Well, the WX here in NM has not been cooperative with our plans and we just today, 24 May, 2021 launched our 5th balloon flight using Zach Tek's transmitters. It was a perfect day with calm winds, 10 deg. C. and no clouds. We decided it was now or never since the preceding days were less than perfect. We had prepped the ballon and it was ready for attachment of the payload and to be launched. At 7:17 a.m. we let it go and was rewarded with a very good launch. We waited for transmissions and about an hour later found that we were in fact being tracked. The balloon left central NM and then drifted north toward Taos and finally into Colorado when the sun went down and we lost transmissions. We are looking forward to tomorrow and to seeing what direction and speed our flight has accomplished during the night.

Harry, My partner, AL7CR, and I are presently using 1 balloon. I made a mistake and miscalculated the free lift and ended up with about 7 grams. Assent acceleration was about 2m/sec which is quite a bit according to others. The solar panels are set at about 30 degrees down from horizontal. I thought 45 degrees would work better but we were a bit leery about damage to traces, etc. Personally, I think the flatness is more important than the angle. Also, as winter conditions come into play the angle may have to be adjusted down a bit more. Here are a couple of pics: