The Flight of Felix The Loper

The dean of the College of Natural and Social Sciences at this time was rather fixated on public relations. As the funder/sponsor of this exercise he insisted that a toy representing the university's sports mascot be featured. Therefore, the students dutifully mounted the figure (herein renamed Felix the Loper né Louie the Loper as an homage to Felix Baumgartner) center frame and recorded its entire trip to the stratosphere and back. In academia one rebels via whatever channel is available.

On 26 April 2014 between 11:13:00 and 11:23:00 local time an intrepid crew of UNK students and faculty launched a balloon from N40.70031 W99.10357 (Flag # 06)

At ≈ 10 minute intervals we received position data until 11:56:37 (Flag # 10). The next position data we received was fifty minutes later at 12:46:36 (Flag # 11). Four missing data points, obviously, aliens are involved!

At approximately 13:42:46 the package touched ground near Dannebrog, NE at N41.12399 W98.51419 (Flags 14 through 27)

Our intrepid chase team arrived and parked their cars at N41.12975 W98.50818 (Flag 29) and proceeded to search for the landing zone

The team left the LZ at 15:24:39 to return to their cars at about 15:42:39 and subsequently returned to UNK with the package.

Saturday, 26 April 2014 Felix the Loper, as in Baumgartner, took a ride attached to a Helum filled balloon into the stratosphere.

Felix Goes Up : Video set to some music I think of as rather appropriate.

Felix the Loper, in the stratosphere.

The Balloon Explodes at T ≈ 3:55

The Balloon Breaks : No sound track as the lack of significant sound above ten or so miles is rather intense.

Felix the Loper, Landing near Dannebrog, Nebraska.

Landing Site Reached at T ≈ 7:55

Felix Landing : No sound track again, primarily as the result of a lack of inspiration. At ≈ 1:11, Felix gets slapped by the Shredded Balloon.

Lifted from Original Recording

07:54 - 49:26