Behold, the DynaFly, 2018!

[cmc4free]

I've wondered that too. Dynamystic was moving, IIRC, and has been pretty quiet since then. Last post was almost a year ago... though his latest forum activity was only a few days ago.

[curlymaple42]

I've wondered that too. Dynamystic was moving, IIRC, and has been pretty quiet since then. Last post was almost a year ago... though his latest forum activity was only a few days ago.

I tried to send him a message before we went out west so we could hook up but his box was full. Waaah!

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[Flash Grundelore]

Well... just wondering about him, too
I'll be flying the Dynafly prototype at the Greyson Highlands Hang next weekend in SW Virginia [gawd willin', and the creek don't rise].
Just finished seam-sealing it, it's drying in the yard right now.

Josh~ if you catch this thread, let us hear from you.

[leiavoia]

Failing that, if someone could do a teardown and post a rough how-to guide for making your own, that would be nice.

[Flash Grundelore]

Failing that, if someone could do a teardown and post a rough how-to guide for making your own, that would be nice.

I don't even think that is possible. There are so many cat-curves and the like that Josh worked out to tweak the units AS he made them. I don't even know how this one compares to ones he sent out to others a couple of months later.
I do know that he was in the process of trying to get more "arch" in the top section panels to shed rain better, and that there were also other improvements he already contemplated from feedback.

'Bout the only thing we can do is make sure that he knows that our interest is still here!

[curlymaple42]

All that said, I'm sleeping in Owl's Head, ME tonight with the sound of a nice breeze and the ocean lapping the shore.

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[Flash Grundelore]

All that said, I'm sleeping in Owl's Head, ME tonight with the sound of a nice breeze and the ocean lapping the shore.

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Great place for sunrise... much jelouz. But I'll be at 5000' up in the VA Blue Ridge next weekend at Greyson Highlands and Mt. Rogers

[Dynamystic]

Josh~ if you catch this thread, let us hear from you.

I suppose it is time for a looooooong overdue update. First, let me offer my sincerest apologies for falling off the radar. Its been a wild ride. For those of you with Instagram, you can see for yourself @VanThompson_Family. For those like myself who don't do the social media thing, here's a brief, broad strokes overview of my past year and where the DynaFly now stands.

Last November, the VanThompson family (Momma, Poppa, Baby Django [then 10 mo. old], and Echo the dog) packed their lives' possessions into a storage unit in Seattle and then loaded into a Mazda5 with a small camo trailer and hit the road. The plan was to scope a new home opportunity in Colorado and then fly back in 2 weeks to load a uhaul and move our stuff to CO. Then I'd set up my sewing studio in my new home, finish the DynaFly, launch my business, and ride off into the sunset. Well, it was a good thing we didn't just load the uhaul to begin the trip because for various reasons CO didn't work out and we were left without a home and too many options for where we might like to relocate. We found ourselves in a position to explore, to move anywhere we wanted. One thing became very clear very quickly. Travelling around in a Mazda5 with an infant and a dog wasn't going to cut it, especially in the Rocky Mountain winter.

Off to Phoenix we went to spend the Christmas season with my mother and start shopping for a van. We bought a cargo van in early January and I began to research and build. Initially, I intended to only do some minor rough improvements to get us back on the road but I got a little carried away by the reality that this was likely to be our home for some time. The result was 2 months researching and working dawn to dusk in the alley behind my mother's Sun City home. Moose the Mighty Van was born!

By now, our 10x20 storage unit full of crap was beginning to weigh heavily on our minds so we set our sight back on Seattle to downsize. We hit the road again in our new home and Jamie (a.k.a. Momma) had lined up a series of photo shoots along our path which meandered towards the Pacific Ocean and then north along the coast before cutting back through central Oregon and up to Portland. At some point along the way a close friend had contacted me about helping him build a rain cover for a portable, truncated icosahedron dome festival stage. A meeting was scheduled during our passage through Portland and the DomeFly was conceived. After a couple weeks of downsizing our storage unit in Seattle, my sewing studio was moved to a barn outside of Portland and the DomeFly project began with too little time remaining before its scheduled debut. 100 hours in 1 week later, the DomeFly was completed and we hauled it to the festival to be set up for the first time just 1 day before the doors opened. Yikes! Thankfully, math worked and everything came together amazingly well. The DomeFly functioned beautifully not only as a rain cover, but also as a light diffuser for the over 3000 individually programmable led lights that line the structure of the dome itself. Behold, the DomeFly! (Created for the Beltane HoneyDome)

