To much relief, Alban the school mascot was recovered from a tree in a field in Cheshire. See this write-up in the local Cambridge newspaper.
The “floater” flight initially did very well, ascending at the target rate (which is a challenge in itself with these flights), and turning west at the predicted latitude. It then achieved a float but only for a couple of hours, when the balloon burst resulting in a wet landing off the coast of Blackpool. During the flight many images were sent down over the radio link, so it was a good flight though the aim wasn’t achieved.
Because of it’s height, I could still receive the signal here in the middle of the Netherlands until the burst. The distance was more than 610km. After the burst, the signal immediately dropped in the noise and was gone after that. The burst was sad, but I enjoyed following your balloon on my screen and saved a lot of screenshots. I hope to receive your Pi in the sky next saturday. I follow your blog with great interest. Thanks Dave.