UPDATE .... 7/2/12 ...
Another successful flight to over 100,000 feet with the same APM2 and 3DR radios on board. This picture is the balloon exploding at over 100,000 feet. Total flight was 101 mins this time. The APRS tracker failed this flight but the package was recovered in a 1/2 hr by a citizen calling the phone number on the package !
In about 2 weeks we are preparing to launch the balloon glider combo and fly the glider back by a joystick on APM2 via mavlink.
Earl
Comments
Earl
Congratulations Earl! It is nice to see" Pioneers of Flight" doing their thing! You can tell how stretched the balloon must have been by the fragments at the end of the tear . One time Air Traffic Control had us on the Look out for a runaway "Mini Blimp" that was holding up a flag at a shopping mall and broke loose . and got up amongst the jets I don't know how high it went before it burst ? do you pop the balloon at 100,000 ? or does it just break from expansion? Have a Good Day!
You can get permission for the glider too?
we are in Albuquerque NM USA We file with the FAA, no problem.
on the glider flight, we are going to go in steps like 5000, 10000, 25000, then if we feel ready , the big one at 100,000.
Earl
Here in Canada at least, balloons seem to be an regulatory anomaly, and can easily be made compliant with only a call to the feds giving location and expected flightpath.
This from the blog of a group around Vancouver who have used balloons to launch their autonomous gliders from quite high altitiudes.
http://www.canuck-boffin.net/sonde/index.htm
What country are you in? How do you get permission to fly up to 100,000 feet? Or do you you just do it and claim ignorance of the laws? Well done either way!
Wow what an image! Nice one.
Congrats! Hust can't imagine how high is 100K feet! Do you have som other cool pics to show us?
Cheers,
Emile