ASLT/Documentation

Contest Manager Guide: Orchestrating an Event

New to ASLT? Read How ASLT Works first. It explains contests, routes, navigation tasks, teams and contestants in five minutes. Want a guided first run? Follow Your First Contest in 15 Minutes.

World Precision Flying Championship Organizers: This is a general guide. For the detailed, step-by-step guide tailored for fully managed WPFC competitions, please see the WPFC Contest Manager Guide.

As a Contest Manager, you are the architect of the competition. ASLT provides powerful tools to handle complex logistics, real-time scoring, and advanced scheduling.

1. Establishing Your Contest

To host a contest, you need Organizer status. This is automatically approved for all registered users.

Step 1: Activate Organizer Status

  1. Log in to your account at https://app.airsports.no/.
  2. In the navigation bar, click the button labeled “Become an Organizer”.
  3. Approval is instantaneous. My contests and Route editor now appear in your navigation bar, and My maps in your user menu (your picture or initial at the right).

Step 2: Create the Contest

  1. Access the Contest Management Dashboard by selecting “My contests” in the navigation bar.
  2. Click “Create New Contest”.
  3. Name & Location: Provide a descriptive name and geolocation.
  4. Sharing: a contest is either Public or Private.
    • Public: Visible to everybody, also people who are not logged in, and listed on the dashboard.
    • Private: Only visible to people you have given access. You can give access to single users in Contest access, or to a whole group at once by sharing the contest with a squadron. Anybody with access can also take part in it (register a team, book a start time), but cannot change it.
  5. Running a cup over several contests? Create each event as its own contest and rank them together in a series.

2. Creating Navigation Tasks

Once a Contest is established, you can create one or more Navigation Tasks (e.g., Task 1: Navigation, Task 2: Poker Run).

Building a Navigation Task requires:

  1. A Route: The physical path and gates.
  2. A Scorecard: The specific competition rules and penalties.

Duplicating a task

Running the same kind of task again, for the next round of a cup or on another day, does not mean setting it all up again. Open the task, Manage → Duplicate…, and choose:

  • Contest: this one, or another contest you manage. You need to be able to change both.
  • Name and route: only your routes that fit the task type can be picked.
  • Start and finish time: filled in from the original, change them for the new occurrence.

The copy gets the same task type and settings (wind, timing, self-management, simulator policy, notifications and so on), the scorecard including any changes you made to it, and the flight order configuration. It starts private and without contestants, like a new task.

For detailed, step-by-step instructions on designing routes and configuring task parameters, please refer to:

3. Team Registration and Resource Management

ASLT manages teams based on three key resources: Crew Members, Aircraft, and Tracking Devices.

Registering Teams

  1. From the Contest Detail page, select “Teams”.
  2. Add Team: Enter the Pilot and Navigator (Crew 1 & Crew 2).
  3. Assign Aircraft: Input the registration (e.g., LN-ABC).
  4. Assign Tracker: Choose “Airsports App” or “Flymaster”. Enter the Tracking ID.
    • Note: Multiple teams can share the same aircraft or crew member. The scheduler handles this.

4. The Flight Scheduler Optimizer (Deep Dive)

Scheduling a 30-team competition with 10 shared aircraft and limited trackers is a complex mathematical problem. ASLT includes an advanced Linear Programming Optimizer to solve it.

Scheduling Parameters

  • Takeoff Interval (min): Minimum gap between successive aircraft departures (to ensure safety and separation).
  • Finish Interval (min): Minimum gap between successive arrivals (to manage runway occupancy and judge capacity).
  • Aircraft Switch Time (min): The time required for a plane to land, taxi, swap crews, and refuel before its next mission.
  • Crew Switch Time (min): If a pilot is flying in multiple teams, this is the rest period required between flights.
  • Tracker Switch Time (min): The time required to physically move a tracker (like a Flymaster) from one aircraft to another.
  • Tracker Lead Time (min): This defines when the system starts recording. For example, a 15-minute lead time means the app starts tracking 15 minutes before the scheduled takeoff.
  • Planning Time (min): The time allocated for the crew to prepare their maps and flight plan.

Using the Optimizer

  1. Go to the “Contestant Schedule” tab in your Navigation Task.
  2. Select “Generate Schedule”.
  3. Algorithmic Greedy Solution: This is the default. It quickly places teams in the first available slot.
  4. Optimal Solution (Linear Programming): Checking the “Optimize” box activates a mathematically rigorous solver. It doesn’t just find a solution; it calculates the schedule that minimizes the total duration of the entire contest while respecting every single constraint.
  5. Frozen Teams: If a specific team must fly at a certain time (e.g., they have a maintenance slot or a VIP departure), you can “Freeze” their time before running the optimizer.

