‘Skyaak Canadian Ring Wing Glider’ as Artist’s Muse

Check this short clip out of California. It was such a rush to see the Skyaak Ultra-Glow experimental prototype flying around in the night skies over Berkeley Campus!

The video artist had to say this about his experience:

Here’s a little bit of night flight with my new Skyaak Model 3 with the light kit. Flight is great, but more than that, this thing looks great at night and was surprisingly easy to catch (especially for people that had never thrown a Skyaak before). Distributed by Tubemogul.

Living in rural Western Canada has its pros and cons. Mostly pros.

I used to think that I was pretty far removed from the action of the great big world living here, but since the world is steadily shrinking thanks to communication and information-sharing advances this is really no longer an issue.

A case in point would be the above video that shows the Skyaak Model 3 Ultra-Glow flying around over Berkeley Campus! Now if that’s not getting out there into the slipstream, I don’t know what is.

The great thing about living here is that I get to pretty much do what I want most days.

As a professional artist/entrepreneur I am enjoying a life ‘off the grid’, meaning I get to spend time devoted to the things I feel passionate about.  Sure, I have to do the daily grind to earn the money I need to pursue my interests, just like everybody else. But I also get to spend substantial chunks of time dedicated to ‘following my muse’.

Which is pretty wrapped up in the Skyaak project.

When pressed to come up with a number one reason for spending all this time and energy on the Skyaak project I  say this: I get a great big buzz out of creating an object that I can toss into the air and watch as it takes on a life of its own in flight!

There’s something in my lizard brain that gets a wicked rush from the idea that I am in the process of developing a flight methodology, a design configuration that actually works.  There is a visceral thrill to the notion that I have nurtured this concept over the years from its crude infancy to the rather advanced form that you see flying around over Berkeley Campus above!

More than this, I’m looking forward to all of the future advancements yet to come. I have lots of ideas in the wings for more sophisticated models that will keep me busy for years to come.

With all the amazing advances in materials, replication technology and IT, I feel like I have access to a steadily expanding tool-box that will never exhaust itself of creative potential.

What more can I ask for?

Copyright Tony Karp 2008

Behind the scenes of Skyaak R&D

Lest I get convicted for IP theft, please let me make it clear from the outset that the artwork on the left is of unknown origin, other than I found it at today’s Google search engine.

I am posting it as a very warm compliment to Google. They have extremely good taste in this instance. I love the image of  a maker intent on his task of creating strange shapes and widgets at his work station.

Very very cool!

Obviously a billion or so sets of eyes have already seen this enchanting artwork.  Wish I knew who the artist is.

Oh Gooooogle…

Who is it by?!

I am going to blow it up a lot bigger and look around for a sig.

(-nal?,- nature?,-nificance?-)

In the same light, Skyaak developer Dylan Cooke zooms in on an  ‘Ultra-Glow’ LED hack that he created.

The third hand makes the delicate and precise work possible.

We can’t go into the proprietary details other than to say that there are many steps and it is quite the process to fabricate the complete LED array hack that includes front LED facing to the rear of the unit through the clear shaft, with a second LED at the rear that faces forward inside the shaft.

Dylan worked out all of the electronic engineering to accomplish a glowing shaft that makes it feasible to throw the unit back and forth over a distance of thirty to forty feet in the pitch black. With almost 100% completed throws and catches!

Dylan tests the ricochet LED prior to installation in the front of Ultra-Glow unit

Dylan made a special request that we show only certain details of his hack..sometimes less is more.

As the inventor of Skyaak, Canadian ring-wing glider it is a real honor, privilege and total rush to collaborate with a guy as talented as Dylan!

Among others, Dylan has been a long-time Skyaak enthusiast who has had a huge impact on R&D.

Before Dylan installs the LED into the sealed shaft he tests each unit.

Dylan presses on the mechanical on/off switch that will soon be inserted into the rear of the shaft.

I like the way the light of the LED in combination with the ambient light create interesting-shaped shadows and secondary highlights in this picture.

After the unit is fully assembled, Dylan gets first dibs on pointing out the on/off switch.

In this case we installed blue LED units in both the rear and front of the Ultra-Glow.

My friend Fred sent us a brief video clip of of couple of his buddies tossing an early prototype Skyaak Ultra-Glow around at Berkely Campus. Thought it would be a good time to introduce you to this, with all the chatter about the Ultra-Glow.

It was super-exciting to see the video emanating out of  California. It is short and sweet, with beautiful resolution.

Fred wrote, “Here’s a little bit of night flight with my new Skyaak Model 3 with the light kit. Flight is great, but more than that,, this thing looks great at night and was surprisingly easy to catch (especially for people that had never thrown a Skyaak before).”

