Box the Wind
Competition ballooning, easier
Free · Designed for iPad
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. Crew sees both the ballon position and theirs. The maps work both online and offline.
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. 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, with an AGL bar showing which level heads toward 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 Red, Yellow, Blue, and Red-Road zones and the contest boundary. Audible and on-screen warnings fire as you approach or infringe, with per-zone ceilings and floors.
• Offline maps. Download street and aerial imagery for your region before launch; it renders fully offline in the air.
• Practice mode. Log electronic marker drops and get the 2D or 3D distance to the target. A training tool, not official scoring.
• Recording. Every flight logs to GPX — replay, rename, share, or import.
... and more ...
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.
Ratings & Reviews
New in 1.3
• A tools menu — the wrench beside the gear holds the wind cone, task-to-task info, and the new measuring tool.
• Measure — drag a green and a red circle on the map for the distance and bearing between them, snapping onto a task target when you drop one close. One button moves an individual launch point to the green circle.
• Task-to-task info (T2T Info) — connector lines between your task targets, each leg labeled with distance and heading, chained from the launch point in task order.
• Nudge a target — long-press the active task target and step or hold-jog it with cardinal arrows. Step size is in 4/4 counts (Settings → Targets). A target you didn't move skips the confirmation.
• Two wind lines per target — set each bearing on a dial or to the exact degree; both draw dashed across the screen through the target, in their own colors.
• A clearer wind-cone scale bar — every altitude number now sits on the bar: ticks, both cone edges, your current altitude, and the exact altitudes whose drift heads at the active target.
• Wind model picker — HRRR (default), ECMWF, or GFS for the winds-aloft fetch (Settings → Winds Aloft).
• HDG and STR on the glance strip — your track over ground, and the turn from that track onto the bearing, left or right.
• The winds-aloft table now reads TOWARD, with a direction arrow and both AGL and MSL per level.
• Crew driving directions — in crew mode, a car button opens driving directions to the active target in Apple Maps or Google Maps (Settings → Targets).
• Clear Task List — wipe the flight title, tasks, and import URL in one confirmed tap.
• Wind smoothing settings — level-flight filter, memory, and vertical smoothing for measured winds, on a new Wind Cone screen.
• Send a GPX straight to Box the Wind — share a flight track from another app and pick Box the Wind. It's added to Recordings and you're offered a replay on the spot.
• Practice drops moved to the tools menu, and their 2D/3D separation altitude to Settings → Targets, which is now its own screen.
• The active target now shows a mark even before there's a balloon position, so the crew can see the selected target while waiting for the pilot to go live.
The developer, Jefferson Wagener, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Linked to You
The following data may be collected but it is not linked to your identity:
- Location
Accessibility
The developer has not yet indicated which accessibility features this app supports. Learn More
Information
- Seller
- Jefferson Wagener
- Size
- 13.1 MB
- Category
- Sports
- Compatibility
Requires iOS 16.0 or later.
- iPhone
Requires iOS 16.0 or later. - iPad
Requires iPadOS 16.0 or later. - Mac
Requires macOS 13.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
- iPhone
- Location
- This app may use your location even when it isn’t open, which can decrease device battery life.
- Languages
- English
- Age Rating
13+
- 13+
- Frequent
Contests
- Copyright
- © 2026 Jefferson Wagener
