How Open Distance Scoring Works

Open distance is the simplest way to run a competition day. Everyone takes off from the same launch and then flies as far as they can — there is no set course and no goal to reach. The only thing that matters is how far you get from launch.

This is the classic "free distance" or record-style format, and it contrasts with GAP scoring, where pilots race a defined course of turnpoints to a goal. Open distance has no speed section, no turnpoints to tag, and no time, leading or arrival points — your whole score is the distance you flew.

An open-distance task defines exactly one turnpoint: the Take-off. It is a cylinder around the launch, and it marks the point from which distance is measured. There is no start gate, no intermediate turnpoints, 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 travelled from the take-off.

Your scored distance is the straight-line distance from the point you exit the take-off cylinder to the single furthest point your track reached:

Distance = furthest straight-line distance from the take-off exit to any point you flew

A few things follow from this:

• Measured from the take-off exit, not the centre. Distance is counted from where your track crosses out of the take-off cylinder, so the radius of the cylinder is not counted as free distance.
• Only getting further counts. The score is straight-line displacement from launch, so circling to climb in a thermal does not add to it — only reaching a point further away does.
• The furthest point wins, not the landing point. If you fly out to a far point and then drift back towards launch before landing, you are scored on the furthest point you reached, not where you touched down.
• Distances use the WGS84 ellipsoid (the same geodesic maths used everywhere else in GlideComp), so they match what you would measure on the map.

If a pilot never leaves the take-off cylinder, their distance is zero. If a track happens to start already outside the cylinder (for example the logger was switched on after launch), distance is measured from the first recorded point instead, so the flight still scores.

Your score for the task is simply your open 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 distance/time/leading/arrival split — those all belong to GAP. The distance you flew is the score.

Any penalty an organiser applies is subtracted from your score in metres. Across a multi-day competition, your total is the sum of your task scores — that is, the total distance you flew over all the days.

A competition is set to open distance in its scoring settings, and then every task in it is scored this way. Because the format has no goal or turnpoints, each task must define exactly one turnpoint — the Take-off — and GlideComp will not let you save a task with any other route while the competition is on open distance.

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

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