The payload was recovered in perfect condition. I did actually get James' messages and what he sent agreed with my initial predictions, but the balloon was under-inflated and I thought it was going to stay in the fast eastbound winds longer and end up closer to Mojave. So yeah, quite the tour. We could have stayed in the parking lot where we stopped in Mettler and probably seen it come down two hours later.
The fast decent rate was because there wasn't any parachute. The original plan was to fly only the tracker, but at the last minute I added the Flip Ultra camera (still downloading right now) which increased the weight significantly. It was definitely a longer and higher flight than I was expecting from an 800 gram balloon. We got pretty lucky with the landing site - it came down in a freshly-plowed field a couple hundred yards from a dirt road. Charlie, KI6FAL, twisted his ankle in the excitement but other than that we recovered the payload without incident. No damage to the foam housings (they'll be discarded anyway, I can make new ones in a couple of minutes on the CNC milling machine) and the electronics are ready to fly again with a fresh set of batteries. I'm exhausted from the chase, though. I think I'll take a nap while I wait for the video to download. Scott Roger Hammond wrote: > > > I'll be anxious to hear what shape the payload is in. Looked like the > descent rate was abnormally high. Fouled chute after burst? > I'd also be interested in what goodies were inside. We're always > looking for something new to send to near space. > > Rog KC0MWM > > On Sun, Jun 20, 2010 at 1:51 PM, James Ewen <[email protected] > <mailto:ve6srv%40gmail.com>> wrote: > > Another flight that proves that there's no need to run multiple hop > > paths from altitude. > > > > 2010-06-20 12:04:20 MDT: > > N1VG-11>APOTC1,WIDE2-1,qAR,K6MAR-10:!3506.29N/11905.26WO100/008/A=008793 > > 04.9V -11C 73908 Pa > > > > The second last packet heard before touchdown was from 8793 feet. The > > next packet hopped through a full WIDE digipeater. > > > > 2010-06-20 12:06:55 MDT: > > > N1VG-11>APOTC1,WA6YLB-5,WIDE2*,qAR,K6MAR-10:!3506.20N/11905.10WO131/006/A=002581 > > 05.1V -8C 92715 Pa > > > > Total horizontal displacement was about 300 metres (1000 feet). Final > > landing spot was probably no more than 500 metres from the last > > location heard directly by an i-gate. > > > > WB9KMO took up the chase, using an absolutely horrid path of > > WIDE2-2,WIDE1-1, yet is still showing up on the maps. No help from > > home fill-in digipeaters for the balloon, nor chase crews. > > > > James > > VE6SRV > > > > > > ------------------------------------ > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > ------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tracker2/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tracker2/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
