For news TAP HERE and scroll down
899ea8930cde406eOrg.jpg
Likes Like
RocketBALLOON - HIGH ALTITUDE
Launches1
Flight StatusOther
LocationMacclenny, Florida
Altitude98100 ft
29900.88m
Expected85344 ft
26012.85m
Weight2.65lb.
1.20kg
StageMotor
1 H-HELIUM

BALLOON - HIGH ALTITUDE - HUNDRED K feet

2017-07-02 08:05:00Z

Description

Had this high altitude balloon flight in my mind now for years since 2010 or so, but since Honolulu is a RED airportit should be very difficult to launch a balloon on the islands of Oahu. Even recovery would be almost impossible with the mountain ranges and the surrounding Ocean. I bought a lot of equipment and balloons but put the project on ice. I even sold the balloons I bought on Ebay. But moving to Florida made the dream coming alive again. My two best rocket friends we very excited to do this BUT we had to wait for the right winds not to make a water landing. Jason Cook is an excellent programmer and made an awesome app for rocketry and recently after lots of hours of programming and testing he made the Balloon app. which was a unique missing piece in our balloon flight. Indeed recording altitude and directions and tracking the whole balloon is a must not to loose it.

High altitude balloon attempt for later this year. Most of the parts are ready to go, just waiting on a few camera's for interval still images, Eric might have his video camera ready, Jason will provide the GPS and tracking, and I will get my WHISTLE dog tracker in the payload box.

Parts list and checklist is all ready, just some fine tuning.

Update 06/13/2017 - Conversation with Jason, the balloon might take off soon, very soon, investigating all possibilities for launching now, even Shawns place in Hihara will work great, Shawn is ok with that and will help out. So far we will contact the FAA and the airports in Ga.

Update 06/15/2017 - Both camera's are working great, The 7 Mpxl camera recorded for 2.30 hrs before the battery died, st at 30 sec captures. The 12 Mpxl camera recorded beyond 3 hrs, stopped he process prematurely but has enough battery life left probably for 4 hrs.

Making a bunch of calculations now, we HAVE to keep the positive lift at around 300 grams to get the best results in time and altitude !!!! Just updated the payload to 1000 grams = 2 Lbs (Box / 1 camera / Jasons' phone / tracking / deflector / Erics camera / parachute.)

Update 06/18/2017 - Right now the calculations are: Ascent time 151 minutes, decent time 40 minutes.

Update 06/18/2017 - Did some work on the payload box. Build a compartment for my Nikon camera as well around Eric his video camera. Used Loctite for the foam, works great and fast. Also cut the filler in a straight position, is much better to calculate the positive lift. The weight of the short filler is now 220 grams.

Looks like we are GO for Launch on July 1st, 2017, just need to find a nice spot with no air-traffic control issues... 8 AM in Banford, Florida..

Update 06/26/2017 - This week I will go over the XL list every day and also get the weather forecasts for Sanderson AND Macclenny. We really can not have that the balloon enters Jacksonville or Cecil airspace..

Update 06/27/2017 - Tim his PR100 tracker just came in, BUT the weather forecast for the weekend does not look great for all over Florida AND Georgia also. So we might skip the launch this time and move to another weekend.

NOTE: For this launch occasion Jason Cook wrote an extraordinary App code for the balloon for telemetry , tracking/GPS and video recording in steps and altitude. Days of after work and night went into his work. I really appreciate what he did to make this balloon flight happen any time soon, but weather is not cooperating for now.

Update 06/30/2017 - Weather seems to look better for Sunday morning launch around 08:00 AM, New calculations turning out better west landing in Sanderson dry area. Notam filed by Jason, checked by Eric and Freddy. All seems to look great but Ya it's a Sunday... Hope fast recovery, have lots of real work to do also. Hoping on great video and pictures from this first flight.

Update 07/01/2017 - Home after work, loading everything in the car for tomorrow.... Double checking weather reports and trajectory.. Our lift off weight will be around 1320 grams that includes: Jason's equipment (foam box and radio and phone and swivel) - Eric his camera and extra battery - Freddy's crap Camera/ whistle/ deflector/ parachute. Weight might add up with duct tape and foam chips.. So I'm calculating 1400 grams for load and 500 grams positive lift... tada

NAME OF THIS FLIGHT is: FEJ one

For this flight the 12 meg pxl camera will be used on my side, Eric will use his small video camera and Jason his 4K nexus phone..

