Hero Playmonaut lost at sea as SPEARS ditches in Channel
It's with heavy hearts that we report the loss of the Special Project Bureau's heroic playmonaut, after the Low Orbit Helium Assisted Navigator (LOHAN) balloon launch on Saturday ended in the English Channel off the coast of Sussex. Click here for a bigger version of the LOHAN graphic The flight was intended to test the Special …
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Re: Still a chance?
Waiting on a reply from the dredger crew.
Re: Still a chance?
Check the vessel's registered owners. Watch out for the names Stromberg, Largo or Carver...
Re: Still a chance?
Captain of the Confidante says ... "Sorry, nothing seen"
Re: Still a chance?
Just FYI, the ship in question was the "Confidante", a 137 ton Gardline survey vessel based out of Shoreham. Too bad they didn't see anything. The timing and location were REALLY close...
I raise a pint to our heroic playmonaut
o7
Fear not, sweet commentards, for our Playmonaut's mission has not ended in failure. Suitably equipped for the task, he now explores the mysteries of the ocean deeps, his survival suit and plastic resolve allowing him to brave pressures and depths that mere humans cannot withstand. He gazes out across an inky void of abyssal mountains and chasms, seeing creatures unknown to science.
Godspeed, brave aquanaut.
I hear that our intrepid hero had a Twin
or was he part of triplets or some unknown cult creating clones...
Whichever I feel we'll be seeing another hero soon
Saboteur
Not convinced that we've lost our original hero. I think there's some doppelganging at work.
I always thought there was something a bit dodgy about 'Mr Yellow'. Would our stylish all-action hero really wear something so gaudy? Did you check him for a goatee before sending him up?
How else can you explain things going so disastrously wrong if not an inside job?
I'm betting the saboteur is having a chuckle at us from his undersea volcanic lair, off the Isle of Wight, where our heroic space cadet is being held captive after imbibing a laced cocktail.
Seems the Playmonaut's history is following the Stig's. A change of uniform colour, being launched into the sea...
...soon he'll write an autobiography and reveal his true identity, thus ruining it for everyone and proving once and for all that even people with really cool jobs (e.g. ex-Special Forces racing drivers) can be total dicks.
An idea
Some sort of network of volunteers - experienced sailors naturally - on the coast ready to set forth should subsequent ascents look to be heading out over the briney. And for no consideration other than the fame and glory of being part of a great endeavour. And one or more virtual (or even real) pints from Registrar readers.
Perhaps http://www.airsearescue441.com/ is available.
Re: Another idea
Shame you couldn't get some kind of Royal Charter or something...I hear one of Them is an SAR pilot. If you'd made the extra effort to get him interested in the project, maybe...oh, wait -- he's got something else on his mind right now, doesn't he?
Well, it was a good idea. Better luck next time, guys!
(and thanks for the stroy, tracking, photos, videos, etc, so we could follow along)
Congratulations on a successful flight. Commiserations on a less than successful landing.
Maybe the next version should come equipped for a watery landing. After all, you can't get a launch site much further from the sea. If the box had a weight on the bottom and a carbon fibre mast with waterproof GPS/radio, and maybe a light, at the top, the chances are that it would continue sending after splashdown, and be more visible.
Could also be a chance to get a record for highest altitude achieved by a model boat. Assuming one of the ISS-nauts didn't take Airfix's Victory with him to pass the hours.
Commiserations on a less than successful landing."
A good landing is any landing you can walk....oh!
Yes, the one with the towel...
Maybe this is the right time to send your condolences...
..to the country of Playmobil-Funpark, a small enclave inside of Germany.
http://www.playmobil-funpark.de/en/node/201
Their postal address (they don't seem to have much of an own postal service) is:
PLAYMOBIL®-FunPark
Brandstätterstraße 2-10
90513 Zirndorf
Re: Maybe this is the right time to send your condolences...
That's in Germany, again they are using the German postal system for practical reason.
Re: Maybe this is the right time to send your condolences...
"Playmobil-Funpark"
If that's got anything to do with our Playmonaut, I have to say that being dropped from 70,000m into a wintery English Channel is a novel usage of the word "fun".
Re: Maybe this is the right time to send your condolences...
I don't think this is the right time to mock the home country of our hero Playmonaut. They probably had to change their name to attract more tourists. Tourism is the main industry by far in "Playmobil-Funpark".
Can I suggest that the next test be launched from Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire? Just to be on the safe side...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coton_in_the_Elms
Probably wouldn't help much...
>>>Can I suggest that the next test be launched from Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire? Just to be on the safe side...
>>>http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coton_in_the_Elms
That reference says Coton in the Elms is 70 miles from water, and my estimate of the straight line distance from launch to splashdown is around 72 to 73 miles.
But it's all irrelevant anyway, you could go much more than 70 miles from both Brightwalton and Coton in the Elms and still be over dry land, it just depends which direction you go. The prediction based on a wind forecast was that it would travel south but fall well short of the coast. It didn't. Shit happens.
Delayed parachute
Could SPEARS be enhanced so that after firing the rocket on the way up it either un-reefs the existing parachute or deploys a larger one when it crosses a threshold on the way down?
I appreciate the need for a drogue to keep everything from tangling after balloon burst, but on sunday it looked like most of the ground track was covered on the way down because the parachute kept it too high for too long. Your typical Soyuz or Dragon spend quite a while falling subsonically before deploying parachutes so they don't drift out of the target area.
Hmmm, Low Altitude Parachute Delayed Opening Gadget. Every LOHAN should have a LAPDOG.
