No one likes a rock-solid frozen squirrel, especially the squirrel. In order to keep our pilot warm we have to find a method to stay warm but not weigh the payload down too much for our lightweight mission goals. It is cold up there. FS3 climbed to 9,100m (just under 30,000 ft) before the signal […]
The Flying Squirrel #4 payload electronics package has been built and testing has started. The electronics are similar to the FS3 hardware, but a few changes were made to produce more heat inside the cabin and to clean up the board design. FS4 has a new electric blanket that can be switched on and off […]
A brave new Squirrel – Flying Squirrel #4 It was a busy winter and spring around Squirrel Engineering HQ, but despite a lot of non-squirrel projects a lot has been happening behind the scenes on the next HAB project, Flying Squirrel #4 (FS4) This article will bring you up to date on what has been […]
Rules, Rules and Rules Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer and these rules may have changed since this article was published. This article should be considered a helpful guide on where to find the rules you should follow. This article only describes the rules in the United States of America, other countries will have different […]
Our brave, and lucky squirrel is badly in need of a bath, but otherwise is in good shape and happily resting at home. FS3 launched at 10:29Am Dec 7th, 2018 and was performing very well as it flew over the tall San Bernardino Mountains to the west of our launch point. One hour and 24 […]
FS#3 phoned home! After being lost for exactly 1 month, our brave Flying Squirrel #3 has “phoned home”. Flying Squirrels all have a label on the outside and on the inside with an email address to use to report its location when found. Yesterday, I received an email informing me that a gentleman found Flying […]
Two of the primary goals of every Flying Squirrels mission is to: 1. Have Fun! 2. Learn stuff. We certainly had a lot of fun! A bunch of middle-aged hacker Geeks are never too old to play with a big balloon and laugh about it! And no matter the outcomes, we learn and use this […]
Get your 3D googles ready or just download the FS3 KML and load it into Google Earth. The image above shows the FS3 flight path, from a mountain level point to the South looking North. LA, Riverside and “The OC” would be off to the left of this image. The flight was short (Actually the […]
The graph above shows the ascent of FS3 into the sky, until the telemetry signal was lost. Our daring squirrel was a good climber! Each time stamp (Day:Hour:Min) is 2 mins apart. (Except for few missing data points). FS3 reach a last known altitude of 9,100 meters. (29,855 ft). If the balloon did not […]
In the world of Ham Radio, the Q-Code QRP stands for operating at low power. In a radio hobby where US hams are legally allowed up to 1500 watts of power, typical HF transceivers run 100 watts, and QRP is defined by operating at 5 watts or less (Some say 10 watts), our FS3 transmitter clocks […]
