Frequently Asked Questions

The Southern California Cross Country League is an informal league that meets once a month between March and the end of September for a total of 8 events. Events place over Saturday and Sunday if the weather permits. Events are held at various SoCal flying sites, usually at the best spot for that time of year. The year end event is a joint three day meet in the Owens Valley (Bishop area) with the NorCal league. No membership or dues or any obligation is required to join, simply fill out the information form so we have necessary information for you to fly with us whenever you choose to come fly with us. Most official communication is done through our Yahoo group, but we also have a Twitter and Facebook feed that we use as well.

The league is designed for both new and experienced cross country pilots. New pilots will be challenged by learning how to use their instruments to program tasks and fly them successfully. By flying a task we challenge ourselves to fly in locations that we normally wouldn't due to challenging conditions such as flying upwind or because we are afraid of landing out and not having a ride back. This type of practice vastly improves every pilots skill level by forcing us outside our normal flying routines. Experienced pilots will benefit from the league by challenging themselves to keep up with other talented pilots and it also gives them an opportunity to practice their skills before a big flying competition. Being able to practice with new equipment, programming and scoring instruments and flying with others is critical to having a good time at big events where there may be 100+ pilots and those who attend have taken time off work and spent considerable money to participate.

Anyone with a P3 (Intermediate USHPA rating) and higher is allowed to fly in the league. If you are a P3 pilot you must have the 'turbulence' skill. International pilots with similar ratings are allowed to participate provided they have USHPA insurance. An optional but important skill for cross country is the 'restricted landing zone' since we don't always know where we are going to land. My personal feeling is that you should have at least about 50-75 hours of airtime before you will feel comfortable flying in the league, as well you should be averaging at least 50+ hours of airtime in order to keep your flying skills up and sharp.

Some details are provided above but I'll expand on that information a bit. You should be comfortable in strong turbulence that we often experience in the dry desert environment of southern california. You should also be comfortable landing out in tight or unusual landing zones, sometimes in windy conditions. Most importantly you should be comfortable thermalling, if you aren't comfortable staying up in the sky then take a bit more time to practice your thermalling skills. Ideally you should be comfortable thermalling with other pilots but this is a skill that takes a long time to develop and certainly the league will help in that goal. You should ideally have a HAM radion technician's license since we use radios to communicate in air and during retrieve. Another very important skill is being comfortable on your glider. A lot of accidents happen in our sport by pilots jumping to new hot wings too quickly. In reality on negligible gains are made between wings that only highly skilled pilots can take advantage of. To prove this point a top pilot came in the top 10 on an EB-B wing in the 2012 Canadian Nationals. The pilot makes the wing not the other way around! Finally, having done an SIV course is strongly encourage or at the minimum being familiar with the material that is taught in SIVs.

Not too much gear is required, a paraglider, harness, reserve and helmet obviously. A HAM radio is required, a GPS that can record a flight log and that's about it. Many phones can now record flight information for you but if you want to buy something dedicated I recommend at least the Garmin 76S but if you have the money invest in an integrated vario/gps by Flymaster or Flytect or similar.

We use the 2M amateur radio bands to communicate in the air and on the ground via our handheld radios. These are restricted frequencies and require a license to use them. That being said, the FCC wants to encourage as many people to get a license as possible in the event of catastrophes to help with communication. They have even removed the morse code requirement which was a big speed bump to getting a license in the past. Getting as many people licensed is important for our community just as we don't want unlicensed pilots in our air, the HAM community doesn't want unlicensed people messing around with their airwaves. Further once you have your license you'll be able to get on repeaters to increase the range of your radio beyond line of sight which can be really important for difficult retrieves.

To get your HAM Technician license you need to do two things:

1. Study the test:
My suggestion is to study using one of the following options:

1. http://www.hamradiolicenseexam.com/ online course- $24.95 (Technician course) - This is what I did, it took 9 hours + 1 hour of review and I got 100% on the test. You won't learn much from this course but you'll know the right answers
2. http://www.nc4fb.org/wordpress/online-technician-license-class/ - Online free course. I took a look through and it looks succint and thorough and you can't beat the price!
3. Gordon West - Tech Guide (WB6NOA) book - http://www.w5yi.org/catalog_details.php?pid=69&sort=4 $20.95 (recommended by HAM examiners)
4. Ham Radio License Manual - Revised 2nd Edition book - http://www.amateurradiosupplies.com/product-p/16001.htm?gclid=CKS13baK6bYCFeU5QgodOAsA6Q (not recommended by me, too tedious, terribly written)
5. Study guides (basically just a list of all questions on the exam so you know what to study):
• http://www.eham.net/exams (recommended by Tom Ceunen)
• Apple App: Amateur Radio Exam Prep: Technician $4.99
• Android App: Ham Radio Study free

2. Take the test:
The test is 35 question multiple choice that takes 30 minutes if you go over every answer twice. A passing grade is 74%. The cost of the test is $15. Basically there are two types of exams, 'walk ins' and 'no walk in's. Basically just what it sounds like, 'walk ins' don't require you to schedule in advance and 'no walk ins' do, just phone them in advance and tell them you will be there and I think that's all there is to it. Here is the main site to find an exam: http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session The search mechanism does not work well so don't restrict the search too much. Just put in a zip code and a radius and that should be all you need.

Hang gliders are welcome to join us. My policy is the more the merrier! It's fun to fly with lots of people and share the storeis afterwords and the league is designed to be as inclusive as possible while still being safe. If we get more 3 or more hang gliders showing up I will create a dedicated task for hang gliders, if not then there will be one task for both paragliders and hang gliders.

