Hello FME friends,
Here’s a short written recap about where we are so far…
Outage
Yesterday (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 Weather
The 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 Leaders
I wanted to list the current leaders in each prize category.
Top Points Scorers: Dirkdeballonvaarder (269 pts) and CommunityCats (263). But Dirk is circling round the way he came and about to run into a large spaceport in Alaska. CommunityCats is just approaching the end of the jet stream. Let’s see what the future holds for them.
Fastest Balloon: AlaskaMapScience (373.333kph). This is going to be hard to beat, I think, but there are still strong winds off Japan, for anyone who is in the right place at the right time. I fixed the problem that was giving spurious results when balloons crossed the dateline.
Furthest Balloon: Dean (27456.3km). Dean is just south of Hawaii and heading west. If they are lucky, maybe they will loop back into the strong winds to the north and keep going. If not… there are plenty of other balloons within striking distance.
Most Countries: Dirkdeballonvaarder and Omkeere are tied on 23 countries. Dirk would take the prize on a fastest speed tiebreak, but since they are already in the top points lead, Omkeere would pick up this prize. This is one of the closest fought categories, but, as most balloons come close to North America, there aren’t many more countries to pick up!
Currently: the contest has covered 114 different countries! The latest are Sierra Leone, Guinea, and Liberia. Maybe someone will get the most countries by travelling around Africa? Who knows?
Closest to Safe: Julian (567.14km). Julian is just off the US coast near Portland, but there are many other balloons in a similar area.
The result of this contest could be very, very close. Could someone come within 50 or 100km of the Safe office? Let’s wait and see. As noted in the weather report, navigating the West Coast is going to be very tricky.
Most Airports: O z f m e (20). It’s not the record you want, but it’s a nice consolation prize. Currently, the leader is tied with regular airport-botherer, Morphum GIS wizards, but leading on the fastest speed tiebreak. But get to North America, and there are plenty of airports left to fly over!
Balloon Focus
Currently, the most southerly balloon is Andrée-expeditionen, at just 4 degrees north, over Somalia. Is it possible for a balloon to cross the equator? Surely it must be? If they get into the southern hemisphere, I think they will get awarded the gold competition badge, as a true explorer.
But what of Bartolomeu de Gusmão and their westbound journey across the Atlantic? The bad news is that they have turned north, and so are unlikely to fly over their home country of Brazil. But, the good news is that they continue in a westerly direction and look likely to arrive somewhere in the West Indies, maybe Antigua or one of the other Windward Islands.
Keep going, little balloon, keep going!
Meanwhile, Emilia is testing my mapping skills by crossing over the dateline 3 times so far!
There is a tight anti-cyclonic weather system there, so maybe Emilia will loop around a few more times before the game is finished?!
I hope you are all enjoying this contest. Many thanks for your feedback, suggestions, questions, and alerts about bad data. All are much appreciated.
I hope to write a couple of articles after the contest about how it was put together. In particular, I’ve been asked a lot about how FME was combined into the Leaflet map, so that’s number 1 on my list.
Up, up, and away!
Mark