The Flying Squirrel #4 High Altitude Balloon took flight on June 17th, 2019 10:09Am PDT. This movie visualizes the GPS data collected on the flight via a radio link using FT8 telemetry protocol.

Flying Squirrel #4 flew to an altitude of 83,936 feet before the balloon burst. Some data was lost during the drop due to the antenna wires tangling during the fall. The flight did not drop as dramatically as the end of the video shows.

The max altitude of 83,936 feet is 15.9 miles high. To visualize what this looks like from distant places, the start of the video is a quick tour from Sacramento, CA, Las Vegas, NV, Sand Diego, CA and Riverside, CA showing views of the flight path as it would look from each of these locations. Even as far as Sacramento the very highest point of the flight is just barely visible on the horizon. From the other cities you see how the balloon flight towered over the tallest mountains.

73s de Don KJ6FO