5. Operational Controls

Recalculation

Mistakes happen. If a pilot flies a task but later it is discovered that the wind was 10 knots instead of 5, or if a judge wants to re-run the numbers with a different scorecard:

  1. Navigate to the Contestant Track.
  2. Adjust the task parameters (e.g., update the Wind Speed).
  3. Click “Recalculate”. The system re-processes the entire raw GPS track against the new rules without requiring a re-flight.

Calculation Delay

To prevent “Live Cheating” (where a crew on the ground could watch a rival’s track), you can set a Calculation Delay.

  • A 30-minute delay means the public map and leaderboard only show data that is 30 minutes old.
  • The system still records in real-time but buffers the display of the results.

E-mail when contestants start or finish

For a task that contestants fly on their own at different times, for example one round of a season-long cup, you do not have to watch the map to know when results come in. Open the task, Update task details, and under E-mail the contest managers tick:

  • When a contestant starts the task: an e-mail with a link to the live map as soon as scoring of their flight starts.
  • When a contestant has finished, with their score: an e-mail about a minute after the flight ends, saying whether they crossed the finish line or their tracking window ran out, with the score calculated from the track.

For a screen at the airfield, or the map on air in a broadcast, the live map has two displays, chosen under Display in its settings or with ?display=screen and ?display=broadcast in the address: see The Live Map.

Everybody who can manage the contest gets the e-mails, except a manager who is flying the task themselves. Each contestant triggers each e-mail once: recalculating a track later does not send it again. Both are off by default.

6. Flight Order Configuration

The Flight Order is the document package (PDF) generated for each contestant. Contest Managers can customize this to fit the specific needs of the task.

Key Settings

  • Document Size & Orientation: Choose between A3 or A4, and Portrait or Landscape.
  • Map Zoom Level: The default is Zoom 12, which is typically the best balance for navigation maps.
  • Map Source: Select from various providers (CyclOSM, satellite imagery, or your own uploaded maps).
  • Annotations: You can toggle minute marks and leg headings. When enabled, the generated map provides a “ready-to-fly” experience for the pilot.
  • Aerial Photos: You can configure the DPI, the zoom level, and the physical area (meters across) for turning point and observation photos. High-resolution photos help pilots identify targets during the flight.

7. User Uploaded Maps and Permissions

Organizers can upload their own maps to be used as backgrounds in the tracking map or within the Flight Orders.

Map Uploads

  • Formats: Supports georeferenced map formats.
  • Size Limit: The maximum allowed size for map uploads is 100 MB. For larger maps, consider removing zoom levels or splitting the map into multiple parts.
  • Recommended Zoom: Experience shows that zoom level 12 is typically the best for navigation maps.
  • Source Preference: You can set an uploaded map as the primary source for a task’s Flight Order, overriding the global map defaults.

Permissions and Security

ASLT utilizes a granular permission system to protect sensitive data.

  • Contest Permissions:
    • change_contest: Allows a user to edit the contest, manage teams, and run the scheduler.
    • view_contest: Allows a user to see a private contest and take part in it, but not make changes.
    • delete_contest: Allows a user to delete the contest, and to give or take away that right from others.
    • Under Contest access → Permissions anybody who can change the contest gives others access: view & take part, manage or manage & delete. Only organizers (people who pressed Become an Organizer) can be given manage or manage & delete; anybody can be given view.
  • Map Permissions:
    • Unprotected Maps: These are available for any organizer to use in their tasks.
    • Protected Maps: Access is restricted to users who have explicit view_useruploadedmap permissions.
    • Automatic Access: Contest managers can automatically access maps uploaded by other staff members associated with the same contest.
  • Public vs. Private: Remember that setting a Navigation Task to is_public=false hides the tracks from public view, which is essential for maintaining the “quarantine” of pilots during a major event. Note that people who have access to a private contest (given individually or through a squadron) see all its tasks, also the private ones.
  • Squadrons and series: Contest access → Squadrons shares the contest with a group of people, see Squadrons. Contest access → Series lets the contest count towards a cup or championship, see Series.
  • Flight simulators: Each navigation task has a “Flight simulators” setting. Not allowed (the default) ignores positions from flight simulators, so simulator pilots cannot disturb a real competition. Allowed accepts simulator flights under the normal rules and marks them with a SIM badge. Simulator only ignores real trackers and the app. A pilot booking a flight on the website has to say whether they will fly a real aircraft or a simulator; the MSFS client and the phone apps are recognised automatically. The setting takes effect within about a minute.

Last updated: April 2024

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