SPIKE in hits.

Now that we have the NEW Skyaak Micro-Wings (the Lexan version) in our hot little hands you can look forward to seeing another QUANTUM LEAP ahead re: performace, durability and uber-spring strength!

MAKING a NEW LEXAN VERSION TODAY so STAY POSTED for PICS and VIDEO!

Click on button to explore ring-wing flight w Skyaak DIY deuce for $2.00

Click on button to buy the Skyaak Model 3

I was snooping around in some interesting Google Groups this morning and found a really neat post by a guy named Peter Khor.

Peter has gone ahead and rigged up a rocket engine attached to the inside of  the front wing of an ‘annular’ (means closed or ring wing) wing model.

This is my kind of fun!

Annular (closed) wing rocket. Note shaft is soldered to interior of ring-wing.

annular (closed) wing rocket ready to launch

annular (closed) wing rocket zooms skyward!

I have gone ahead and contacted Peter, am awaiting his response.

I mentioned to him that this spring we are planning on retrofitting an ultra-light Model 3 with a rocket engine to see how the unit likes traveling at very high airspeed.

Is there a budding rocket scientist in your household or on your gift-list? Indulge the urge to point your dreams skyward!

There were 13 cards, about 6.5  inches square.

I immediately decided that I must have them and put down a deposit.

About a week later I scooped them up and promptly photographed them.

As a SPECIAL FEATURE I am posting these photos here over the next little while.

I will post pictures of all of these cards in batches of two on a fairly regular basis so stay posted.

Just to pique your curiosity if you are anything of an AVIATION BUFF, here are the first two:

 

The Bell P-39 Airacobra was one of the principal American fighter aircraft in service at the start of World War II. Although its mid-engine placement was innovative, the P-39 design was handicapped by the lack of an efficient turbo-supercharger, limiting it to low-altitude work, although the type was used with great success by the Soviet Air Force. In the P-39, Soviet pilots scored the highest number of individual kills attributed to any U.S. fighter type. Together with the derivative P-63 Kingcobra, these aircraft would be the most successful mass-produced, fixed-wing aircraft manufactured by Bell. (Wikipedia)

The Vultee P-66 Vanguard was an accidental addition to the USAAF's inventory of fighter aircraft. It was initially ordered by Sweden, but by the time the aircraft were ready for delivery in 1941, the United States would not allow them to be exported, designating them as P-66s and retaining them for defensive and training purposes. Eventually, a large number were sent to China where they were pressed into service as combat aircraft with indifferent results. (Wikipedia)

I would be interested to hear from folks who might have some knowledge about this set. As in, do I have the complete collection? How many cards in the set? When were they printed? Are they worth anything? Can I put them up for auction on EBay and retire off the proceeds?

Truth is,  Skyaak is NOTHING LIKE A FRISBEE. The Frisbee glides laterally through the air, while Skyaak glides as a ring-wing that presents a circular air-foil perpendicular to the air.

Front of Skyaak Ring Wing Glider with circular air-foils. NOTHING like a Frisbee.

As you can see, there is a big difference in the aerodynamics.

Skyaak is not like a disc at all. Does not have disc-like properties, and behaves in a distinctly different, un-disc-y way. It flies, er…glides a lot more like a javelin, except it tends to brake itself (slow down a bit) in flight and also lifts up its nose as it zooms in on the recipient (the person catching it!) so it is friendlier to pluck out of the air. This happens thanks to the lift that is generated by the front ring-wing. The rear ring-wing just goes along for the ride, adding stability, accuracy and control to the glide.

The similarity to a javelin ends with the concept that Skyaak is designed to be both thrown and caught! Your Skyaak should never have to touch the ground, as the catching part is just as much of a feature as the throwing.

Not to worry though, the Model 3 is designed specifically to withstand some fairly rough landings. In fact, it has a built-in shock-absorbing feature created to deal with just this issue. When the recipient is unable to manage a completed catch, the front ring-wing simply slides back along the shaft upon impact and then the tough nose cap takes the brunt of the impact. You then simply slide the ring back out to full extension on the shaft, check the position of the rear ring-wing as well and you are ready for your next throw.

So, a more precise definition of the Skyaak design would be a “javelin-ring-wing hybrid design”.

Scrap the “javelin-Frisbee” analogy…it just doesn’t fit.

Javelins are cool. Fun to throw, a great work-out and a time-honored passion for millions of folks world-wide. Just don’t attempt to ever catch one, unless you have lightening fast reflexes. Um, forget that. Just don’t even try. You could get seriously injured or worse.

On the other hand, that’s what Skyaak is all about, folks! Throwing and catching!