Abstract: The launch and recovery system provides a dive wing and drogue assembly that is towed behind a ship by cables. The dive wing imparts a downward thrust to the drogue, so that the drogue is towed underwater, placing tension on the cables. The cables become stiff due to the speed of the ship and the weight and depth of the dive wing and drogue assembly, so that the cables take on the character of rails. The boat or watercraft to be launched is placed on a sling carriage that is slidably mounted on the cables, so that the sling slides down the cables, launching the watercraft in the stable wake of the ship. The watercraft is recovered by tying a winch cable or line to the watercraft, winching the watercraft back onto the sling, and winching the sling back onto the fantail of the ship.

Abstract: A system, a signal bearing medium embodying a program of machine-readable instructions, and a method employing Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites to determine the current pace, the distance traveled and speed of a person, for example a runner, are disclosed. A GPS receiver for receiving signals from GPS satellites is attached to the person. A processor processes the signals received at a plurality of points from sub-sets of GPS satellites to determine the Earth Centered Earth Fixed (ECEF) fix in the x, y, and z planes relative to the center of the earth of each point. The processor detects when the signals are received from a different sub-set of satellites and corrects for the resulting fix error. The processor calculates the relative distance of the segment between the ECEF fixes of each pair of sequentially adjacent points, and adds together the distances of the segments to determine the distance of the path traveled by the person, which is defined by the points.