The Rimrocked Blog

We at rimrocked extend our congratulations to Rich for another world-record setting flight! Experience Rich’s adventure through his words.

Adventure of the Heart III

By Rich Jaworski

Setting world records is never easy. In fact the record we intended to improve by this flight, the AX-4 duration of 23 hours 11 minutes which Adventure set in 2007¹, was never challenged by this 19 hour 3 minute flight using basically the same equipment. This 2008 flight happened to cover a distance of 250 miles and unintentionally surpassed Oscar Lindström’s 2001 record for the AX-4 distance of 210 miles. (Sorry Oscar!) As noted by Bill Bussey who had several problems during his 1996 AX-6 duration flight², “Murphy Lives.” Our 2008 flight was full of “Murphy’s.” For safety sake, contingency actions to address in-flight problems were pre-planned and utilized. Unfortunately problems with fuel consumption calculations, weather, temperature/velocity profiles, and terrain were encountered. All of these combined to put the pilot in a situation which was intended to be avoided. Somehow our shot at improving flight duration ended up as a “Mulligan” which landed in the dark Wisconsin night with a distance record as a consolation prize.

Because the 23 hour flight in 2007 was shortened by the accumulation of 100 pounds of ice in the envelope, modifications were made to limit ice formation. Two test flights were made in Nebraska at warmer temperatures which confirmed the operability of these modifications. All we needed to improve the 2007 duration was the right weather! Unfortunately last year’s minus 27°F ambient temperatures were not in the Grand Forks, ND forecast during January, 2008 so we decided to fly with the first minus 10°F weather available. It also happened that the minus 10°F weather occurred during full moon which would enhance night flight vision.

Launch preparations went smoothly with the help of Grand Forks’ aeronaut, Duane Hanson and his family; the Grand Forks Flight Support who let us practice our inflation procedure, without envelope, in their hanger; and the Grand Forks Country Club who allowed us the use of their wind sheltered parking lot and club house.

All went as expected for the 9:30 AM launch and first eight hours of the flight except the air temperature was warmer than desired. At eight hours the first fuel tank expired. A total distance of only 39 miles had been traveled. During that period, altitude was maintained as low as possible (50 to 500 ft. AGL) to keep the balloon in the surface inversion at speeds of less than 10 mph. The real “surprise” was that the “eight hours” was expected to be “nine hours” or more. Also, during hour eight, the surface winds increased to 15 – 20 mph, not predicted, and the sun set as predicted. A recalculation of the fuel consumption rate re-confirmed adequate fuel was on board to fly through and beyond sunrise the next morning.

With the flight’s night time heading and speed, the chase crew, composed of Matthew Grote, Orv Olivier, Wayne Mohring, and Gary Hendrickson, projected the track to the Northeast and a forest landing very close to Lake Superior. After long conference calls with weather consultant, Brad Temeyer, the crew recommended flying at 1,000 ft AGL or higher to avoid the North’s more dense woods and the Lake. After discussing the basis of the recommendation, at the cost of flying for a shorter duration, the altitude was increased and maintained at 1,000 ft AGL with a resulting heading of 115 degrees.

As I watched the balloon’s moon shadow race through the snow filled woods below at speeds as high as 35 mph, I wondered how one would ever land without significant damage to the balloon and the pilot who was sitting in a harness freely suspended above the fuel tank. It was comforting to know that the fuel consumption calculations had been reviewed and adjusted for the reduced duration of the first tank and still projected landing well after sunrise. Landing during the night did not appear to be a good option.

Through the night, the icicles formed on the mouth lines. The chase crew radioed to announce their departures to get around large wilderness areas or where they were as I passed over. I was mentally counting down hours to sunrise, “Only eight hours of night left! . . .” No one was counting miles.

Fuel tank inventory is monitored by spring scales which begin to indicate when 10 gallons of fuel are left, enough fuel to fly for two or three hours.. The first scale movements began around 3 AM and were definitely confirmed as true by 4 AM. Speed: 22 mph at 600 ft AGL. I radioed the crew that we were not able to fly to sunrise.

Several years ago in a discussion with Nebraska’s gas balloonist, John Kugler, about the high wind landings frequently encountered by gas balloonists, John said, “You just have to land it, you just have to.”

Landing preparations, putting on a helmet, and stowing equipment took about 10 minutes. Speed: 17 mph at 200 ft AGL. The crew radioed that they were about a mile ahead of me on a tree-lined highway — between me and the brightly lit town of Siren, Wisconsin. They advised not to land too close to town in order to avoid power lines. And some good news, “The last flag we saw looked like about 7 mph.”

Depth perception is always difficult over a large flat surface and it is impossible in the dark with the intermittent burner disrupting the little night vision gained between blasts. I was surprised when the fuel tank crashed against something and pulled the top as I was thrown onto ice and drug for 50 feet across a wonderful one-mile wide lake. I hadn’t felt this lucky since I walked away from my one power line contact in 1979. Other than unsteady legs from reclining in the harness for 19 hours, all body parts were functional!

