Recap of EOSS-80 (GPSL)

LAUNCH DATE: July 3, 2004
LAUNCH TIME: 09:05 am CDT (14:05 UTC)
LAUNCH SITE: McPherson, KS

Blue = Actual Track
Green = Predicted Ascent Phase
Red = Predicted Descent Phase


Maps made with MapPoint
Prediction made with Balloon Track

Launch Site - McPherson KS
-----------------------
Launch Point: 38.3556� lat.   -97.6901� long.
Ascent Rate: 1000 feet per minute
Descent Rate: 910 feet per minute
Altitude: 1541 feet
Predicted Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 37.9541� lat.  -97.1054� long.
Altitude: 4501 feet
Flight Time: 137 Minutes
Bearing: 131.0� True
Range: 42.1 Mi.
Actual Landing Site
-----------------------
Landing Point: 38.0486� lat.  -97.2941� long.
Bearing: 134.5� True
Range: 30.2 Mi.
Difference from Predicted to Actual Landing Site
--------------------------------------------------
Bearing: 302.5� True
Range: 12.2 Mi.

Frequencies

  • Beacon
    • 145.600 MHz
      • ID: W5VSI in CW
  • APRS
    • 144.340 MHz
      • ID: W5VSI-11
  • ATV
    • 426.250 MHz
    • ID: W5VSI

Flight System:

Balloon Manufacturer Kaymont
Balloon Type latex
Balloon Size 1200 gram
Payload 12 lbs.
Free Lift % calculated at fill
Ascent Rate 1013.95 fpm avg.
Descent Rate  899.47 avg. 10K ft. to landing
Parachute 5 ft. diameter
Peak Altitude 88,999.34 Ft. ASL
Launch Conditions 3 mph from N (est.)

Payload Plan

Payload_Plan_80a.pdf

Photos:

Photos by others are MOST welcome

By Rick von Glahn, N0KKZ

GPSL 2004 Conference

SuperLaunch

EOSS-80 Recovery

Miscellaneous

  • Page 1 Getting ready for flight Saturday morning
  • Page 2 Two pictures from the road trip (nothin' special)

Photos by Benjie Campbell, W0CBH

SuperLaunch

All new and added on May 8, 2005

Data Files:

EOSS-80

Text

Spread Sheets

Other Balloons via Findu.com

Text

Recaps

First off, congratulations to Project: Traveler and the Reno County Radio Amateur Association for putting on a terrific event. Visit their website at:

http://www.rckara.org/project_traveler/gpsl/

You can find a link there to joint the Great Plains Super Launch (GPSL) Yahoo group. Find out about what happened this year and witness the planning activities for next year's event.

Next off :-), you each have your own websites to post to but if you want me to post links to your own recaps send them along and I'll include them below this notice.

Ok, on to the EOSS recaps:

by Rick von Glahn, N�KKZ

On July 3rd, 2004 at 9:05 am CDT, GPSL 2004 managed to launch 6 balloon systems.  I say systems because one group launched three balloons attached to one payload train. That was interesting and impressive. If I've got any of that wrong someone clue me in, please.

EOSS flew a 1200 Kaymont with 12 lbs. of payloads (per the flight announcement page).

The balloon ascended close to target rates, however it appears that the winds were substantially lighter than predicted, although they did follow the general directions indicated at different altitudes.

It was a beautiful clear sky launch. A few clouds up at around 1000 ft that the balloons penetrated on the way up. These were wisps and the balloons soon surmounted them.

Mike Manes and I were tracking in my vehicle. He was using two laptops, tnc, pk80 (I think), and gps receiver to drive APRS+SA and Street Atlas. I was monitoring using a Kenwood D700 which was in APRS mode giving me range and bearing to the balloon.

We were 3rd to our touchdown site. Two DF trackers beat us buy perhaps 30 seconds to the "parking spot" beside the touchdown location. We probably arrived on scene at around 1 to 3 minutes after touchdown. We (Mike and I) were anticipating seeing the payload descend to touchdown but that didn't happen. There were some trees along the road side and between fields which prevented that. Most likely, in Colorado, we would have been able to spot the parachute and payload train prior to touchdown.

