A new online platform for XC flying has gone live.
IntoCross is the brainchild of XC paraglider pilots and developers Hugo Ribeira and Tom Payne.
Unlike other platforms and leagues intoCross allows pilots to create their own XC routes – and set up mini competitions and leagues around them.
For example, pilots can download the route for the Tour du Lac in Annecy, go flying, and then upload their tracklog to compare it against other pilots who have flown the same route.
It also means clubs, groups of friends or schools can set up XC ‘tick lists’ for their local hills – and it provides benchmarks for how to fly routes. It’s also a brilliant tool for seeing how top guns fly the routes – flying the Alps in Diorama with Luc Armant is a lesson in how to glide.
In development for a year and soft-launched in April, intoCross is setting out to do for XC flying what Strava did for cycling and running. As it goes fully live this week we asked Hugo all about it.
Hugo, tell us what intoCross is.
IntoCross is one half social platform, one half competition platform. It brings the joy of competition flying to everyone and everywhere from the top XC pilots to the weekend warrior, be it 3,000m above the floor in the Alps or 3m away from the dunes in Portugal.
How does it work?
A typical day using intoCross would go something like this:
You log in, find a task that looks good for you near the place you’re flying, or just create a new one to have fun with your friends, and download it
Then you go out and fly! Hopefully, everything will go as planned and you’ll complete the task you’ve chosen.
Back at home, you drag and drop your IGC files into intoCross. The system then analyses your tracklog to see which tasks you have completed – no need to declare tasks in advance!
Each task has its own leaderboard, divided by season, month, glider class and even a friends only leaderboard.
You also get a fully personalised feed, meaning you’ll always know what the pilots you care about have been up to. Maybe find some new tasks or friends for the next flyable day. It’s all about making flying XC more accessible and having fun.
Explain some of the features of intoCross
The number one feature is the ability to create and compete in tasks – and do it in a social manner.
We want people to have fun with their friends whatever and wherever they’re flying. The best example I can think of is a weekend in January that me and Tom [Payne] got together to work on intoCross in Portugal.
We finished the core functionality just in time to test it on the dunes of Mad Max, Portugal. We raced each other to see who could tick the turnpoints fastest, lots of action and tumbling in the sand but above all great fun!
We’re really excited to see people using the platform in ways we haven’t imagined, it’s all about having as much fun as possible.
You mention Tom Payne. What’s his involvement?
About a year after I started flying I started cooking up the idea of intoCross and eventually bought the intocross.com domain and started working on its foundations.
The turning point actually came when I got in touch with the editor of Cross Country magazine about my idea. He introduced me to Tom Payne who as it happened was working on a similar idea.
We combined forces and we’ve been working together since September culminating on the public beta launch on 2 April this year. Now it’s open to all.
What makes intoCross different from XContest?
Well, it’s one big thing and many small ones. The most obvious one being the fact that we support tasks besides normal distance flying.
We want to give people the excitement of going flying even if it is just for the sake of beating their best friend’s time on the local top to bottom.
Loving cross-country flying we really want intoCross to encourage people to go out and fly away from the takeoff, and that’s also where tasks come in.
Having a task already planned and seeing that friends have already completed it we hope to lower the barrier for new XC pilots.
What sort of pilots do you think intoCross will appeal to?
The early adopters will probably be comp pilots and XC minded individuals. But eventually I think most pilots will find interest in the platform, being it in completing groundbreaking tasks or trying to tick all the tasks near their local site.
I think it will be an invaluable tool for the travelling pilot as well, because they’ll be able to study the best routes of a venue without having to go through thousand of logs in Leonardo or XContest.
During a closed beta even school pilots were having a blast. Apparently they are much faster then anyone else on the top to bottom tasks!
How do you use it yourself?
I usually gather around the computer with a few flying buddies the day before flying. We look at the forecasts and decide on where to go fly, after that we either create a new task or see what tasks we complete that we haven’t before.
Then we just go out and fly! Doing the planning this way has really helped us push the limits of the day while also motivating us on weaker days to go out and maybe try to set a record or two in tasks at our local sites.
What are the future plans?
We’re just finishing the core functionality and starting to have feedback from real users, it’s a really exciting time but it also means that most of the time we have is spent fixing bugs and working on usability problems.
We’ve got a couple of features planned, from suggestions based on day conditions to a really nice flight analysis tool there’s definitely more to come!
And has it helped you fly better and further?
I haven’t been flying for a long time, so anything above the 50km mark is going to make me happy!
My main objective this year is to clock a 100km flight. Although I’ve seen a task in intoCross that really caught my attention: a 30km flight ending at a Portuguese beach!
I’ve also just beaten my personal best with Tom in Annecy, so the year is starting great already! 🙂
Find out more and sign up for free at www.intocross.com
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