SondehuntAfter the initial euphoria of finally having found another sonde hunter near me, who was also on the same wavelength as me, we naturally wanted to go hunting together. I had to wait for the suitable opportunity, if he had time I had none and vice versa, or the sonde weather was not favorable. On 10.02. we finally had the suitable opportunity, we both had time, and the sonde forecast from Beauvechain was favorable, between Gummersbach and Cologne. I took the train at 21:23 to Rösrath, where Kevin and Christian picked me up in the Volvo, which is decisive for his nick, and already has several hundred thousand kilometres on the clock.
Since there was still time until the launch, we paid a visit to P3440172, the Essen midday sonde from 21.01., which was hanging high in a tree nearby. Unfortunately she still did, and we used the time until the sonde was near us to chat in the car. When it was foreseeable that the landing area would probably be somewhere in the Bergisch Gladbach area, we set off in this direction. Hardly arrived, the balloon burst in barely 18000 m and would remain on the other side of the Rhine river; landing somewhere northwest of Cologne. Over the run-down Leverkusen bridge we went to the sonde, which was meanwhile approaching Pulheim, and landed there at the access road to a main road in the field. Less than ten minutes later we were there. We fought our way through a blackberry-covered embankment to the landing site, which was covered with high grass. At some point we where stopped by the sonde string. The rest was routine. Small balloon residue, parachutes are not used by Beauvechain.
Because we weren’t tired yet, it was decided to visit the De Bilt sonde from 14.01., P4030485 in a tree south of Düren, which was received by ON-1 until the battery failed, to see if it had fallen down in the meantime. Unfortunately it was still hanging in the tree, and Christian couldn’t hit it with the sticks he was trying to throw at it. Unfortunately we all didn’t have any sticks at that time.