12 Days of FME

Hello balloonists.Here’s a day 8 video recap.Today I cover the fixes I made for bad reports, the latest standings, and I have a meeting in 30 seconds, so you’ll have to watch it to find out what else!  CheersMark

Hello FME friends,If you remember, the 12 Days of FME contest for 2024 has a special prize for data visualization. The idea is to download some of the data from the contest and (preferably using FME) analyze it and visualize it. The best visualization wins a US$100 gift card!It just occurred to us that you don’t even need to have launched a balloon! You can do a visualization anyway! This part of the contest is open to anyone.So, this thread is where I suggest you post your visualization entries. It might be a simple image, a link to an online map, a video animation, or…. anything you can think of.Here are some ideas I came up with. Feel free to use any of these, or create your own:Did any balloons crash into each other? I didn't test for that. If not, what was the smallest distance between two balloons? Assume that a balloon is 20m in diameter and 30m in height. Can you visualize who did the best airport avoidance? i.e. who would have crossed over an airport, if they had not made a co

The race is over, and the 328 balloons have ‘landed’!Over the past two weeks, FME users from around the globe took to the virtual skies in our 12 Days of FME Contest. Pilots navigated their virtual hot air balloons in an epic journey powered by FME Flow - racing for distance, speed, and more.Now, it’s time to announce the winners!Top Point Scorer: With an impressive 330 points, Team Cloudchaser (​@holdsy) takes the top spot and wins a stunning Mova Globe!Second Place: With 308 points, Team Community Cats (​@cmkenned7) claims second place and also wins a Mova Globe.Furthest Distance: Team Boskalis (​@nielsgerrits) travelled the furthest distance of 34,901.9 km and wins a $50 Amazon gift card.Fastest Balloon: Team Jessica (​@jessicap) travelled at the fastest speed of 374.6 kph and wins a $50 Amazon gift card.Country Flyovers: Flying over an impressive 32 countries, Team CloudConnector (​@ulfme) takes the prize for most countries crossed and wins a $50 Amazon gift card.Safe Office: Team

Hi folks.So, scoring will shut down at 08:30am PST this morning. From then on, the balloons will float, and the map will update, but the leaderboards and records will remain at their final scores.Unfortunately… I managed to shut it down at 08:30am UTC by mistake. Sorry. So the scoreboards will not have updated properly for the last 6 hours or so. No points have been lost. Just the displays wouldn’t have shown the correct scores. They are correct now.Apologies for that. Good luck for the final hour.Mark

Oops. I just remembered that I made a recap video, but didn’t post a link to it here!Things are getting very exciting as we head into the last 24 hours of the contest!

FME friends and balloon fanatics!It is getting very exciting now, with under 72 hours of the contest remaining. So here’s a very brief post about the latest news…PointsThe top of the leaderboard is switching about on a regular basis now. Cloudchaser (296 pts) is currently top, heading eastwards over Canada with very little in their way (countries or airports). CommunityCats  (294) had dropped down the order until… they arrived in North America. That’s 10 points for the continent and 5 points for the USA… sadly reduced by passing straight over an airport. But they are now 2nd.SaskUAV (284) in 3rd also reached America, but is issuing commands obviously designed to avoid airports, and seems in a good position. If they reach the Canadian border without an airport hit… who knows?SafeSwanAbout just issued a command that took them straight into the path of at least 2 airports (Bellingham and Abbotsford). It’s not to pick up airports, in fact, if you know where those airports are, it will give

Hi FME Community! Registration is open for the 12 Days of FME Contest 👏 Sign-up here to prepare for the official balloon launch on December 3.About the ContestReady, set FLY! Join us for a fun-filled 12 Days of FME Community Contest!From December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community will be hosting its annual winter contest - a balloon race powered by FME Flow.Grab your virtual hot air balloon and compete in real-time with other users worldwide as you pilot your balloon on a thrilling journey around the world!How It WorksLogin to your FME Community account or sign-up for a free account if you’re not yet a registered user.  Visit the 12 Days of FME Contest page and click the Register button. Choose your team name and home country for your balloon. Come back on December 3 when the contest goes live. Choose a launch location for your balloon or let the system launch it for you! Note: to start everyone in the same general area, launch locations must fall somewhere within Great Britai

