FAQ
Looking for how something works rather than why? The Guide is the full reference, and the Cheat Sheet is the one-line version.
General
What is Box the Wind?
A map- and position-centric app for hot air balloon competition flying (BFA / FAI AX rules). It shows the day's tasks, your live position on street/aerial maps, navigation to the active target, wind drift and closest approach, declared goals, the contest area and prohibited zones, and live pilot-to-crew tracking — all working offline once maps are downloaded.
What devices does it run on?
iPhone and iPad running iOS 16 or later. iPad is the primary in-basket device; an iPhone works well for crew.
Does my iPad have GPS?
Cellular iPads have a GPS receiver. Wi-Fi-only iPads do not — they work out their position from nearby Wi-Fi networks, which is no use aloft or away from town.
A cellular iPad needs no SIM and no data plan for GPS. The receiver works on its own. Worth knowing, because buying a cellular iPad purely for the GPS chip and never activating service is a normal competition setup, and the empty SIM tray makes it look like there's no GPS.
To check: Settings › General › About › Model Name, or look for the SIM tray.
Box the Wind can't tell you which you have. iOS reports neither the technology behind a fix nor whether the device has a GPS radio, so the source pill reads Pilot · GPS either way. The symptom to watch for is a balloon that sits in the wrong place or jumps hundreds of meters at a time — that's Wi-Fi positioning.
It costs you more than position: Wi-Fi fixes carry no useful altitude, so the altitude readout, AGL-based warnings, and 3D drop scoring all need real GPS.
What do I do if my iPad doesn't have GPS?
Pair an external Bluetooth GPS receiver. The Garmin GLO 2 is verified working with Box the Wind.
Setup is Bluetooth pairing and nothing else: pair the GLO 2 in iOS Settings and Box the Wind picks it up — no setting to change in the app, no companion app to leave running.
That works because iOS only takes location from receivers in Apple's MFi program, and an MFi receiver feeds Location Services directly, so every app sees its fixes. Receivers sold as MFi-compatible behave the same way; the GLO 2 is the one we've flown.
The alternatives: fly with an iPhone or a cellular iPad, or run the Wi-Fi-only iPad as the crew device, where the balloon's position arrives over the relay and the iPad's own location is only used for the blue crew dot.
Do I need a network connection to fly?
Not for the map and navigation. With signal the app streams tiles as you go; without it, a downloaded area renders offline. The download is optional insurance against a dead spot, not a setup step to clear before you fly. Live pilot-to-crew tracking does need a data connection on both devices, since positions travel over the internet.
What is the row of numbers across the top?
The glance strip. TGT = active target's 4/4. The altitude cell reads AGL or MSL (your choice in Appearance). BRG = bearing to the target. HDG = your track over ground. STR = the turn from HDG onto BRG, left or right. DIST = distance to the target. MISS = closest approach on your present drift, and the time to it. CTR = the 4/4 under the center crosshair.
What's the pill in the top-left corner?
The status pill. It shows your source and link state (e.g. REPLAY, CREW · LIVE, PILOT · GPS · Go Live). In pilot mode it's also the Live toggle for recording and broadcasting (see Recording).
The 4/4 grid & coordinates
What is a 4/4 coordinate?
An easting/northing within a 100 km UTM square, in 10 m units (e.g. 0280/8012). Box the Wind resolves it through a configurable grid reference, center-pinned to the nearest 100 km instance so the square straddles both axes and the official digits are preserved. Every target, goal, CTR readout, and keypad entry converts through that reference — an off-area grid center is the usual cause of mislocated targets. Set it with “Use Map Center as Grid Center.”
Zones & the contest area
Why can I only have one active contest area?
The active contest area is the boundary used to validate declared goals. You can import several and switch which one is active; only the active one gates goals.
Does the app respect the colors in my KML?
Yes — that's how a Regions file sorts itself. Red, yellow, and blue reach the three categories that drive warnings; any other color imports as an Other zone, drawing in its own color and driving no rule. The Appearance color for a category is the fallback for a zone that arrived without one, not an override. Full detail in the Guide.
Why only three import buttons for five kinds of zone?
Because the colors in the file can sort red from yellow from blue, but nothing in a file says whether a line is a PZ boundary, a road centerline, or the contest boundary — and measuring the shape doesn't settle it either. So Import Regions…, Import Roads…, and Import Contest area… declare the role, and the file's own colors do the rest. Roads is the only one that applies a keepout corridor.
My file has no colors in it. What happens?
The app asks which category to use before the file picker opens — Red, Yellow, or Blue. PLT and GPX usually land here, since neither format carries styling. A file that does carry its own colors ignores the choice.
Can I use holes or multi-part zones?
Every ring in a placemark is captured, so a multi-ring zone displays. Inner-ring “holes” aren't applied — a hole draws as another ring rather than as a gap. Each placemark becomes its own zone, named from the file, so a ceiling or floor is set per zone; the exception is a contest-area import, where every placemark in the file is combined into one zone.
How do I hide the zones that don't drive a rule?
Settings → Appearance → Layers → Other Zones. Yellow zones have their own toggle in the same list.
Warnings & altitude
What's the difference between AGL and MSL?
Toggle the altitude reference in Settings → Appearance → Altitude readout; the glance-strip altitude cell relabels itself to match. AGL is your MSL altitude minus the terrain elevation sampled directly under the balloon, from a digital elevation model (AWS Terrarium) fetched live on a connection or read from the offline pack harvested alongside your maps, interpolated bilinearly between tile posts. It falls back to your configured site elevation only when you're offline and that area isn't downloaded. AGL needs an altitude in the fix; live GPS and recorded GPX have one, a bare simulated location does not.
