My first HAB flight a success!

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by LewisM

Jo, nothing stops you eh! From making your own telescopes and mounts to HAB's. The sky is NO limit for you - you will go places mate!

Fantastic stuff. Now to get you into amateur rocketry

Thanks Lewis, my cousin and I have been playing around with making rockets for a few years but haven't been hugely successful, the nozzles on the engines have been hard to get consistant results from.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by cometcatcher

Wow!

I've been wanting to do this for the last 30 years but never got one of those round tooits.

It's a pretty awesome exciting thing to do, hope you'll be able to do it sometime.

[CapturingTheNight (Greg)]

Great work Jo! Thoroughly enjoyed the video and pics. You can get free lens profile corrections for go-pro images if the excessive curvature bothers you. My local astronomy club is in the planning phase for a HAB flight of our own. How did you go with the CASA regulations for the flight? It seems to be our biggest stumbling block at the moment. Did you use a gimble for the Spot? We have had advice that you need to gimble them in flight to maintain a signal and make sure it is up the right way on landing. We plan to track using a Spot and APRS signals (just in case). Glad you eventually found yours.

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by CapturingTheNight

Great work Jo! Thoroughly enjoyed the video and pics. You can get free lens profile corrections for go-pro images if the excessive curvature bothers you. My local astronomy club is in the planning phase for a HAB flight of our own. How did you go with the CASA regulations for the flight? It seems to be our biggest stumbling block at the moment. Did you use a gimble for the Spot? We have had advice that you need to gimble them in flight to maintain a signal and make sure it is up the right way on landing. We plan to track using a Spot and APRS signals (just in case). Glad you eventually found yours.

CASA was ok, just got to tell them all the details like accent speed, flight path, launch time, flight time, etc. You pretty much just have to show that you have thought it all out properly. I followed an example CASA application by Robert Brand, you might be interested to have a look at that.

If you are going to use a Spot tracker, I would recommend the Gen 2 instead of the Gen 3. The Gen 3 has motion sensors and stops signalling when it stops moving which is not what you want. The Gen 2 does't have this.

No I didn't use a gimbal, one locked onto satellites it holds them pretty good. I did tests with tipping my Spot upside down etc and it still held the satellites and transmitted. I'm not sure if the trouble I had was due to the tracker being close to the other electronics.

Anyway if I ever use it again I am going to tie it onto the payload line a few metres above the payload. Have seen it done on another video and it worked great, and from what I have seen I think that would be the way to go.

APRS will be awesome if you can get it, what type of setup will you use? Make sure it has a GPS that will work over 60,000 ft.
Byonics sell a 10W APRS tracker specially made for HAB's, that come fully configured with your call sign and ready to run, I think I might look into getting one of those.

Cheers
Jo

[CapturingTheNight (Greg)]

Originally Posted by nebulosity.

CASA was ok, just got to tell them all the details like accent speed, flight path, launch time, flight time, etc. You pretty much just have to show that you have thought it all out properly. I followed an example CASA application by Robert Brand, you might be interested to have a look at that.

If you are going to use a Spot tracker, I would recommend the Gen 2 instead of the Gen 3. The Gen 3 has motion sensors and stops signalling when it stops moving which is not what you want. The Gen 2 does't have this.

No I didn't use a gimbal, one locked onto satellites it holds them pretty good. I did tests with tipping my Spot upside down etc and it still held the satellites and transmitted. I'm not sure if the trouble I had was due to the tracker being close to the other electronics.

Anyway if I ever use it again I am going to tie it onto the payload line a few metres above the payload. Have seen it done on another video and it worked great, and from what I have seen I think that would be the way to go.

APRS will be awesome if you can get it, what type of setup will you use? Make sure it has a GPS that will work over 60,000 ft.
Byonics sell a 10W APRS tracker specially made for HAB's, that come fully configured with your call sign and ready to run, I think I might look into getting one of those.

Cheers
Jo

Thanks for the information Jo. We have been liaising with Robert Brand too so it should all be good. I'm guessing you were able to get it classified as a small/light balloon and not have to worry about a radar reflector (although I did notice the payload covered in foil) and remote cut down switches, etc.

We are in a little bit of a hiatus with the planning due to family commitments from the main organiser. He is also the one who has the radio license so I'm not sure exactly what setup it will be at this time. Is this the APRS tracker you were talking about: http://www.byonics.com/mt-rtg
Thanks also for the tip on the Gen 2 versus Gen 3 spot. I will have to see what one we have lined up...

