Aerospace Resolutions for a New Year

I know I’ve been talking a lot about mutoscopes (that thing took all my time), but I really will get back to balloons.  Here’s a shot of a new design I’m working on for short hops, it’s had two flights with two different riggings since september.  it’s a tetrahedron flying upside down.  I’m going to try to illustrate a second chapter to my balloon building guide in January, focusing on the short hop balloon.  There won’t be many flights though, because I’m moving to Portland.  That will be my last design for low flight and line control- next year I’ll be putting my ham license to good use on some higher altitude stuff.

Don’t hold me to it, but I want to get into automated flight control of solar hot air, with temp and light sensors inside a balloon and a controlled valve.

The rest of the time I’ll be composting, looking for a job in waste management, and trying to start a small business.  More on all that later, but the short of it is I want to work towards creating new blue collar jobs that manage enclosed resource cycles- i.e. engineering is great, but you’ll still need a plumber in space.