On May 16th, 2018 Jim Reed and Cory Olson, Forestview Middle School teachers, finally were able to get a flight path prediction for their long awaited balloon launch. They selected a small ball field in Cushing, MN as launch site and as it turned out, it was the perfect site to use. The balloon was a 3000 gram balloon, which means it was bigger than the other balloons they launched, usually 1200 grams.

The balloon launched at 4:50 PM and headed southeast as expected. The balloon burst at 6:19 PM at an altitude of 111,003 ft. We started tracking as soon as it was launched, but did not hurry as everyone was tracking it either by APRS or an APRS app on their smart phones. Jim and Cory positioned us near where it looked like it would land and they were not far off.

Ron, KØGOP was on the 147.225 repeater assisting with tracking information on aprs.fi. As it turned out, it landed in an open farmers field near Lastrup, MN. The home owner, an elderly lady, was sure surprised when she saw 8 or 10 cars coming up her driveway. One of her sons was still there so he helped recover the balloon with his ATV.

The other coincidence was that one of her daughters is also the Managing Editor of the Morrison Co Record. She arrived in a little while and Jim, Cory and the HAB club will get some well deserved publicity from the Record.

All in all it turned out be be a very good flight. This makes 100% recovery for the club.

73′ Al Doree WØRC

Attached is an APRS map showing the balloon flight in RED and the tracking crew path in GREEN.