Flight #2001-2 "Sky-Eye 2"

July 10, 2001

After action report on balloon 30 June 2001 ------7/9/01

Failure to launch rocket from 30 June 2001 balloon was likely due to auto
power off feature of UHF radio receiver.

I repeated battery life tests on two Alinco DJ-C4 UHF radios.  Both fully
charged radios shut down at about 55 minutes within 1 minute of each other.

Not believing two different batteries would die at the same time, and always
feeling we could get more than 1 hour of receiver operation from a battery
charge, I decided to read the manual (RTFM).  Low and behold, there is a
factory default "battery saver" feature which will turn off radios if no
activities takes place for "1 hour"!

The "Automatic Power Off" (APO) battery saver feature can be disabled.
Factory default is enable.

By the way, our VHF (DJ-C1) APRS/GPS radio also had factory default APO
enabled.  We never experienced shutdown of the VHF radio because we
transmitted (PTT) at least once a minute.  Thus, we were always resetting
the "1 hour APO" timer.

No precise record was made when I turned on UHF radio.  My best guess is
10:05 radio pwr on.  Finish taping box by 10:10. Start taping camera box
10:15 and requesting Mike power up Stamp box at 10:15 as heard on video
tape.

Thus when Blaise transmits UHF command to fire rockets at about 11:00 am
CDST, the radio APO was due to shut down having run about 55 minutes from
10:05 to 11:00 am.  Should Blaise be out of radio command range, as a back
up,  I transmitted commands to fire the rocket at 11:10.  By this time the
UHF radio was certainly shut down due to APO feature.

73's, Charlie

July 2, 2001

Flight 2001-2 report, July 2, 2001.