Behind the scenes of Skyaak R&D

Lest I get convicted for IP theft, please let me make it clear from the outset that the artwork on the left is of unknown origin, other than I found it at today’s Google search engine.

I am posting it as a very warm compliment to Google. They have extremely good taste in this instance. I love the image of  a maker intent on his task of creating strange shapes and widgets at his work station.

Very very cool!

Obviously a billion or so sets of eyes have already seen this enchanting artwork.  Wish I knew who the artist is.

Oh Gooooogle…

Who is it by?!

I am going to blow it up a lot bigger and look around for a sig.

(-nal?,- nature?,-nificance?-)

In the same light, Skyaak developer Dylan Cooke zooms in on an  ‘Ultra-Glow’ LED hack that he created.

The third hand makes the delicate and precise work possible.

We can’t go into the proprietary details other than to say that there are many steps and it is quite the process to fabricate the complete LED array hack that includes front LED facing to the rear of the unit through the clear shaft, with a second LED at the rear that faces forward inside the shaft.

Dylan worked out all of the electronic engineering to accomplish a glowing shaft that makes it feasible to throw the unit back and forth over a distance of thirty to forty feet in the pitch black. With almost 100% completed throws and catches!

Dylan tests the ricochet LED prior to installation in the front of Ultra-Glow unit

Dylan made a special request that we show only certain details of his hack..sometimes less is more.

As the inventor of Skyaak, Canadian ring-wing glider it is a real honor, privilege and total rush to collaborate with a guy as talented as Dylan!

Among others, Dylan has been a long-time Skyaak enthusiast who has had a huge impact on R&D.

Before Dylan installs the LED into the sealed shaft he tests each unit.

Dylan presses on the mechanical on/off switch that will soon be inserted into the rear of the shaft.

I like the way the light of the LED in combination with the ambient light create interesting-shaped shadows and secondary highlights in this picture.

After the unit is fully assembled, Dylan gets first dibs on pointing out the on/off switch.

In this case we installed blue LED units in both the rear and front of the Ultra-Glow.

My friend Fred sent us a brief video clip of of couple of his buddies tossing an early prototype Skyaak Ultra-Glow around at Berkely Campus. Thought it would be a good time to introduce you to this, with all the chatter about the Ultra-Glow.

It was super-exciting to see the video emanating out of  California. It is short and sweet, with beautiful resolution.

Fred wrote, “Here’s a little bit of night flight with my new Skyaak Model 3 with the light kit. Flight is great, but more than that,, this thing looks great at night and was surprisingly easy to catch (especially for people that had never thrown a Skyaak before).”

Teaser of Skyaak Ultra-Glow prototype

Just a teaser of Skyaak Ultra-Glow prototype in action in the pitch-dark … the guys hafta wear glow-in-the-dark bracelets so they have something to aim at … this eliminates totally wild throws.

Curious? Scratch the itch for just two bucks right now. That’s right. You can download, dope with clear tape (or laminate), customize, cut out, build and fly the Skyaak DIY deuce in minutes!

Skyaak Getting Out There

Skyaak gets a Glow-On!

There is a Skyaak Model 3 with Ultra-Glow LED kit flying around right now in Montreal and also in Oakland, CA. Genevieve Paradis, features producer at Z Tele of Astral Media has received her Skyaak package in ship-shape condition and tells me that she is taking it to a professional foot-ball player for a test drive.

Ms. Paradis says that she will be filming the Skyaak Ultra-Glow being whipped around between partners both in daylight and then apres dark. We will get to see the contrast and seeing as how Z Tele is famous for broadcasting an array of sci-fi and technology shows it is bound to be interesting to see what they come up with re: Skyaak! I’m getting pretty stoked imagining what they will create, although it is impossible to anticipate. All I know for sure is that Paradis informed me that last time we spoke that I will “be more than impressed” with what they come up with. It will be really cool to see how they tackle filming it getting put through the paces…can’t wait!

A good friend in Oakland also has the Ultra-Glow unit in his hands and is putting together a video as well. He plans on shooting day/night flights in a setting like the Golden Gate Park. It will be really fun to see Skyaak being hurtled around set against different locales. So stay posted, you get to watch these new videos just as soon as they stream down the pipeline!

Building more Skyaak Ultra-Glows

This scintillating video shows Dylan hot-wiring the Skyaak Ultra-Glow guts. He has placed a ‘pod’ against the disco light so you can see how the pod sucks up the LED light. This discovery lead us to invent the idea of inserting a tiny replica Skyaak inside the shaft so as it travels back and forth, from the rear to the front in response to the G-force at play, it carries the LED light with it on its traverse! To see what the heck I’m talking about, check out the clip excerpt below.

