Lake County Bigfooot Posted March 2, 2015 Posted March 2, 2015 (edited) Where is this $16000 figure coming from, I was given the impression that much more was already in place, and that half of the down payment of the craft was in place besides funding for the team on the ground? Drew where are you coming up with that figure. Seems like we need to get our facts straight, I'll be back.....so last August a benefactor gave them $250,000 dollars worth of airships and other equipment, I don't know if that was sold and that is where the money is coming from, but obviously it is going to take more than $16,000 to get the craft built, William made no mention of using those crafts in place of the one intended to be built when I spoke with him. http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CuD3hZv70fI/U-ka-Lvfb4I/AAAAAAAAEg8/1PFfp894UXE/s1600/Capture.JPG (see this link then read below) Falcon Project hopes to find Bigfoot with unmanned airship Photo illustration An unmanned, helium-filled airship is on local Bigfoot expert Jeff Meldrum’s wishlist. The ship would help search for Bigfoot. Posted: Sunday, January 25, 2015 3:47 am | Updated: 10:30 am, Thu Jan 29, 2015. By Mike Petrovsky For the Journal | 7 comments An Idaho State University professor who has dedicated his career to the study of Bigfoot has joined an effort with the end result of deploying an unmanned, helium-filled airship to find the elusive beast if it exists. Jeff Meldrum, an anatomy and anthropology professor at ISU, said in a press statement that he has been recruited as scientific adviser to the Falcon Project. The project will first use a team of volunteer trackers, biologists and wildlife specialists, many with military experience, called Sasquatch Trekkers, to identify telltale signs of Bigfoot — hair, remains, feces and even sounds, the professor said in the statement. The plan, according to Meldrum, is to have the Sasquatch Trekkers work around the clock for six months. The team intends to use GPS mapping of areas it considers would be potential lodging and food sources for what are known in scientific terminology as relict hominoids, or in layman’s terms, large, hairy, man-like Bigfoots. “Establishing the existence of the species based on physical remains is the ultimate goal of the search,†Meldrum writes. Once that goal is achieved, he writes, “Data collected by the Sasquatch Trekkers will establish the foundation for designing the aerial survey strategies utilized in the Falcon Project … and will provide the basis for the deployment of the Aurora airship and placement of the mobile command center and ground teams.†The Aurora is a 35-foot dual-cell catamaran-style airship. Meldrum said it can stay airborne for about 10 hours and carry a 75-pound payload consisting of cutting-edge thermal imaging cameras and high definition videography equipment. The professor said the airship will be operated and monitored by a knowledgeable ground crew. Thermal imaging is needed, Meldrum said, because the Bigfoot creature is considered to be nocturnal. The Aurora is the invention of Stephen Barclay, an aeronautical engineer and owner of Remote Aerial Tripod Systems, or RATS Inc. in Alberta, Canada. The Falcon Project itself is the brainchild of William Barnes of St. George, Utah, who believes that using drones, or UAVs, would be the best way to find North America’s great ape. Meldrum states Barnes believes he saw Bigfoot one summer night in 1997 at a remote gold-dredging camp in California’s Sierra Mountains. The project’s funding, like the Aurora itself, seems up in the air as of now. “Our team members are initially working on a volunteer basis until sufficient funds are available to compensate them for their time and expertise,†Meldrum told the Journal. The ISU professor also revealed a funding strategy for the project. “The Falcon Project is tapping the crowd sourcing pipeline, in addition to a select few significant and generous benefactors who desire only to be part of this historical exploratory project,†he told the Journal on Thursday. “Donations made to the ISU Foundation, which has established an account for the Falcon Project, provide a tax benefit to the donor, and assurance of institutional oversight, but we are not approaching the funding of this project as an ‘investment’ with expectations of individual dividends.†Meldrum emphasized the word “investment†in reference to a Wall Street Journal article published Wednesday about Carmine “Tom†Biscardi, a partner in the newly formed Bigfoot Project Investments, which seeks investors to raise up to $3 million in a proposed initial public offering, or IPO. According to the Wall Street Journal, the company intends to spend $113,805 a year on expeditions to find Bigfoot. But, if Meldrum has his way, not a penny of what Biscardi and his business partners raise from making movies of Bigfoot expeditions and selling the resulting DVDs will end up in Falcon Project coffers. "It is unfortunate that his story attracts such inordinate attention from the media when serious research and analysis of credible evidence is overlooked or trivialized," he said. "We will have no association with him or his activities.