Hi
An update.... the Balloon just woke up in Turkmenistan and is heading for Uzbekistan.. yesterday there was a problem with the gps not handing off the data to the transmitter... so we used the wind plot to figure out the direction of the balloon.
http://qrp-labs.com/ultimate3/ve3kcl-balloons/ve3kcl-s9.htmlTo answer your question about aviation worries.. the payload including antenna weighs less than a house sparrow and is wrapped in insulating foam.
Some birds that weigh 20 times more, regularly fly over the Himalayas at 28000' and there is a vulture that can fly up to 37000 feet .. amazing
Weather balloons have never caused an accident in aviation since they were first used, and over 400000 of these balloons carrying a transmitter of a 250gms weight (over 10 times heavier than a sparrow) are launched every year.
Weather balloons expand to 16' sometimes but even in launch size, weather balloons are about 10 times bigger than the party balloons I launched.
The antenna on the balloon is designed to fail at 3lbs pull in case it catches on anything. The solar cells are so fragile that they shatter on contact with any object... I have done this a few times by mistake.
I cannot see any danger to commercial aviation that could be worse than a bird strike with a small sparrow. A Boeing that can weigh over 500000 pounds, would not be hurt even if it managed to find a balloon to hit... and that is probably one chance in a million.
Dave