For the tracking team, the 9:00 launch time allowed for a leisurely
breakfast at 6:30 at the Flying J Truck Stop. Assignments were made, equipment
swapped or borrowed and lies told. The plan was to head east on I-70 to Byers,
and east on 36 and north to the predicted landing site. As it turns out,
Rick's, N0KKZ, prediction was 0.184 miles from the actual touch down. If we
had known that, we could have simply gone there, had more coffee, told more
lies and waited to photograph the payload on parachutes. That's what the folks
at ANSR do! This is probably a world record
for prediction precision. Watch the
records web site for details.
Congratulations Rick!
The launch crew was busy making decisions on the type of balloon they were
going to send up and resolved to launch a 54,600 cu. ft. plastic balloon to
assure an altitude of 95,000 - 100,000 ft (actual, 97,873). This effort was to
launch 23.7 lbs of payload plus a 15.1 lb balloon. The University of
Kentucky's Big Blue III is part of a program looking into the possibility of
using inflatable wings on a Mars glider. UK's goal was to reach 100,000 ft
where Big Blue III will experience density conditions analogous to those on
Mars.
The weather was very suspect for this flight, but our FAA waivers allowed
us to fly heavy and through overcast. As it turned out, the area over the
launch was clear for the 9:21 launch. It later collapsed into a roaring
snowstorm at the recovery site.
I will let others comment on the spectacular launch and the experiment, but
suffice it to say here that the experiments went very well and the wings were
successfully deployed at 95,000 ft. Congrats to the UK team.
Congratulations to Merle, K0YUK our balloon master and Dave, KB0LP our
payload master for launching a tough one.
APRS tended to work OK, sort of. The K0YUK-11 was spotty and could not always
be received by the field teams on 445.975 MHz. The AE0SS-11 worked well on
144.34. A lot of experimenting was done DFing the 445.975 signal and I think
we learned that the Arrow antenna is a reliable tool, 2-meter antennas are
not. Ann Foster, K0ANN did most of the research and Larry Nobel, N0NDM used
the Arrow to travel off-road to the balloon carcass.
The team of Chris Krengel, KB0YRZ and Ben Baker, KB0UBZ, were sent to the
predicted payload landing site to acquire and record ATV. As it turns out,
they had to walk 100 ft. to the payload. The ATV showed the marvelous
deployment of the Big Blue wings as it descended to earth and draped over
7,600 volt power lines near the road. Several of our trustworthy payloads were
video-taped popping and exploding as the nasty high voltage turned the main
tracking beacon and cut down device into charcoal. Big Blue III, however, was
unharmed as was AE0SS-11 and the ATV modules. Ben and Jim Zimmerman, K0JLZ,
got spectacular video of the payloads popping. They dubbed the event "Kentucky
Fried Payloads" (University of Kentucky - get it?). Our thanks go to the
lineman from Y W Electric who came
out from Wray Colorado to release the charred payloads and reset the ranchers
circuit breakers.
The UK folks picked up Big Blue III off the ground and started their long
journey back home to Lexington, KY. A very grateful Bill Smith, KG4YLM,
commented on the net that UK has determined that the EOSS Team are a bunch of
very professional "amateurs". In the field, the EOSS tracking team welcomed
teams from UK: Bill Smith, KG4YLI, Garrett Chandler, KI4IHG and Jim Lumpp,
KG4YLI. Sorry about the blizzard :>0 Maybe next time:>)
The next adventure was to recover the huge 72' balloon on which the launch
team attached the K0YUK-11 APRS and a DF tone on 445.975. It is EOSS policy to
recover large balloons to avoid damage to cattle. I got a "last packet" report
(7,958 ft.) from the ground station KJ0R via N0LP (a.k.a. AE0SS).
About the same time heard an actual packet from K0YUK-11 on the ground.
Both reports were very similar. Jim, K0JLZ and Richard K0AEM acquired
landowner permission and we started cross-country, in the rain, the snow, the
cactus, the mud... Leading the way with his Arrow antenna was Larry, N0NDM and
George W0NFW, Marty, WA0GEH and Ann, K0ANN, and Jim K0LOB and his daughter
Jade. The three 4-wheelers earned their stripes as they traveled about 3 miles
across rough terrain to the balloon carcass. Coming in from the north was
Larry Cerney - the guy who started all this balloon APRS stuff years ago! The
balloon location was photographed and documented in a snow storm and we
promptly left the area.
This flight and recovery were well documented and we are looking forward to
seeing the tapes and photos in the near future. On behalf of the tracking team
(now 90 for 90), I would like to thank the University of Kentucky Big Blue III
team for inviting us to take part in this endeavor. The UK team is very
disciplined and professional and is a testament to the leadership of Dr.
Suzanne Weaver Smith, P.E. (Once again Dr. Smith - good call on the cut-down!
You rock!) For those of you who worry about the youth of America - never mind.
Things will be OK!
Thanks to all of the tracking team members who gave up their Friday and
Saturday and gallons of fuel to enable us to have fun with our toys. With
that, as Benjie would say, it was a great time. Let's do it again.
