"Mid-spring term, 2017, Dr. John Sohl came to give a colloquium talk to our students.  It is always great to see what is going on at other institutions and see what opportunities are out there.  

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Many who come to give colloquia are trying to recruit our students.  Dr. Sohl was also trying to recruit us as a department to fly and take images during the eclipse.

 

Talking to Dr. Sohl at the luncheon before the meeting, it became clear to many of us that this was just the sort of introductory experience in physics - real experimentation- which is reachable for incoming freshmen and might help grow our program.  Watching the talk confirmed that.

 

In fact, a number of years before, I had attended a Utah-Idaho chapter meeting of the American Association of Physics Teachers in which Dr. Sohl presented what he was doing with balloons.  At that time I was similarly impressed that it was something that we should and could do.  But the prospect was daunting, to say the least.  Many of the mechanisms we now have for supporting the department financially for such things were not really in place yet.  Nor were the administrative structures in place.  

 

After the colloquium there was a lot of chatter in the department that this was something we needed to do.  Relatively new changes on campus made it much more possible.  Campus had committed to help with the eclipse as well, so financial support was available there too.

 

However, the discussion was muted by the fact that the most qualified people to take on such a project either were already in the middle of big student projects, or had young families at home, and couldn't afford the outside time it would take.  That is, if it were to happen, they were stuck with me.

 

So we 'hung out our shingle,' and made it known that we were going to build a team, and take on the eclipse as our first big project.  Aileen Godfrey promptly hunted me up to say that she wanted to do this.  So, we made her team lead.  That means she was both the manager and the system engineer for the project.

 

Now Dr. Solhl had imagined that we would tag along for a couple of flights, and then make a flight or two in tandem with them in preparation for the eclipse.  Maybe we might develop our own team after that.  ...

 

By this point, Dr. Sohl was in Nepal.  - He is a skilled outdoorsman, and works on Weber County Search and Rescue, specializing in climbing accident rescues.  And around the time of his Nepal pilgrimage, he had surgery.  So while we had some contact and help by email, we were largely on our own.

 

I tried to glean what I could from published sources and online, but it was clear that I wasn't becoming an expert anytime soon.  I told Aileen that we were going to have to parse out projects to team members, and they were going to have to scrounge what they could to prepare.  

 

We were going to get a chance to participate in a launch - I think it was in mid-April- with Dr. Sohl, but we needed to purchase gear and be as far along as we could.  The eclipse was already breathing down the back of our necks.  

 

As an example of how we worked, one of the tracking choices often used was the Spot Trace tracker.   When Nonnie Woodruff stopped by my office wanting to participate, I asked her to learn about the Spot Trace and find out how to purchase it and run it.  She dropped by my office many times for direction.  I helped as much as I could, but she quickly became our Spot Trace Expert.

 

So when the Weber State Harbor team came to launch with us, we were ready and chomping at the bit!  Aileen had tracked down a Sense Hat/Raspberry Pi, we ordered it, and she had it ready to fly on Harbor's payload string.  Harbor's team members graciously let us crowd in and watch, and even asked us to help them.  They taught a very willing team.  As I remember, we launched from a site just at the mouth of Birch Creek Canyon.

 

That was on a Tuesday or Wednesday.  Saturday of the same week we made our first independent launch!  On that occasion, we made all the right mistakes!  We forgot the cut-down.  This is where I did something really smart without being smart to do it:  they asked me what we should do about the cutdown.  I didn't know, so I told them 'I don't know.' We started talking through the principles and consequences of our choices - I didn't really add much.  The balloon would pop without it, but it was a legal requirement.  They decided to send Brother Lines after it. (The trip took him something like three hours!)  

 

This was a defining moment for the team.  They stepped up and took responsibility, and I have been in the back seat ever since.  Brother Lines experience with Scouting helped him recognize this success, and keep me - us- from messing up this independence.   I rather rarely step in and make a decision."

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-Brother Ryan Nielson, faculty advisor, on how the team got its start