Good morning everyone. We are now on Day 27 of our 2nd lap around the world. After a nice travel over the Atlantic Ocean, again, we woke at 8:44 UTC, 3:42 am CDT at Grid IM63SA. Near Khouribga, Morocco, just west of Casablanca. Our altitude is 14,180 meters 46,500 feet. We always track our altitude, so we can discuss as a group, where we’re headed.

Though we flew over Morocco this morning, we are now over Bechar, Algeria and heading west.

I’d like to introduce you to our Pilot of AA6DY, now on our 27th day. Michael Seedman, AA6DY is one of our Co-Founders of the NIBBB. Michael has been very patient throughout our 24 launches, and we’re really excitied to be flying his balloon and for now our longest flight.

Now onto some other business.

Everyone knows I love to write about our program and expecially these successfull flights. Besides having fun, we at the NIBBB consider this a learning experience. As a team we meet to discuss, plan and build our tracking devices. We also look at our available resources to help determine where our balloons will go once launched.

So we have this very nice model called the NOAA Hysplit Model which shows a foward Trajectory, if we know the GPS location and altitude. It’s been a very relieable model for us to predict that Casablanca was our general direction for arrival.

After our last build session on Septmeber 10th, I dropped off some nice solar panel packages that our kids built. While with Michael, I discussed our projected flight and my predictions that we would drop down to just over 10,000 meters in altitude and recover. After a less than heated discussion we left with a bet. If it dropped, I would win, if not, he would win. I lost.

We have this NOAA model below which is current for today. Yesterday it showed that we would drop to 13,000 meters by this afternoon, then recover. Looking below you can see the nice smoothe line across Europe for our forward trajectory and the ziggly line over the section of Meters AGL (Above Ground Level).

Whether we win or lose, or I lose, and lose some more, it’s all in the fun. But we also have this large group of followers who look at this information and can help explain.

What would cause a sudden drop in altitude, and then a full recovery?

While we’re pondering this flight, I have updated our Links to Locate and Track tab for your viewing pleasure. I’ll be updating this inforation throughout the day, who know’s maybe we will have a sudden drop and recovery.

Please feel free to comment on this post, and we’ll be happy to share your thoughts.