This past Saturday, a friend and I went up for a little evening jaunt around the area because it was so nice out. We had just left our airport and were at 2,000 ft when I saw this object out of the corner of my eye. It was about 11:00 and at our altitude. At first I thought it was a bird but it had no motion. As we got closer I thought it was a radio controlled model of some type but that would be awfully high for it to be flying.

I wracked the Maule into a tight left bank and started around it. Both my buddy and I had a good view of it. It was triangular with the base at the top and the point at the bottom. Maybe 2 - 3 ft on a side. At each of the top corners were what looked like small white balloons but they were way to small to be holding this thing up and they pointed out at an angle instead of hanging straight up. The bottom point had what looked like a small white instrument instrument box but it was hard to tell.

Here is what it looked like.


There were no motors that we could see and it appeared to be drifting but that was hard to tell. It looked perfectly stable. We circled it several times. Anybody have any ideas what this was?

I have had a similar one drop in my yard. It was one of these:

The instrument package was actually amazingly light for it's size, although there is a super-thin plastic case it is mostly Styrofoam inside.

http://www.vaisala.com/en/products/soun ... fault.aspx
http://www.erh.noaa.gov/gyx/weather_balloons.htm

That is certainly possible Rob but I have some doubts. I looked through the links you provided and could not find anything similar. All the ones I saw had some sort of parachute that they used to descend. The object I circled had no parachute and did not appear to be descending. I circled it for several minutes at the same altitude.

Skystrider wrote:That is certainly possible Rob but I have some doubts. I looked through the links you provided and could not find anything similar. All the ones I saw had some sort of parachute that they used to descend. The object I circled had no parachute and did not appear to be descending. I circled it for several minutes at the same altitude.

I just picked some random links to 'Radiosonde' which was the name embossed on the one that fell in our yard. I think the standard deal is balloons (which is what was on this one) since they are meant to go wayyy high. We live a stones throw from the mexican border, so when I saw this one coming down my first thought was that it was some sort of border camera

The NWS radiosondes I believe are launched under a fairly large, single balloon, contained within a shroud, since the balloon is going to expand dramatically as it ascends.

And, as noted, the instrument package descends under a small parachute, after the balloon explodes from expansion at altitude.

None of the radiosondes from NWS I've seen look like this, and they go UP and DOWN at a fairly rapid rate.

Maybe someone making home made radiosondes?? Or Al Queada spying on you guys.....

MTV

mtv wrote:Maybe someone making home made radiosondes?? Or Al Queada spying on you guys.....MTV

You might have a point there mtv. Back at the hangar one of our ex-military members suggested that the Air Force is jealous of the 701 we just completed and they may be trying to gather intel....

The object has me really puzzeled though as there was nothing obvious holding it up and there was no aerodynamic surfaces.

Great timing on this thread, I circled one on it's way down under an orange parachute just a couple days ago and plan to hike there this weekend to pick it up. Have found a couple in years past while hunting. Just a styrofoam box with simple sensors.
Dale

Lizard wrote:Great timing on this thread, I circled one on it's way down under an orange parachute just a couple days ago and plan to hike there this weekend to pick it up. Have found a couple in years past while hunting. Just a styrofoam box with simple sensors.
Dale

If it was a weather package I would have expected to see a very visible chute like you did. After all, you don't want to run into one of these things.

I understand they print instructions on how to return these packages but only about 20% are ever recycled. Do you send them back?

Skystrider wrote:

Lizard wrote:Great timing on this thread, I circled one on it's way down under an orange parachute just a couple days ago and plan to hike there this weekend to pick it up. Have found a couple in years past while hunting. Just a styrofoam box with simple sensors.
Dale

If it was a weather package I would have expected to see a very visible chute like you did. After all, you don't want to run into one of these things.

I understand they print instructions on how to return these packages but only about 20% are ever recycled. Do you send them back?

If this one looks good I will.