Tasks and competitions

22XC routes, challenges and leagues

The XC tab: planning routes on the website and flying them, entering challenges, ranking in leagues, chasing records, and following what other pilots are doing.

Needs internet

What the XC tab is#

Where the XC Guide helps you in the air, the XC tab is everything around the flight: what to fly, what you are working toward, how you compare, and what everyone else has been up to.

Fig. 22.1The XC tab. Five sections, all of them served from the website.
Routes
Cross country routes to fly: your own, public ones, and the ones you have saved to this device.
Challenges
Goals with a target and a deadline, such as a distance, a duration or a number of flights.
Leagues
Season long rankings scored from your uploaded flights.
Records
The best flights on record, filterable to your own or to a site.
Feed
What other pilots are doing right now and have just done.

Caution

This tab is served from the website, so it needs a connection. Routes you have already saved to the device are the exception: those work offline and can be flown with no signal.

Note

Some of it needs an account, and some needs a supporter package. The app is explicit: Joining challenges and leagues, saving routes, and your personal feed are for Light members and above. Browsing is open to everyone.

Planning a route on the website#

Routes are planned on the website, in the XC Planner, and then flown in the app. It is the same division of labor as tasks: a big screen and a mouse for planning, a phone for flying.

XC Planner
skytrackpro.app/xc-planner. Draw a route over the terrain, work out the shape you want, and save it.
  1. Open the XC Planner on a computer.
  2. Plan the route you want to fly, over the terrain and around the airspace.
  3. Save it. It appears in the app under My routes, which the app describes as Routes you plan on the website appear here.
  4. In the app, open it and press Save to device.
  5. On the Flight tab, choose it under Route before you start.

Tip

Plan the evening before, on the big screen, with the airspace visible. Then the only decision left on launch is whether today is the day for it.

Routes#

The Routes section is split into three, and the difference matters when you have no signal.

Section Contains Works offline
On this device Routes you have saved. These are the ones you can fly. Yes
My routes Routes you planned on the website. No, needs a connection to load
Public routes Routes other pilots have shared. No, needs a connection to load

Opening a route shows who made it, whether it is a closed course, its waypoints and its distance. Three actions sit on it.

Save to device
Copies it to the phone so you can fly it with no connection. Confirmed with Saved "<title>" to this device. and the button then reads Saved.
Load to fly
Selects it for your next flight. The app says Route loaded. Open the Flight tab to follow it.
Study
Opens the route on a map so you can look at the terrain and the airspace before you commit.
  1. Open the XC tab, then Routes.
  2. Find the route, either under My routes or Public routes.
  3. Press Save to device.
  4. It appears under On this device, and can now be selected on the Flight tab.
  5. To remove one later, swipe it left. The app confirms with Removed "<title>" from this device.

Caution

A route needs at least two waypoints to be flyable. If it does not have them the app refuses with This route needs at least two waypoints to fly.

Caution

Save the routes you might fly before you leave coverage. A route sitting in My routes on the server is no use to you on a launch with no signal, exactly like a task.

Challenges#

A challenge is a goal with a target and a season: fly a distance, accumulate hours, complete a number of flights, score points, or close a triangle of a given size. Your uploaded flights count toward it automatically.

Fig. 22.2A challenge, with the goal, your progress and the leaderboard.
Goal type Reads as
Distance A kilometer target
Duration A number of hours
Flight count A number of flights
Points A points target
Triangle A triangle of a given size in kilometers
  1. Open the XC tab, then Challenges.
  2. Browse All challenges, or check My challenges for the ones you are already in.
  3. Open one and read Rules, About and Prizes.
  4. Press Join.
  5. Your progress appears as <value> of <target> and a percentage complete.
Leaderboard
Where you sit against everyone else in the challenge. Empty ones read No entries yet. Be the first.
Leave
Withdraws you from the challenge.

Note

Progress comes from flights you have uploaded. A flight sitting unuploaded on your phone counts for nothing here, which is the main practical reason to upload. See Uploading and sharing flights.

Leagues#

A league ranks pilots over a season from their uploaded flights. Unlike a challenge, which is a single target, a league is an ongoing table you move up and down.

  1. Open the XC tab, then Leagues.
  2. Browse All leagues or open My leagues.
  3. Read the Scoring and Rules so you know what counts.
  4. Press Join.
  5. Check Standings and Your standing as the season goes on.

Leagues differ in how they score, and the detail page tells you which rules apply.

Scoring
Open distance, 3 TP free, Flat triangle or FAI triangle.
Best n flights
Many leagues count only your best few flights, so one exceptional day can be worth more than a month of average ones.
Minimum distance
Flights under the minimum do not count at all.
Scope
Global, Country, Club or All.
Wing class
Rankings can be filtered by class, or shown across All classes.
Season
The current season, or All time.

Caution

Some leagues cannot rank you until they know where you are from. If you see Country needed, set your country in Pilot profile.

Tip

Read the scoring before you fly for a league, not after. A league counting FAI triangles rewards a completely different day from one counting open distance, and the XC Guide can be set to match.

Records#

The records section lists the best flights on record, in several categories.

Categories
Distance, Duration, Points, Speed and Score distance.
Mine
Filters to your own records.
Site
Filters to a flying site, which is the interesting one when you arrive somewhere new.

When a record has been broken, the entry shows what it replaced as Previous: <value> on <date>.

Tip

Before flying an unfamiliar site, look at its records. The distances people actually achieve there tell you more about what the site does than any forecast.

Feed#

The feed is the community side: who is in the air, who just landed something good, and who has beaten what.

Latest
Everything happening across the platform.
Following
Only the pilots you follow. This is the one most people leave it on.
Airborne now
Pilots currently flying with live tracking on.
Entry Means
<name> just launched A pilot you follow has taken off.
<name> flew 112 km FAI triangle A flight has been uploaded.
<name> completed <challenge> A challenge goal has been reached.
<name> moved up in <league> A league standing has changed.
<name> set a Distance record A record has been broken.
<name> shared a route: <title> A new public route is available to fly.

Entries carry View flight and Open profile so you can go straight to the track or the pilot.

Tip

Airborne now is the quickest way to answer whether the day is working somewhere you were thinking of driving to. Pilots in the air are better evidence than a forecast.

Note

Following pilots is managed on the website, in the same place as your buddy groups.