†Biscardi has lost a significant amount of credibility in Sasquatch circles, as explained in the Wednesday’s Wall Street Journal article. “In 2008, (Biscardi) held a news conference in Palo Alto, Calif., to detail his examination of what he said was the carcass of a male Bigfoot that checked in at 7 feet 7 inches tall and weighed more than 500 pounds,†The Wall Street Journal reports. “The Bigfoot, found by two men in Georgia, turned out to be a rubber gorilla costume stuffed with animal parts and outfitted with a set of teeth that may have been bovine in origin.†The Wall Street Journal report goes on to state that when the newspaper confronted Bacardi about the incident, he said he was deceived. So if it doesn’t intend to take any money raised by the discredited Biscardi and his planned IPO, how does the Meldrum’s Falcon Project intend to raise money for its venture? “Crowd-sourcing such as Kickstart and FanBacked offer incentives to individual donors like autographed books, VIP experiences in the field, in recognition of larger donors,†Meldrum said. The Falcon project includes its own VIPs. In addition to Barclay and Barnes, Meldrum in his press statement lists an impressive array of experts. Among them are Jim Halfpenny, a renowned tracker, licensed guide and founder of the Track Education Center and Museum in Gardiner, Montana; John Bindernagel, who has spent a 45-year career as a professional wildlife biologist with the Canadian International Development Agency with the United Nations; John Mionczynski, a wildlife consultant with 40 years’ experience in trapping, radio collaring and documenting food habits and behavior of grizzly bears in the Yellowstone Ecosystem of Montana and Wyoming for the Interagency Grizzly Bear Study Team and U.S. Forest Service; Bill Munns, who has 45 years of knowledge in what Meldrum calls the “creature business†or fabricating ultra-realistic physical models of living, extinct and fictitious creatures for Movies, TV, theme parks and Museum Exhibits and computer graphics imagery; and Pete Aniello, who has over 20 years’ experience in the geospatial field and is a technical manager at Environmental Systems Research Institute and has previously worked at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, the U.S. Geological Survey and Space Imaging. Whether the Falcon Project team’s ultimate goal of finding Bigfoot is achieved remains to be seen. © 2015 Idaho State Journal. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. Edited March 2, 2015 by Lake County Bigfooot
SWWASAS Posted March 3, 2015 BFF Patron Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) Note that the "impressive array of experts" does not include one person even remotely connected with aviation. The project is primarily an aerial camera platform and they do not have anyone listed with aviation experience. They will be led down the primrose path by engineers because no one has any practical experience with aviation. Even if it operates at altitude via autopilot and GPS, someone still needs to takeoff and land it. Edited March 3, 2015 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT
daveedoe Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 You should join the team. As an aviator, your knowledge could help with the project.
bipedalist Posted March 3, 2015 BFF Patron Posted March 3, 2015 Hell the optics alone on that gyrocamera would be worth 16 grand?!
Drew Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Hell the optics alone on that gyrocamera would be worth 16 grand?! Quoting William Barnes in the Coalition FB page: camera and drone $310.000 And: spelling/punctuation included regarding how much he has raised: 16.000 or more but have more donors coming
Lake County Bigfooot Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) Well William was not that eager to discuss the funding, only to say that he has some solid benefactors, so he might not have mentioned other donations that have been made, like the one Meldrum made public last August, this is because he knows if he divulged more he would have a bunch of parasites clinging to the project, and trying to find out who the benefactors are, which is why Meldrum was making a point to disassociate from Biscardi. SWWASP, I guess they will find out, William is the one who will be flying the craft, and he trust the builder to deliver what he has promised, but like your stating I am sure they will encounter difficulties and limitations they might not expect, or malfunctions in the systems, it is a test craft to a large extent, but one that has been done at a smaller scale with success, slightly larger platform and more complicated on board technology, bound to be some issues to be ironed out. Edited March 3, 2015 by Lake County Bigfooot
Faenor Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 I heard they were changing the name to the luddendorff and switching to hydrogen due to helium shortages and budget concerns. 2
Drew Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 What separated, dual envelope blimp has been done on a 'smaller scale with success'? Do you have a study, or a video of such a test?