FME friends,We’re getting close to the end of the 12 Days contest, and here is the latest news…UpdatesI made a few small updates to the system yesterday.The Closest Shave results were fixed to be correct and now show the top 10 users. I added a new layer to the map: Other Balloons (12 Hours) which shows just the last 12 hours of data. It’s great for decluttering the map. It’s also got a thicker line width, so you can add it to the Other Balloons layer and see both at once. I added the oxygen remaining number to the Leaderboard, so you can see how much oxygen the leaders still have.WeatherThe leading balloons are all heading over North America right now. If they can make it just halfway across, there appears to be a great weather system that may bring them over the Atlantic and back to Europe.That’s the winds at 4,200m, so no need for oxygen. The 10,000m winds look even better - with the slight chance of a new speed record - provided you have oxygen to get you to that level. Check out t

Hello FME friends,Here’s a short written recap about where we are so far…OutageYesterday (10th Dec) there was a short period when API calls weren’t working. It may have left some balloons without positions for a few hours. I really apologise for that. I’ve updated my code and it shouldn’t happen again.Current WeatherThe jet stream that has carried so many balloons around the world persists, but suddenly comes to a halt at the eastern side of the Pacific.Some balloons are getting shunted north, some south, and a lucky few are in a narrow slot that continues on across Canada and its 50 provinces to the south (joke!)I think the best scoring opportunities lie in continuing to the east, but it will take some delicate maneuvering to navigate and keep going in that direction. This could be the most important part of the game so far!Current LeadersI wanted to list the current leaders in each prize category.Top Points Scorers: Dirkdeballonvaarder (269 pts) and CommunityCats (263). But Dirk is c

Hello balloonists.Here’s a recap from day 4 of the 12 Days of FME. Today I explain the important topic of oxygen supplies, and how to time your balloon commands to get the most out of these precious resources. Don’t forget to check the video timeline for markers for the different sections. The oxygen discussion starts at 08:45, for example.

Hi balloonists! Just for you, here is a video recap of day 3. In it I cover the current scores, when weather data is updated, who the air-traffic control voices are, and why it takes so long to load airports in the map!Look at the video timeline to see the different sections of the video and find which ones interest you the most! I hope you’re all having fun! 

Ready, set, FLY! Join us for the exciting launch of the 12 Days of FME Community Contest.From December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community is hosting its annual winter contest - a balloon race powered by FME Flow.Join us for a live webinar on Tuesday, December 3 from 8:00 am to 9:00 am PST. The Safe Community Team will guide you through all the essentials: how the contest works, how to join in, and a behind-the-scenes look at how it was built with FME Flow.The fun kicks off with our live launch of the balloon game, where you’ll compete in real-time with FME Community members from around the world!Discover how FME Flow brings the contest to life, using a blend of web apps, webhooks, APIs, and custom HTML.Throughout the session, enjoy interactive polls and activities to connect with other FME enthusiasts. Plus, we’ll show you how to stay engaged during the contest in the FME Community Forums.Don’t miss your chance to join the action, put your skills to the test, and connect with th

The 12 Days of FME Contest is live! Register here and launch your virtual balloon. Then, share your team name on the Question of the Week.About the ContestFrom December 3 to December 17, 2024, the FME Community is hosting our annual winter contest: a balloon race powered by FME Flow. Launch your virtual balloon and steer it around the world, scoring points for different activities.FME is used to manage the contest - from simulating the balloon travel (using an API called Tawhiri) to providing reports to contestants during the game.How to Take PartYou can do as little as register a balloon and watch it float off into the distance. But, if you want to be a little more active, you can check out weather forecasts and predictions and change the altitude of your balloon to give you the best speed and direction. Can you use FME in the contest? Of course! You can use FME to:Analyze weather data and forecasts Generate reports that the game doesn’t have (the data download page gives you access t