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Launching weather balloons is routine, and requires no special preparation. If you are launching at an airport, you usually have to notify ATC. But radiosonde
by grf27 3y ago
Launching weather balloons is routine, and requires no special preparation. If you are launching at an airport, you usually have to notify ATC.
But radiosondes and balloons come under an exemption, so can be flown pretty much anywhere. I think the exemption allows up to 2kg payloads. Radiosondes (the new Vaisala ones) are around 120g, and it's pretty cool technology.
- cozzyd 3y agoI've helped to launch two weather balloons, one at south pole and one at summit station in Greenland. The one in Greenland was quite difficult to launch due to high winds...
- dylan604 3y agowhat do you consider "at an airport"? depending on the size of the airport, the area might be significantly larger than you might expect. especially so if you happen to be in a line of approach which can extend hundreds of miles out. as an example, I launched a small balloon west of Abilene TX, and had to notify DFW ATC (Abilene to DFW is ~175 miles). if you're going to launch any kind of something >400', you should do the responsible thing and contact ATC. if they say you're fine and no further contact, then great. they'll ask the size of your balloon, the size of the payload, the expected altitude, expected flight duration, and if you have any radio beacons they can listen to, and similar question. they didn't even ask me my purpose. it's a really simple phone call to make. the last thing you want to see happen is some sort of incident involving your balloon.