As a result of our 911 call to the sheriff requesting directions to access the lake, the Siren Volunteer Fire Department initiated a rescue drill at 4:30 AM on a cold and clear Sunday morning. After our crew had packed up and carried the equipment a quarter mile across Big Doctor Lake, about 15 firemen met us and ordered the pilot to lay down in a transport cart pulled by an ATV. After a quick medical check in their ambulance and signing a refusal for additional medical assistance, we posed for pictures, finished packing gear, and headed for the heated fire station. And — oh yah, we just set another world record!!

References:

1. “Adventure of the Heart 2007”, Ballooning, March/April 2007

2. “Murphy’s Law is Alive & Well”, Ballooning, May 1996

Launch Preparations: immediately following hot inflation

Launch Preparations: Crew Chief Matthew Grote equips Rich with Instrumentation Package

Launch Preparation: Ready for ascent from the Grand Forks, ND Country Club parking lot.

This will be part one of two, possibly three posts (depending how successful I am with the latest GPS Babel beta release and my eeePC). Part one will look at the Trackstick, the first data logger I tried, part two will look at the GlobalSat DG-100 which was the 2nd data logger i bought (the reason i needed a 2nd will become clear by the end of this post) and part three will chronicle how I got the DG-100 to work in linux on my eeePC - if it works. If I’m feeling really crazy I may even try it with Mac as I’ve found a couple of posts showing how to make it work, which means I may even get to a 4th post about my datalogger experiences.

The first question you probably have if you’re relatively new to the GPS world is probably, “What’s a GPS data logger?”. A GPS data logger is a passive GPS device and logs the position of the device at regular intervals to it’s onboard memory. After a “trip” you can plug the data logger (or memory card depending on the device) into your computer and retrieve your route, usually in multiple formats such as GPX or KML. Once you have the GPX or KML file of your trip you can many things with it, the one we’re most interested in of course is using it with Rimrocked.

On to the Trackstick…purchasing this device was easy, I simply went to their website, clicked the “add to cart” button, went through the checkout process and in 2-3 days I had my trackstick. The trackstick has a USB plug on one end and slides open to insert 2 AA batteries. There’s a single button on it that depending on how long you hold it does everything you need (in theory). It also comes with a CD that contains the software for interacting with the device on your computer (Windows only).

My first test of the trackstick was to simply place it on the dashboard of my car, hold the button until a light came on and drive to/from a wedding that my wife and I were going to that was about 45 minutes from our house. A few days later a friend of ours was going to Germany for work so I gave it to him to use, I also asked him to retrieve my tracks from the device as I was unable to get the software to work on my Dell PC or my Mac with Windows installed on it. Ian was a little frustrated with the use of the device as the single button/light setup is a bit of a pain to use and the usability is lacking because you never really know what it’s doing, although he had no trouble installing the software. His trip can be seen on rimrocked here.

Once Ian got back and I had the device again I tried installing the software a second time - no luck. About a month later Ian and I were going mountain biking and I figured it was a good opportunity to get an idea of the trails we frequent near our homes so I strapped the trackstick to my handlebars, turned it on and off we went.

We went for quite a ride, getting sort of lost but not really and about halfway through the ride I realized the trackstick was no longer on my handlebars. We doubled-back about a half kilometer or so with no luck - it was fall and the leaves had fallen quite a bit so it likely either fell into the leaves and buried itself in them or bounced off the trail under more leaves.

Overall, it the Trackstick was OK, wasn’t great as the single-button/light setup was cumbersome to use properly and of course never being able to get the software to work properly sure didn’t help. In my opinion it’s probably a little overpriced for what it is and how it works but it did it’s job well when it was working - although the software leaves a lot to be desired and is quite flaky (given my experience at least).

So, if you happen to mountain bike around the trails near Kanata Lakes/Morgan’s Grant in Kanata Ontario and you come across a little black tube it’s probably my trackstick - if it still works could you email me and I’ll setup an account on rimrocked for you to upload the points?

As far as integrating a GPS data logger with Rimrocked, it couldn’t be easier. Follow the instructions for your data logger to retrieve a KML file, log in to Rimrocked, under “Your trip > Add trip > From KML”, click the “browse” button and select the KML file that’s on your computer, press ok, fill in the rest of the trip details and presto-chango, you’ve got a trip added to Rimrocked using your KML file as the map points!

Go ahead and ask me where Ky Son is.

It’s in Vietnam.

I however, did not know this a few weeks ago, but after uploading some very interesting trips onto rimrocked I have definitely had a refresher course in geography. I have been able to see glimpses of the world through real trips, real people and real experiences all from the comfort of my laptop. It all seems to make this world much smaller and more accessible to everyone. And to read peoples thoughts about their adventures and see what they see through their photos can be very heart warming.

