NSTAR's  2000 and 2001 Flights

• Flight 00-A (7 Oct 2000)

• Flight 00-B (4 Nov 2000)

• Flight 01-A (14 Apr 2001)

• Flight 01-B (19 May 2001)

• Flight 01-C (24 Jun 2001)

• Flight 01-D (30 Jun 2001)

• Flight 01-E (1 Sep 2001)

NSTAR's first flight (00-A) - 7 October 2000 - 1028 CDT (1528 UTC)

NSTAR's inaugural launch took place during the Central Plains Severe Weather Symposium at UNL.  Our launch was scheduled for a break in the speakers, allowing interested persons to join us for the launch procedure.  A crowd of about 100 was on hand for the launch.  The NWS office in Valley contributed the balloon and helium used for this flight.

The launch crew arrived around 0800 to scope out the launch site and to be assured of good parking spaces - no one wants to haul 115-lb helium cylinders any farther than necessary.  The morning was clear and cold with temperatures in the mid 20s.  Winds were light in the early morning, but increased to about 10-15 mph by launch.  

Payload prep began around 0950 and filling the balloon began about 1010.  We were in the lee of the conference center, so the fill procedure was unaffected by the increasing breeze.  The wind buffeted the balloon as we winched it out, but did not cause any problems.  After a quick check with the FAA tower at the Lincoln airport, we launched the balloon at 1028 CDT.  Click here to see additional pictures of the launch.

With the strong jet stream in the region, we knew ahead of time that we had a long chase ahead of us.  Mike N0GGU lives not far from the expected landing area, and Leonard KC0DOQ and Bob KC0FSZ drove from KC to St Joseph to await the balloon's arrival.  The crews in Lincoln packed up after launch and headed for St Joseph.  During the ascent phase, many stations were heard on the simplex repeater and was a great success.  While we weren't able to log callsigns while driving, stations from Kansas, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, and Nebraska were heard during the flight.  Maybe someone can volunteer to log stations for the next flight?

The flight was normal through the balloon burst at 83,675 ft.  After burst, we began to miss more packet data which was probably due to the balloon's antenna flopping around during the descent.  The simplex repeater was harder to access also.  As the Lincoln-based crews approached the landing area, the capsule became inaudible as it went behind the Loess Hills (from our view) along I-29 in the Rock Port area.  The other chase crews arrived at the landing area shortly after touchdown at 1222 UTC.  

The capsule was undamaged, but the parachute appeared to be fouled by the load line from the top of the chute to the balloon.  The parachute probably was only partially open, but still managed to slow the capsule to a 1200-1400 ft/min descent rate.  Different configurations for attaching the parachute will be explored for the next launch.

After recovering the capsule, the crews went to a steak restaurant in Savannah for a well-deserved lunch.

Thanks to W0RPK, AB8M, N0GGU, and AB0OO for providing log files!  

A Lincoln Journal-Star article describing the symposium and the launch can be found here.

Flight 00-B - 4 November 2000 - 0850 CST (1450 UTC)

Another successful flight!  NSTAR Flight 00-B was launched from Valley NWS at 1450 UTC (0850 CST) before a crowd of around 30 or so.  The launch crew arrived around 0730 to look over the radiosonde building which was used for filling the balloon out of the wind.  Launch prep began shortly after 8.  Some extra care was required filling the balloon as it was nearly as tall as the space inside we used for filling.

The wind picked up to about 10 knots near launch time, but the winch procedure makes such winds easier to deal with.  After release, three vehicles (N9XTN, N3KKM, and KA0O) headed back to Omaha and then east on I-80 to Council Bluffs.  During the case, many QSOs were heard on the simplex repeater from surrounding states.  Click here to go to the audio clips.

The crews stopped in Treynor, IA for a short break as the balloon was ascending through 65,000 ft just a few miles to our east.  Since the winds at that altitude were light, we figured we would be able to wait about 15-20 minutes until burst at around 82,000 ft.  The balloon was visible to the naked eye with the clear skies that morning - the low sun angle helped too.  

