Recently Ben Shelef led a team of volunteers to the selected testing grounds near Olympia, Washington for the second round of testing for the helicopter - cable system for the games. In the first test they used a 1000' cable and in the second test they used a 4300' cable system. This second test was a general rehearsal for the games and was successful.
The test was conducted using a GPS hover-aid for the helicopter and the new Virtual Bob (R) motion-arrestor system along with a battery powered climber.
At this point with all the big issues resolved the Space Elevator Games appear to be a go. A date needs to be set and Ben is working with the venue, most likely NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center, to get dates. I assume a test of the new improved system will need to be conducted at Dryden before the official competition is to start.
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