One very heart warming trip, Snow Odyssey 2007, is about one man, Yves Leblanc, and his Guinness World Record snowmobile journey through Canada and Alaska. He journals all throughout his 81 days of his adventure; the good times, the hardships, and the people that he met along the way. It really is a wonderful read and most definitely a great Canadian geography refresher!

Another inspiring trip worth reading is, Adventure of the Heart. Rich Jaworski set two new registered Fédération Aéronautique Internationale record records hot air ballooning. He set off in Grand Forks, North Dakota and landed in Page, ND after 23 hours 11 minutes and 22 seconds .

If you love to look at gorgeous photos, check out the 2007 Columbia River Brigade trip. The beautiful photos of the scenery along the Columbia River in British Columbia is breathtaking. I think if I were there, I would never leave! They are doing the canoe trip in 2008 as well.. something to think about.

Another fave trip of mine with wonderful scenic photos (so much green!) is the Vietnam Bike Tour trip. A mountain biking day trip through Ky Son to Hanoi. Really, I tell ya, what a great way to spend a day!

From bright luscious green grass, to crisp, cold white ice. From mountain biking to cross country skiing. People are sharing their adventures from everywhere.

If you are an avid skier you definitely need to check out the Frozen Five trip. Five European friends head out on a 1000 km ski expedition to Spitsbergan in the high Arctic! I’m cold just thinking about it. Imagine what they were experiencing.

Another cold ski adventure (really is there any other kind?) is Anne Marte Pensgaard’s Greenland Ski Expedition. It really is remarkable the courage she had, and wonderful that she is truly living life and making her dreams come true.

Perhaps I’m a little biased on this last trip that I’m sharing with you, my in-laws European Vacation, but as I was putting together this trip for rimrocked, I really was amazed at how many places they were able to see and experience! I am delighted that they were able to have this adventure and that they will have these memories to cherish forever.

If you are planning on going on an adventure, or wanting to just relax and travel, I recommend you look through these trips for ideas on where to go. Perhaps, you’ll find a place that you never would have thought of, like Ky Son in Vietnam. And then you can share your experiences and adventures with us on rimrocked.

Cheers,
-Sara

If you’re reading here, you’ve found our blog and have found our project. Go to the next step and be a beta user. You’ll be at the leading edge of the internet, impress your friends and scare your enemies. Simply navigate to the front page: www.rimrocked.com. You’ll find a sign up tab on the top right. I’ll add you as soon as I see your email (probably with a day).

Cheers,
-Amit

Hello and welcome to rimrocked. If you’re reading this you might be at least a little interested in what we’re doing. This being the first post, I’ll try to set the tone for what will follow in the coming months. Rimrocked comprises the efforts to date of Andrew Draper, Martin Senger and me, Amit Nandi. We are being supported by Guardian Mobility and it’s management team, but you can think of rimrocked as a separate entity. This will let me off the hook for the different tone of posts and the fact that we will be far more open about what we’re doing. What we’re creating, simply, is a place to share your adventures.

So a good place to start today is our mission statement. Thanks to Ben and Jerry of their eponymously named chain of happiness delivery, for their mission statement structure. I was on vacation and my family happened to be filling up on ice cream at their flagship Burlington, Vermont store when I saw the writing on the wall, so to speak. Their blend of a good product constantly improving coupled with a deep respect for its employees and the community that they’re a part of attracted me. Andrew and I had a common view of mission statements being, well, cheesy. A waste of time and energy. But when they’re sincere and talk of more than profitability I think they’re valuable. In this case we’ll try to use this as our compass, if you’ll pardon the unintended pun.

Over the last few years Guardian has done some remarkable things in partnership with people doing even more remarkable things. We have worked with the Canadian Search and Rescue community to create a personal tracking device to aid rescuers and recreational users alike. We have helped adventurers such as Anne Marte Pensgaard relay her cross-Greenland skiing adventure. We have tracked Yves Leblanc on his Guinness World Record Snowmobile trip, helping establish his record. We have watched Martin’s son Kim and his Frozen Five friends on his adventure across the Svalbard Glacier. And I could go on about Cain’s Quest, the Baja 1000 and balooning records, but you’ll just have to see these on rimrocked and discover these amazing feats of human perseverance, ingenuity and bravery for yourself.

In a sense, rimrocked is the realization of these connections that we have made with people doing interesting things and we have realized that there are thousands of people across the world wanting to share their experiences in a similar way. So today is my daughter’s first day of school and it feels like that for rimrocked too. We’re starting to make people aware of us, and we’ll be sharing our experiences on designing it, our partnerships with organizations and the experiences with our users.

We hope you enjoy the trip- please subscribe to this blog.