Shortly, however, we noticed from the telemetry that the balloon had burst about 8000 feet lower than expected.  Maximum altitude reported was 74,242 ft at 1600 UTC for an average ascent rate of about 1040 ft/min.  We immediately got back in our vehicles and resumed the chase to the east.  

As the balloon came down, we were positioning ourselves to be close to the landing site.  However, the balloon came down just out of sight about a mile away from us.  The simplex repeater was in the middle of a playback when it suddenly cut off, probably from jarring a connection on impact with the ground.

Landing was at 1629 UTC at 41^o12.50'N 095^o11.72'W, or about 3.5 miles WSW of Griswold, IA.  The capsule landed in a harvested soybean field and was undamaged.  The chute deployment appeared good from the telemetry and from the configuration on landing.  A swivel connector between the parachute and capsule appeared to prevent twisting of the lines, which probably helped.  The attached photo capsule had several good pictures during the flight, but appeared to have shifted a bit on descent.

Thanks to all who participated -- at the launch site, during the chase, and on the simplex repeater which was quite successful.  I have created an audio CD of the simplex repeater traffic and will make it available for cost of media and postage - e-mail me for details. 

Callsigns heard on the simplex repeater (locations from QRZ.com database)

Audio clips

Because the participants cannot hear each other transmit to the balloon, their transmission occasionally "step on" one another.  This is accidental rather than intentional. WV0S and N9XTN Real Audio G2 Windows Media N0BKB and N9XTN Real Audio G2 Windows Media AJ0A, KK0DX, WA0ZQG, and KA0O in a pileup Real Audio G2 Windows Media You may need the latest Real Player or Window Media Player to hear these files.

Flight 01-A - Saturday 14 April 2001 - 1545 UTC

Our first launch attempt for the year on the 18th of February was scrubbed due to battery problems.  Since then I acquired a better NiMH battery charger for the packs, which is working much better.  The additional time gave us a chance to fix a communication problem between the IHU and the FSK31 experiment.

The 14th began rather cloudy with some fog in the area.  After we got to the NWS office in Valley, I did a quick check of the radar and some light showers were in the area, though the precipitation was not hitting the ground.  This had an effect on us later, but I wasn't too concerned at the time.

We hooked up Ralph W0RPK's FSK31 experiment and verified that it did transmit.  Capsule prep and balloon filling started around 0945 and went smoothly with only a couple of knots of wind from the south.  A loose connector on the simplex repeater cause some anxiety but was quickly fixed.  The balloon was launch about 15 minutes late at 1045 CDT (1545 UTC).

After launch, we headed for I-680 and then I-80 east of Omaha.  We knew from the wind forecast that we would be at least 45 minutes away from the capsule as it landed.  The balloon burst at 61,200 ft at 1636 UTC, after an average ascent rate of just over 1300 ft/min.  Our hope was to have enough packets captured directly, or by the local I-gates, that were close enough to the ground to bring us within a mile or so of the actual landing site.  As we drove east on I-680 north of Council Bluffs, the last packet received was at 9300 ft MSL.  Dale KB0OVQ gave me the balloon's last I-gated report at 2700 ft MSL, which helped us get even closer to the eventual landing site.  

We got off I-80 at exit 70 and headed north.  As we drove on one county road, we got a single packet from the capsule about 0.3 mi north of the road.  I put the coordinates into my handheld GPS and walked straight to the waypoint.  The capsule had landed in a open cow pasture and was in a draw and well-shielded from the road - thus why we only got one packet at such a short range.  Landing was at 1700 UTC at N41° 34.82' W94° 49.43', or about 3 miles ESE of Exira, Iowa.  Total flight distance was about 82 miles.

From the configuration on the ground, the chute had deployed normally.  The simplex repeater antenna was fouled in the load line and out of position, possibly causing the difficulty with it noticed during the flight.  All the equipment was undamaged by the flight and landing.

