Welcome!
I'm Gediminas and you are in my sandbox, grab your favorite tool and come join me in the game!
Panevezys is your town for next week. Why? Because of:
I made it! My 3rd XC! Baby steps, but anyway happy as a kid. After ~6 false starts (start without climb) I have fly away from start point. ~6km in open distance.:
Waiting for parataxi. Huge rain and storm was coming that day. I was lucky to back. On time. Dry!
To celebrate my 2nd XC (Cross Country) trip I have made a new para movie, based on video footage taken before the trip. Check is out before you read:
There was no blue sky on the way to Birstonas. After an hour of driving our wings were ready for cloudy sky. Few pilots were in their trip already. Few of them were on the way back by ground taxi.
A car with the active lift system (automatically adjustable pull system based on rolling out wire) is key to lift. White small car was on the way. A college of mine lifted first. No sun, no thermal activity and after 15minutes you need to think about landing. 2nd try for me and for my college was the same as 1st. Enjoyable lift to ~800m and a fight with the wind.
3rd try was more successful.
He got lifted for few minutes by rain clouds. A huge highway of rainy clouds were passing through our starting field. 3rd try for me was a beginning of my 2nd cross country trip! Lifted to 800m and based on commands from the ground faced my wing to the highway! No way back because of strong wind…
After few minutes I reached the big dark cloud and got zero of climb. Then about 0.8m/s lift was my saver whole journey.
Like a bird. Passing woods and rivers. Catching air and flying to unknown. Breathing cold air, touching clouds with your hand. Unthinkable!!!
After about 25minutes my lift was over and I started to climb very quickly. After about 10minutes of fight I gave up. Landing target was spotted.
Called my college to pick me up. In total my trip was about 20 kilometers. Which is not bad that day ant time for a beginner.
Trip was started about 19PM which is totally not possible for a XC trip. Training my minds for a new journey!
Would it be possible to organize a cinema with a big screen, sound and no electricity around. And your equipment would fit in one pocket 
Yes. It’s very possible!
What you need is a mini projector, white wall or whiteboard (this one will not fit in your pocket), iPhone and a mini sound system powered by battery pack:
If you have all those gadgets, then you’re ready to invite your friends for cinema in open air:
SIV’2010 video material of Lithuanian paragliding pilots was more interesting than any football or F1!
Wanna build your own open-air cinema hall, then you will need:
Mini-projector: Cinemin Swivel Multimedia Pico Projector
External battery pack: 6400mAh External Battery Pack
Mini sound tower: Pleomax USB speaker
All those gadgets give you fun no matter where you are, and how far from power supply you’re. ~5 hours of fun without charging is guaranted.
Also you have a mobility with those toys in case of rain or fire
“<...>Lithuanian cities were lucky with the weather. We are happy to meet our friends and to see other cities bubbling on the squares and in parks 
Many thanks to ambassadors, who spread the news on the event in their cities and photographers, who shared the exiting episodes from “Bubble the City!” event. Next time we will meet on June 7, at 18.3o ” (c) http://laimikis.lt
It’s already about a year when all this started. Soap bubbles in Lithuanian city. Free art for free thinking artist, and joy for photographers. Unique idea which become famous not only in our country. Be careful, this is not a game. This is real science with full blown physic in it
1st Bubble event in 2010 in our Vilnius, and here’s some captures from my lens:
My wife’s photo from Bubbleday 009.
Also, to catch real mood of bubble day you need to watch this BubbleDay 002 movie:
All the credits to my wife!
Also we’re spotted by micha001 :
“<...>A Steadicam is a stabilizing mount for a motion picture camera, which mechanically isolates the operator’s movement from the camera, allowing a very smooth shot even when the operator is moving quickly over an uneven surface. Informally, the word may also be used to refer to the combination of the mount and camera.” (c) Wikipedia.
I have completed my in-house small project building the Steadicam from scratch. This is the 2nd try. 1st one was not so very successful or better say stable. 1st try was based on very small u-joint. I kept the old one:
Current version of steadicam is stable with heavier camcorders. With a light camcorder steadicam start to waving and needs manual movements reduction. Currently tested with the FlipHD. FlipHD is about 170 grams (5.9 ounces). Totally stable picture can be achieved with the heavier camcorders. Tested with the Sony Handycam (~500g). Picture is stable and no spontaneous movements.
Hardiest part was to curve the metal pipe. Old method with the sand was used to achieve the current curve. Another showstopper in this project was u-joint. Thanks to ebay I got what I wanted.
After month all the parts were in place:
U-joint with one bearing was used to create the most critical part of this project. PVC pipe was used as a handle. Camcorder holder and calibration points was a headache. Searching around I found very flexible and easy customizable stuff – pipe holdings. Those were just fine for my whole construction because I used metal pipe in full length in the steadicam. So far so good. I’m satisfied how it works just need to think on how to raise a weight for smaller camcorders. Some photos from build process:
In parallel my wife was in artwork too. Check is out >>>
It wasn’t a usual Friday evening this week.. In the middle of PM scrum I’ve got a sms from my wife with an invitation for a date The offer was accepted, and mad Gadas is on his way with the wing in a car trunk:
The wind was perfect for ground handling, and especially for ground handling without harness. Never tried that before and was a little bit afraid to humiliate myself in front of all that crowd in Vilnius center. The begining, as expected, wasn’t so successful, probably because of incorrect handling, but after some advices from Jurijus Jakovlevas (who was busy with the arcus stutends that day) things became more stable
At the end of the day the wing gave up and started to listen to me even without harness, just with risers in the right hand, and brakes in the left. Lots and lost of joy playing with the wing in that way. As Jurijus said: “There’s no real practical benefit playing with the wing without harness.. just a pure play with the wing.”
Short video footage:
Some photos from action:
