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Welcome to Hutchinson!
Zack Clobes W0ZC
All of the preparations are in place for a great weekend of fun and education. I saw Harry show up on APRS tonight, so I think the festivities have officially begun! Tomorrow, the Cosmosphere Hall of Space is open for GPSL attendees throughout the day. The tour at the Training Center begins at 3:00. It is about 25 minutes south of Hutchinson, so please plan accordingly. Friday, the doors will open at 8:30 at the Cosmosphere, and presentations will start at 9:00. There will be coffee, scones, and fruit available in the morning. I'm waiting to see tomorrow's forecast, but I'm leaning pretty heavily towards a Hutch launch on Saturday morning. I'm looking forward to see everyone again! Zack
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Twitter updates for GPSL
For those of you participating remotely, I'll be posting periodic updates to Twitter using @N9XTN (http://twitter.com/N9XTN) starting tomorrow evening through flight recovery on Saturday. We're driving back to Omaha not long after recovery, and with our "real" vacation right behind GPSL it may be some time before I get our flight pictures posted. 73 de Mark N9XTN
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GPSL Predictions for Wednesday
Jerry
Today's predictions are pretty much the same as yesterday All the predictions are be available here: GPSL2017 Predictions as well as on the superlaunch.org site. Primary Launch Site Secondary Launch Site
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GPSL weather
The eastern half of Kansas, including Hutchinson, is in a slight risk area for severe weather for Thursday. The activity will be along a weakening cold front and should occur primarily in the evening. Friday and Saturday will be hot with afternoon highs in the mid 90s and dewpoints in the low 60s. Storms are likely again Saturday night as a stronger cold front moves through the area. Sunday will be about 10-15 degrees cooler and quite a bit drier. Saturday morning's launch conditions should be very good. Surface winds should be from the south at about 5 mph and temperatures will be in the mid 70s at 8am with only scattered clouds. 73 de Mark N9XTN
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Re: GPSL 2017 Flight Predictions 6-13
Jerry
Today it looks like the predictions are a little farther north of Wichita and a little shorter. Most are under 20 miles out. It looks like the winds above ~60K feet are pulling the balloons back to the west. All the predictions are be available here: GPSL2017 Predictions Primary Launch Site Secondary Launch Site
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GPSL weather update
There is a chance for isolated severe thunderstorms Thursday evening in central Kansas including Hutchinson, mostly a wind/hail threat. Nothing too unusual for this time of year. There are additional small chances for isolated storms Friday and Saturday nights, but I don't think they will survive until daybreak. So a Saturday flight still looks good. Surface winds will be light from the south under the inversion, but as soon as that breaks some gusts to 20 mph can be expected. That should happen by 10am, so filling and releasing early in the launch window is preferred. Temps at sunrise will be in the low 70s, quickly rising above 90 by noon. As mentioned earlier, forecast tracks are generally southeasterly and result in uncomfortable proximity to Wichita if we launch from Hutchinson. A third launch site (probably south/southwest of HUT) is being considered. 73 de Mark N9XTN
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Re: Inter-balloon crossband repeater with Dallas
Andrew Koenig
All, Unfortunately we couldn't scramble the payload together in time for GPSL. Michael, Chris and I have prepared a secondary payload of just a simple crossband repeater using a DJ-580T. The backup payload is in the ballpark of 600 grams.
On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 6:44 AM, BASE <basedepauw@...> wrote:
--
Andrew Koenig
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Solar Eclipse Round Table
Zack Clobes W0ZC
I'm going to be conducting a round table discussion regarding preparations for August's eclipse.
Join us on Facebook for the latest information: Project: Traveler is a research project of Custom Digital Services, LLC.
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GPSL Status Update
Zack Clobes W0ZC
I have my list updated with all of the notes that I can find. If it's not accurate, then I've missed your note - I'm sorry, please resend. If you're aware of anyone else who is planning on attending (especially Friday evening dinner), I'd appreciate a heads up so I can pass along plate counts to the restaurant. Jerry and Mark have been keeping the flight predictions going this year. The launch site seems to be very uncertain at this time, as the primary site is landing dangerously close to Wichita. We are exploring a possible plan C. Join us on Facebook for the latest information: Project: Traveler is a research project of Custom Digital Services, LLC.
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GPSL 2017 Flight Predictions 6-12
Jerry
Today it looks like the predictions are for a landing area slightly north of Wichita. All the predictions are be available here: GPSL2017 Predictions Primary Launch Site Secondary Launch Site
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Flight Predictions for GPSL 2017
Jerry
And here are the predictions for today. As Mark commented they are to the SW today heading toward Wichita. All the predictions are be available here: GPSL2017 Predictions Primary (Hutchinson) Secondary
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GPSL forecast update
The tracks have moved about 90 degrees since yesterday, from southwest to southeast, so still lots of uncertainty still at 6 days out. The ridge seems to be slowing its approach and a trough expected near the Great Lakes is trying to put Kansas into northwesterly flow aloft. As before, timing of this transition will define our direction of flight. Surface conditions remain about the same, except somewhat lighter winds are expected. Temps at launch should be in the low 70s, rising to 90 in the afternoon. Dewpoints will be in the upper 50s. 73 de Mark N9XTN
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Now none of this at GPSL this year!
