Launch Day

•  July 30th, 2011

Following the GPSL tradition, we’ll have a mass flight on Saturday. Launch times are from about 8:00 to 9:30 AM. We will launch from the Falcon Campus of the Pikes Peak Community College (PPCC) (roughly N38º 56.01’, W104º 36.27’). It’s located about 11 miles from the Rampart Range Campus of PPCC where the tech sessions will be held. Your helium tank(s) will be available at the launch site. Our history on summer flights in this area is that they generally go east, but not long. 40 miles is about normal. However, there have been exceptions with flights going north and south and longer. We have had a few parachutes and payloads land west of our summer launch site.

If the Friday afternoon prediction is looking like a landing west of the primary launch site, we’ll move the launch site further east to the Ramah State Wildlife Area (N39º 6.03’, W104º 12.49’). It is far enough east to avoid the Colorado Springs metro area and the very large treed area called Black Forest, located northeast of Colorado Springs. Ramah SWA is 26 miles northeast of the PPCC Falcon Campus. It’s a straight shot up U.S. Route 24 from the PPCC Falcon campus. The State Wildlife Area (SWA) has plenty of parking, a large open area, and restrooms.

We’ll be operating a ground station at the launch site during the flight time and will use a coordination net with a net control station. If you’re flying a balloon at GPSL, you got an email assigning a payload beacon frequency and a time slot(s) for your payload(s). We’ll use 146.97 MHz (minus offset and PL of 100 Hz) as the GPSL coordination frequency. If you have more than one tracking and recovery vehicle, we’ll assign your group its own repeater frequency for coordination within your group. Please check in with net control before you depart to track and recover your balloon. Again more details in the email you got if you’re flying a balloon.

We're working on coordination with the tower at Colorado Springs airport. The end of their N-S runway is about 9 miles SE of the launch site.

Directions: From the Rampart Range Campus of PPCC. Go east on Briargate Parkway to N. Powers Blvd. Then south to Woodman Road. Then east 6 mi. to a left turn (south) onto Meridian Rd. Follow Meridian as it turns east. Cross Rt. 24, then southeast to Swingline Rd. and a left into the PPCC Falcon Campus. We’ll launch from the parking area northeast of the west baseball diamond.

Directions to Ramah SWA. If we have to go to the Ramah SWA, just continue on Woodman Rd. until it dead-ends into U.S. Route 24. Then a left and go 25 miles to the entrance to the SWA on the left at N39º 5.0’, W104º 13’. EOSS will move all the helium tanks to the SWA. There’s gas and coffee available in Calhan 19 miles from the Woodman Rd. turn. Calhan will be hosting the El Pasco county fair so traffic could be heavy in town

For those departing after recovering their payload, the SWA is 32 mi. from Limon, where you can get on I-70. Limon has several restaurants and a number of gas stations. Please check-in with net control if you depart for home after your recovery.

Please remember the EOSS policy of not entering private land without permission of the land owner. Usually a quick drive down the road you’re on or some looking around as you get near your balloon’s landing site will identify several houses that could be the landowner."