The

aerokurier ''Aerokurier'' is a monthly magazine founded in 1957 covering international civil aviation published in the German language by Motor Presse Stuttgart, a large European publisher of special interest magazines. The magazine concentrates on the foll ...

Online Contest (OLC), a worldwide decentralized

soaring Soaring may refer to: * Gliding, in which pilots fly unpowered aircraft known as gliders or sailplanes * Lift (soaring), a meteorological phenomenon used as an energy source by some aircraft and birds * ''Soaring'' (magazine), a magazine produced ...

competition for glider,

hang glider Hang gliding is an air sport or recreational activity in which a pilot flies a light, non-motorised, fixed-wing heavier-than-air aircraft called a hang glider. Most modern hang gliders are made of an aluminium alloy or composite frame covered ...

, and

paraglider Paragliding is the recreational and competitive adventure sport of flying paragliders: lightweight, free-flying, foot-launched Glider (aircraft), glider aircraft with no rigid primary structure. The pilot sits in a :wikt:harness, harness or in ...

pilots. The OLC is operated by Segelflugszene Gemeinnützige GmbH, a German not-for-profit founded in 2000. "Segelflugszene" translates as "gliding scene" in English. Glider pilots upload secure log files from

GNSS Flight Recorders The International Gliding Commission (IGC) is the international governing body for the sport of gliding. It is governed by meetings of delegates from national gliding associations. It is one of several Air Sport Commissions (ASC) of the Fédérati ...

to the OLC web site, and the server automatically scores their flight performance. Scores are adjusted by a handicap factor to allow for performance differences between different glider makes and models. The scores are summarized and displayed by airfield, club, region, country, and continent, along with the overall world standings. The handicap factor, and the scoring breakdowns, allow pilots to compete against one another on any level, from local to international. The competition runs for a full year beginning and ending in early October. There is an annual OLC Symposium and award ceremony in late October each year in

Gersfeld Gersfeld () is a town in the Fulda district of Hesse, Germany, on the Fulda River in the Rhön Mountains, southeast of Fulda. It belonged to the abbey-principality of Fulda before secularisation in 1803. It then belonged to the Principality of ...

Germany, near the

Wasserkuppe The Wasserkuppe (;) is the highest mountain in the Rhön Mountains, Rhön range and the tallest elevation in the Germany, German state of Hesse, standing at above sea level. It forms a prominent plateau within the Fulda district and is known as ...

. Over 12000 pilots participated in the OLC worldwide in 2006.

IGC-OLC World League

The IGC-OLC World League is a multi-national decentralized glider race sanctioned by the

Fédération Aéronautique Internationale The World Air Sports Federation (; FAI) is the world governing body for air sports, and also stewards definitions regarding human spaceflight. It was founded on 14 October 1905, and is headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland. It maintains worl ...

(FAI) that runs in conjunction with the

Aerokurier ''Aerokurier'' is a monthly magazine founded in 1957 covering international civil aviation published in the German language by Motor Presse Stuttgart, a large European publisher of special interest magazines. The magazine concentrates on the foll ...

Online-Contest for 19 consecutive weekends during the Northern Summer season. Club members flying from their Club's home airfield on the competition weekend days are scored on an optimized 2.5 hour sprint task, all in gliding flight, with the finish altitude no lower than the start. The longest cross-country distance flown in 2.5 hours is handicapped by the glider's performance index to generate a handicapped average speed. The top three club member's speeds are added to get the club's speed score for the weekend round. Each club is ranked by total speed in their home country, then the top 5 clubs from each country are entered in the international scoring for that round. Scoring is similar to Formula-One, with each higher finishing position worth one additional point for the round. Scoring is totaled at the end of the season to declare the overall winner.

References

External links

OLC's official site

IGC-OLC World League info
Gliding competitions Hang gliding Paragliding Aviation competitions and awards {{Aviation-stub