[aprssig] A strong argument for a cutdown device

[Robert Bruninga]

ARGH, forgot to subtract the local ground altitude of around 900 feet.
 With that, it should be in a field on the north side of McSwain road
around 35 10.71N and 81 57.18W just a half mile south of the NC state
line.

Bob, WB4APR

On Sun, Aug 11, 2013 at 1:22 AM, Robert Bruninga <bruninga at usna.edu> wrote:
> 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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