Photos: what the sensor crew was repairing this week

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Gang,

Sometimes when your local sensor goes breaks it is frustrating that the sensor crew does not get on the repair right away.

But they have to work though the list of other sensors that need repair before they can get to your sensor.

Below is the amazing repair Stuart was doing this week.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

WNDZRFR · Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2016 12:27 am Post subject:

Wow that's a pretty high up sensor!

Where might that be?

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

That sensor is in Texas at one of our wind turbine sensor networks. Ideally the sensor crew would have been working on the Berkeley sensor but the wind turbine company was in the repair queue before Berkeley.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

derekd · Joined: 12 Mar 1994 Posts: 73

Are there any accuracy problems with that sensor, being so high in the air?

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

For windsurfing or kiting it would be useless since it would read high 5-10 knots. But it is roughly at an elevation equal to the hub of the wind turbines you see in the photo and that is the wind the industry is interested in for planning turbine usage.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com

beallmd · Joined: 10 May 1998 Posts: 1154

Cool. But as long as we're exploring this, what happened to the sensor, lightning?

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

I would have to ask Stuart but I would bet it was lightning. That is the most common cause for failure everywhere from Texas, Gulf coast and eastern seaboard.

Mike

MalibuGuru · Joined: 11 Nov 1993 Posts: 9300

Much more complicated than Jims windtalker back in the day. Bravo.

ronadler · Joined: 27 Jun 1996 Posts: 38

The Berkeley sensor would be a lot easier to replace! I see we windsurfers are now competing with the energy industry for priorities. No wonder it's taking so long. we don't have a prayer. Oh for the good old days of iWindsurf when we were the only customers!

windfind · Joined: 18 Mar 1997 Posts: 1901

Hi Ron,

Actually when any of our sensors fails it goes into the same queue regardless if it is for turbine industry or a site with just a few dozen sailors. That Texas sensor simply failed before the Berkeley one did so it was closer to the top of the queue.

It really is not practical or fair to other customers in the queue to have Stuart and the crew abort that Texas repair, climb down the tower, check out of their motel, return the rental car and book a flight to Oakland airport to immediately fix the Berkeley sensor ahead of all the other customers.

When the queue is short a down sensor is sometimes fixed in a few days as soon as we can book flights and accommodations. Right now a lot of sensors are down due to the weather and the queue is long.

Incidentally the Berkeley sensor actually did not fail. The flag pole that it was on collapsed. The owners of the restaurant may not want the flag pole replaced so we may have to figure out an alternative mounting system.

Mike Godsey
iwindsurf.com/ikitesurf.com
Weatheflow.com