Coming soon- Ivory Bomber

Coming soon: http://ivorybomber.blogspot.com

Last update from Ervin

Ervin writes:
---------------------------

Just arrived at my homesite..................As Bill stated ...sorry we could not retrieve the find...I started to climb the hardwood tree but quickly knew it was just too far up because it was hooked on the top of the maple tree...could clearly see the black box and Get well Soon....maybe 3 balloons when some air ....Good Coords...THANKS for the FUN experience...Ervin

More pictures from Bill

Bill writes:

These are the additional photos I promised ,-- Ervin in photos

The end of the road

It's over!  Thanks again Bill and Ervin!

I would not have guessed it was as high as it is, but, I suppose the perspective was hard to get without knowing what we're looking at.

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: Bill Powley <pongo61@ns.sympatico.ca>
To: Chris Fries <ccfries@yahoo.com>
Cc: Ervin Olsen <ervind@eastlink.ca>
Sent: Tuesday, June 9, 2009 10:25:26 AM
Subject: Emailing: balloon trip 011

Chris, This is the final resting place for Ivory Global. We reached the site about 9 AM. The black box is approximately 40 feet up in a large maple tree and only 1 balloon appears to have remained inflated. The only way to retrieve the apparatus would be with a chain saw and the landowners permission would have to be obtained. Reaching the site requires traversing just under 1/2 mile of varying bush and woodland although most of it is dry it still requires a canoe to get from the end of the road to the side of the lake where the balloon is because the brook is quite deep and brackish making it very difficult to cross. I will send you a couple of other pictures later as will Ervin  Hope this helps, it was a different Geocaching trip thats for sure Cheers--Bill

The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
balloon trip 011

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Fw: Explorer report

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It is officially NO LONGER a coincidence that the last 3 updates are spaced by precisely 24 hours.

The RTC clock must be wet and only triggering on days and not minutes/seconds (how's that for a hare-brained theory)

-Chris

Friendly neighbors going the extra mile (literally)

Thanks again Bill and Ervin for this effort. Next time we'll try to land closer to a road!

Bill writes:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Went this morning and talked to the guy who owns the private road that comes nearest and he has given us the go-ahead to use it so we are just trying to get our schedules together so we can make the attempt. It looks like we can get to within 2000 feet of the target by canoe from the end of the road so that is our plan. We will keep you posted as to our progress

---Bill

Offline?

OK, well, it's been quiet for a while, likely affected by the weather. We might have some help tomorrow from some good neighbors in the area, to see if it can be recovered..

Overall it was a good flight. I think we learned a lot about how the sun affects our buoyancy and altitude, how fast we'll rise, and how bad our antenna is.

Stay tuned,
Chris Fries -- ccfries@yahoo.com

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Sleep, Icarus, sleep...

Sooner or later the phone will realize it's parked in a tree and stop sending updates so often. If the battery voltage dropped below 4.000 volts after the last MMS was sent, that would trigger a much longer sleep.

So...

Don't hold your breath longer than 2 hours and 10 minutes during the remaining daytime, and about 3 hours during the night. If it "appears to be moving" it might wake up every 1:10 or so, so don't be too surprised at that either.

-Chris

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Fw: Explorer report

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Weird picture!

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Fw: Explorer report

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Fw: Explorer report

Possibly-interesting picture.

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Sleepy night time.  It'll send something more interesting in 2 hours (pictures?)

Fw: Explorer report

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Sadly due to last-minute configuration issue, the phone isn't auto-posting emails to the blog (and doesn't send MMS at night).  So this may be the last or  update until the AM (or maybe 2nd to last)

-Chris

Fw: Explorer report

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Hmm.

Hi everyone,

What do we know for sure...

It went at least as high as launch #2 (15,000 ft), since this one had similarly-filled balloons but less weight (145 grams lift, 115 grams of payload which includes 29 grams of passively deployable ballast. Launch2 weighed about 132 grams).

We sealed the balloons valves with silicon this time, which "could have solved" our H2 leak problem. If not, and we still lose buoyancy at the same rate (1 g per hour) then we might fly 60 hours after releasing ballast mid-way.

At 15,000 feet it should be averaging 30 MPH due west towards New York City, and will get to the Atlantic after 800 miles. After that, it's hard to say where it will go. It won't be in the jet stream, so it could head to Spain or it might do something less useful.

At 25,000 feet it might be headed a little more north, and traveling between 50-90 MPH towards Maine/Nova Scotia, with about 1300 miles needed to get to the Atlantic.

If it really got near the jet stream towards Maine, it'll fly to Greenland, Iceland, then back to England after about 3000 miles. From there, it goes to France, then Poland, then north through Russia.

So... we'll give it 4-5 days. Batteries might last 8-10 days. Maybe I'll contact T-Mobile to see if they can shed any light.

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Delay!

Due to catastrophic battery failure, the launch has been delayed until 6:30 or 6:45 PM CST.

Somewhere between AH and Airgas and my house and LV, the battery pack shorted and we found ourselves with 0.4V at the battery terminals when we got to the soccer fields.

Ouch! They survived a trip to West Bend and back, and then to Toronto and back via Canadian Post... so I think it's OK that they become museum pieces. :)

New batteries are charging now and are ready to get soldered on.

Launch #3 scheduled for ~4:15 PM CDT Today

Hi All,

We'll have pre-launch tests at 4:00 and the launch will be shortly thereafter. It's going to be a windy launch, hopefully we don't run into trouble.

-Chris