[AARA] Balloon Launch Rundown

Herman Campbell kn5grk at lusfiber.net
Sat Feb 5 20:36:45 CST 2011


*Balloon Launch Rundown*
*
Friday February 4, 2011
3:42 PM*

Greetings Everyone,

I just got off the phone with the Lake Charles Weather Station, and they 
are saying our winds are looking great for a launch tomorrow. As are the 
conditions for our plane to join in the recovery efforts out of New 
Iberia. Our team is planning to meet in the CAPE Lab tomorrow morning 
between 5:30 am and 6:00 am to begin preparing our vehicles for the day. 
Around 6:30 am we will be calling the Lake Charles Weather Station for a 
final update on the weather conditions, and using their data and our own 
predictions based off the winds make a final decision to fly or not 
tomorrow. Assuming we can fly tomorrow, Our Lake Charles Team will be 
leaving the lab at 7:00 am, and should be ready to release the balloon 
by 8:20 - 8:30 am. We will be sending out recovery teams around 8:00 am. 
Currently we are predicting a landing in Moureaville, LA. This is 
variable to change though.

Map: 
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=31.1327798358211,-91.8187835927651&spn=1,1&hl=en 
<http://maps.google.com/maps?q=31.1327798358211,-91.8187835927651&spn=1,1&hl=en>

Anyone interested in joining us for the day in the lab are more then 
welcome to join us. I will be sending out another email in the morning 
once we've determined the final decision to fly.

*Saturday February 5, 2011
8:52 AM*
Just to let everyone know, the Balloon team has just deployed the Launch 
Team to Lake Charles, and in the process of getting recovery teams 
underway. Below is a link of where we believe the balloon will land near 
Centreville, Mississippi.
http://nearspaceventures.com/w3Baltrak/TrackPlot.pl
Will update everyone on progress during day. Call Rizwan Merchant: 
337-322-0278, Nick Pugh: 337-258-2527, Trey Oliver: 337-466-0674 or stop 
by the cape lab (Madison room 146)

*10:58 AM*
We are anticipating actual launch in the next twenty minutes, we had a 
great deal of trouble getting our recovery vehicles fitted this morning. 
Will keep you all posted.
*
*
*12:24 PM*
Ok guys, we're in the sky, to track the progress, go to this site:

http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=ke5vym-11

*6:14 PM *
After nearly 12 hours of debugging last minute problems, stressful 
flight time, and hunting for the package, the balloon team has found the 
package in the Homochitto National Forest near Crosby, Mississippi. We 
have successfully managed to retrieve the package from a tree, where it 
was found hanging, and our recovery teams are on their way home.

We will be posting the full story with photos on the website soon 
(http://ulcape.org/). I would like to thank all the Ham Operators, CAPE 
Members, and other volunteers who made today possible for all they did 
in assisting over the past few months. We now are looking 
into beginning the process for the Fourth Balloon Iteration for a new 
generation of members onto the project. So stay tuned!

Sincerely,
Rizwan Merchant
Project Manager, CrawSat III

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