Kaplah!

...thats Klingon for success for you non-nerds.

Flight 2 was a complete success. We have pics and video!

We also made it to 108,277 feet!

We launched at 9:37am and it landed at 12:30pm. We ran into some issues when filling: first the Helium tank was not filled to the pressure we used last time, so the balloon took longer then expected to fill. Also because of the wind it was hard to get an accurate measure of the lift force of the balloon. So we took and educated guess. After tying it off we were sure it was overfilled and even compilated opening it up and letting some gas out. However we launched without letting any gas out.

The only bad thing is that we did not get the launch on video from the balloon. We had timed a 5 minute window from starting the camera program before the payload would take a 5 minute video. Getting the computer ready took longer then that so we missed that window. However everything else went ok.

The chase was also differed from the first launch as the balloon traveled much slower (around 30mph most of the time) and went south east. This caused some concern as it was headed straight towards Bloomington. It started heading west before getting over Bloomington however.

It burst a little after noon and reached 108k feet! It cleared I155 by only a couple of miles or so during landing. It landed on someones property and we asked the owners if it was ok to go look for it. We were receiving gps signals the whole time from decent and even after landing. After walking though some woods we found it very easily as it was a good 30+ feet up in a tree.

After a futile effort of thowing sticks, we left for the hardware store. We returned shortly and were able to pull it down using a dog toy: a large slingshot that shoots tennis balls that we tied a string to.

Notes:

New antennas worked great! We received many more transmissions then last flight.

Need to make sure to bring retrieval things (string, pole, etc..) in car. We had to make a run to the hardware store.

The kitchen timer never went off. I'm not sure why - but we did not need it this time. We found it right away.

We calulated the fall maxed out at about 130+ mph. I was expecting it to be faster then that.

The path the balloon took this time and its speed were a surprise, much slower. There were periods where we just pulled off to the side of the road to wait as the balloon passed overhead.