Splash down!
A local Civil Air Patrol squadron reached out to the group during one of our public meet-ups. By the spring of 2022, we had designed a project to send experiments to the stratosphere. This culminated in our first launch with the group on June 25, 2022.
Matthew, Sarah, and Paul L met up with the CAP team at a park north of Raleigh. With a southerly predicted flight path, this would take the flight to southeast of Wake County.
The payload was another flight of a foam filled plastic box (the type dishwasher soap tablets come in) with the following:
- AP510 tracker
- Mobius Mini camera and power bank
- 808 #16 keychain camera and LiPo battery
- TTGO T-beam tracker with temperature probes and LoRa
- Foam ‘wing’ to limit spin of the payload
- various experiments provided by the CAP team
This was all suspended under a 85cm chute and 600g cell with H2.
Prep, fill, and launch went without a hitch. Balloon up at 9:08 am.
Onboard video still at launch
Ascent looking southwest — Note the steam plume from Shearon Harris’ cooling tower.
Clear day over Raleigh with the usual cloud cover over the gulf stream off the coast.
Below are similar images of Wilmington from the Mobius Mini and 808 cameras.
As the morning progressed, puffy clouds started building below. Burst was at 31.6km (103,797ft)
Descending towards Lillington NC –The Cape Fear river below the clouds.
One LoRa receiver travelled with the chase crew, while another stayed at a fixed location in downtown Raleigh. Received LoRa information from the T-beam tracker plotted on the live Habhub map — This included current location AND the tracker’s predicted landing site.
As the payload descended, the chase team monitored this information and chatted between chase cars about the concerning landing site.
The predicted landing site repeatedly recalculated and plotted during descent, never straying more than about 2km from a location near the Cape Fear river. Twenty minutes before landing, this prediction converged upon a nearby pond — oh no!
The chase crew pulled over to the side of the road next to the pond and awaited the landing…
Splash down as seen from the onboard Mobius camera
The 808 camera shows the astonished chase crew on the side of the pond in the distance.
A Memorable Recovery!
What followed was one of our more unusual recoveries! Maps showed that the pond belonged to a water ski camp. https://www.cobleskischool.com/
The chase team rang the bell at the camp gate and soon the matriarch of the Coble family arrived. The group excitedly described what happened and were soon lead in to meet the staff water ski instructors.
The payload was still visible floating in the water. A slight breeze caused it to drift to the far shore of the pond.
View from the 808 camera as the payload drifted ashore.
The pond was too shallow near the payload for the ski boats, so the instructors opted to simply swim/walk out to the payload and carry it back. The chase crew waited at the boat ramp.
Upon return we found that the payload was undamaged. The experiments on the side and top of the box had no water on them.
CAP member inspecting the experiments. Astonished Sarah as seen from the still working onboard camera.
Everyone was interested in the results, so we took some time at the ski camp to open the payload and view the video results.
Thank you Coble Water Ski and Wakeboard Camp!!
