ESOS Flight updates

Welcome to the "ES-OS" flight update webpage.
(Experimental Sub-Orbital Society)

"ES-OS flight FIVE-b" launched from the Morris Ranch in Deer Trail, Colorado. January 25th, 2003.

Launch preparations underway. 7am Mountain Time. Temp 37 degrees. Note the hold down arms over the gondola and the orange parachute hanging from the apex.

The Parachute assembly

T - 10 seconds. Note launch release system on the front of the launch truck platform.

N0ZED & N7MXO handling the fill tube.

Starting to fill the envelope

"ES-OS FIVE-b" LAUNCH at 8:06 am

On its way to the LZ, near the Kansas border.

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Communications for operations were over the Rocky Mountain Hamgroup 449.225 Thorodin Mountain Repeater.

For a full run down on the flight go to the bottom of the pictures.

Here is the write up on the flight by ES-OS founder, Mark, KC0JHQ

Email the ES-OS group

Click here to go to the KE0VH Homepage.

Karl, N7MXO

Mark
KC0JHQ

James

Loading the UHF tracker in the Balloon

The view from 98,000 feet taken from an earlier flight. Photo by KC0JHQ's onboard camera

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Photography courtesy of Larry, N0NDM

The next flight schedule is TBA here and will be carrying a UHF repeater built by John, N0WBW or the RMHam group. APRS frequencies and call signs for tracking will also be announced so check back soon for details.



	ES-OS FIVE-b January 25, 2003 Okay, a lot transpired on this flight - firstly, James and I were ahead of the ball by pre-staging to launch truck, helium, and assembling the truck-launcher out at the launch site near Deer Trail, Colorado on Friday. And later that night, Don KA�JLF and Charlie from HABITAT Skylab (Kansas) came out all the way to see the launch. I also gave them a tour of the balloon-building tools I've made. Out at the launch site on Saturday morning, we were blessed with excellent near-zero wind conditions. The preparations went very smoothly and somewhat close to schedule I was calling the FAA for clearance and we started filling the balloon. Other than the fact that the helium manifold was leaking a lot and we managed to explode the fill tube, it went perfectly. (The fill tube ruptured about 8' from the top, so we hauled it down, made it shorter, and made it work with the shorter fill tube. Thanks to Karl and James for providing muscle on this recovery.) At 8:06 am the balloon was launched from the truck launcher. Because of the near-zero wind conditions, we did not use the coordinated rolling launch as planned. The truck stayed in park. The 'bubble' was released, the rest of the balloon and the parachute was pulled up, and after then applied full tension onto the payload carabineer I yanked the pull pin cord. The launch arms pulled back and the gondola shot skyward. And I didn't realize until after looking at the photos what a cool site it was. There was an interesting visual illusion as the rise rate and the drift rate conspired to make the balloon look like it was going no-where. In reality, the gondola was making a 1000'/minute ascent. George N0ZED, Jack KE0VH, Benjie W0CBH, Larry N0NDM and some other hams showed up to watch the launch and help out. With the heavy lifting done, we prepared to leave the launch site, but only after having a cup of Donna Morris' homemade chili that she made for us. Many thanks again go out to the Morrises for letting us use their "back 40" as a launch site. One of the tracker modules was flakey, but we had hard copy on the GPS telemetry from the gondola. The gondola reached 64,000 feet at 9:05 am. The gondola stayed between 64,000 and 65,000 feet, moving about 30 mph to the east until we cut it down at 10:38. The gondola was rigged with 4 mm rope, so it was satisfying when we confirmed through direct visual observation as well as telemetry streams that the cut down had worked. The gondola made a fast descent under the cone parachute, and the balloon skin inverted, then shot up to 77,000 feet before dumping enough helium to become negatively buoyant and start a 1500 foot per minute descent. The gondola was recovered within minutes of landing by Karl, with Jack providing backup. Unfortunately, they weren't in close enough to the LZ to get video footage of the landing. The rest of us turned our efforts to the recovery of the balloon skin. After lunch, we discovered that the cut down device had flung itself off of the apex of the parachute. We exited the area, interrogating for the cut-down device on the way out, but heard nothing. James, Karl and I then zipped back to the launch site to de-rig the launcher and load the T-bottles back into the big white truck. Sunday morning, I met Karl at the Jefferson County airport, and we zoomed over to the landing vicinity in his Mooney. We made 207 mph at some time during this flight according to my GPS. We interrogated the command cut down device which squawked back to us. I was pretty jazzed that indeed the device had survived a 10 mile fall and continued to function! Thanks go to Gary N7QAM for designing and constructing the brains of this device. A persistent layer of fog prevented us from seeing the cut down device on the ground, so we had to abandon the search for it. In total, it was an interesting and educational experience. As soon as we have time to get caught up on everything that has been neglected during the preparations for this flight, we'll be back into planning the next flight. So, here are the successes of this flight: a). first use of truck launcher b). 1.5 hour float. c). flight qualification of heavy load capable cut down mechanism. d). successful coordination with FAA to keep the airspace clear of planes. e). fun was had by all. Thanks to all who helped out with this event! - K. M. Caviezel techie details: balloon: 9470 cu foot zero pressure polyethylene balloon gondola: 3'x3'x6' launch 8:06 am MST, Deer Trail, Colorado cut down 10:38 am MST, south of Burlington, Colorado. landing, about 11:10 am, south of Burlington, Colorado.