Somewhere, dozens of miles east of St. Louis U. High, in a wooded area across the river, the SLUH weather balloon rests gracefully, at peace with the surrounding ecosystem. Somewhere. As for where that somewhere is … the weather balloon team remains unsure.
    The weather balloon made its inaugural trip of the 2020 school year a few weeks back, on Sept. 19. The balloon, which has been a member of the SLUH community for nine years now, consists of a light frame stuffed full with a flight computer, two cameras, a satellite tracker, a beacon, a parachute, and multiple sensors and probes tracking data like humidity, oxygen levels, and air temperature—not exactly something to lose. 
On the Sept. 19 flight, though, it fell back to the ground somewhere around Mount Vernon, Ill., about an hour's drive from SLUH. Environmental STEM teacher Bill Anderson and director of the IT Department Jonathan Dickmann were in hot pursuit the whole time. Following along by car, the duo was about a mile away when the balloon went down. 
The search and rescue process for the balloon had previously been fairly straightforward. This year however, due to a combination of irregular wind and weather patterns, the balloon went slightly off course and landed in a very rural, wooded section of Illinois. 
As a result, Dickmann and Anderson were forced to abandon the car and go trekking through the woods in search of the fallen balloon. Because it contains numerous high tech tracking devices, the balloon was in theory easy to find. On the ground though, many of the weather balloon’s location sensors did not work, leaving a noise emitting beeper as the only means of finding the balloon. 
A two-hour search yielded nothing, and the two teachers were forced to pack it up and head home, leaving only business cards (in case the balloon was found) behind.
“It was frustrating because we knew we were so close, and we searched the area so diligently but the tracker that we really needed to have work, failed,” said Anderson. “I don’t know where it is and it drives me nuts. I go back and look at pictures and I look at the maps still, and there’s still nothing.” 
A disappointing story indeed, but it doesn’t end there.  In typical SLU High fashion, collaboration and community turned a disappointing situation into, quite literally, an exciting ride.
After the failed rescue attempt, Dickmann spoke to fellow faculty member and biology teacher Bradley Mueller, who recently received his pilot’s license, and almost jokingly suggested a plane ride to survey the area around the fallen balloon. What started as a hypothetical muse quickly turned into reality, though, as Mueller, keen to fly, volunteered his skills for the challenge. After the initial search, the now trio of teachers set off once more to Illinois, in search of the lost payload. This time, though, they had only one part of the balloon in their minds: its parachute.
“The parachute’s not huge, but it's bright red and we were on the ground amidst a number of tall trees. Visually spotting (the parachute from the plane) would have been one possibility,” said Dickmann.
Free to roam the skies, the weather balloon team actually found themselves more constricted. Over populous areas, planes like the one Mueller was flying must stay over 1,000 feet, which made it difficult to spot much of anything. Once again, the search was unsuccessful, but its failure and resulting plane ride were still very fruitful to the team, for many reasons.
“It was a lot of fun,” said Dickmann. “I have my pilot’s license as well and for me, it was ... being in an airplane again, that by itself was a lot of fun, even if we weren’t able to spot the payload from the air.”
Mueller, the now official pilot, agreed, noting his colleagues' excitement as well.
“It was awesome. Mr Dickmann was extremely excited to go, and Mr. Anderson was hesitant but excited,” said Mueller.
For his part, Mueller’s flying skills received high ratings.
“Just the opportunity alone to fly with (Mueller) was great. It was amazing to see him outside of the classroom, in a totally different environment,” Anderson reflected. 
This year’s experience also exposed the flaws in the weather balloon and encouraged a redesign of some faulty technology.
“We’ve been having some issues with some of the devices, and we’d always been lucky enough to find it. Now we’re looking really hard at everything that went wrong,” said Dickmann. “It’s kind of nice to look through the whole project again. It’s a blessing in some ways.”
A blessing for future launches, no doubt, but it still can’t fix what might have been this year.
“I’m mostly disappointed for the guys because they worked exceptionally hard. We had a beautiful day for the launch so the pictures would have been spectacular,” said Anderson. “It’s a bummer.”

    Photo | Mr. Bradley Mueller