Why did I score that?
Contest scores arrive as a number on a results sheet, and the formula behind them is buried in a rulebook almost nobody opens. Put a day in below and watch every parameter fall out — and switch systems to see the same flying scored four different ways, because that is genuinely what happens.
Which rules?
N counts everyone who took a competition launch, not just the ones you typed. Currently .
These are scored by different formulas — not a variation of one.
Handicaps below are on the IGC scale (higher number = better glider) and are converted for you. The SSA scale is the reciprocal — lower number = better glider, and the formula multiplies instead of dividing. Both sit near 1.0, so mixing them up does not look wrong; it just reorders the results.
The day
| Pilot | Handicap | Time (h) | Finished | Airfield | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Time only applies to finishers — a landout has no marking time and no marking speed. The airfield column is a US-only 25-point bonus.
The day, before anybody is scored
Do — best handicapped distance
Vo — best handicapped speed
To — winner's time
N — launched
n1 — reached Dm
n2 — fast finishers
n3 — all finishers
Pm — max available
F — day factor
FCR — completion ratio
Pvm — speed points available
Pdm — distance points available
Compression
Contestants
Finishers
SCR — completion ratio
STF — short task factor
CF — contestant factor
MAXSP — max speed points
MAXDP — max distance points
Finisher floor
Not a valid contest day. Every score is zero.
Scores
| # | Pilot | Dh | Vh | Speed pts | Distance pts | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| landed out |
What the numbers are doing
What this assumes, and what it can't know
This computes a day, not a championship. Penalties, airspace infringements, disqualifications, start and finish height deductions and the tie-break rules are all real parts of the outcome and none of them are here. A disqualified pilot scores zero but still counts in N, which changes everyone else's score — that alone means a real result sheet can differ from this.
The formulas are transcribed from the current primary documents — FAI Sporting Code Section 3 Annex A 2025a §8.4, the IGC Alternative Scoring document of 7 February 2022, and the 2026 SSA Official Competition Rules §§11.3 and 11.4. The Annex A scoring formulas are unchanged across the 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2025a editions. They are not the same as the 2014 edition, which is the version that surfaces first in a search and which normalised handicapped distance to the lowest handicap in the field. That term no longer exists.
Real scorers may disagree with this, and one reason is documented. Under IGC Alternative Scoring the compression step uses the median provisional score — the rule says so in bold. The widely used open-source reference script computes the mean instead and admits it in a code comment. We follow the rule. Where a published result differs from this page, that difference is worth understanding rather than assuming either side is simply wrong.
Distance measurement is where implementations genuinely diverge, and it is out of scope here. This page takes your marking distance as given. Deriving it from a flight trace — particularly the assigned-area case, where the rules say only that the scorer picks the fixes giving maximum distance and specify no algorithm — is the hard part, and the current Annex A does not even name an Earth model any more. The IGC's own software committee reported in 2011 that programs blend spherical and ellipsoidal models and that IGC does not know whether they do it the same way. That has not been resolved.
Not yet reviewed by anyone but us. If you run a club's books and one of these assumptions is wrong, we would genuinely rather hear it than not — tell us and we'll credit you here. This is a budgeting estimate, not a quote. Every club sets its own rates and they change; check with the club before relying on a number.
Where the handicaps come from
The IGC Club Class list, the reference masses it is built on, and the mass and winglet adjustments that modify it — with the reason the two mass rules round in opposite directions.
See the handicap list and calculator →