Race to goal (paragliding):

http://highcloud.net/xc/

http://www.ridethecore.com/2008_02_01_archive.html

http://mysticcup.prose.com.au/

Open distance, open contest. I've been pushing for this for years. Maybe it will
start to happen now, at least in paragliding:

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?p=177513#177513

Joerg writes:

Josh writes:

There has been discussion of starting up a US Cross Country League, and there might be some
action on that front at the board meeting in a few weeks. Any tips on how to go
about it and pitfalls to avoid would be much appreciated. Also an explanation of
the various options for running a national XC league would be great.

From the context of that thread, I assume that by "US Cross Country League", Josh means a
year-long competition without any set dates, where people fly for themselves,
when they want, where they want, and then at the end of the year, the ones that
flew the furthest throughout the year win the thing. This in contrast to what I
know as a League, where a number of events is set, people get together, fly
races against each other, and have their race scores count towards an overall
score spanning several of these events.

So here's what I got on that topic - maybe others can chime in as well:

How to set up a year-long Cross Country  competition

1. Find a name. Here in Switzerland it's called the Cross Country Cup (CCC),
although people tend to refer to it by the name of the online system used
("Online contest" first, now "XContest") more and more. I think it's important
to make a clear distinction from any race-type comps. How about US Cross Country
Cup (US XCC)?

2. Define the season. For example, the Swiss CCC runs from October 1st to
September 30th the following year. Other countries set different dates (Austria,
for example, has September 1st to August 31st). FAI's WXC, which aims to collect
the flights from all online flight servers and create a worldwide ranking, has
the same dates as the Swiss (October 1st - September 30th) - maybe not a bad
idea to be in sync with that, but maybe there are specific reasons to go for a
different schedule.

3. Decide on the flight area. For example, for the Swiss CCC, all flights are
valid where launch is within Switzerland, or within 20 km of the Swiss border.
Germany, on the other hand, requires one flight to be flown in Germany, the
others can be done anywhere in the world. I think the US is big enough and
offers enough potential, but maybe you want to add Canada and Mexico to your
flight area as well...

4. Decide on the number of flights to count. The Swiss count the best 4, the
German the best 3 (of which one must be in Germany), others go up to 6. To allow
people to compete even if they don't put massive amounts of time into it, I
wouldn't make the number to high. 3, maybe 4 to start out.

5. Decide on the different flight formats. I know the British have some great
ones, along the lines of "The longest flight originating from a coastal site,
approaching no less than three distinct restricted airspace zones by less than
1/4 mile and ending no more than 10 paces from a public house - Balmoral Castle
may substitute the Pub, but only if the Queen is present and invites you for
tea." Or something like that... but I would stick to the three basics: Free
distance over three turn points, flat triangle, and FAI triangle. The advantage:
This is what all the online contest systems have already implemented; it's kind
of a standard these days, which makes it easier and much faster to get up and
running.

6. Decide on the coefficients for the different flight formats. This is the
number a flight's distance is multiplied with depending on the format. E.g. in
Switzerland we have 1.0 for open distance, 1.2 for flat triangles and 1.4 for
FAI triangles (so a FAI triangle of 30 km scores the same as an open distance
flight of 45 km: 45 points). Others use 1.5 for open distance, 1.75 for flat and
2.0 for FAI triangles. The FAI WXC uses the same values as the Swiss do.

7. Decide on the classes. In Switzerland we have Overall, Female, Over 50,
Fun&Safety (up to LTF 1-2/EN B), and a clubs ranking (the best 4 pilots of each
club combined). Oh, and of course include categories for hang gliding as well.
This is a great tool to bring the two tribes together (if there should be any
need), giving them the opportunities to see each other's flights.

7. Decide on which online contest system to use. As far as I know, there are
currently three players on the market:

a) Online contest (www.onlinecontest.org
: The original, built and run by sailplane pilots, but with a strong section for
hang- and paragliding as well. Not sure how easy it would be to adapt your
decisions regarding some of the points above, since this is basically one big
all-encompassing system where all flights from all over the world are put into
the same ranking, and you can filter for your country. Don't know if it's still
being used for any official free flying year-long competitions. Used to cost a
bit if you wanted to do that. Don't know about the current situation
(Switzerland moved away from Online contest to Xcontest for the 2006/07 season).
Don't know about support for the FAI WXC.

b) Xcontest (www.xcontest.org):
Runs a big overall contest, similar to Online contest, but additionally, runs
also distinct national contests for currently thriteen nations. Within the
national contests, a customer (usually the national organization) pretty much
freely set all the things I talked about above. Some more exotic things may need
work by its developers. Costs some money. Partners with XC magazine, where Karel
(charly on this forum) has a column. Currently no support for the FAI WXC.

c) Leonardo (e.g.  http://xc.dhv.de) : Unlike the other two, where there exists only one
incarnation each of the system, Leonardo's approach is for every club or
association who wants to have its flights online to run its own instance of the
Leonardo software. This gives you a lot of freedom to adapt the software to your
specific needs, but also means you have to actually manage and maintain the
system yourself. Leonardo is the work of Manolis, is therefore also linked to
this forum: Manolis runs one instance as a worldwide system (that's what you see
when you go to "Leonardo" in the forum menu). He also offers a hosting solution
to clubs (see link at the top of all forum pages) - don't know whether that
entails national associations, and what the costs would be. Leonardo supports
the FAI WXC.

Of course you could also come to the conclusion that none of the existing
systems fits your needs, and develop your own. The French did that, some others
as well. I wouldn't recommend it, though, it's a tremendous amount of work, and
will also use up a lot of resources later on to maintain it. Better to rely on a
system others are using as well...

8. Communicate, communicate, and communicate

Get as many people on board as possible: Announce it strongly in the USHPA
magazine and on websites, in the forum, etc. Have an ongoing column in the
magazine which reports about the most remarkable days/flights of the last few
weeks. Get clubs to organize XCC events (where everybody is encouraged to fly XC
and then submit their track), and in the end, feature the winners prominently on
the USHPA web page, in the magazine, etc. Maybe even do some statistics
afterward - in the Swiss magazine, every year our meteo guy looks back at the
season to show the correlation of good XC days (as indicated by the flights on
the Xcontest) with different weather patterns.

9. Grow it

Maybe over time, seeing how much attention this gets, some sponsors may be
willing to help out. Donate money to cover the costs of running the system. Or
even prices for the winners. Don't know how feasible an annual real life price
giving would be in the US, but it's certainly an event people enjoy a lot here
in Switzerland.

Josh writes:

Joerg suggested I ask you about what is required money-wise to set
up a national contest. I'd like to propose doing so to the USHPA and I'm sure
they will want to know the price tag. Unfortunately they are fairly cheap with
things that aren't used by all members.

Karel at XContest.org responds:

Thank you for your email. Basic annual costs are fix 100,- eur
plus 3,-/per scoring pilot. Total amount is payable in the end of you contest.
This fee includes setting up contest, support for administrators and pilots,
place for your partners, statistics etc.