SondehuntThe DWD delivered my birthday present by airmail. Unfortunately, the balloon had bursted somewhat early, so that we still had to travel almost ten kilometres as the crow flies. Weak reception after landing indicated a tree landing whith a signal coming from this direction.
Flynamic picked me up on the way back from work after tea, the last position 200 m above ground made me hope that no decoding was necessary on site, but since there was no balloon to be seen while passing by, I pulled out the Macbook while Flynamic was looking for a parking spot. The tree-landing confirmed itself unfortunately, also the large balloon remainder could be localized in approx. 7 m height in a distant tree. From the tenant we were referred directly to the owner of the property in a villa a few hundred meters away, who had already noticed the balloon.
The cord at the balloon remainings could be caught with the 6 m pole, and by pulling the string, the sonde was located in approx. 20 m height in a distant maple tree. By further impulsive pulling the sonde could finally be freed and dropped to the ground, the temperature sensor was broken as expected.
Now the remainder of the balloon could be pulled down so far that the hook could be attached to more massive elements of the pole, and the parachute could be released by splintering the branch in which it had got caught.
Just in time for dinner (noodles with mushroom sauce, they are already standing upstairs and waiting ;D) we went back home and once again it is shown that the purchase of the pole took place just at the right time; two to three of the four probes, which I have caught since I have it, I could not have recovered otherwise.