So I got super curious last weekend about how far a balloon could actually travel. Found an old weather balloon in my garage from that failed science project two years ago and thought, “Why not stick a tracker in it?” Grabbed my phone’s old SIM card, a cheap prepaid one with data leftover, and taped it inside a plastic sandwich bag with a tiny power bank. Real redneck engineering but hey – it worked!
My janky setup:
- Used duct tape to strap the phone-battery combo to the balloon neck
- Drew a dumb smiley face on it so people might not freak out if it landed in their yard
- Turned on Google location sharing to my main phone before letting go
Launched it from my backyard around 11 AM. Wind was kinda strong – balloon shot up crazy fast like a rocket! Watched it shrink to a dot in like two minutes. Refresh my phone map… no movement?? Panicked thinking my tape job failed until suddenly the dot jumps half a mile northeast. Phew.
Wildest things that happened:
- Saw it do loop-de-loops over the river on the map – altitude shifts messed with the signal
- Stalled for 20 mins above some farm, probably got stuck in a tree
- Randomly booked it south doing 30mph when a storm cell rolled through
Total flight time: Almost five hours. Battery died at 4 PM when the dot froze near Highway 54. Drove out there and asked at a gas station – clerk actually saw it crash in the woods behind Dollar General! Took me 20 mins crawling through brambles to find it covered in mud, still grinning with that stupid smiley.
Final distance? 48 freakin’ miles! Thought it’d go maybe ten. Learned three big things though:
- Cheap tape survives rain better than expensive tape (seriously)
- Balloons absolutely hitch rides on weather fronts
- Always pack snacks when chasing rogue smiley balloons