Post-launch review found that the FSK31 experiment did not go as well has hoped.  See Ralph's web page for more details.  The simplex repeater required me to use 50W on my mobile to access it reliably.  Many fewer stations were noticed on this flight, the farthest being WV0S from Topeka.  The video camera taped the entire flight from launch to landing, but lens obscurations made much of the video blurry.  During the ascent, the capsules went through about a 5000 ft layer of rain/snow showers.  This put water on the lens filter, which frosted over above about 25,000 ft.  By the time of burst, the ground was barely discernable from the sky.  During descent, the frost abruptly melted a few thousand feet up, then the lens filter fogged over a couple of minutes later when it descended into warmer and more humid air.  After resting on the ground for 5-10 minutes, the lens cleared again and gave us sharp views of the cow pasture it landed on.  On the next flight I plan to strap a chemical heat pack onto the side of the lens to keep it warmer.

I had intended for the capsule to send out one e-mail notice at burst with the altitude and time.  However, an error in the logic cause the e-mail notice to be sent out about once per minute.  This will be fixed or removed before the next flight.

The two Dallas Semiconductor thermochrons functioned flawlessly.  They recorded that the coldest battery temperature was 4.5C and the coldest the camcorder got was 3C (measured near the back of the camera on one side).  Both numbers were encouraging as I was concerned that the cold temperatures would chill both to the point they would not work.  This flight was not the most stressing case as it was just over an hour, but it's encouraging that the temperatures stayed above freezing for both the battery and the camcorder.  

During the next flight a thermochron will be placed near the lens.  I wanted to measure the camera's overall temperature on this flight, fearing the entire camera may get too cold to operate.  Since that appears not to be a concern, the next flight will focus on keeping the camera lens warm enough to prevent fogging and recording the temperature near the lens.

Flight 01-B - 19 May 2001 - 0809 CDT (1309 UTC)

This flight was a little more of an adventure than some.........

Saturday the 19th dawned with clear skies and calm winds.  Bill N3KKM and I arrived a little after 7am and the rest arrived by 7:30.  We began filling the balloon and measured 14.0 lbs of total lift and 4.0 lbs of positive lift (with the quiet winds we were able to get accurate lift readings).  We launched nearly on time at 1309 UTC (0809 CDT).  The balloon ascended almost vertically for the first 15 minutes, then turned eastward towards Omaha.  In the picture on the left, from top to bottom are the balloon, parachute, camera/simplex repeater payload, and APRS/telemetry payload.

The chase teams headed on the road soon thereafter and proceeded east to I-80.  Most of us went on Hwy 92 to Treynor to wait for the burst.  In the interim, many simplex repeater contacts were made, with one from Sioux City, IA to Springfield, MO, or about 380 miles.  We used 446.100 MHz today and experienced no intermod or other problems with the repeater.  Lots of low-power (500 mW or less) contacts made.

The balloon burst at 1439 UTC (0939 CDT), or 90 minutes after launch.  One of the participants was able to see the burst through binoculars.  The average ascent rate was 1047 ft/min, which was very close to our target of 1000 ft/min.  

About 10 minutes later, I noticed there were no longer any transmissions through the simplex repeater.  I didn't think much about it at the time, because during payload testing I noticed that the cables between the HT and repeater unit were intermittent if the unit was in just the wrong position.  The GPS data still looked good, so we proceed on the chase.

We went east from Treynor to US 59, then south and east a few miles.  We stopped a couple of times and looked for the parachute when it was between 10,000 and 20,000 ft above us, but couldn't see it (and didn't really expect to).  At around 8000 ft the parachute was just visible.  We watched the payload in an open field about 50 yards from the gravel road we were on at 1525 UTC (1025 CDT).  The payload was swinging quite a bit during the terminal descent - I think this was due to the large amount of the balloon left on the load line, plus the gore in the top of the chute may have been too small.  Not much I can do about the balloon, but I'll make the gore a bit larger next time.

One of the farmers in the area was watching us drive up to the payload.  I imagine we looked a strange sight - three vehicles with all sorts of antennas driving, stopping, looking at the sky, driving off again, then chasing down some object parachuting into a field.  He came up behind us just as we were getting out of our vehicles.  After we explained what we were doing, his expression changed from one of concern to one that a parent would get when his child has done something incomprehensible and probably stupid.

