🇮🇩 Balikpapan, Indonesia
Balikpapan is a mid-sized city in Indonesia. Real-Earth coordinates -1.250°, 116.830°, population 445,905. Quiet airspace and open terrain a couple of minutes out — a forgiving place to learn the sticks before you take them somewhere tighter. Skydex flies the real Earth here — the elevation, coastline and city layout under the aircraft come from the same data the map does, and the sky is shared with everyone else flying it.
Seen on the water near Balikpapan last 30 days, AIS via the Skydex feed
227 vessels on 11 days · 432 sightings (one vessel on one day) · type known for 141 of them.
Counted from the AIS positions the Skydex feed received here — sampled once a day in local daytime, plus whenever pilots fly here — not a port register. Ship tracking
Airports near Balikpapan within 120 km, heard by the Skydex receiver network
- Sultan Aji Muhamad Sulaiman Airport (BPN) · 7 km · 162 flights in 30 days
Flights are airline flight numbers our receivers heard heading to or from the airport, once a day each — not runway movements. All airports
Activity in Balikpapan
Flying conditions in Balikpapan
Sunrise 05:51 · Sunset 18:01 · 12 h 10 m of daylight (local time)
Verdict weighs gusts, precipitation and cold — the things that actually decide whether a drone or a bird has a good time up there. Sunrise and sunset are computed from the city's coordinates, not forecast. Forecast issued 2026-11-11 01:44 UTC and refreshed live in your browser. Weather by Open-Meteo (CC BY 4.0).
Flying weather in Balikpapan through the year
November in Balikpapan averages 27°C with winds around 12 km/h, and roughly 13% of days are good for flying — about 29 days see rain.
Fewest weather restrictions: July, September, October; March is the most restricted at 11% usable days. (That's about wind and rain, not comfort — check the temperatures below.)
| Month | Avg temp | Wind | Rain days | Good to fly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26.6°C | 13 km/h | 26 | 18% |
| February | 26.6°C | 13 km/h | 29 | 13% |
| March | 26.7°C | 12 km/h | 30 | 11% |
| April | 26.9°C | 12 km/h | 29 | 15% |
| May | 27.3°C | 12 km/h | 27 | 19% |
| June | 27.2°C | 13 km/h | 27 | 27% |
| July | 27.4°C | 16 km/h | 21 | 43% |
| August | 26.4°C | 14 km/h | 29 | 23% |
| September | 27.1°C | 14 km/h | 23 | 42% |
| October | 27.1°C | 13 km/h | 25 | 32% |
| November | 27°C | 12 km/h | 29 | 13% |
| December | 27°C | 13 km/h | 27 | 18% |
Based on ERA5 reanalysis. “Good to fly” counts days without strong wind, real rain or hard frost — the conditions that actually ground a drone.
Recent activity in Balikpapan
🛩 Where to fly a drone in Indonesia →
What you can do here
- Fly Balikpapan in an FPV drone or as a gull, from -1.250°, 116.830° — keyboard and mouse, a gamepad, or a real RC transmitter over USB.
- Check the weather first: live wind, gusts and cloud over the city, plus the month-by-month flyable-days table above.
- Watch real traffic — aircraft overhead and ships on the water come from live ADS-B and AIS feeds, not from a script.
- Meet other pilots in the same sky: city chat room, radio, and the walkie-talkie frequency for Balikpapan.