Tasks & import
What happens when I re-import?
Re-importing replaces the whole list with the new sheet. Any active-target selection resets.
Targets & navigation
Why does tapping the map do nothing?
Because a target is already active. A map tap is ignored while one is, so a stray touch can't move your target out from under you in flight. Tap Clear target first; then a tap near a task target selects it, and a tap in open space drops an ad-hoc one.
How do I add a task for a point that isn't on the sheet?
Long-press the map where you want it and tap New Task — that adds a Pilot Declared Goal task at that 4/4, at the end of the list. The same menu will instead append the point as a target on any existing task you pick. A short tap can't do either: it only selects an existing target, or drops an ad-hoc point that belongs to no task.
What does MISS mean exactly?
If you held your present drift, MISS is how close you'd pass the target (closest approach), and the time until you reach that point. It's a quick read on whether you're on line.
Wind & the wind cone
Where does the forecast come from?
Either an online winds-aloft forecast at your position (Open-Meteo, no key) or an NCEP BUFKIT station sounding, depending on the Wind model you pick. Fetch it via Winds Aloft before launch; it's cached for offline use, and measured layers replace it as you fly. Full detail — models, altitude conversion, and how the wind cone reads it — is in the Guide.
Why would I pick a Sounding model over HRRR?
RAP Sounding and HRRR Sounding read the model's own native levels, which are much denser through the lower altitudes than the pressure ladder the position models return. The trade is position: a sounding is read at the nearest reporting station, not at you. The Station row beside the fetch names it with its distance and bearing, and the distance turns amber past about 30 miles.
Can I load a wind profile from my own sonde?
Yes. Settings → Winds Aloft → Import Wind Profile… reads OTM CSV, OTM DAT, Ozi XML, and Paddy Cake telemetry CSV, detected from the file's contents rather than its extension. It replaces the forecast; your own measured drift still supersedes it aloft.
My wind profile import was refused. Why?
Four reasons, each said plainly in the error. The format wasn't recognized. There weren't enough levels to build a profile. The file declared no speed unit (SpdUnits) — guessing between mph and knots is a silent 1.6× error, so the app refuses instead. Or a Paddy Cake log implied an ascent rate outside the plausible range, which usually means its altitude column is in meters where the app expects feet. A refused import changes nothing; the forecast you had is still there.
Declaring goals
How do I declare a goal in flight?
Tap Declare Goal, choose the task, and enter the goal's 4/4 on the keypad — or tap “Use Crosshair Location.” Confirm to stamp it onto the task as the active target.
Why is my goal pin red, and why won't it confirm?
The ghost pin is green inside the active contest area and red outside it. A goal outside the contest area is blocked — you can't declare one off-area. Make sure you've imported and activated the correct contest area.
Why are only some tasks offered for Declare Goal?
The list leaves out the task types whose position the judges set — JDG, HWZ, FIN, HNH, WSD, GBM, CRT, RTA, APT — and the launch points, CLP and ILP. Everything else is offered, because the rules let the pilot name a position for it. It's a deny-list rather than a short allow-list on purpose: a task type we hadn't thought of should still be declarable rather than silently missing from the picker.
The same list drives Add Target Here on a long-press of open map.
Source & live tracking
What are the source options?
Replay (play back a recording), Crew (receive the pilot's live position), and Pilot · GPS (this device's GPS). Set it in Settings → Source.
How does live pilot-to-crew tracking work?
The pilot broadcasts position over a private channel; the crew subscribes to it. The channel is derived from a Flight code + Password that both set identically, so only your team sees the balloon. A flight code is required to broadcast — with none, the pilot flies solo. We run the link ourselves — no third-party tracking feed.
On the crew device, your own location shows as a blue dot, always separate from the pilot's balloon. The pilot can also push the task list to the crew: after editing tasks the crew gets a “Pilot Updated Tasks” prompt to accept or ignore, so both fly the same tasks without re-importing.
What if the link drops?
The crew sees a stale indicator with the balloon held at its last known spot — never a frozen balloon shown as if it were live. A stationary pilot still reads as LIVE thanks to a periodic heartbeat.
What does “solo” mean?
If no flight code is set, you're flying solo: the app still records and navigates, but doesn't broadcast. The pill shows · solo.
Is my position private?
Yes. Only devices that know your exact flight code and password can join the channel. See the Privacy page for details.
Recording
Does recording keep going if the screen locks?
Yes — the app uses background location, so it keeps recording and broadcasting with the screen off.
Can I get a flight track out of another app and into Box the Wind?
Yes. Share the GPX from whatever app holds it and pick Box the Wind from the share sheet — it lands in Settings → Recordings and the app offers to replay it straight away. Settings → Recordings → Import GPX… does the same thing from the other direction, if the file is already in Files or iCloud.
Troubleshooting
My targets are in the wrong place.
Your grid center is probably set elsewhere. Re-center it on your contest area (Settings → Grid Center), then re-check the tasks.
The map is blank or grey.
Give online tiles a moment to load, or download offline maps for your area. If you're offline outside your downloaded cells, there's nothing to show there.
“No tasks found” when importing.
The link may be a results sheet, a scanned-image PDF, or a page with no tasks yet. Double-check the TDS link, or add tasks manually with Add Task (the + in the task list).
The crew can't see the pilot.
Confirm both devices use the exact same flight code and password, that the pilot has tapped Go Live, and that both have a data connection.
Still stuck?
Email [email protected] with your device, iOS version, and what you were doing.