As we walked up to the payload, something didn't look right - one of the payloads was missing.  The tracking payload was still attached (of course - we were getting data!), but the package with the simplex repeater and the video camera was gone.  No trace, not even a frayed string to show that it was on in the first place.  Also, about half of the 1200-gram balloon was still attached - this one didn't shred as well as most.  We took the usual pictures, packed everything up, then headed off for a quick search of the area where we thought the payload fell.

Our technique for this attempt wasn't all that detailed.  We knew the repeater worked for at least a minute or two after burst, but had stopped by 15 minutes or so afterwards.  Figuring the winds would have a negligible effect, we went back along the payload's track between burst and landing.  We hoped the simplex repeater would still be functional, so we all set our rigs on maximum power and made periodic transmission from the top of the hills we encountered - something akin to shouting for a lost dog and hoping he'll bark.

We drove around and hit all the county roads in the area close to the track, with no luck.  Since I knew I had a recording of the simplex repeater traffic with good time hacks for each transmission, we figured the best thing was to narrow the search area with the data we had rather than driving about aimlessly.  We went to Perkins in Council Bluffs for lunch and headed home from there.

After I got home, I reviewed the simplex repeater recording and found that the last simplex repeater transmission was at 1450 UTC.  In the graphs of the descent profile, we found a "notch" in the graph about 70,000 ft and 1443 UTC where the descent rate appeared to abruptly change to a lower figure.  This area was about a 3/4-mile-long track from the point where we suspected the camera fell off to where the parachute was 7 minutes later.  I still figured the winds would not have much of an effect on the falling camera, but biased my search area to about 1/3 mile east.

With this search area in mind, Shari and I returned to the area and got permission to search on foot in the fields (Search Area 1 below).  The suspect area was mostly flat and open, with a creek running through the area and hills and hay fields towards the east end.  We spent a bit over an hour walking around, but didn't find anything.

Sunday the 20th had rain most of the day, some of it quite heavy, so that didn't lend itself to additional searching.  On Monday I had to leave town for a conference in Boulder.  While I was at the conference we consolidated log files and Ralph W0RPK made additional predictions using Balloon Track's descent profiler.  This moved the target area farther east by about a mile from where I was searching on the 19th - the calculations indicated more wind effect than I had accounted for previously.  I also began making arrangements for an aerial search of the target area for the Memorial Day weekend. 

On Friday the 25th I returned from the conference and got permission to search some fields in the new target area.  I spent a couple of hours walking around some soft ground (it had rained a lot that week) and up and down some hills and came back with nothing but muddy boots and tired legs.  Saturday the 26th also had rain off and on which was not helpful for either aerial or ground searches.

With improving weather expected for Sunday, I made final arrangements for an aerial search and to have someone with a radio on the ground that we could direct to the camera if we spotted it (it was in a bright red nylon lunch cooler).  At 7pm on Saturday I got a call from a teacher who lived in the search area.  He asked me if I was an amateur radio operator.  When I said yes, he said he had something that probably belonged to me.  I got his address and hopped in the car for the drive over.

After I arrived, we chatted a few minutes about how the camera was lost and then found again.  Surprisingly, he wasn't too concerned about the fact I had dropped a five-pound package on his land from 13 miles up without a parachute.  He took me out to where it landed so I could get a GPS fix.  The package landed in a small open area amongst a grove of trees near a creek.  Had he not found it, it may have been rather difficult to spot from the air.  Fortunately he was planning to do some work on that bit of ground over the summer, so he went in there frequently.  We talked some more about the balloon project and he was very interested in having me come to one of his classes at the Glenwood school system in the fall.

Once I got home, I disassembled the package and did an inspection of the contents.  Not surprisingly, the package was a bit damp on the inside - over 3 inches of rain had fallen while it was outdoors.  I took everything apart and found the following:

• The video camera was trashed.  Parts fell out as soon as I pulled it out of the capsule.  I had to pry the cassette mechanism up to get the cassette out.  Not much water had worked into the camera itself, even though I made no real attempts at waterproofing.

