Gather local wind data

Good that you are making progress, Anders! Keep us posted!

Steve

Why not just put the instrument package into a radio control aircraft (aka: Drone) and fly it as high as you want and have it come back home with your $150 instrument package? Surely someone has come up with an R/C autopilot system by to to deal with the issues of visually flying an aircraft you cant see.

On Thursday, December 6, 2012 4:07:58 PM UTC-8, Todd wrote:
Why not just put the instrument package into a radio control aircraft (aka: Drone) and fly it as high as you want and have it come back home with your $150 instrument package? Surely someone has come up with an R/C autopilot system by to to deal with the issues of visually flying an aircraft you cant see.

It's a pretty easy problem to solve except there are restrictions on altitude for unmanned aircraft. http://www.micropilot.com/

Craig

Yes a UAV (aka drone) would be convenient. It would need to be very reliable to offset the cost of losing the more valuable airframe. The cheapest Micropilot circuit I find is $1500; I'm sure there are cheaper ones but you still get a lot of helium balloons for the price.

Craig is right, max UAV altitude is normally 400 feet.

On Friday, December 7, 2012 6:52:28 AM UTC-8, Anders Petersson wrote:
Yes a UAV (aka drone) would be convenient. It would need to be very reliable to offset the cost of losing the more valuable airframe. The cheapest Micropilot circuit I find is $1500; I'm sure there are cheaper ones but you still get a lot of helium balloons for the price.



Craig is right, max UAV altitude is normally 400 feet.

There have been a number of amateur balloon lofted model glider flights with trackers in the glider. Does a balloon lofted glider with a return home autopilot & tracking beacon avoid the UAV restrictions?

Cheers,
Craig

I checked with the Swedish authorities and at least here, the rules are the same for unpowered flights. High altitude and without visual contact mean unsurmountable regulations.

/Anders

I'm looking into regulations for small weather balloons.
Does anyone know if I'm correct to interpret FAA FAR part 101 to mean that balloons with payloads lighter than 4 lb are exempt from NOTAM and other permits?

Here's the FAR part 101 I refer to: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx...15.1 &idno=14

Grateful for any help.. US regulations is far from my field.

I'm now looking for a few glider pilots to try the Windsond system. Some information is at http://kiwiembedded.com/windsond but the offer itself isn't public. Contact me at for pictures and other details.

Regards
/Anders

Den fredagen den 14:e december 2012 kl. 23:12:41 UTC+1 skrev Anders Petersson:
I'm looking into regulations for small weather balloons.

Does anyone know if I'm correct to interpret FAA FAR part 101 to mean that balloons with payloads lighter than 4 lb are exempt from NOTAM and other permits?



Here's the FAR part 101 I refer to: http://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx...15.1 &idno=14



Grateful for any help.. US regulations is far from my field.