Box the Wind

Box the Wind is for flying a balloon competition with a simplified IT layer. Fly, don't fight the computer or app. It's for the pilot in the basket and the crew chasing them. This is a competition-specific ballooning app, not a general one. Its features are focused on what the competition pilot needs, and no more. It is designed to fly next to the BLS and BLA setup and replace a cumbersome IT setup. Load the day's tasks, pick a target, and get live bearing, distance, and closest approach on your current drift. See the contest area, the prohibited zones, and the balloon live. The maps work both online and offline, in case of a lost signal aloft. WHAT'S IN IT • Tasks, shared. Import a WatchMeFly task sheet via URL (web page or PDF), edit it, tap a target to make it active. Marker color, number, and timing sit right in the list. Long-press the active target on the map to nudge it, or open map to add a task or a target there. The crew can import the pilot's tasks whenever they change, or run their own version. • The wind cone. Your measured drift by altitude plus a forecast sounding or an imported measured profile, with an AGL bar carrying the cone edges, where you are, and the altitudes whose drift heads at the target. • Live tracking support for the crew. Position flows pilot to crew over a private channel in real time. A clear stale marker shows if the link drops. The crew's own position shows too. • Declare goals easily. Auto-find the 4/4 from the display center, or key one in during flight, checked against the contest area before you commit. • Zones and warnings. Import your regions, roads, and contest boundary from KML, PLT, or GPX, keeping the colors and names the files carry. Audible and on-screen warnings fire as you approach or infringe, with per-zone ceilings and floors. • The tools menu. The wrench beside the gear holds the wind cone, task-to-task legs, a measuring tool, and practice drops. • Offline maps. Download street and aerial imagery for your region before launch; it renders fully offline in the air, terrain elevation included. • Practice mode. Log electronic marker drops and get the distance to the target, scored 2D or 3D against the separation altitude you set. A training tool, not official scoring. • Recording and replay. Every flight logs to GPX — replay with a transport bar, rename, share, or import. Send a track from another app and it lands here. Built to BFA/FAI AX conventions: the UTM 4/4 grid, the standard task types. Show units in metric, imperial, or a mixed mode that keeps altitude in feet and distance in meters. Actually, for real, free. No account. No ads. No tracking. Your location is used only to show your position, recording and sharing only when you want. Actively supported and listening to requests.