We had one like that once. When we let it go it took off with such a jerk it broke the line under the parachute. So we lost the balloon and the parachute. None of the payloads left the ground.

We now do tethered launches, where we have a string on the balloon until all the payloads are off the ground. The String goes through a loop and we have two people holding it. One lets go of the string and it takes off. Leaving the string with the other person.

And we do not launch in such wind.

Kip

Ae5IB 

On Sun, May 2, 2021 at 10:10 AM Bill Brown via groups.io <wb8elk=aol.com@groups.io> wrote:

This is my third ever flight in 1989 with surface winds over 20 knots.  You'd think I would learn from this not to launch in high winds, but I didn't :-)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GJ0f0Hy5ZH8&t=60s

We almost took out the camera woman as the payload smashed into the field and bounced over her head.

That payload with its original lithium D-cell SAFT batteries still operates today when I power it up for demos after 33 years.

This is how an ideal launch should look like, I don't get these kind of launches very often:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryJeGWmuEz4

- Bill WB8ELK

-----Original Message-----
From: Zack Clobes W0ZC <zclobes@...>
To: GPSL@groups.io
Sent: Sat, May 1, 2021 8:50 pm
Subject: [GPSL] This is how real men launch their balloons...

https://youtu.be/DAqrxds_ioE

Zack Clobes, W0ZC
Project: Traveler
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