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I left
Tulsa at 6 am Thursday and arrived in Grand Island at at 1 pm. Thursday night
those of us who were in town met and had dinner. The Saturday seminars
were very informative and there were 50-60 in attendance. Friday night we all
met for dinner and the rest of the night was spent running
predictions and prepping equipment for the flight. Surface winds were
predicted to be in excess of 10 mph Saturday morning so Roger had scoped
out a launch site in Doniphan about 10 miles south of Grand Prairie.
This proved to be an excellent site.
Saturday morning I arrived at the launch site at 5 am. Thanks to
Professor Flaten I had the help of two University of Minnesota students,
Karla & John. We launched ORB-22 at 06:58. Another University of
Minnesota student, Derik, volunteered to be my driver on the chase with
Professor Flaten and the rest of the students chasing in their car.
Derik & I took up a position about 8 miles west of Hastings on Hwy-6
where the Taylor University tracking team also happened to be. ORB-22
burst at 08:05 @ approx. 79,000 feet. We spotted it at 3,000 feet on the
descent and it landed about 1,000 feet from us in a bean field at 08:31.
We obtained permission to enter the field and ORB-22 was recovered about
30 minutes after landing. The horizontal camera was set in lo-res mode
(640x480) because of an internal problem and took 57 pics on a 2 minute
interval. The vertical camera was set in hi-res mode (1248x960) and
captured 26 pics on a 4.5 minute interval.
ORB-22 landed 10 miles NE
of the EOSS landing site so I went there to see if I could be of any
assistance. They were waiting for the land owner and one of their group
to return from the field with their payloads. On a recommendation from
the land owner we ate lunch in Hastings at the Bullseye's Sports Grill,
then headed back to Grand Island.
The EOSS group and myself spent over an hour trying to DF the EOSRED
balloon which failed to send position data right after launch. As it
turned out what we were DFing was their car with a balloon icon. We
disengaged and returned to the motel.
This year it was decided to have a post flight meeting which was a great
idea. Flight overviews were presented by each group. Saturday evening we all gathered for dinner
and a good time of socializing was had by all.
Sunday morning I left for Tulsa at 7 am and arrived home 2 pm.
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I enjoyed visiting with old friends and meeting new ones.
Thanks to all who were there and a big thanks to Roger and CNNSP for
making it happen!
An observation that Roger and I talked about was that there was a real
sense of camaraderie this year, more so than in the past. Everyone
seemed to be very at ease. I think that as each year passes we have
developed a friendship that shows more and more and it is very
contagious. Individuals and groups that attend for the first time see
this and immediately feel like they are a part of it. A seed was planted
and has grown into a beautiful gathering. I hope this continues for
decades to come. Thanks to all of you for nurturing the seed! God Bless!
Looking forward to GPSL 2008!
73 Harry KC5TRB
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Here is the beacon with the official ORB-21 landing coordinates...
KC5TRB-11>APT310,APRS:/133129h4033.87N/09837.57WO115/000/A=002024
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