Back to the Fundamentals of Navigation

Rally Flight is built around a simple but demanding principle: navigation must rely on preparation, awareness, and decision-making — not on a moving-map display telling you where you are.

The competition runs as an FAI Category 2 event, with navigation tasks drawn directly from the FAI Sporting Code Section 10, Annex 4 (Task Catalogue for Championships, 2026 edition). Every rule below is built in coherence with FAI navigation principles — adapted for the long-distance, itinerant rally format, but never departing from the federative framework.

Pilots plan their routes in advance and execute them by reading the landscape, interpreting ground features, anticipating wind and conditions, and making smart, autonomous choices in flight. The cockpit is intentionally quiet: no live position, no turn-by-turn prompts, no outside voice in your ear.

What "No Real-Time Navigation" Means

• No moving-map display showing your live position
• No turn-by-turn guidance or route prompts
• No dynamic rerouting assistance during flight
• No real-time communication with anyone outside the cockpit (except in genuine emergency)
• No personal GPS receivers, smart watches with navigation, two-way radios, or satellite messengers

What You Carry — and What It Does

Every pilot flies with the Official Tracking System provided by the Organisation, as required by FAI Section 10 for fair scoring and safety supervision:

• Competition tablet (Gaggle Classic™) — loaded with the official topographic map of the stage. It looks and behaves like a paper map: static topography and route information only. It does not show the pilot's live position. It logs your track silently in the background for scoring.
• Flymaster Tracker — a GPS tracker with an SOS button. It records a backup track and links you directly to the Organisation's safety desk in an emergency. It gives you no navigation information either.
• Sealed mobile phone — sealed by marshals before take-off, carried as a last-resort emergency line. Breaking the seal voluntarily costs you the stage. In a real emergency, you break it without hesitation.

Paper maps, pre-flight plans, and analogue (non-GPS) altimeters and compasses are welcome — old-school situational awareness, fully permitted.

Pilot Quarantine — Where Planning Becomes the Sport

On selected stages, pilots fly under Pilot Quarantine: isolated from external sources of information from the moment they see the task. No internet, no consultations, no help from the outside. Every pilot starts from exactly the same briefing and must do their own planning — route choice, timing, fuel strategy — alone.

The Declaration Task (FAI Annex 4 — 3.A4) is always flown under quarantine. The pilot calculates their own estimated arrival times at each Turn Point before take-off, then flies the route attempting to execute that plan to the second. Self-knowledge of your aircraft becomes as decisive as your navigation. Declaration meets execution.

The Navigation Tasks

Each stage features one NAV task, selected by the Competition Director from a library of five Category A tasks of the FAI Sporting Code Section 10, Annex 4 Part 3 (2026). Each one tests a different facet of cross-country airmanship. Every task is scored 0–1000 directly per its native FAI formula — no scaling, no shortcuts.

• 3.A1 — Pure Navigation (a.k.a. "Turnpoint Hunt")A pure strategy task. The pilot receives a set of Turn Points scattered between the Start and Finish, and must plan the in-flight route that collects the maximum number of TPs within the available fuel and time. The fastest pilot doesn't win. The smartest plan does.
• 3.A2 — Navigation with Precision RouteAn array of Turn Points to be collected in a given order, inside a fixed time window. The challenge is the trade-off: push the pace to grab every TP, or fly economically and protect your fuel for the Economy score of the stage. The ideal pace is rarely the fastest.
• 3.A4 — Navigation / Estimated Speed (the "Declaration Task")Always flown under Pilot Quarantine. Before take-off, the pilot personally declares their estimated arrival times at each Turn Point. Then they go and fly the plan. The closer actual times match declared times, the higher the score. A test of self-knowledge as much as navigation — you must know your aircraft as well as you know the map.
• 3.A6 — Navigation over a Known Circuit (the "Snake")A defined corridor — often curved — that the pilot must follow faithfully, with hidden gates positioned along the way. No waypoint-to-waypoint shortcuts: the corridor itself is the route. Rewards disciplined stick work, precise track-keeping, and the ability to stay centred in a line drawn on a map.
• 3.A7 — Navigation with Unknown LegsThe most demanding task in the catalogue. The pilot follows a series of known lines while searching for ground features — provided in photographs at briefing — that signal advancement to the next leg. Find the feature, change heading, search for the next. A mix of harder and easier features, with bigger bonuses for the sharp-eyed. Continuous map-to-ground correlation from take-off to landing.

The selected task and its briefing parameters are communicated through the Daily Briefing, no later than the opening of the Task Window. Pilots step into each stage knowing the format — but the route, the gates, and the features are always fresh.

What Pilots Must Rely On

• Pre-flight route planning and strategy
• Map reading and ground-feature interpretation
• Terrain recognition
• Weather assessment and in-flight judgement
• Time, distance, heading, and fuel estimation
• For Declaration tasks: your own pre-flight calculation of arrival times, executed by feel

This rewards pilots who truly understand navigation — not pilots who follow an arrow.

Why This Rule Exists

• Preserves the spirit of adventure and rally flying
• Ensures fair competition across all pilots, regardless of equipment budget
• Aligns with FAI Sporting Code principles for navigation championships
• Highlights real airmanship, decision-making, and situational awareness
• Creates a deeper, more immersive flying experience — the kind of flight where the landscape itself is the instrument panel

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