The payloads landed approximately 3/10th of a mile to the east of Hillside Rd. and perhaps 5/10ths north of 1st street. This is east of Newton, KS which is north of Wichita. The payloads came down in a corn field with healthy stalks approximately 5 plus feet tall. The payloads were invisible from the road. The corn field was VERY MUDDY.

Mike (primarily) and I obtained permission to enter Mr. Claaussen's property and radioed back to the recovery crew to go get it. And, they did. It took a while because while their RDF stuff was indicating one location a beaconing APRS package was indicating another. After a failed initial penetration to the GPS location, the RDF guys decided they would follow their RF tracking. This led them directly to the payloads. Discovery was dependent on being within several yards of the payloads as optical discovery was hampered by all that closely growing corn. The ground was MUDDY, very MUDDY.


Harry, KC5TRB rediscovers civilization.
Click Here or on image to see higher resolution version

The official recap will provide a full list of names, but the EOSS guys who slogged through the mud were, Chris Krengel KB�YRZ and Benjie Campbell W�CBH. Also searching the field were Marcia DeBell KC�SOW and Larry Noble N�NDM. They stuck to the tree lines (trees separated different areas of the fields) to keep from disappearing in the muck but were way out there with the others. Joining them was Harry KC5TRB from ORB (pictured above).

Bill Brown WB8ELK flew a system and his balloon touched down approximately 2 miles NE of us.

I wasn't watching a group track of all the balloons but Marty Griffin WA�GEH said that they all were following the same basic trajectory separated by about a 5 mile circle. I'll probably learn more about that via other reports filed on the GPSL email reflector.

OK, timewarp to back to Friday and a lite recap of GPSL's symposium.

The presentations went very well. And, we had LOTS of people. An absolute minimum of 25. I'll have to count them up in the group shots to get an accurate accounting.

The "hall" was fantastic. It was a lecture hall. Rows of tables permanently installed on "stadium style" seating. Each row moving from front to back was raised higher the the nearer row to give an excellent view of the activities. They had a 20 FOOT screen with a kicker LCD projector. A wild presentation system including one of those Overhead gizmos that has a camera pointing down to a surface you can write notes or drawings on, there were various other presentation tools. The tables were permanently installed because they had AC and Net connections at each seat. Well, it was very nice to say the least. Best I've seen yet.

Parking was perhaps 200 feet from the table top you sat at so needless to say, bringing in and setting up the "show and tell" was a snap.

We even dragged the entire gang out to look at one of EOSS's trackers vehicles (Chris Krengel's tracker). He has a pretty impressive setup and that was well received. Getting from the auditorium to the car was the matter of a minute's walk (that 200 foot thing).

Well, I'm sure lots of others will write stuff and post it in various locations but I thought folks would like to hear how it went.

by Benjie Campbell, W�CBH

Hi all. What a great weekend.

I and my loyal driver had a great time. I even got to walk in a very muddy Kansas cornfield in my stocking feet, what fun.

We met a great bunch of new people and had a very good time doing so. We attended all of the presentations at the Hutchinson Community College and had great food at the dinners and lunchs.

The Cosmodrome is a great place. I really enjoyed reading the displays and even got to chase Larry, N0NDM from one room to another. HE was moving rather slow, but he read all of the displays. All!...... Now he is an expert about space. I also was able to give my Rocket Engine speech, where I discussed the definition of what an engine is, and how they are classified.

The Saturday balloon flight for EOSS went off well. We had some trouble during the launch with a connector for the atv module, but the gps module and the beacons worked well.

The recovery went well, even with the mud.

The lunch after was good, and the trip back to Hutchinson was short. Wish we could end up flying that short of a distance out here in the wilds of Colorado.

The scenery was fantastic, as well as all the rain storms we saw and drove in. It was nice to be in real air again, with lots of humidity and water. I have missed living at a lower altitude where the air is air, and you can actually feel the humidity.

I won't stay at the hotel we stayed at again. Hutch is a great place, it has a lot of really nice homes, and has a lot to offer with tourista stuff.

I want to thank all of the hosting people who made this trip a lot of fun for Marcia and myself.