Sunday. Terrific weather. Sunny, almost no clouds, and comfy temperatures at around 25 °C. Nature — this is where I wanted to be (even though it is more “cultivated landscape” what we have here). My dear family preferred to stay home, and I did not really knew where to go. But wait, why not leave the choice to the next probe going up. The prediction took it near Mühlacker, so I was off. And Claus also sought some distraction.
The prediction eventually shifted from Mühlacker to Knittlingen. I followed and arrived before the probe. The landing prediction shifted again a couple of times, and I followed hoping that I could witness the probe landing. The probe fell a little bit short of the predicted landing spot into a forest.
[12567] (P2540421) So 2018-10-14 13:50:03.000 lat: 49.01161 lon: 8.75460 alt: 304.67 vH: 0.1 D: 108.4° vV: 0.1
I parked the car and went into to look for it. Claus was on the other side of the forest so we meet at the probe. At GPS position emitted by the probe we could not find it. Doing some radio bearing I was first able to spot the thread and than the probe itself. Using the sling shot, Claus and myself were successful in shooting another thread over the probe. When trying to tear down the probe the thread however ripped apart and the probe remained were it was. So the approach and the slingshot in principle work — we need however a better thread.
Before driving back to Stuttgart, I went for a little walk in the setting sun. It was then when I found a balloon in a bush that was recoverable after all…
Blue: My Trajectory
Red: Ground Track of P2540421
Blue Arrows: GPS positions of P2540421
