Contents
What challenges are there with high altitude balloon flights?
10 ways that a high altitude balloon flight can go wrong
- Bad weather.
- No / poor flight plan.
- Under inflating your balloon.
- Early balloon failure.
- Parachute failure.
- Damage to the payload / damage by the payload.
- Camera failure.
- Tracker / locator failure.
How high can a birthday balloon go?
Toy balloons burst at around 10km, while professional meteorological balloons reach heights of 30km. The ultimate limit is set by Archimedes’s Principle, which says balloons will stop rising once their density matches the surrounding air.
Is it safe to launch a high altitude weather balloon?
Although high altitude weather balloon launches can provide valuable results, care must be taken to abide by the governing laws and regulations to ensure weather balloon safety for aircraft and those that may be impacted by the launch and landing.
Are there any restrictions on operating a weather balloon?
No person may design or intentionally operate any unmanned free balloon in a manner that creates a hazard to other persons or their property. No person operating any unmanned free balloon may allow an object to be dropped therefrom, if such action creates a hazard to other persons or their property.
What should the landing speed of a weather balloon be?
Typically, we shoot for a landing speed of approximately 5 m/s or 11 mph. This ensures that the payload package will reach the ground quickly to prevent too much downwind drifting, but also ensures that the styrofoam payload box will land softly enough to not cause damage to any persons or property on the ground.
Can a weather balloon fly under 5, 000 ft?
We do not fly under 5,000 FT. within Class B, C, or D airspace. A draft HiBal Pre-Launch notice is filed with the FAA’s “Tactical Operations Support Group”, usually weeks in advance. Multiple Notice to Airmen (NOTAMs) are filed and published between 6 and 24 hours prior to our flight.