10Oct/109
Launch Recovery of Horus 8
This weekend saw the launch of Horus 8 - due to an error in balloon inflation, this flight went for much longer than expected, and ended up landing in the sea at Carrickalinga!
Preparing for launch of Horus 8
I've put the full writeup of the flight online here. This was without doubt the most challenging recovery we've had to deal with so far - a big thanks to all who were involved this weekend. 
Horus 9 was unfortunately postponed due to poor weather, and of course the damage to the Horus 8 payload.
October 10th, 2010 - 12:39
Looong flight!!!
HF telemetry worked 100% until 1000m from landing I was swamped by local RTTY stations
Great Job
Cheers
John
VK5OI
October 10th, 2010 - 13:10
Ho John
John your reception of the HF was very helpful. For some periods I was only receiving your forwarded data in the truck via internet. If found the error rate on the HF while mobile was too high, stationary mobile was 100%. I switched to the UHF telemetry early in the chase but as the balloon got a hike on with the 100kmh wind it was almost out of range for me for a while.
Much was learned from this flight.
We did prove that Maxtracks do not make good canoe paddles!
Thanks to all the receiving stations you just cant underestimate how important that data is to us when we are in the chase cars!
Lost on the mission: 1 maxtrack, 1pr compound lens specs, 2 pr undies (dont ask!), 1 HD camera (beyond economical repair!) and a fair bit of tracking hardware!
Luckily our simplex repeater was scratched from the flight and so it lives on !
Terry demonstrated his swimming skills and Joel his canoeing skills.
Thanks from
Adrian VK5ZSN
October 10th, 2010 - 20:43
What a weekend, chasing Horus 8 was not for the feint hearted, or for those with a short attention span what a long flight
Thanks to everyone that logged data to the internet, as Adrian says above we cant stress how helpful this is to a successful retrieval of Horus.
Cant wait to read Terrys version of events. That boy can swim !!!
73s
Matthew
VK5ZM
October 10th, 2010 - 22:33
Horus 8 was definitely exhausting. It was a success and a trial at the same time. We do have some images from the payload I will post a cut-down version of the video on vimeo during the week unfortunately the camera stopped recording after 45 minutes so we only have pictures to about 6km altitude.
The recovery also showed how dangerous the rip tides are off Carrickalinga beach..
A big thanks from me to everyone who participated and I look forward to Terrys detailed blog too!
October 13th, 2010 - 08:10
I think that a good idea would be adding an emergency cut-off using a nichrome wire wrapped around the balloon line like the one used on the Cygnus Balloon. You could engage it by radio or after reaching a set altitude.
October 13th, 2010 - 15:39
Hi
FYI I was out testing antennas and radios during the flight. No problems hearing the UHF telemetry on a beam and a co-linear vertical . I was located on a hill just south of Lochiel (130K north of Adel). Likewise the 40m signal was very strong but for some reason I had trouble decoding it. Antenna was an 8m squidpole with a slinky spring stretched over its length and an ATU at the base. I could see it was going to be a long day so did not stay on the hill but watched progress on a HP Notebook whilst travelling to the city later in the day. Needless to say I was rather interested when I saw the payload hit the ocean!! Good luck with repairs etc
Tim VK5ZT
October 20th, 2010 - 06:43
Folks, I have finally finished the first short video from Horus 8. You can see footage from the HD camera we flew here: http://vimeo.com/15985847. I had hoped to get this up sooner but I had editing commitments for One Day On Earth I had to complete first. I have a little more footage to collect this Saturday and then I should be able to create a full documentry piece on the project.
Regards,
Grant VK5GR
October 27th, 2010 - 23:57
The ground launch and recovery story for Horus 8 is now available for viewing on Vimeo! See it here: http://vimeo.com/16241165
October 31st, 2010 - 06:55
Hey i havent let anything hear for a while,
but great succes, i loved the story!
Up for reading is horus 9. Cheers!