• The camera's battery pack is cracked, and the solder tabs broke from the external contacts.  I might be able to rewire it and hot-glue or epoxy it back together, or I might just reuse the cells for something else.

• The simplex repeater case is cracked, but the circuit board is OK.  I broke the LED indicator and will need to fix that now.  

• The VX-1R was damp and its SMA connector is bent about 30 degrees.  The unit is functional, but I'm not sure if all the power is getting to the antenna.  I'll probably check on the cost to fix the connector - looks like it was designed to be easily replaceable.

  • Update: no, it's not cost-effective to replace it.  New radios are $120 and fix cost would be at least $75.

• The thermochrons were fine, of course - you can't really hurt those little babies unless you hammer them on concrete.  

• Best of all, the tape was OK even though the cassette case was broken.  Only the few inches of tape around the heads was damaged, and I just transferred the reels to a new cassette.  

The primary cause of the failure was the snap swivel used to attach the payload to the parachute spreader ring.  It appears the G forces likely pulled the wire out of the catch.  In any case, I won't use snap swivels on future flights.  A nylon wire tie use to control the load line to the lower package also had to have failed to allow the package to go free.

Once again, we had problems with lens fogging.  This time, however, the atmosphere was fairly dry.  I think the condensation occurred between the lens and the filter, so on the next flight I'll leave the filter off.  The fog/frost became noticeable about 20,000 ft, but fortunately began to come off above 85,000 ft and we had clear video for a couple of minutes before burst.  At burst, the camera tips up so that the latex shards from the balloon are visible.  The violence during the descent is quite evident, as the telemetry payload and the parachute come into the frame at times.  The camera stayed with the parachute from burst at 1439 to when it fell off four minutes later at 14:43:25 UTC, or about 72,000 ft.  Impact was at 14:50:16 UTC, or 6 minutes and 51 seconds later at 41 deg 09.570 min N, 95 deg 38.186 min W.  The last simplex repeater transmission ended at 14:50:00, about 16 seconds before impact.  The videotape shows the payload rotating at 3-4x per second, and the resulting signal flutter can be heard in this Real Audio clip.  The signal fade as it went over the radio horizon from my home station can be heard in this clip.

Even though the camera was found without benefit of Ralph's efforts at prediction, it was a worthwhile exercise because it does give us confidence that in the future we can use data from the main payload to give us clues as to where a detached payload might go.  Ralph use two methods to come up with his estimates:

1. The camera payload has the equivalent drag to that of a 12" parachute based on the payload's dimension.  Using the morning 12Z sounding from Omaha/Valley NWS, he used Balloon Track to compute Prediction 1 in the map above. 

2. The main payload went about 25% farther than Balloon Track predicted, even knowing the sea-level descent rate.  Adding 25% to the original distance prediction and taking it the same direction of travel as the main payload resulted in Prediction 2.

As always, thanks to the chase team and to Ralph for his assistance with the prediction.  For a more detailed explanation of the analysis and recovery predictions, see Ralph's web page.

Flight 01-C - 24 June 2001 - 0748 CDT (1248 UTC)

We had a successful, low-key launch from the parking lot of Treynor High School in Treynor, Iowa on Field Day Sunday.  At first there was just myself, Paul KC0KXR, and my fiancee Shari (now KC0KZK).  Some high clouds were overhead, but of greater concern were the winds.  They began increasing soon after dawn and were about 10 mph at launch time.  We arrived about 0715 and got everything in place to start filling in about 15 minutes.  Since the winds were continuing to increase, we decided to fill and launch immediately instead of waiting for the scheduled 0800 CDT.  We ended up about 12 minutes early, and I think did well with only three people on hand, some wind, and getting airborne about 30 minutes after arrival.  A grandfather/grandson pair arrived from nearby and watched us launch the balloon. 