Update 07/02/2017 - YES ! Beautiful day, early morning start like 6 AM prepping and 8.05 Launch that balloon. We did great, some issues with the box and the filling. Had to cut the filler pipe to get the neck of the balloon around it. Filling was a breeze like 10 - 15 Minutes !!! Got all the stuff connected and launch the balloon !!! We had like 600 grams positive lift the total pull was around 2000 grams !!! The actual weight of the chute/deflector and box was around 1190... All components worked well, Hats of for Jason to make the tracking a breeze... We could follow it all the way up and also with the binoculars !! Eric has Eagle eyes !! He could see it naked !!! At 77.000 feet we left the park and headed to the impact zone. The balloon popped while we were driving and we stopped on the exit of Sanderson to get the coordinates right to drive to the impact zone.. It took us all the way out west and also into a 6 + mile dirt road. We had to walk to the low bush and some swamp situations to get to the balloon, like a 0.7 mile walk. Glad it landed in an open field !!!

Confirmedby Jason: Apogee = 98100 feet !! = 14.145 hPa

Impact coordinated: 30.1329539 - W82.4765715(-)

Impact side was very close to the predicted one. The total flight time was 8.841 sec = 2 hours and 21 minutes and 21 seconds.

Apogee 98100 feet was reached on 6690.7 seconds = 1 hour and 51 minutes and 30 seconds.

Google Earth File:50fee3115a4c445a.kml

 

Comments

frewi80
Like 2017-08-01 17:59:28Z

Soon TIM, soon..

timcub on 2017-08-01 11:56:39Z wrote:

:(

frewi80 on 2017-07-26 20:56:05Z wrote:

Tim they are private for now till everything is processed properly..

timcub on 2017-07-26 11:10:11Z wrote:

Freddy some of those videos are blank.


Video


Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Like

Images

DSCN0423.JPG
Like
DSCN0424.JPG
Like
FEJ ONE 07022017  IMPACT confirmed I.jpg
Like
FEJ ONE 07022017  IMPACT confirmed II.jpg
Like
FEJ ONE 07022017  IMPACT confirmed III.jpg
Like
FEJ ONE 07022017  IMPACT confirmed IV.jpg
Like
FEJ ONE 07022017  IMPACT confirmed V.jpg
Like
FEJ ONE 07022017  IMPACT confirmed VI.jpg
Like
19575171_10213385331611783_1525139690172772293_o.jpg
Like
19575180_10213385342972067_4172621017176307057_o.jpg
Like
19575378_10213385329411728_3331866138523060945_o.jpg
Like
19575382_10213385322211548_1453552748204741506_o.jpg
Like
19575401_10213385318891465_6020229765658394558_o.jpg
Like
19575423_10213385330371752_7114136320769790708_o.jpg
Like
19577067_10213385331011768_1626389376747274910_o.jpg
Like
19577207_10213385328651709_2184468221826526675_o.jpg
Like
19577246_10213385319531481_5427407830542120459_o.jpg
Like
19577530_10213385342252049_8731768200154923243_o.jpg
Like
19620323_10213385327931691_7096776372598073583_o.jpg
Like
19620340_10213385332691810_5058299941090471149_o.jpg
Like
19620471_10213385339291975_9077547193409729452_o.jpg
Like
19621025_10213385333131821_9066201514253904790_o.jpg
Like
19621292_10213385324931616_448067293602798622_o.jpg
Like
19621315_10213385336891915_3995664297415644457_o.jpg
Like
19621335_10213385320731511_1734694987001748040_o.jpg
Like
19667548_10213385331891790_1281794372806539170_o.jpg
Like
19667625_10213385321571532_8403194334834932755_o.jpg
Like
19693404_10213385333651834_5144908899549613759_o.jpg
Like
19693487_10213385322891565_368001906278547971_o.jpg
Like
19693664_10213385326531656_2996678239863505662_o.jpg
Like
19702670_10213385325731636_520484509486367884_o.jpg
Like
19702678_10213385323331576_6553573880250872590_o.jpg
Like
19702706_10213385317011418_8720264615626822659_o.jpg
Like
19702845_10213385317211423_1240241284476632725_o.jpg
Like
19780451_10213385329811738_1396177230096164638_o.jpg
Like
19780514_10213385322451554_7773369081752560453_o.jpg
Like
19787273_10213385324371602_6791897410599091610_o.jpg
Like
19787366_10213385333931841_8192723622993152157_o.jpg
Like
899ea8930cde406eOrg.jpg
Like
20170702_102907.jpg
Like
20170702_102919.jpg
Like
20170702_102941.jpg
Like
20170702_103005.jpg
Like
32959c15c75f4f04Org.jpg
Like
vlcsnap-00005.png
Like
vlcsnap-00006.png
Like
vlcsnap-00007.png
Like
vlcsnap-00008.png
Like
vlcsnap-00009.png
Like
vlcsnap-00010.png
Like