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 Competition Goal |
| Turnpoint Flight | Flat Triangle | Out and Return |
| FAI Triangle | FAI Triangle |
The minimum distances for flight types and leagues are shown below. Clubs may set their own minimum distances, except for Declared Flights, and these can be checked by clicking the League Info link above the club league table.
| Flight Type | Clubs | National | International |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard Flights | 5km | 10km | 10km |
| Circuit Flights | 5km | 15km | 15km |
| Declared Flights | |||
| Flight to Goal Competition Goal 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. Clubs may set their own multipliers and these can be checked by clicking the League Info link above the club league table.
| Flight Type | Minimum Score | Clubs | National | International |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Circuit Flights - split into 3 scoring tiers | ||||
| Out and Return Flat Triangle |
5km | 1.3 | ||
| 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 | 1.6 | ||
| FAI Triangle | 15km | 2.2 | 2.2 | |
| FAI Triangle | 25km | 2.8 | 2.8 | 1.5 |
| Declared Flights | ||||
| Flight to Goal Competition Goal |
25km | 1.35 | 1.35 | 1.2 |
| Out and Return | 35km | 2.5 | 2.5 | 1.5 |
| FAI Triangle | 25km | 3.75 | 3.75 | 2.0 |
Sea cliffs are defined as any ridge (natural or man-made) where the immediate feature upwind is undercliff, beach or the sea. Where the majority of the claimed flight distance is on sea cliffs, 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.
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 a height that is at least 20% of the longest leg. The diagram below shows the triangle shapes that satisfy these requirements. A longest leg distance of 10km is shown as this figure is easily scaled.
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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 either of two ways:
Each of these methods provides a timestamp for your declaration that will be valid for 24 hours, unless superseded by a later declaration. It is the responsibility of the pilot to provide a clear, unambiguous declaration which must state:
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 No and surname before the grid references.
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.
British Competition Goal flights are, by their very nature, officially declared flights so you do not need to make a declaration yourself if you are a competitor. When you enter your flight in the XC League, the task data will be completed for you.
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.
