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

esotericdude
Like 2017-07-01 20:42:32Z

Redesigned payload box. Hoping to launch tomorrow AM.

timcub
Like 2017-07-02 16:20:57Z

Congrats! Very cool pics! What's with the last 2 pages of images??

frewi80
Like 2017-07-02 16:36:33Z

Impact Tim, just laying down for us to recover it, Pics are blurry, the sensor of the camera was covered or maybe the camera got fooled with the bright sun or so, have to adjust settings for next time. It's all there, all the images..

timcub on 2017-07-02 20:20:57Z wrote:

Congrats! Very cool pics! What's with the last 2 pages of images??

timcub
Like 2017-07-07 07:41:29Z

Need to change status to SUCCESS!

frewi80
Like 2017-07-07 19:36:52Z

If I do that then it will add on the 98100 feet to the total of my rocket altitudes ! Jason is working on it to make it 'completed'..

timcub on 2017-07-07 11:41:29Z wrote:

Need to change status to SUCCESS!


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

DSCN0173.JPG
Like
DSCN0174.JPG
Like
DSCN0175.JPG
Like
DSCN0176.JPG
Like
DSCN0177.JPG
Like
DSCN0178.JPG
Like
DSCN0179.JPG
Like
DSCN0180.JPG
Like
DSCN0181.JPG
Like
DSCN0182.JPG
Like
DSCN0183.JPG
Like
DSCN0184.JPG
Like
DSCN0185.JPG
Like
DSCN0186.JPG
Like
DSCN0187.JPG
Like
DSCN0188.JPG
Like
DSCN0189.JPG
Like
DSCN0190.JPG
Like
DSCN0191.JPG
Like
DSCN0192.JPG
Like
DSCN0193.JPG
Like
DSCN0194.JPG
Like
DSCN0195.JPG
Like
DSCN0196.JPG
Like
DSCN0197.JPG
Like
DSCN0198.JPG
Like
DSCN0199.JPG
Like
DSCN0200.JPG
Like
DSCN0201.JPG
Like
DSCN0202.JPG
Like
DSCN0203.JPG
Like
DSCN0204.JPG
Like
DSCN0205.JPG
Like
DSCN0206.JPG
Like
DSCN0207.JPG
Like
DSCN0208.JPG
Like
DSCN0209.JPG
Like
DSCN0210.JPG
Like
DSCN0211.JPG
Like
DSCN0212.JPG
Like
DSCN0213.JPG
Like
DSCN0214.JPG
Like
DSCN0215.JPG
Like
DSCN0216.JPG
Like
DSCN0217.JPG
Like
DSCN0218.JPG
Like
DSCN0219.JPG
Like
DSCN0220.JPG
Like
DSCN0221.JPG
Like
DSCN0222.JPG
Like