The hobby that circles the globe.

Note: A generated audio podcast of this episode is included below for paid subscribers.

⚡ The Signal

The maker movement has left the garage and is heading for the stratosphere. Thanks to the falling cost of hardware, solar power, and low-power telemetry, launching a tiny balloon that can circle the globe for months is no longer the exclusive domain of research institutions. For just a few hundred dollars, dedicated hobbyists can now build and launch their own pico balloons to explore the upper atmosphere, creating a new class of amateur scientists and explorers.

🚧 The Problem

While the hardware has become accessible, the software is stuck in the past. Tracking a pico balloon requires stitching together a fragmented collection of amateur radio tools and websites like APRS.fi and WSPRnet. These systems are powerful but unintuitive, designed by and for radio experts. The experience is clunky, isolating, and utterly fails to capture the magic of sending your own creation on a multi-month journey around the world. There’s no narrative, no easy way to share the adventure, and no central hub for the growing community.

🚀 The Solution

Enter FlytePath, the mission control for hobbyist pico balloonists. We provide a slick, all-in-one platform to visualize real-time flight paths on an interactive 3D globe, analyze performance data, and share your mission with a dedicated community. FlytePath ingests data from the messy collection of radio protocols and transforms it into a single, elegant, and shareable story. It turns a niche technical pursuit into a global adventure.