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Launch Lake Oswego Jr. High!

The sweet experiments of science teacher Greg Mylet’s high-power NASA SEED 7th-graders (Science and Engineering EDucation) were successfully launched at 6:34am April 30th, 2008, right from the school grounds. But the experiments weren’t retrieved for some days later. Here’s why with a quick summary of the flight. The real deal is covered at length below for the insiders…

Some Facts…
•    Launch time: 6:34:40am,
•    Burst time: 8:35:21am
•    Max. Alt.: 114,021ft
•    Ground distance traveled: 52.4miles
•    Max. Ground speed: 113mph
•    Total Payload wt.: 8.5lb
•    L.O. payload 3.5lb: hissing cock roaches with/without heated compartments, fruits and vegetables, magnet/UV test, germinating seed test, and more…
•    PSU Payload 5.0lb: gps/radio tracking system, thermal control, air temperature measurement, digital camera, parachute, 3-axis accelerometer and data logger, dog tracker (beacon back-up).
•    Free lift: 3.25lb
•    Balloon: Kaymont 3000g latex, Hydrogen gas filled

Short Story

[Note the LPSU perspective here. See video for LOJHS perspective.] Nice Launch with a countdown from the kids. But we lost contact with the payloads on descent at 50,000ft due to the mountainous terrain and lost line of sight. We figured the packages landed an estimated 15 miles North of Detroit Lake in rough, deeply snow covered terrain. The initial balloon flight details can be viewed at

http://aprs.fi/?call=KE7HVE-1&dt=1209513600&mt=m&z=10&timerange=3600  

So we called off the search and Greg took the kids geocaching in Estacada. We went back to the school bummed.

On Friday, May 2, pilot Robert Brock, Donovan Finnestad, and I borrowed a 4-seater airplane from one of Robert’s friends and we flew towards Mount Jefferson. We picked of the dog tracker beacon signal en route. You can see the flight path at

http://aprs.fi/?call=KE7HVE-1&dt=1209686400&mt=m&z=9&timerange=3600
 
We returned to Detroit Saturday May 3rd and rather quickly found snow mobilers Don Hiebert and Rich and Sandy Sowers. With 5 snowmobiles we powered up FRD 4696 11.4 miles where we picked up the signal with Don hauling off and finding the equipment. Hats off to Don and Co.

We returned the L.O. experiments Monday during Greg’s class. Cockroaches, apples, potatoes, glow sticks, magnets, radishes, sea monkeys, and a heating system...And there was much rejoicing, yeah. That all made me tired and behind in my real work. But who cares, that was a blast and almost everyone learned some, right? So thanks to all for the journey. Please send me interesting pictures of the launch/day if you have. Some data and pictures are provided below with more to follow. The LO team made an entertaining movie for those who attended:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gsXav_FaQQs

...Long Story

It launched just fine with a countdown from the kids. So we packed things up in preparation for the chase SW across Oregon, school bus and field tripping 7th graders to boot. But when the balloon hit 113mph PSU (I) panicked a little and took off South on I-5 ahead of the L.O. bus. I don’t recall who was driving. At one point the balloon was well over 50 miles away from us. We received perfect data from the direct line of sight to our van, but garbled data from digipeaters that were posting the balloon’s position to the web through a ‘non-optimized path’ (http://aprs.fi, KE7HVE-1 balloon, KE7HVE-2 PSU chase van). PSU opted to drive east from Salem on Route 22 to intercept the payload during decent, but the road is on the south side of steep mountains and we didn’t have a line of sight to the balloon which was north of our position. So we lost contact with the payloads which landed an estimated 15 miles north of Detroit Lake in rough terrain. It snowed 8 inches that day on top of a > 5ft base and we wrote off a loss—at least I did. A terrible feeling that I keep having. The initial flight details can be viewed at

http://aprs.fi/?call=KE7HVE-1&dt=1209513600&mt=m&z=10&timerange=3600  

So we called off the search and Greg took the kids geocaching in Estacada. We went back to the school that day, said we were sorry, and the kids were gracious to us. But all were somewhat bummed.

A PSU Alum Aaron Frechette has a flight instructor Robert Brock with tons of experience and energy who was open to trying some things. On Thursday, May 1 we met at Twin Oaks airstrip and flew around the place trying to see if the tracking antenna would pick up the dog tracker signal from the ground. It did. On Friday Robert, Donovan Finnestad, and I borrowed a 4-seater and flew towards Mount Jefferson. This is where the story takes a sweet turn. Just as we crossed the Willamette valley Donovan got the Yagi antenna out, pointed in the direction we were travelling and picked up the signal still 25 miles away. With some gut wrenching maneuvers we honed in on the position. You can see the path at

http://aprs.fi/?call=KE7HVE-1&dt=1209686400&mt=m&z=9&timerange=3600

So now we knew in general where it was, but did not actually see it. We just had to get there before the battery died on the beacon which gave us only a day or two to execute a plan. I had an engagement in Seattle Saturday that my sister-in-law so kindly released me from which opened up Saturday May 3rd to head down to Detroit with most of my family (wife Bridgett, daughter Marian, friend Renee, and son Matthias) to see if we could get some interested snowmobilers to help us. This is where the story takes a really sweet turn.

