July 14, 2017 Everyone on the Perlan Team put max effort into today. Tim and Alec prepared the rebreathers and performed the systems checks. Stewart and Morgan put together telemetry antenna and early set-up. Stewart and Jim trouble shot the tow plane radio.
The difficulty with current wifi is the limitation to exactly 16 devices. Each computer, cell phone, and tablet counts. Telemetry uses a lot. So Stewart pulled wires to connect the new hub that Martin brought yesterday. The intent is to have them wired, not wireless. Loris and Elizabeth worked side by side to coordinate the weather balloon launching and tracking systems. Ed and Sandra worked side by side to wordsmith the necessary letters and requests in Spanish and English. Tago is our designated spokesperson for the project in El Calafate. He spent long hours with aviation officials coordinating our procedures. Linda and Tago did some Perlan financial transactions. Morgan finished the heat system for the tail cameras. Ed continued to purge the windows with dry air. Jackie and Martin handled some banking, laundry, and grocery needs. Then Martin got his cameras fired up. Stewart had the difficult chore of taping the wings and tail in near freezing conditions. Ed and Jackie used her MagicJack to call into the weekly Airbus Perlan Communication meeting. Jackie and Loris worked on some communication planning. After sunset, Tim, Morgan, Alec, and Loris stayed to complete the telemetry set up. Jackie, as designated “Madre,” left them with cookies and wool caps.
All this preparation work is because we hope to have good enough weather tomorrow for test flights of a weather balloon at 6 am local (UTC -3) and tow Perlan 2 after lunch.
Perlan Soars Soon! Jackie
