[aprssig] A strong argument for a cutdown device

[Robert Bruninga]

Probably Landing in a forest of trees around 35 11.52N and 81 55.53W
is my best guess after dead reckoning for 18 minutes from the last
IGate heard position at 01:00:43

Bob, WB4aPR

On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 1:06 AM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
> You lucky guy!!!  Your coming down within 25 miles of the nearest
> anything, and luckily it is a home IGate!  At least you'll be able to
> hear down to a thousand feet or so.  Its 1 Am and it will be on the
> ground at this rate at 0119 EDT.  Good luck!
>
> BOb, WB4APR
>
> Its falling within direct range of an IGate!!!
>
> On Sat, Aug 10, 2013 at 11:14 PM, John Gorkos <jgorkos at gmail.com> wrote:
>> Our local club did a HAB launch today that went horribly wrong.  Check out
>> the track of AB0OO-11 to see what I mean.  After 12 hours aloft, we are
>> still getting good positional data from the balloon, but we have no control
>> over it.
>> We ran out of fill gas and only had about 3.5 pounds of lift on a 3 pound
>> payload.  Instead of just aborting, we launched anyway.  The balloon
>> averaged about 100 feet per minute of lift, and after 7 hours it had only
>> made it to 60k feet.  For the last 4 hours, it's been gradually drifting in
>> circles, getting lower and lower.  We're going to lose it somewhere over
>> south western North Carolina, and we'll probably never see it again.
>> This balloon was flying the new Byonics MT-400 tracker, which is still going
>> strong with a Sparkfun >60k GPS (it's been flight tested by us to 93k) on 6
>> Energizer Lithium Ultra batteries..  Unfortunately, I didn't include the
>> additional battery pack, relay, and wiring needed for a nichrome cutdown, so
>> instead of being able to abort the flight at the time of our choosing, it
>> continues to drift aimlessly over the Carolina's, along with 2 HD video
>> cameras.
>>
>> If anyone happens across what will probably be a still-inflated balloon, I'd
>> really like the memory cards out of the cameras…
>>
>> John Gorkos
>> AB0OO
>>
>>
>>
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