Greetings!
	Whew, it's been quite a weekend!  The flight of the second balloon 
mission of 2001 (and the first with me as the head of the group) went fairly well.  
Friday night before the flight we had the usual last-minute building session, going 
until 1 in the morning.  We were set up in our new digs on the 6th floor of 
Clifford hall, sharing the room with Atmospheric Science's noisy Doppler radar 
setup.
	This mission was another camcorder one, with the added bonus of trying 
to launch a model rocket via remote control.  GPS/APRS and the stamp computer 
were the only other components in the gondola (no still cameras, Geiger counters, 
dust collectors, etc.).  Charlie built the gondola boxes, configured with the main 
flight computer and radio gear, rocket pad, and rocket controller in the upper box, 
and a separate box holding the 8mm camcorder suspended about 4 feet below.  Ryan 
and Mike built a new cut-down device using a servo and a pull-pin, which was much 
lighter than the old unit.  The master mission clock was adjusted to fire the cut-
down at one hour into the flight, so that we could get the full descent on the 
video camera this time.
	Launch day dawned cloudy and very windy, but the satellite picture showed 
a hole approaching us and mostly clear all around, so we headed out to Ray's farm.  
In a light rain we prepped the payload and filled the balloon.  About 15 minutes 
before liftoff the clouds began to break up.  We had filled the balloon on the leeward 
side of a shelter belt where the wind was near zero, however as soon as the balloon 
rose above that level the 20 knot winds aloft sent it scurrying south.  We moved the 
gas bottles from Charlie's truck to my trailer and the chasers headed off.  
	I dove back to town, stashed the trailer and bottles in the garage, and pulled 
out my radio to monitor the fun.  The command to launch the rocket was sent at 45 minutes 
into the flight, and again a few minutes later by a different chaser.  The 60 minute 
cut-down time came and went, with the balloon still rising (oops).  The chasers had the 
balloon position east of Crookstown, when at 90 minutes after launch the balloon burst 
and the package began its descent.  I lost contact with the chasers at that point, so 
I decided to lie down and get some rest.  Milly called around then and said he had also 
lost contact, so he came over and we watched some rocketry videos and had a beer while 
waiting for word.  Mike called in on his cell phone with updates and to see if anyone 
else had any news.  Finally Gerry called and reported that the package had been found, 
hanging 75 feet up in a tree in a wildlife management area near Fertile, Minnesota.
	Milly and I grabbed some gear and headed to John E.'s place to get more accurate 
maps.  After that we went to Cabela's to buy a bow and arrows, fishing line, sinkers, 
batteries, and other balloon-recovery supplies.  We called Mike to check, and he and the 
other chasers were headed back from the landing site so we agreed to meet in Mentor.  
	After close to an hour on the road, all five of our vehicles met up in Mentor.  
We proceeded to have a discussion via our radios, even though we were all parked next to 
each other.  Ryan finally had enough of that foolishness and stepped out of his car.  
We all followed suit.  I must say, in all my years of balloon work I hadn't seen a more 
bedraggled, bleeding, bug-bitten and tick-infested group of people.  It was plain that 
their fun quotient had been exceeded for the day, and when they said they had had it and 
we should return the next day to attempt recovery, I agreed.  We all piled into the 
vehicles and we headed back to Grand Forks.
	Sunday morning we met a Hardies and everyone looked much more chipper than 
the day before.  We piled gear and people into three vehicles and set out for the 
landing site.  Mike called the path to the landing site a 'zero maintenance road', 
but I think that was being generous.  Granted, you could drive a car down the path 
without getting stuck, but not by much, and the grass on either side (and sometimes 
the middle) was taller than all but Dean's van.  We bumped and crawled along for 
about three quarters of a mile, then parked in some shade.  Everyone got out and 
began equipping themselves for the trek into the forest.  Long sleeve shirts and 
long pants were the order of the day, as well as hats and boots for those thoughtful 
enough to bring them.  Those of us with shoes tucked our pant legs into our socks, 
secured the seam with duct tape, and everyone dosed themselves with industrial-strength 
bug spray.  At one point I looked up and the thought struck me that we looked like a 
bunch of medieval adventurers, gearing up to storm a castle or something.  Ryan had a 
collapsible tree saw (which looks remarkably like a pole-axe when stowed) balanced 
across his shoulders and a hatchet hanging from a leather belt at his waist.  Trish 
had a quiver of arrows sticking out of the top of her backpack.  Charlie and Mike 
were bundling together bunches of collapsible poles.  Dean held a fishing pole.  
Milly was strapping on a web belt with a dagger-sized, saw-backed survival knife 
on one side and a machete that looked more like a sword on the other, and I stood 
there with a compound bow in my hand.  Charlie made a similar comment about us 
looking like we were about to play some real-life Zork game, and we headed out 
into the brush.  
	We crossed a ditch with a feeble stream in the bottom, some meadows 
growing raspberries and prickly weeds, swamp and marsh that soaked my shoes, crashed 
through some brush, and entered the forest.  About 10 feet in a small clearing held 
the object of our quest: there hung the gondola, swaying gently in the breeze about 
50 feet above our heads.  The first recovery method to be tried was the 'Robinhood' 
one (according to Charlie).  With the help of Dean and Milly, I released some fishing 
line from the rod and reel and attached it to an arrow just ahead of the fletching.  
The line securely duct-taped in place, I knocked the arrow onto my bow, and with Milly 
holding the reel about three feet to my left, I carefully took aim and let the arrow 
fly.  The line whizzed out of the reel and the arrow struck the upper box with 
a 'thwack'.  The point struck the edge of a side-panel, right next to the rocket 
launch pad, and went parallel to the face of the panel thus staying inside the foam 
and not penetrating the box.  The foam is about 2" thick, and with the angle the box 
was at it was about like shooting at a 2" x 2" target from 50' away, doing a near 
vertical shot (which messes up the amount of drop the arrow experiences as it flies).  
This would have made it a very impressive shot if that was actually what I had been 
aiming at.  I'll 'fess up and tell you I was actually just trying to get the arrow 
between the upper and lower boxes (an area of about 2' x 4'), which would have snagged 
one or more of the suspension ropes.  I held the aim point low to compensate for the 
angle of the trajectory, but not quite enough.  Oh well, we still had a box on the 
end of the line.  Mike made the excellent suggestion we wrap the fishing line around 
the gondola to strengthen our grip on it.  That done, Ryan cut off some inconvenient 
branches with his pole-saw, Mike and Charlie moved away from the tree to get some 
outward as well as downward pull on the package, and with a few tugs and parachute 
came free of the branches, inflated, and after more than 24 hours in the air the 
gondola parachuted to the ground.  Success!  Time for group photos, turning off the 
infernal beeper on the package, and we collected our gear and headed back out.  
	Back at the trucks, Ryan helped direct us as we turned around and headed 
back out.  Dean's van took this opportunity to overheat and began dumping coolant.  
Off went the AC, on went the heater and open all the windows and the engine began 
to cool down.  Just shy of the road, Charlie and Ryan behind us began honking and 
waving frantically.  We pulled off, expecting them to have spotted a fire on board 
or something, but they just drew our attention to the coolant problem.  A quick 
check revealed no broken hoses or leaking pumps, so we topped off the expansion 
bottle with water and got on the road.  With cool air rushing through the radiator 
again, the engine went back to normal temp and we headed back to Mentor.  
	A stop at the Dairy Queen for some needed refreshments, then back to Grand 
Forks and the Space Studies dept. for the opening of the boxes.  Charlie arrived 
with the gondola and we brought it up to the Imaging Lab.  Duct tape was sliced 
away and the camcorder removed.  It was attached to external power, the tape was 
ejected, and placed in another waiting camcorder for rewinding and playback.  
	The tape revealed some shots of Charlie's basement, then lots of payload 
prep scenes.  Included were many shots of Trish, some of which would have been 
considered rude if they had been taken by a person.  Since Trish was the one 
handling the camera, we all teased her as she hid her face in embarrassment.  
We elected to edit these out during the copy process.
	The tape revealed what we had suspected: the rocket did not fire.  
Problems with the uplink or the signal strength most likely.  It also revealed 
that the cut-down mechanism did not cut the payload down at the appointed time.  
If this was due to a computer problem, mechanical problem, or what is not known 
at this time.  We also got to hear the balloon burst at 90 minutes after launch, 
and we got to witness the dynamics of a gondola descent.  We were all amazed and 
the incredible chaos and violence of the package's flight just after balloon burst.  
The gondola began to stabilize and entered a spinning motion at around 20,000 feet 
or so, but before that it was rough and tumble with the parachute providing only 
marginal stabilizing influence.  We were unfortunately cheated of seeing the 
payload land in the tree when the tape ran out probably only 5 minutes short 
of touchdown.  Oh well, we need an excuse to do another camcorder mission anyway, 
provided we can convince Charlie to loan it again.  He was rather distressed to 
see the maltreatment it suffered during descent, but he'll probably get over it.  
The rocket most likely was slung off the payload during the early descent, since 
we found no scorch marks on the pad and the igniter was still intact.  So, the 
rockoon portion of the mission failed, but the tape gave us amazing insight into 
the dynamics of the descent phase of a balloon mission.  All in all, not a bad weekend.
	Heart-felt thanks to everyone who put in a lot of effort to find and recover
the payload.  It could have been worse, but it could certainly have been a lot easier,
and hopfully it will be next time.

June 14, 2001

June 11, 2001