BlueFlyVario found

This is a cool story. It is about the BlueFlyVario, but it shows that people are awesome, and that random events can be great.

Stephan was one of the first people who supported the BlueFlyVario vario project by purchasing a version 6 prototype. It was one of the first ten which means he had one with a green pcb. About a month ago he ordered another via the website. I figured he really liked it and was purchasing one for a friend. After I shipped it I forgot to ask him more about it as I got consumed in preparing version 7 (another blog post about that soon).

In the middle of last week I got an email via the website from Balazas in Hungry:

I found a Blue Fly Vario V6 device in Austria near a paragliding area in the bush last Friday while I was there for rock climbing. It was wet, and one of the plastic case is broken, but it works as I tried it. If you can help, I would send back to the owner, probably someone lost it.

It was awesome for Balazas to get in contact with me. In a later email he mentioned that he was motivated by a desire for those that do sports in the mountains to help each other as our sports can be dangerous sometimes. There was more awesomeness to come from him.

I have kept a reasonable record of who I have sent BlueFlyVario's to. I record the last four digits of the MAC address which forms part of the bluetooth name. So I asked Balazas and after his prompt response quickly worked out the vario was the first one I shipped to Stephan back in May. When he found out:

This is amazing, I lost this variometer approx 100m above ground and heard it crashing into the woods. I would not have given a penny that it is still working. I lost it about two weeks ago, so it must have been laying there in the heavy rains of last weeks, unbelievable!

I put these guys in touch with each other and Balazas quickly sent the vario back to Stephan:

A big thank you guys for finding out and sending it back to me. This is really great and a little sensation for me! First of all that someone found it second that it survived the fall from over 100 meters with very little damage and third that it found the way back home via Australia to Austria... 

You can see above the perspex protocase got cracked in the fall. A new one is on the way to Stephan right now. 

I don't recommend dropping your vario from 100m and leaving it for a few weeks in the rain. Even so, it is great to see that even with this punishment the vario still works.  In fact Balazas said when he first picked it up in the forest he turned out on and it beeped, then he paired it. Some people are awesome.