BASE 40

Comment

Comment by Howard Brooks on October 30, 2009 at 10:10am

Steve,

Yes, you can see the complete APRS track by going to the aprs.fi site.

The url is www.aprs.fi/?call=w9yj-11

When the maps page comes up, please go down the right side to the select date portion. Click on 2009 then 2009/10 then 08Thu and the whole flight will come up.

As you look at the path you will notice a definite change in the forward velocity near Greenfield, IN. This is during the descent and is the closest time to the separation of the flight line string. From that time on, only the APRS unit remained with the parachute. The loss of most of the mass on the flight string permitted a much slower descent and an extended flight path for the APRS unit. (The no chute descent for the remaining pods ended between Carthage and Knightstown essentially under the location where the APRS unit was falling on the parachute, but still at 45,000 feet.)

You can click on each dot on the flight path to retrieve the APRS information for that point in the flight.

Howard

Comment by Steve Spicklemire on October 30, 2009 at 9:46am

Hi Howard,

Is the APRS track still available on an APRS site? I'd love to see your actual flight path compared to the prediction.

thanks!
-steve

Comment by Howard Brooks on October 12, 2009 at 2:40pm

Please see our website, www.depauw.edu/acad/physics/base for additional details. The flight was successful and all payloads were recovered. Another carbon tube-styrofoam interface failure in the box housing the APRS radio during the descent led to two separate landing points, but everything landed in soybeans and the recoveries were very simple.

Howard