Dylan, Shawn, Cassie and I are getting together next week in Saskatoon to hang out at LED HQ after work for a couple of hours. I’m flying off to Nova Scotia the next morning and thought it would be fun to hook up with some of my city pals before I take off.  We are going to build some more Skyaak Ultra-Glow units. As you recall, the Ultra-Glow is a Model 3 outfitted with an LED array for night-time play.

Fully-rigged Skyaak Ultra-Glow head-on detail.

The photo above shows what you will see at the last split second as a totally rigged up Skyaak Ultra-Glow comes zooming in on you. At this moment, you might want to step aside and grab it out of the air by the shaft. I always make a point of explaining to Skyaak newbies that they have to gauge the strength and velocity of their throw according to the distance between players. It is not good to over-throw it, because the receiver needs to have some reaction time in order to catch it.  After all, it is possible to vary the speed of the throw and it’s good sportsmanship to consider these things. Especially for night-time play. I mean, any jerk can over-do it and wreck a good time by being too rammy. Think finesse. Think completion. Yeah right. Here comes the latent coach in me again. What can I say, my Mom is a retired school teacher. She must have influenced me in some deeply subliminal way!

In the meantime, you can get a little taste of Skyaak fun when you order the DIY deuce. The concept here is to get the design into people’s hands for just a couple of bucks so you can get a bit of a feel for the Skyaak technique. Itchin’ to see what all the buzz is about? You can try it out right now if you want.

One nano-second after finger-flick of DIY deuce

Skyaak Ultra-Glow R and D Advance

Skyaak developer Dylan Cooke shows the latest Skyaak R&D advance, an LED light array that enables night-time play.

The request from the Feature Producer at Z Tele for a Skyaak ‘Ultra-Glow’ sent me scrambling into Saskatoon over the weekend to hook up with Dylan, who you will remember is one of the key developers of the LED accessory kit that we plug into the basic Skyaak Model 3 chassis to render it in brilliant light.  This of course takes the Model 3 to a whole new level of sophistication, making it glow for night-time play.

We have tried it out and found that the best way to throw and catch it successfully is simply to wear glow-in-the-dark bracelets so the guy throwing it has something to aim at. It’s pretty lame to just throw it wildly off into the dark!

You will see for yourself once you get into this that the object of Skyaak play is to make complete throws and catches. It’s not that great to chuck it into the dirt.  Much better to actually get it into your partner’s hands so he or she has a chance to feel the rush of the incoming energy transfer when it is snagged out of the air.

I just ran into a friend of mine who said that he bought a Model 3 two years ago and has put two summer’s worth of play into it. He reported that most of the time his Skyaak stays in the air.  That is, him and his two boys play with it lots and seldom throw it crazy. They make a point of taking a second to get focused and deliver it smartly into their recipient’s air-space. I’m sure it doesn’t always work out that way. There are times when you will crash it. Just try to be sensible and play in the grass so it has an optimum chance to survive the rough landing unscathed.

Remember, the Model 3 has been designed specifically to endure a lot of hard play, but you have to do your part like with any other flying toy to ensure it’s safety. For instance, in the R&D of the proprietary ‘ring-wing’ we burned through about seven different types of plastic until we arrived at the one with best flexibility, spring strength and shatter resistance. The object is to go hard, but try to fling it accurately enough so that your partner has a fair chance for completion of the pass. Think finesse.

I guess I’m getting a bit off-track here. I was  going to chat a bit about my time with Dylan putting together a couple of the Ultra-Glow accessory kits.

Dylan and I had a great time putting together the kits. I brought all of the components in that we needed to build the basic Model 3 chassis and Dylan whipped out his LED parts, tools and gadgets. Previous to this, I had some reservations about the viability of hand-building the Ultra-Glow accessory kits. It seemed that it was such a labor-intensive, complicated process that it would end up being cost-prohibitive. However, after we put our heads together this latest time we invented a few real time-saving process(es) that promise to streamline the production line. In fact, we are now confident that we now have the technology and techniques in place to make endless replications of the Ultra-Glow kit on demand.

It just goes to prove that perseverance really does pay off, big time. Dylan and I are both very comfortable in a production-line environment. It’s fun and satisfying to design jigs and templates that speed up and standardize production. For us, this organization of parts and process is one of the most rewarding parts of this whole learning curve.

Of course the MOST rewarding part is to get out of the lab to rock our Skyaak in the nearest park on a sunny day! And now we can go hard right into the night with the flick of a switch that cranks up the Ultra-Glow function! Woo-hoo! Are we having fun yet?