A project by David Akerman

I have 2 separate running projects named BUZZ and CLOUD with, so far, 2 flights each. BUZZ is for lightweight payloads to achieve maximum altitude or (later) long floats. CLOUD is for more normal-sized photographic payloads.

BUZZ is of course named after Buzz Lightyear who in turn was named after the astronaut Buzz Aldrin, the first man to have a pee (inside his spacesuit) on the moon. CLOUD is named after my father-in-law Bryan Cloud who sadly is no longer around, but was keen on both photography and space and would have absolutely loved to get involved in a project like this. CLOUD payloads carry a photograph of Bryan.

For more information see my Cloud pages at my web site

Cloud1 was my very first HAB flight, and had a happy end despite some things going wrong! It achieved an altitude of 29km (just under 100,000 feet) and returned a HD video of the entire flight. Unfortunately the stills camera didn't work (I think I stopped the script by touching a button when packing) and the live tracking was a bit random due to a bug introduced in a last-minute change. The payload landed about 20 miles from the launch site and was recovered about 45 minutes later in someone's garden - the only clearing in a small forest!

Cloud2 aimed to repeat Cloud1's flight but without the problems. The tracking however had a new problem, and due to a slight underfill the balloon flew further east than planned, finally landing 10 miles out to see near Aldeburgh. It has yet to be recovered. The flight did however achieve what was then the 4th highest UK flight.

This is my most recent flight. See my blog or my Flickr set.