Planning your club championship: four formats that include every member
In many clubs the championship looks the same every year: the longest XC flights are scored, and the same names end up on top. For most members the ranking plays no role.
It does not have to be that way. Here are four formats you can run with Sidekik, and who they suit.
1. Peak Hunt: collect summits over the season
You pick summits and landmarks in your flying area, and members collect them by air or on foot. Harder summits earn more points, and whoever has collected the most is on top.
The appeal is that a single epic day does not decide it. Pilots who get out often and look for new goals move up just the same.
“Sidekik Challenges made every one of our members a better pilot this year.” Robert Assmair, Parateam Virgen
Suits: clubs that want to get as many members as possible active over the whole season.
How to create a Peak Hunt is covered in the guide Running a club.
2. Flight tasks: a competition day without the rulebook
With tasks you create flight tasks for a day or a whole season, without the complexity of FAI rules or leading points. The format suits a club trip or a race on the home mountain where occasional pilots fly along too.
Suits: clubs that want a shared flying day with scoring. Tasks are part of the Club Gold plan.
3. Segments: the home route as an evergreen
A segment turns a well-known route into a race section with a start and finish line. Every flight that passes through lands on the leaderboard. Times and line choice become comparable, and there is something to discuss at the landing field.
Suits: clubs with a classic route that everyone flies anyway. Custom segments are part of the Club Gold plan.
4. More than one ranking: club leaderboards
Who says there can only be one winner? The club leaderboards rank eight things:
- Total XC distance
- Total airtime
- Maximum FAI distance
- Maximum altitude gain, hiking and flying
- Total altitude gain, hiking and flying
- Number of flights
At the annual general meeting you can also honour the most flights, the most time in the air or the most altitude gained on foot. Prizes like these reach members who never show up in the distance ranking.
Suits: every club. Leaderboards come with Club Silver and above.
What you can combine
The formats do not exclude each other. One set-up that works naturally:
- Main ranking: a Peak Hunt over the season
- Special prizes: airtime, number of flights and altitude gained on foot, from the leaderboards
- One highlight: a flight task on the club trip
The effort
In all four formats Sidekik scores automatically as soon as members upload their flights. For the sports officer and the board, that leaves the planning at the start and the prize-giving at the end.
Taking part is free for your members. What each club plan includes is on the clubs page.