Flight Challenge Series

What is the Flight Challenge Series?

The AHGPC Flight Challenge Series is a set of flying tasks, ranging in difficulty from easy to advanced and including both coastal soaring and XC tasks, that utilise a range of sites within the Auckland region. These tasks are hosted permanently on HighCloud (xc.highcloud.net), so can be completed at any time and with no restriction on the number of attempts.


The Flight Challenge Series is:


The Flight Challenge Series is not:

Purpose

The purpose of the Flight Challenge Series is to:

Rules

The rules of the Flight Challenge Series have been kept as simple as possible:

Tasks

A total of 13 set tasks have been created, which include both coastal soaring and XC routes. These have been selected to accommodate a variety of pilot skill levels, from easy through to advanced.

The list of tasks is below:

Coastal soaring tasks

Cross-country tasks

Here's the Honours Board of pilots who completed the tasks:
Honours Board

Waypoints

All tasks use the Flight Challenge Series waypoint file that can be downloaded below. Note that this waypoint file is not the same as the one used for the Auckland Regional Paragliding Competition, so should only be used for the Flight Challenge Series.

Flight apps

For pilots who don't own a flight instrument there are a number of different smartphone apps that can be used to input a task and record a tracklog as an .igc file. Two of the most popular ones, XCTrack and Flyskyhy, are described below.

XCTrack

This is a very popular app for devices running the Android operating system. Free to download from the Google Play store, it has a wealth of features and allows for plenty of customisation.

Flyskyhy

Available from the App Store for iOS users, Flyskyhy costs $14.99 to buy. The Waypoints extension, which costs an additional $13.99, will also be required to fly these tasks. The XC-Package and Airspaces extensions, which are $13.99 each, are recommended if using this app to fly the XC tasks. 

Claiming a Task 

If you have not previously used Highcloud:

Email info@cloudbase.org.nz with the subject line 'Highcloud account setup' and the following details in the body of the email:

An admin will then create a pilot profile for you, which will allow you to upload tracklogs for any competitions that are hosted on the Highcloud platform. Once you have had your profile created continue with the steps below.

If you already have a Highcloud profile:

NOTE: 

The Flight Challenge Series administrator will periodically check all of the tracklogs that have been submitted and will inform you when you have successfully completed a task (or let you know if there are any issues that have made your claim invalid, such as airspace breaches).

All pilots who have successfully claimed a task will have their names added to the Honours Board.

Photos and video

We'd love to see photos and video of you attempting these tasks, so feel free to send links to info@cloudbase.org.nz with a description of the task that you were flying and we'll upload the best examples to provide inspiration for everyone else!

Support

For any issues with submitting tracklogs or downloading waypoints, or for any questions about the Flight Challenge Series, email info@cloudbase.org.nz with 'FCS' in the subject line and provide a description of your issue. We'll do our best to respond promptly!