[balloon-makers] Homebuilt plastic balloon flies over 1000 miles- Phoenix to Dallas via northern Mexico

[K. Mark Caviezel]

All: 
There is a fun, unmanned test flight currently
underway.

One of my 900 cubic foot plastic bag balloons was
launched yesterday at 9 am MST by a ham radio group in
Phoenix.  It has a GPS and a small HF radio beacon
onboard and periodically sends position and altitude
updates. 
We had excellent tracking all day yesterday, showing
flight as expected to the south and into northern
mexico.  After blacked out radio conditions last
night, this morning we see that it is still flying,
last position report was near Dallas, travelling NNE
at 95 mph. 

Pictures of launch: 
http://www.kd7lmo.net/ansr/ansr_33_photos.html

Relayed position reports: 
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/find.cgi?call=kd7lmo-11&terra=4

More info:
http://showcase.netins.net/web/wallio/ARHABlaunchannouncements.htm

Chase crew: none.    If it lands near you, we'd love
local volunteers to help retrieve the goodies. 

The autonomous payload will automatically vent and
land if it strays east of 83 degrees West, or after 48
hours aloft. 

Visual reports or radio signal report from the ham
radio operators out there are greatly appreciated. 

I am building 50 of these small balloons to fly as a
Pleiades cluster balloon.  

best regards, 

- Mark Caviezel, Norman, Oklahoma


to anticipate the question of legality, the answer
follows:  Yes, absolutely!  The flight is lightweight
and flown exempt from the provisions of FAR Part 101
for unmanned balloons.  Mexico has very similar
regulations and a reciprocity agreement in place. 
This flight is similar to the 250+ weather balloons
launched every day in the USA which have not been
noted to cause problems for manned aviation.  





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