Soon after launch we did get some traffic from the simplex repeater, however, we also heard some "ker-chunking" that seemed to be related to the APRS transmitter.  We launched one 6-lb capsule that had both telemetry and repeater equipment - normally they're in separate capsules.  We heard a few Field Day stations, but not as many as hoped.  

We chased south to Silver City which was not far away, and waited for the balloon to burst there.  The winds were very light and the balloon never went faster than 40 mph, making for a leisurely chase.  With the cloud cover we were unable to see the burst, which occurred at 83,625 ft about a mile south of Silver City.

After burst, we proceeded on to Malvern, expecting the landing to be southeast of there.  During that time we heard Steve N0ORU on the repeater and figured we'd all end up meeting at the landing site. We started to notice the simplex repeater audio was distorted, almost sounding like all the users had inhaled some of our helium.  The descent went faster than expected, so after initially going south of Malvern, we tracked back west and then north.  We met N0ORU on US34 and we all were in position about 0.3 miles away to watch the balloon land at 0946 CDT in a soybean field.  We made contact with the landowners and walked out to retrieve the payload.

No damage had occurred to the payload. The load line at the top of the parachute to the balloon partially fouled with the shroud lines - probably because it was too short.  The balloon shredded cleanly at burst and left only the neck and a few small shards attached.  The simplex repeater worked fine when tested later in the day, so I'm not sure of the source of the audio distortion.

Update: The distortion was likely due to weak batteries in the simplex repeater.  Later testing on other batteries showed that a weak set causes a similar distortion to that noted during the flight. We also found that 446.10 MHz is used by some terrestrial stations as a 9600-baud packet frequency - some of the noise heard was probably due to receiving the packet data.

Flight 01-D - 30 June 2001 - 0836 CDT (1336 UTC) (Great Plains Super Launch 2001)

NSTAR joined with the Near Space Balloon Group (NSBG) from the Kansas City area and Treasure Valley Near Space Program (TVNSP) from Boise to hold the Great Plains Super Launch 2001.  The launch site was the former site of the Kansas Near Space Program launches near Manhattan KS.  It was a memorable experience, to say the least.  Weatherwise magazine and a local newspaper were on hand to cover the event.

Clockwise from right: TVNSP, NSTAR, and NSBG fill their 1200g balloons for the GPSL 2001 launch. (Photo by Shari Tews KC0KZK)

The chase crews arrived shortly before 6am.  It took us a little over an hour to make the necessary introductions, formulate a plan, and check out the equipment before we began filling the balloons.  The weather was almost perfect with only the slightest breeze and a few high clouds, so we were not in a hurry.  We began filling the balloons around 0715 and began taking them outside shortly after 8.

We released the balloons at 0836 CDT (1336 UTC).  NSTAR and NSBG went up almost simultaneously, but the TVNSP stack hung up on its release lanyard and was 30-45 seconds behind.  After all three were in the air, it was obvious that the TVNSP balloon was ascending much more slowly than the other two.

Watch the movie from the launch (Real Video - 1.7 Mbytes)

See the GPSL 2001 photo album

We packed up and headed towards Junction City for a fuel/food/supply stop.  During that time, it became apparent the SSTV and 70cm simplex repeater were no longer working.  After Junction City, we headed south on US 77 to Herington.  We were able to see the TVNSP payload pass overhead at about 30,000 feet, but could not see the NSBG and NSTAR payloads because they were lost in the sun's glare.  

The NSBG payload burst at 1455 UTC at an altitude of 78,282 feet.  Shortly afterwards we noticed the telemetry for the payload had stopped at 1501 UTC when descending through 60,700 ft.  Near that time, the NSTAR balloon burst at 91,365 feet at 1506 UTC about 4 miles north of Herington.

Since we figured the NSBG payload would come down near the NSTAR payload, we decided to recover NSTAR first, then search for NSBG.  We headed south on US77 about 10 miles, then turned west onto some gravel roads.  We overestimated how far south the landing would be, so we had to backtrack north to the launch site and were not quite in range to see it land.  The landing was at 1545 UTC about 5 miles WSW of Lost Springs in a harvested wheat field.