SWWASAS Posted March 3, 2015 BFF Patron Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) Drew has another good point. One of the big problems with a blimp or dirigible is wind penetration because of its huge frontal surface. It is by design that the German dirigibles, and the more modern Navy blimps and Goodyear blimps right up to the present are cigar shaped to minimize frontal area while getting the cubic feet to produce lift with the elongated shape. More blimps have crashed due to wind than any other reason. The Hindenburg was pretty much a freak accident and unique. So the double bag thing appears to me to increase frontal area and thereby make it more susceptible to wind gusts. Not to mention the problem of trying to equalize lift and prevent list side to side. I suppose the Falcon folks will respond that they will spend more time hovering and not really going anywhere so frontal area is not a factor. That is where lack of aviation experience is telling. At their purported 4000 operational altitude, the normal wind flow at that altitude is a significant percentage of their projected maximum cruise speed. Just staying put and hovering into the wind to loiter will require airspeeds 10 to 15 knots on a calm day. Over mountain ridges it can be more than that and introduce up and down drafts that can even make it difficult for higher powered conventional aircraft to maintain altitude. An airship could well not have enough power to overcome downdrafts that will force it down into the trees. I just looked and the winds at 4000 over the PNW are about 10 knots. 15 knots is their stated limits. If they wait for calm winds at altitude, they might have to wait weeks between suitable windows to fly. Edited March 3, 2015 by SWWASASQUATCHPROJECT 1
SWWASAS Posted March 3, 2015 BFF Patron Posted March 3, 2015 You should join the team. As an aviator, your knowledge could help with the project. At this point a dose of reality would probably not be welcome. They needed aviation expertise from the concept and initial design phase through out the entire project. Barnes may not realize he is in over his head until the first time he brings his $330,000 airship in for a landing. I wonder if he has even flown a RC model airplane? Flying a real one and an RC model are even different. I have done both. You have to mentally put yourself inside a remote controlled airplane and that is a skill that takes time to learn.
Drew Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 Good point SWWAS, and we are talking about a 48' Long RC airship. Which will have probably have fuel on board to run generators for the electric motors as well.
BC witness Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 I think the implication is, SWWAS, that the Falcon will be flown as an FPV vehicle, which will put the pilot in the "virtual" cockpit, another steep learning curve, related to, but different than flying RC from the ground. At this time, I believe that both MAAC and AMA (Canadian and US governing bodies for model aircraft flight) require that all FPV flights must have a copilot with visual contact from the flight station with the aircraft. Another level of complication for the project, but an important safety consideration that could save the craft, as well as people/objects on the ground.
NathanFooter Posted March 3, 2015 Posted March 3, 2015 (edited) Will you have a laptop with cellular service to upload your data on a daily or weekly basis? What kind of field data are you going to collect? Sounds? Night vision recordings? Number of black bears in the area? What if you get to your spot and there just aint any Bigfoots? Will you be able to move? What if you contract a waterborne intestinal parasite, is there an extraction protocol? Dehydration works quickly, how fast are they promising to be able to get you out of there? We will be collecting all manner of environmental data ranging from seasonal resources to weather conditions. The effort will also be collecting information on other wildlife inhabiting and using the area. On our shift we will be collecting audio and conducting thermal surveillance of our designated posts. We will be rotating with day shift every 12 hours. We will all be outfitted with high end thermal and audio equipment for our shifts, we will have runners bringing in supplies and new batteries on a daily basis. Yes, there is an extraction and personnel replacement protocol with several others on stand by if a member goes down in the feild. We also do have a paramedic on our crew. Edited March 4, 2015 by NathanFooter
Lake County Bigfooot Posted March 4, 2015 Posted March 4, 2015 (edited) The patent for the idea goes back to 2008 http://www.google.com/patents/CA2493466C?cl=en Here is an example for a different application...propeller driven... The concept is sound, though I am sure that each individual craft will have to be tested and tweaked, it is still on the cutting edge of technology. Edited March 4, 2015 by Lake County Bigfooot
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