How Open Distance Scoring Works

Open distance is the simplest way to run a competition day. Everyone takes off from the same launch and flies as far as they can. There is no course and no goal. All that counts is how far you get from launch.

This is the classic "free distance" or record-style format. Unlike GAP scoring, where pilots race a course of turnpoints to goal, open distance has no speed section, no turnpoints to tag, and no time, leading or arrival points. Your score is simply the distance you flew.

An open-distance task has exactly one turnpoint: the Take-off, a cylinder around launch. Distance is measured from its edge. There is no start gate, no intermediate turnpoint and no goal.

You launch, leave the take-off cylinder and fly. When you land, or the day ends, your flight is scored on how far you got from take-off.

Your scored distance is how far your furthest point is from the edge of the take-off cylinder, in a straight line:

Distance = distance from the take-off centre to your furthest point − cylinder radius

This means:

• The cylinder radius is not free distance. Distance starts at the cylinder's edge, not its centre. Where, or how often, you crossed that edge makes no difference.
• Only getting further from launch counts. Circling in a thermal, or flying across the wind, adds nothing unless it takes you further away.
• Your furthest point counts, not where you landed. If you reach a far point and then drift back towards launch before landing, you keep the far point.
• Distances are measured on the WGS84 ellipsoid, the same geodesic maths GlideComp uses everywhere else, so they agree with the map.

A pilot who never leaves the take-off cylinder scores zero.

Your score for the task is your distance in metres:

Score = metres of open distance flown

Pilots are ranked by distance, furthest first. There is no 1000-point pool, no task validity, and no split into distance, time, leading and arrival; those all belong to GAP. The distance you flew is the score.

A penalty from the organiser is subtracted in metres. In a multi-day competition, your total is the sum of your task scores: the distance you flew across all the days.

Choose open distance in a competition's scoring settings, and every task in that competition is scored this way. Because the format has no course, each task must have exactly one turnpoint, the Take-off. GlideComp won't save a task with any other route while the competition is set to open distance.

Every scoring decision is explained and unit-tested, and the scoring engine is open source on GitHub.

Looking for the other format? See how GAP scoring works.