We made contact with the landowner and walked out to pick up the payload.  During that time, the owner came out with his pickup and gave us a ride back to our vehicles.  Some of the crews spent some time going over the purpose for our launches with him and his family while the rest were deciding on how to recover the other two capsules.  We decided to split the crews into two groups - one to head south and recover the still airborne TVNSP and the other to search for NSBG a few miles east of the NSTAR landing site.  The crews chasing the TVNSP payload left the NSTAR landing site about 1645 UTC.

Just before we left, the TVNSP balloon burst at 1640 UTC about 4 miles NW of Peabody at an altitude of 83,006 ft.  We got back on US77 and headed for Newton.  At the time, we didn't know that Dan KD4STH was well ahead of us and was in position for the TVNSP landing at 1728 UTC about 7 miles SSE of Newton.  This landing was also in a harvested wheat field.  The rest of us arrived about 20 minutes after the landing.

On the way back to the launch site, we made contact with the crews searching for NSBG.  They had not had any luck and were ready to end the search for the day, so we all convoyed back to the Junction City Cracker Barrel for a very late lunch and an opportunity to swap stories.

Epilogue: The NSBG package was found on July 3rd about 5 miles SE of Herington, KS and N3KKM picked it up later that evening.  The parachute was no longer attached to the capsule.  Some, but not catastrophic, damage was done to the electronics.  The landing site is consistent with a parachute separation near the time of the last telemetry report about 60,000 ft.

Update:  The Weatherwise article is in the Nov/Dec issue, available now.  For an on-line version, click here.

Flight 01-E - 1 Sept 2001 - 0838 CDT (1338 UTC)

It all seems so simple.  Launch a balloon, follow the GPS data, pick it up between 90 and 180 minutes later.  What could go wrong?

The launch team arrived at the high school between 7:20 and 7:45.  We were running a little behind, but no big deal.  We began filling the 350g balloon and stopped a little early to get a free lift check.  However, the duct tape I used was not quite up to the job and the balloon pulled off the filler tube and floated away.

No real problem yet.  We had a 2nd 350g balloon, and there seemed to be enough helium left to fill it.  Maybe a little short, but if I had to I'd delete the camera/simplex repeater payload and save 5 lbs.  We do a more thorough job of taping the neck to the tube and start again.  When we emptied the helium, we tied off the neck and got a free lift estimate (wind wasn't too bad).  The balloon had 14 lbs of lift and we needed to fly 11 lbs today, so we were in good shape.

Fired up the payloads, checked the data, and everything was running fine.  We released about 0838 CDT (1338 UTC) and away we go.  However, the camera didn't fire off the six low-altitude shots it was supposed to.  Nuts.  I hoped the logic that took pictures every 10,000 ft would still work, but the balloon gets to 11,000 ft and no indication of pictures taken.  Nuts again.  We pack up and start the chase, heading east of Treynor.

See the launch from the payload's point of view (2.5 MB RealVideo  23.5 MB MPEG-3)

We stop in Griswold to wait for the burst.  Simplex repeater is working well, data is good, batteries are holding up.  Still no indication of 35mm pix taken, but oh well.  I didn't have time to debug that much anyway.  We could see the balloon in amongst some wisps of cirrus.  Burst occurs at 54,380 ft about as expected.  Initial descent rates are good, simplex repeater isn't fluttering too badly, so looks like a fine descent.

Watch the burst and initial descent (2.0 MB RealVideo 19.1 MB MPEG-3)

Now the transmitter is firing off position packets every 5 seconds.  It's stuck in the terminal-descent loop, which was to take pictures and positions that often until landing.  Well, at least I'm getting pictures now.  My concern for the batteries comes back, as now it is transmitting about 6 times more often than it should.  A few minutes later I check the telemetry and the batteries are holding up - certainly well enough to sustain it until touchdown.

We head south on US71, then east across some gravel roads.  Larry N0BKB is chasing from the east and north and appears to be in position for the landing.  We estimated we'd be a mile or two away at the time.