By now summer was upon us in the Pacific Northwest. I had a sewing studio set up for a limited time agreement for me to finish the DynaFly but we still had lots of downsizing left to do in Seattle and I was feeling serious financial pressure to start earning an income once again. The year spent bringing the DynaFly to life combined with an unexpected move and van build drained us and left us strapped. We bought a new cargo trailer big enough to haul my tools around, built a kitchen in the front, and set about hustling up some summer carpentry work to reverse our trajectory into the financial hole before we got in over our heads. A job here, a job there, we've been staying afloat but times are still tough. I've had some fun work though. Here is one of the more inspiring projects I designed and created with an old friend of mine recently. Behold, the Portal Potty's! (They were unfinished when I took those pics but they are fully functioning outhouses now.)

So that's the nuts and bolts of what my life has been like this year but you are probably most interested in what that means for the DynaFly. A little over a month ago, in between jobs, my family dropped me off at the sewing studio for a couple of weeks to see if I could make any progress on the DynaFly. As they drove away, I felt lost actually. It had been a while and I'd had lots on my mind. I wasn't sure where to even begin reconnecting with the process that had lied dormant for so many months. I felt used and abused. My life swirled in constant chaos with no end in sight and my mind spun in its wake. I just wanted a nap. So first things first, I erected my camping setup on my tensahedron stand and laid back in my Chameleon under the DynaFly for the first time since packing everything up last November. I had forgotten how therapeutic a hammock nap can be. Feeling my spirit and focus return, I dug out my checklist of changes and ideas for the next DynaFly and began brainstorming just what I was going to do with the precious little time that I had to work. I went around and around and around until I just decided to break the mold and go back to the beginning with a new set of eyes. For durability purposes I wanted a heavier fabric for the roof. I had some 1.6 hyperD, so I experimented and realized that with the heavier nylon fabric I didn't need the roof center seams to avoid overstretching like with the original, delicate, 1.1 poly. This wastes a little more fabric but is exciting because it means no seams over the hammock area to potentially leak. I also reduced to 1 roof tent pole clip which I centered along the ridgeline using a process similar to the the attachment of tarp pullouts. This improved my roof pitch issues and I found reducing the tent pole thickness was also desirable. Resolving the roof pitch issue was nice, but the reduction in seams felt so good that I just kept going. An experiment here, a tweak there, and before I knew it I had a functioning prototype with half the seams altogether. Half the seams = half the work! The roof perimeter and vestibule seams are all that remain. Just a few more tweaks to tighten a few things up here and there and I might actually have a beautiful DynaFly that isn't a total pain to manufacture and seam seal. Alas, I ran out of time and financial duties called me away again.

So here we are. Summer's over and we are now looking to head south for the winter as we adventure forth. Last on my agenda before I depart the Northwest is to deal with my sewing studio which is still set up in the barn outside of Portland. There is talk about doing some modifications to the DomeFly (adding a removable sound booth annex) so I'm intending to use the opportunity to finish the DynaFly before I have to pack up the studio again. I'm ready to get my final patterns laser cut and I'm heading back to the sewing studio next weekend to look into the DomeFly modifications and to finally finish the DynaFly and use up the rest of my materials on a final round of prototypes (for sale?). Then I'll have to pack up my sewing studio and figure out what to do with it all again. I currently have no idea what that looks like and after that I have no idea what will happen. When you live mobile, the wind is able to blow you in directions that you never imagined you'd go. For now, let me once again apologize for my radio silence. To be honest, I didn't exactly know what to say and kept hoping I'd have a new prototype to share with you all before I had to say anything at all. Unfortunately, I didn't get pictures of the last iteration but considering my perfectionism I probably wouldn't share until I tightened everything up anyways. ;-) I'm really excited about my recent breakthroughs and I'll do better at keeping you all posted as I throw myself at yet another attempt to perfect the DynaFly. In another 2 weeks I hope to show you all a new and improved DynaFly, ready for another round of testing and eventually a market debut. In the meantime, let us pray for favorable winds...

[Flash Grundelore]

Dynamystic~ Good to hear from you, glad you are back working on your dream[s].

A lesson I learned along the way is simply that "Perseverance Furthers".... you just have to keep chunkin' along and not give up

[ecologito]

... In the meantime, let us pray for favorable winds...

Life is a journey and so is every project. If you need a beta tester in the muggy southeast (and have a tarp prototype to sell) just let me know.

I will be glad to test under various conditions and different settings.

Whoo buddy!!!



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