At most flying sites you will want to show up around 9am to 9:30am to check-in and be ready for the day. If the site is an afternoon site I will sometimes put on an XC talk about various different topics. Around 10 or 11 we will head to launch and pilots should get their gear ready right away so that they can focus on programming and planning for the task when it is announced. At least 1 hour before the task starts the task will be announced giving pilots time to enter the task and ask questions. Launch will open at least 30 minutes before the task starts allowing pilots to get comfortable in the air. When you land whether it is in goal or not, you will checkin with the event organizer. If you need a ride you will then contact the organizer or a driver to figure out those details. At the end of the day we will usually reconvene somewhere to download track logs or if that is not possible they can be emailed in to the organizer. Finally if all goes well, the group will sit back and enjoy some beers together.

The cost per event is $10, this covers the organizers time for setting up the event, scoring it afterwards, hosting the website and purchasing end of year trophies. On top of this there may be other fees for flying that day. These include site fees to fly the site, usually $5-$10 if you are not a member. Rides to launch are around $5-$10 depending on the difficulty of getting there. Finally the cost for retrieve is usually around $20 if needed. To put it another way, we generally have two types of tasks, out and back or downwind. For fishbowl tasks we usually just bounce around from different points around launch and generally land back at the LZ or very near there. Retrieves for fishbowl tasks are easy and generally we leave it to the retrieved to toss some money to whatever drive comes and gets them (including a bit for gas too ;). Downwind tasks require difficult retrieves that may take several hours to collect all the pilots and get them back to launch. For these tasks we usually ask all pilots to pay X dollars ($20-$30 on top of the $10 task fee) to cover gas for retrieve vehicles and $100 for dedicated retrieve drivers. This ends up being a bit pricey but in reality it works out well and the cost is negligible compared to having a dedicated, HAPPY, retrieve driver.

Each task is worth 1000 points and is a sum of a variety of factors including total time, distance flown. Basically the first person into goal will receive 1000 points and the rest of the participants are graded on a bell curve set by that pilot. Speed points refer to how long it took you to fly the task, while they end after you hit the ESS (end of speed section cylinder), they only are counted if you make the goal cylinder. If most pilots make goal then more points will be awared based on speed. If no one made goal or only a few then most points will be awarded for distance flown.

Sometimes the day is devalued, meaning no one gets 1000 points, because there was an anomaly in the scoring such as too many people landing at one spot or not enough pilots flying far enough/long enough. Basically there should be an even distribution of pilots across the course for the day to be fully valid. In the SoCal XC League we make a few modifications to the scoring to make it more fun for all rather than the strict scoring rules they use in bigger competitions.

The task is scored by the organizer using FS Comp and then uploaded to Leonardo after the competition. All pilots must download their tracklogs and get them to the organizer some how. If you don't know how to download your tracklog then get in touch with somebody who does and learn how to do so.

Not much really, the league is a friendly event to test our skills and come out and fly together. 50% of the task scores are dropped giving everyone a fair chance at doing well if they come out regularly or even if they don't. There are a few small trophies handed out at the end of the year but beyond that there is no cash prize and throngs of adoring fans waiting to sing your praises for coming in first... so don't be an idiot, fly safe, have some fun and come out and meet some new people!

We're always looking for help with the league. Everyone is welcome to come out and hang with us and ask questions and listen and learn. People are welcome to wind dummy for us before the event or even free fly with us throughout the event. We also appreciate people who are willing to drive for us and gives new pilots a chance to see how things happen from the ground and chat with pilots about paragliding related things once they are retrieved.

Safety is the biggest concern for the league but I'm always willing to listen to someone that wants to fly a new site. I would need the following things as a minimum, a set of waypoints for the site, best times of year to fly the site, launch and landing conditions, potential safe XC routes at least 30km long and general site information (membership, regulations, etc.). In general I will always listen to somebody that has been coming out to the league and supporting us rather than someone who has never been to the league and only wants us to come visit their home site.

ME! Aaron Price, Canadian expat, P4, PG Basic Instructor and Tandem Instructor and owner of Stellar Paragliding. I've been involved with the league since 2009 and have wanted to see the league grow and help increase the skill level of pilots in Southern California. At the end of 2012, Dean Stratton, the creator of the league passed the reigns into my hands after apprenticing under him for a couple of years.

The NCXC league is a sister league up North run by Jugdeep Aggarwal. They fly mainly Dunlap & Potato Hill as well as Whaleback when possible. We do a joint meet with them at least once per year in the Owens valley and sometimes once in the Spring at Dunlap as well. Many pilots register and fly in both leagues.

The overwhelming concensus this year has been to try and find a site that is flyable on that same weekend or just cancel the meet. This year we've even done some free flying at other sites that aren't the best for an XC task but had a great time nonetheless. Unfortunately moving the meet to a different weekend is quite unfair to a number of pilots who are very busy and plan their weekends out months in advance.

If a task is stopped, the task will still be scored though only up to 15 minutes before the task was stopped to avoid any unfair advantages. Sometimes this will mean the task is not fully valid since only a small amount of flying was actually done.

My personal feeling is that a women's division is not needed in our sport. In general men have no great advantage over women when paragliding unless of course you count stupidity as an asset ;) I've had my clocks cleaned by many skilled women pilots and it does them a disservice to try and segregate them. Further, we just don't have a lot of women that come out regularly to support the league so giving out first place when only 2 or 3 women are flying is even more degrading. If I heard an overwhelming outcry from female pilots for a dedicated female division I would definitely add it back in but until that happens I'll leave it as is.