[hotspur (Chris)]

Good to read a few more details.Maybe sponsorship might not be forthcoming.
But maybe look at some sort of magazine feature of your projects (not sure which magazines-maybe a science mag or that posh out fitters magazine).

I have been doing some home brew photography projects,and push the boundaries,with various technical equipment,the results have been of such a high nature,that I was approached by a number of magazines for an article.The money was quite a welcome bonus!,also approached by the developers of equipment in the U.S as my different approach impressed them too.

So,with what you are doing,you have really excelled,and put quite a bit of kit up for this,and its finally paid off.I'd say you have an outstanding story here,that will really put some coin back into your pocket.

[PCH (Paul)]

Hi Jo,

well done indeed, - that was an incredible vid to watch.

I've been dying to watch it since it was posted a couple of days ago, but my internet was playing up so I only just got to see it.

How exciting for you, - I was was almost bursting with excitement the whole time.

The only fault I could find was when the music came on booming about a minute from the end. I was so engrossed in the 'watching' - I almost pooped myself

Big congrats to you matey, well done

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Awesome video ! A bit dizzying in places but stunning to see the blackness of space so near and the blue edge of the atmosphere. Congratulations on a successful launch and retrieval.

Re your possible rocketry aspirations. I got into it a few years ago but gave it away as quite expensive and somewhat dangerous and noisy for my location but I can provide you with a number of sites and information re building your own including sugar nitrate motors. I still have most of a 25 kg bag of KNO3 downstairs which is now used on the garden. You would be welcome to it but I suspect Customs might have something to say about shipping it across the ditch.
I was building PVC motors with cast rockite nozzles using lathe turned molds. Allowed me to get reproducible results and experiment with nozzle diameters and bell shapes. At least it looks like you have the space to play there.
Let me know if I can assist.

[DavidTrap (David)]

Very impressive - keep this up and I'm sure you'll go places!

DT

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by hotspur

Good to read a few more details.Maybe sponsorship might not be forthcoming.
But maybe look at some sort of magazine feature of your projects (not sure which magazines-maybe a science mag or that posh out fitters magazine).

I have been doing some home brew photography projects,and push the boundaries,with various technical equipment,the results have been of such a high nature,that I was approached by a number of magazines for an article.The money was quite a welcome bonus!,also approached by the developers of equipment in the U.S as my different approach impressed them too.

So,with what you are doing,you have really excelled,and put quite a bit of kit up for this,and its finally paid off.I'd say you have an outstanding story here,that will really put some coin back into your pocket.

Thanks a lot Chris for you comments, very interesting and I have never thought of a magazine being interested, I'll look into it further.

I would love to push the boundaries as you say, I guess I need to find something to push first. Anything that is to do with photography, science, and astronomy has got me hooked.

Cheers
Jo

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by PCH

Hi Jo,

well done indeed, - that was an incredible vid to watch.

I've been dying to watch it since it was posted a couple of days ago, but my internet was playing up so I only just got to see it.

How exciting for you, - I was was almost bursting with excitement the whole time.

The only fault I could find was when the music came on booming about a minute from the end. I was so engrossed in the 'watching' - I almost pooped myself

Big congrats to you matey, well done

Thanks Paul! Really glad you liked it.

Cheers

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by ZeroID

Awesome video ! A bit dizzying in places but stunning to see the blackness of space so near and the blue edge of the atmosphere. Congratulations on a successful launch and retrieval.

Re your possible rocketry aspirations. I got into it a few years ago but gave it away as quite expensive and somewhat dangerous and noisy for my location but I can provide you with a number of sites and information re building your own including sugar nitrate motors. I still have most of a 25 kg bag of KNO3 downstairs which is now used on the garden. You would be welcome to it but I suspect Customs might have something to say about shipping it across the ditch.
I was building PVC motors with cast rockite nozzles using lathe turned molds. Allowed me to get reproducible results and experiment with nozzle diameters and bell shapes. At least it looks like you have the space to play there.
Let me know if I can assist.

Thank you Brent! I sent you a PM about the rockets. Love to hear more.

Jo

[nebulosity. (Jo)]

Originally Posted by DavidTrap

Very impressive - keep this up and I'm sure you'll go places!

DT

Cheers David