one weather balloon
five to ten feet of 50 lb test cord
one parachute tied to the cord at its apex
another five to ten feet of cord tied to the parachute shroud lines with a radar reflector attached to its middle
the payload.
You HAVE to have the parachute and radar reflector - FAA regs. Ditto for the 50 lb (max) cord.
RADAR REFLECTORS: We now know for certain that just hanging a space blanket from the package won't work. They barely show up on FAA radars. Best bet: a styrofoam corner reflector covered with space blanket material. Look in a boating catalog for models. Hints: forget aluminum foil, it's too heavy. Ditto for cardboard. Space blankets (very thin aluminized mylar) work fine and are featherweight. Get them from sporting good stores
During ascent the free balloon regulations apply:
During descent, Unmanned Aerial Systems Regulations and Policies apply:
http://www.faa.gov/aircraft/air_cert/design_approvals/uas/reg/
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Unmanned Free Balloons are covered under section 101 of the Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs) along with Moored Balloons, Kites and Unmanned Rockets. Call your local control tower and they will mail you a copy of this section. Be prepared to play some telephone tag.
NOTIFYING THE FAA: The FAA wants to know about your flight at least one week in advance. If this is your first flight, call them a month in advance and talk things over with them. You will typically want to call the local "Center". Here in Wisconsin, we call Chicago center. If you can't find their number in the yellow pages, under Department of Transportation, try calling the local airport control tower. Be prepared to play some telephone tag. If other people in your area are flying balloons, ask them who they talk to and get the number from them. (See The Most Important Rule above.)
The FAA center will want to know when you intend to launch, where from (distance and direction from a town on a map), how high you expect to go and what direction you expect it to travel in. This last part can be hard to answer a week in advance, but generally it will follow the prevailing winds in your area. Here in Wisconsin, we always guess that the balloon will travel to the south east. You should also leave your number in case they have questions. If the person you want to speak to isn't in, be sure to leave your name and number so they can get back to you.
24 hours before launch, you have to call your local Flight Service Station (FSS) and file a Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) giving the launch site, date and time, expected max altitude, expected rate of climb, expected direction of travel and landing spot. Your local FSS will have an 800 number. These people can also give you the winds aloft if you ask. Most pilots have no use for winds aloft over 30,000 feet, so tell the FSS that you're launching a balloon and ask for wind speed and direction for as high as they have data for. This will typically be about 50-60 thousand feet. Try to get the winds aloft for a reporting station to the west of you because 24 hours later, those winds will have likely moved to your location.
Call FSS the morning of the launch for current winds aloft. You can then get a pretty good idea of where it's going to go so your chase crew can position themselves accordingly.
Call the FSS as soon as you launch and give them your estimated climb speed. They probably won't need to hear anything else from you until the balloon goes above 60,000 feet. Once above 60k, you're in uncontrolled airspace and the FAA doesn't have to worry about you, so tell them when you pass 60k. Call them again when you descend below 60k and when you land.
General Good Ideas:
REDUNDANCY! Live by that word! Have at least two transmitters. Each transmitter should have its own, totally separate power supply. If your package isn't transmitting when it lands, you aren't going to find it. One transmitter can be a milliwatt rig running from a 9 volt battery. Hint: you can buy oscillator modules from Digi-Key for a few bucks each that have frequencies in various HF ham bands. They run on five volts and draw next to no power.
It gets down to 60 below zero Fahrenheit at 40,000 feet. An insulated package is necessary. A styrofoam beer cooler is light, cheap and a great insulator. If it's well sealed, things will stay quite toasty inside. Our lowest inside temps have been about 32 F. with a leaky package (lots of antennas sticking out through holes that weren't sealed with goop) to about 70 F. with very tight packages. Our HIGHEST internal temp was 132 degrees F with a very tight package containing two transmitters that used a total of about ten watts from two battery packs. Remember, about 1/2 of all the power your transmitter draws stays inside as heat.
Put an audio beeper on the outside of the package. This will help you zero in on it if it lands in dense brush or woods. MAKE SURE THE BEEPER CAN BE TURNED OFF FROM THE OUTSIDE AND PUT PROMINENT INSTRUCTIONS FOR DOING SO ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE PACKAGE! We had a farmer find our package and take it back to the farmhouse. The beeping was so annoying that he put it in a metal granary to muffle the sound - and the signal we were tracking went to zip! Luckily, we had our address on the package.
PUT YOUR ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER ON THE OUTSIDE OF THE PACKAGE! Mention a $50.00 reward to the finder. So far, we've had one package found by duck hunters, who promptly switched the transmitter off. A second package wound up in a metal granary and a third had its single set of batteries die on the way down. (Remember what I said above about trial and error? These are some of the errors.) We got all three back because people found them and called us.
DON'T PUT AN ON/OFF SWITCH FOR THE TRANSMITTERS ON THE OUTSIDE. You WANT that signal to stay on so you can track it down!
Put "HARMLESS HAM RADIO TRANSMITTER" on the outside. After all, many people get concerned when a package bristling with antennas and going "BEEP BEEP BEEP" parachutes into their bean field.
Canadian
http://www.tc.gc.ca/civilaviation/general/recavi/Brochures/uav.htm