![\"Catamount-4](\"http:\/\/www.dsdpress.com\/wcuradio\/installbay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/photo-2-1024x768.jpg\")
<\/a>Catamount-4 Track and Recovery Teams, Along with the Property Owner, and Stakeholders taken as the balloon was first discovered<\/p><\/div>\n
Stats:
\n\u00b7 Launch: 10:06 AM ET Dec 15 from Jackson County Airport \u2013 Cullowhee, NC
\n\u00b7 Maximum observed altitude (via APRS): 83,712 feet at 17:18:341 UTC (12:18:34 ET)
\n\u00b7 One packet seen at 88,656 at 17:22:37 UTC but is likely erroneous since the packet immediately before and after were much lower
\n\u00b7 After balloon burst, the payload was falling at 119 mph (174 fps for first 60 seconds) (10,469 feet in 60 seconds)
\n\u00b7 At one time the balloon was observed to be traveling over 150 MPH horizontally!
\n\u00b7 Landed near Wingate College in Monroe, NC at position N 35 00.87 W 080 25.66 (track picture below)
\n\u00b7 last report to aprs.fi on Dec 16 at 12:11:17 UTC (7:11:17 AM ET) altitude 639 ft
\n\u00b7 Distance traveled: 158.5 Mi at heading of 96.8 degrees<\/p>\n
Hunt Highlights:
\n\u00b7 At one point we were afraid we had lost the balloon payload as we did not hear the APRS or beacon for about a hour
\n\u00b7 We got lucky after driving near the site of the last transmitted packet and just barley heard the beacon
\n\u00b7 We converged on the payload by direction finding the beacon once we could hear it well enough
\n\u00b7 Balloon was first found by following the sound of a piezo buzzer installed for that purpose
\n\u00b7 The payload was hung up about 35 feet above the ground in a dead, rotten Sweet Gum tree -Tree branches easily snapped off when climbing attempts were made.
\n\u00b7 We were unable to retrieve the payload on Saturday evening as dark overtook our efforts
\n\u00b7 All chasers except except two (W3WZN, & W3WDD returned to Western NC Saturday night
\n\u00b7 The landowner was found on Saturday night and permission was granted to cut down the tree
\n\u00b7 Sunday afternoon the payload was retrieved around 1:25 PM<\/p>\n
\u00b7 All equipment in the payload was safe and secure although some of the batteries powering various pieces of equipment had become depleted<\/p>\n
![\"Flight](\"http:\/\/www.dsdpress.com\/wcuradio\/installbay\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/12\/Flight-path-121512-Cat-4-1024x488.jpeg\")
<\/a>Flight Path of the Catamount-4<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
As many of you may know we have successfully recovered the K4WCU (Catamount-4) Balloon. The write up below was written by Al, WD4A, and Chuck, W3WZN. Much thanks to them for tracking the information. We have also Posted Pictures from … Continue reading