You can enter as many flights into the XC League as you like, but only your six best will count. The permissible types of flight can be split into three categories: Standard Flights, Circuit Flights and Declared Flights.
| Standard Flights | Circuit Flights | Declared Flights |
|---|---|---|
| Open Distance | Out and Return | Flight to Goal |
| Turnpoint Flight | Flat Triangle | Turnpoint Flight |
| FAI Triangle | Out and Return | |
| FAI Triangle |
The minimum distances for flight types and leagues are shown below. These can also be seen by clicking the League Info link above each league table.
| Flight Type | Clubs | National | Overseas |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Flights | 5km | 10km | 10km |
| Circuit Flights | 5km | 15km | 15km |
| Declared Flights | |||
| Flight to Goal Turnpoint Flight FAI Triangle |
25km | 25km | 25km |
| Out and Return | 35km | 35km | 25km |
Multipliers are awarded for Circuit and Declared Flights as these are generally more difficult to achieve. These can also be seen by clicking the League Info link above each league table.
| Flight Type | Minimum | Clubs | National | Overseas |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circuit Flights - split into 3 scoring tiers | ||||
| Out and Return Flat Triangle |
5km | 1.2 | ||
| Out and Return Flat Triangle |
15km | 1.5 | 1.5 | |
| Out and Return Flat Triangle |
35km | 2.0 | 2.0 | 1.2 |
| FAI Triangle | 5km | 1.5 | ||
| FAI Triangle | 15km | 2.0 | 2.0 | |
| FAI Triangle | 25km | 2.3 | 2.3 | 1.5 |
| Declared Flights | ||||
| Flight to Goal | 25km | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.2 |
| Turnpoint Flight | 25km | 1.25 | 1.25 | 1.2 |
| Out and Return | 35km | 2.3 | 2.3 | 1.5 |
| FAI Triangle | 25km | 3.0 | 3.0 | 2.0 |
Coastal flights are defined as any flight along a ridge (natural or man-made) where the immediate feature upwind is undercliff, beach, the sea or a loch. Where the majority of the claimed flight distance is a coastal flight, the following rules apply:
Note that "claimed flight distance" refers to the part of your the flight between the start and finish points, which may be different to your takeoff and landing. This means that if you go XC from a coastal location, you could chose a start point on the coast then use three turnpoints for your flight inland.
There is no need to land between different flight types provided that your IGC tracklog shows the necessary details for each submitted claim. For example, you could complete a triangle then fly open distance, or fly two triangles without having to land in between. Note that for Declared Flights you can only declare one task per flight but you can fly it multiple times.
An FAI Triangle must have no leg shorter than 28% of the total leg distance, and a Flat Triangle must have no leg shorter than 15% or longer than 45% of the total leg distance. The diagram below shows the triangle shapes that satisfy these requirements for a 100km triangle.
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Declared Flights are Flights to Goal, Out and Return or FAI Triangle flights that are declared in advance. You can make your declaration in several ways:
Each of the message methods provides a timestamp for your declaration that will be valid for 24 hours, unless superseded by a later declaration. Note that a declaration in the IGC file is definitive and overrides any others.
For message methods it is the responsibility of the pilot to provide a declaration in the text format described below. Each element is described in the order it is required:
Each element must be separated by either a new line or a comma. The system is automated so it will not understand pictures of your declaration, turnpoint or place names or any other comments.
You can use either OS Landranger or Lat/Lon coordinates. For example, a Flight to Goal using OS Landranger coordinates would be declared as follows:
Lat/Lon coordinates can either be in either Degrees Minutes Seconds (DMS), Degrees Decimal Minutes (DMM) or Decimal Degree format (DD) and you may omit the N/S/E/W designators using negative degrees for South and West. Whatever format is used, your coordinates must be clearly recognizable. For example, the above flight declaration using Degrees Decimal Minutes would be:
A single declaration can be made for more than one pilot by adding their BHPA Nos after the finish grid reference. For example:
You can only declare one task per flight. If you make multiple separate flight declarations on one day only the last one submitted prior to the start of the attempted flight is valid. There is however no restriction on the number of declared flights that you can complete on a given day.
For declared Out and Return or FAI Triangle flights, a height loss rule applies that states that any loss of height between your start and finish must not exceed 2% of the distance flown. This FAI rule is designed to limit the advantage of your start altitude on smaller closed circuit tasks.
So if you are flying a 25km flight and you are at 1500m (cloudbase in the UK) when you leave your start cylinder, the lowest you can enter your finish cylinder is 1000m. Note that your heights are taken from the last time you leave your start cylinder and the last time you enter your finish cylinder.
If your flight instrument writes C-records when you fly a task, then you may use your IGC file as proof of your declaration for all flights except record attempts. The following rules apply:
Note that it is the responsibility of the pilot to understand how their instrument functions in terms of entering an appropriate task.
It is obviously not allowed to use unscrupulous methods to gain an unfair advantage, like flying with multiple instruments containing different declared tasks, for example. Any pilot suspected of cheating and witnessed using several flight instruments will be required to supply tracklogs from all instruments to corroborate their declaration.