Re: Delayed parachute
Afaik this is not allowed. The minimal surface area of the chute is set by the rules governing this sort of endeavour and must deploy automatically when the balloon pops.
It's definitely something to investigate though! I like the idea!
Re: Delayed parachute
I started looking to see if I could find anything on that last night and my laptop screen died. Looks like I get myself a new one rather than a 3d printer for crimble then...
Even if the regs do require immediate deployment it could be worth going for the absolute minimum size at first and un-reefing it or popping out a second one lower down. I shall continue my search when I'm not at work and the room at home with the desktop is nice and warm.
""the underlying data from NOAA...."
Asking the yanks about the British weather? What Could Possibly Go Wrong?
Maybe you should check with the Met Office next time.
Re: ""the underlying data from NOAA...."
My thought too, but I guess the ballooners have done this stuff before many times. I did notice on the map display a couple of others in the drink that day - one off Southend IIRC and one off Margate. Hope you've got enough in the kitty to refund the kit donors - that Iridium box must be worth a bob or two.
I hope you've got another intepid Playmonaut in training who hasn't just resigned...
Abducted by Aliens?
I notice that there is a very strange purple scanning beam to be seen on the video(@23s), which was obviously invisible to naked eyes of those there at the time.
Re: Abducted by Aliens?
Was that not just the laser that ensures the PARIS record remains un-broken being tested in parallel?
I have one word for you...
Well, actually an acronym...
EPIRB
No self respecting adventurer should set out without one. The inclusion of this simple bit of kit in the Playmonout's backpack and he would be sat at home now quaffing a suitably mulled wine!
Shame on you!
A Suggestion
Within the day-glo orange truss, a core of styrofoam would add almost nothing to the weight, but would float. The electronics would sink, pulling the truss upright giving you a foot or so of day-glo orange bouy bobbing in the waves and visible for a fair distance.
Gentlemen, I give you the Playmonaut Memorial Recovery System.
@ NoneSuch - Re: A Suggestion
Sir,
a styrofoam core would have added so much windload as to take the truss all the way to Ushant . . .
Re: A Suggestion
"Gentlemen, I give you the Playmonaut Memorial Recovery System"
Playmonaut Memorial Tracker, PMT, since SPEARS and LOHAN may not play well on the day.
Only Fools and Horses
Seeing the last page of pictures, I can't help being reminded of the 1985 Christmas special episode of "Only Fools and Horses", "To Hull and Back" .....
Beer, because this effort deserves one.
Noooooooooooooooooooooo!
My condolences with the young wo/mans family.
RIP.
RIP Brave Playmonaut....
I raise a pint in his honor.
However, to the best of my knowledge you folks live on an ISLAND, which infers that it is surrounded by WATER.
With all the flash kit you've added to the payload wouldn't a FLOTATION DEVICE made some sense?
Just asking.
Re: RIP Brave Playmonaut....
Yep, I wondered about that myself - Britain had the best navy in the world for a long time, they understand water and how things happen to sink in that medium... and they didn't give the poor bastard a lifejacket?
;)
The wrong (jacket) stuff
You lot are brave (or something else) to get on that puny little boat powered only by an outboard with a skipper you do not know and then go out into the failing light of the very changeable English Chanel in November with the added bonus of no personal flotation or life jackets.
I think you have no idea of how quickly little trips like this can and often do go very wrong.
Re: The wrong (jacket) stuff
I really wanted to downvote your comment for being such a killjoy, but I can't cos you're absolutely bloody right.
My Mrs (HMCG) has recovered one to many bodies from the channel for my liking.
Re: The wrong (jacket) stuff
Exactly that. It happens a lot and does not even get in the national papers.
These people then expect others to put their lives at risk to save them.
Re: The wrong (jacket) stuff
Are you saying "you're gonna need a bigger boat"
Sharks, oh my sharks - poor little playmonaut
Re: The wrong (jacket) stuff
No - I'm saying they are going to need bigger brains.
Coincidence?
I was in Newbury at around the time the balloon burst and saw something that looked on fire falling out the sky. Could it have been a part of this?
Re: Coincidence?
>>>I was in Newbury at around the time the balloon burst and saw something that looked on fire falling out the sky. Could it have been a part of this?
Nope, the balloon was released near Newbury, it travelled a fair distance south east before it burst, and it landed in the sea 70 odd miles away, so if you saw something fall from the sky in Newbury it's just a coincidence...
I am suprised
the styrene box was not floating there did not look to be that much weight in it it's hard work making that stuff sink... but spotting a little box in the wide open waters, need one of those salt water powered strobes/lights in future like they use on lifejackets at least it may be visible at dawn/dusk
Cause identified
It is scientifically know yellow color brings bad luck. The lot of the playmonaut was doomed since the moment the new outfit was selected.
This major test flight result should be duly noted and forbade future use of yellow spacesuits any mission.
Re: Cause identified
"It is scientifically know yellow color brings bad luck."
Ahhhhh, so thats why people who wear yellow coats only ever get crappy jobs working in car parks.
Makes sense now.
Splashdown
Launching a capsule into space from an island without predetermined amphibious support? Tsk tsk.
Re: Splashdown
This is presumably why so many US flight tests are carried out over New Mexico. It's extremely poor luck if you somehow perish in the drink after launching from the middle of a whopping great desert.
Doomed from the start
This mission was doomed from the start due to the presence of unsmoked bacon in the pre-flight butties...
Have you learnt nothing from the extensive research conducted on this very site?
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