Alan Adamson
https://twitter.com/stratoballoon/status/873600324266754049
Free fall from altitude is bad on some many fronts, but this was a large commercial payload! Alan
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Predictions for GPSL 6/10
Jerry
I will start running the predictions for GPSL again. As last year I will run 6 "corner" cases. The 3 Altitudes I will use is 60K, 90K, and 105K feet burst each with an ascent/descent rate of 850fpm and 1100fpm. I will also import a habhub prediction equivalent to 90K ft burst with 1100fpm ascent and descent rates for comparison. All the predictions will be available here: GPSL2017 Predictions Primary Launch Site Secondary Launch Site
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Forecast update for GPSL
It seems the idea of pushing a strong cold front through the area next Friday has pretty well gone away. There will be a relatively weak front to the south, but temps north of the front will be near 90 instead of the mid 90s present to the south. Should be a little less humid too. Aloft, a mid-continent ridge begins to build on Saturday. How fast that comes in will dictate our tracks - it it comes in 12-24 hours sooner, we'll have very short flight distances. At the moment, our flights would go 15-20 miles to the southwest. Short tracks might preclude the use of the Hutchinson airport, as any distance west lands us in town. Still lots of variation, but I think the upper-air pattern will begin to settle into an answer in a couple of days. 73 de Mark N9XTN
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High Altitude Ballooning (poor man space program)
Keith Kaiser, WA0̷TJT
GPSL Aeronauts, Please look over Joe’s request below and push some information his way that might help him. Joe, Quite a bit of what you are asking for is on the ARHAB.org web site but maybe a bit buried to be found easily. I also suggest you check out http://superlaunch.org for our annual conference, which starts in a few days. You also might be interested in seeing this: https://www.k2bsa.net/jamboree-balloon-tracking/ 73’s Keith, WAØTJT
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Re: Long-range forecast for Hutchinson for GPSL
Jerry
I have been running predictions all week and they have all been heading NE. I expected to see that and the 1800Z run was due south. So that confused me. I am guessing the front you talked about is causing wide swings in the forecast.
From: Mark Conner <mconner1@...> To: Jerry Gable Cc: GPSL list Sent: Thursday, June 8, 2017 5:25 PM Subject: Re: [GPSL] Long-range forecast for Hutchinson for GPSL It was the 1200Z forecast I was looking at too. I didn't compare earlier runs (probably should have) to see if that forecast of 60 on Saturday morning was a one-off or consistent. - Mark On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 7:17 PM, Jerry Gable <jerrygable@...> wrote:
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Re: Long-range forecast for Hutchinson for GPSL
It was the 1200Z forecast I was looking at too. I didn't compare earlier runs (probably should have) to see if that forecast of 60 on Saturday morning was a one-off or consistent. - Mark
On Thu, Jun 8, 2017 at 7:17 PM, Jerry Gable <jerrygable@...> wrote:
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Re: Long-range forecast for Hutchinson for GPSL
Jerry
I was going to start running predictions today but as Mark says, It is still too early. As an experiment ran a prediction using each of the 4 forecast runs (00:00H, 06:00H, 12:00H, 18:00H). They were all radically different directions. The 12:00 forecast matched Mark's prediction. The others were radically different. About all we can say at this point is the balloons will probably go up and they will probably come down somewhere in Kansas (Except the floaters). I will post all my predictions on a public dropbox folder here: GPSL2017_Predictions. Zack is also going to keep the latest on the GPSL site. Jerry Gable Balloon Flight Prediction tools http://www.s3research.com
From: "Mark Conner mconner1@... [GPSL]" To: GPSL list Sent: Thursday, June 8, 2017 1:34 PM Subject: [GPSL] Long-range forecast for Hutchinson for GPSL At the moment, it looks like pretty nice weather late next week for southern Kansas. Highs Friday and Saturday should be around 80 and early-morning temps on Saturday around 60. A cold front will push through sometime early Friday - ahead of the front it will be in the low 90s. Surface winds would be northerly around 10-15 mph. As a WAG, landings look to be to the northeast, maybe around Hillsboro. Too early to get real specific, and a lot will depend on the timing of the cold front. 73 de Mark N9XTN
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Long-range forecast for Hutchinson for GPSL
At the moment, it looks like pretty nice weather late next week for southern Kansas. Highs Friday and Saturday should be around 80 and early-morning temps on Saturday around 60. A cold front will push through sometime early Friday - ahead of the front it will be in the low 90s. Surface winds would be northerly around 10-15 mph. As a WAG, landings look to be to the northeast, maybe around Hillsboro. Too early to get real specific, and a lot will depend on the timing of the cold front. 73 de Mark N9XTN
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