The mission has had big ups and big down and is still in progress. The three PongSats and in house research missions went extremely well. All the vehicles and PongSats recovered. The later flights of the two vehicles we flew for a clients research also went very well.
The bad part is that we had an accident during the recovery operation. Karl was injured when the truck he was driving rolled. He is doing very well in the hospital in Reno and is expected to full recover and be release in a few days. The other occupant of the truck was not hurt. Karl is in great spirits, but this was out first serious accident in 35 years and it’s rattled the team a bit.
We are heading out again in a few hours to retrieve the last two vehicles. They are pretty high up a mountain in rugged terrain however, they look very recoverable.
More news as it unfolds.
JP
Away 65 up top with PongSats
I’m doing well at this time. I’ll have surgery tomorrow and current forecast from the doctor is a full recovery in a couple of months.
Good luck on the vehicle recovery, JP.
Hang in there, Karl. As you recover, please know that we are all part of your recovery mission team. Please make sure your clicker hand is working. If not, perhaps a helmet for direct brain control of the gas-fill clicker would be in order. Should we send chocolate? flowers? money?
i had surgery over Saturday without event, still some swelling this morning, but much lower than Saturday evening. Surgery was somewhat more extensive than I had first understood. There was a break in the upper arm and in the shoulder joint uh, “housing” (rather than two breaks in the upper arm). But it sounds like it won’t significantly increase recovery time.
As an aside not only did this accident illustrate the well-known virtues of seat belts and getting on the good side of blind luck, but it went a lot better because of widespread first aid knowledge and because everyone kept their cool. I fared much better merely because I knew to put pressure on my bleeding injuries and stabilize my bone breaks and there was a lot of first aid experience among the people in my car group.
First aid skills are valuable life skills even if you don’t drive in the desert. If you’re reading this and don’t know much about first aid, consider it a warning to learn something. There is no part of society that is so safe that you never will run into trama, sickness, or be injured yourself. The more you know, the more you can help yourself, those you love, and anyone you happen to have the chance to help.
I’m thankful to everyone who was involved in rescuing me or who called and supported me over the weekend. The Renown Hospital of Reno where I spent the past five days also is amazing and I’m quite impressed by what I’ve seen.
[...] injured recently in a aerospace testing accident (though not the sort of aerospace testing accident one would expect). Sounds like he’ll fully [...]
Thanks for the advice, Karl. First aid training is officially on my to-do list this year. Keep recuperating!
Hope you have a speedy recovery.