We arrived at 8:00am and gassed-up. I asked the attendant if he knew anyone who might be interested in some snowmobiling. He directed me to Scott who just drove up next door to the marina. Scott kindly gave me Kevin Hill’s phone number who I called but had to leave a message. In the meantime we went to get breakfast at the Korner Post Restaurant. While ordering I asked the waitress Christina the same question and she told me the Detroit Snow Mobile Club meets for coffee across the street in an hour. She also gave me Jess Stanton’s phone number who I called and prepared to meet at 9:30 at the KC Espresso. Now I really enjoyed meeting these folks. I really did. I told them our story and asked if there were any takers. They said no, they were headed a different direction, but Harold Hill handed me some directions to Don Hiebert’s Place down the road towards Idanha. We got in the car to pay a visit. I don’t know what he really thought of the plan when he heard it, but he had some work to do first and recommended we come back at noon and we’d see. So we went for a hike out to the point on the lake to kill the time. (Please don’t get the idea that I was excited because we were going to find this thing. I had been apprehensive for days, and none of this made me stop being that way.)

When we returned to meet Don he had 5 snowmobiles gassed up; one for him, me, Matthias and two for weekend friends Rich and Sandy Sowers down from Lake Oswego (of all places). It turns out Rich is the weight training coach for the L.O. High School football program (right across the street from the L.O. Jr. High). We drove to the access point to Forest Service Road 4696 off the road from Detroit to Breitenbush, put the snowmobiles down on the pavement and hit the trail. That was a gas, but not really fun until it was over. The snowmobiling was not a cakewalk and if you want to know the details you’ll have to ask later, but suffice it to say here that it was about 11.4 miles (2000ft elev. gain) up the trail where we picked up the signal. When Don saw the direction, he blazed ahead cross-country while I put my snow shoes on. Before I was done, he was back with the payloads, parachute, and balloon remnants. Now we did a little celebrating, and I actually got happy. My appreciation for these folks went through the roof. Don impressed us with some stunts on his snow machine and we headed for home. But like I said, the snowmobiling wasn’t for nubes, which unfortunately my son and I were. On the way down, and on a particularly steep traverse, Matthias’s snowmobile broke free of the trail and with tread locked plunged maybe 40ft down a 35-40degree slope into a tree well. If he would have missed this it could have been curtains because he had another 200ft to go. He jumped off the machine mid flight but fell in the accompanying avalanche and was eventually pinned under it in a very secure way. I lost a little composure running down with Don to help. We freed Matthias okay (who was calmer than any time previous that day), but how Don got the snow mobile off that hill was studly to say the least, certainly impressive, crashing blindly through branches, tread locked, a little air, and a sweet return. Power Snowboarding. Sorry Don, you’re a hero, and a great Oregonian! It sounds so trite I know, but that’s what you were that day for us for sure.

We took it slow the rest of the way down. When we got down there was one more stressor, Marian and Renee were either missing on their own snow shoe adventure, or were at least very very late. Rich and Sandy helped us here too with their snow machines to track them down just before night fall. Anyway, we said good bye, returned for home, and took Sunday off. Monday Matthias and I returned the L.O. payloads during Greg’s class. The students I think were pretty surprised and dove into their equipment to find a live cockroach, fully and uniformly germinated seeds, embolismic food, etc. Those were well considered experiments and I was impressed by the kids’ creativity and success. It is tough to get things to work in an environment in which you can’t easily test. They did a great job. The PSU experiments also turned out well and will be used in part to develop the next generation panoramic imaging system.

The only bad was my own. I put a dead battery in the camera before launch. We got one picture—of the van and my feet. Sorry. Didn’t I already say that? Other pictures of the ordeal are attached below for back-up. The complete gps details of the searches, temperature data, descent data, etc. will be posted shortly.

So thanks to all for the journey. The finders reward is the second of its kind and goes to Don Hiebert! It’s almost, like, in the mail too. We’re thinking how to bless those Sowerses too.

See you next time. Our tenth launch will take place in late march to mid June. Another will occur for OMSI near Hancock Field station near Fossil, OR, sometime this summer.

later...