High altitude balloon project…take two!
With a fairly successful first launch under out belts, YMW decided to go it alone and launch a second balloon with modifications to possibly address the shortcomings of our first launch.
Early on a warm July 25th morning HOWLER II was released to the atmosphere. Because of the different prevailing winds from the April launch, the balloon instead headed south of Mount Juliet toward an ultimate landing somewhere around Alisona, TN.
About 30 minutes into the flight, data contact was lost…again. The rest of the afternoon was spent looking and hoping the transmitter would come back on, but to no avail. A month later, a gentleman called from Franklin and said he had found our payload in his field while bushogging. The beeper was still faint but active. Turns out the low tech recovery method saved our bacon.