The descent below 10,000 ft is about as expected - slow ground speeds, a loop back to the north.  The telemetry program exits the terminal-descent loop and goes back to 30-sec intervals - shoot, now we can use the extra posits.  As it gets below 5000 ft, it appears the landing will be near a road which was convenient.  We approach the landing site from the east.

As I crest the hill, I can see the parachute.  It's almost hovering and appears to be off the ground a ways.  At first I thought it was catching a gust of wind on the ground, but then I see it's hung up in power lines.  I blurt out on our simplex frequency "oh, ****, it's in the wires" (our local OO and chase team member has already admonished me for such things).  As we get closer I see a puff of smoke coming from one of the payloads.  

It's about 1015 CDT now.  We stop near the payloads and get out, taking some care not to park or stand too close.  The smoking payload is now a burning payload and a few seconds later falls free into the grass at the side of the road, starting a grass fire.  Two of the vehicles in the chase have fire extinguishers and the fire is put out.  This was the telemetry payload. 

Meanwhile, the second payload with the video camera and simplex repeater is still caught in the wires.  There are five wires on this set, three 40-kV lines and two 6.5-kV lines (we learned all this later).  The second payload is hanging on the topmost 40-kV line and the parachute is dangling from the load line coming from the balloon neck, which is hung up on another 40-kV line.  It appears the J-pole antenna and coax was just long enough to touch two 40-kV lines with obvious effects.  The second payload appears undamaged - the simplex repeater is working fine dangling from its perch above us.

Of all the luck.  Half a bazillion acres of open fields in Iowa and I snag a power line.  Not only that, but it's of just the right size for me to short out.  We are about 200 yards from a farm house - the owner came outside to see the commotion.  Since we're nearly out of cell phone range, we're unable to get a reliable call in to the power company, so I walk over to ask to use her phone.  She says heard a bang and the power glitched for a few seconds.  She thought it was a raccoon with good climbing skills but poor knowledge of power lines (again).

She graciously lets us use her phone.  We call one utility company, but it doesn't service that area.  The operator forwards the information to the proper one.  We go back out and wait for the truck to arrive.

The truck arrives about an hour later at 1145.  Since it wasn't an emergency, they weren't in too big of a hurry on a Saturday, and later they said they didn't know we were waiting for them.  The truck responding owns the 6.5kV lines but not the 40kV and he's not going to work their lines without their permission.  So he radios the proper company and they have a truck not far away that's doing some tree trimming.

About 1230 or so the bigger truck arrives.  They shut down the section of line, retrieve the package, and cut loose the parachute for us.  We exchange names and addresses and head our separate ways.  The power company crew was very professional and courteous for the whole thing.

The telemetry package is a total write-off.  Most everything is burned beyond recognition.  The battery may still work, and the KPC-3 is not particularly melted.  I may try powering it on just for giggles.  The GPS-35 isn't identifiable as such - it's a lump of roughly the correct shape and volume.  The 35mm is soot-covered and partially burned, but the interior appears intact.

The camcorder and simplex repeater, on the other hand and other payload, are fine.  Since we had plenty of time to speculate, we figured the camcorder had enough tape to record its interaction with the power lines.  At a minimum, that would be really really unique - I bet Paul KD4STH from TVNSP doesn't even have a tape like this.  But, of course, as a final twist of the knife from Murphy, the batteries appear to have run down about 15 minutes beforehand.  

The VX-1R running the simplex repeater is the same one that impacted with the previous video camera on Flight 01-B.  It has now survived a 13-mile free fall and tangling with high-voltage lines.  I do not wish it any other unique incidents.

The 35mm film was pretty intact, but indeed all the pictures were taken within 2 minutes after burst.  The videotape was excellent - no fogging this time.  I had attached the capsules much more closely together and closer to the parachute's spreader ring.  This resulted in a much more stable ride on ascent and descent.

The simplex repeater performed very well.  Click here to listen to the recorded audio (4.5 Mbytes - Real Audio G2)

Last updated October 23, 2004

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