15 miles - It's remaining within gliding distance of the airport. Gliding distance being a calculated ability to reach the airport at a safe altitude without catching any lift along the way, with some fudge factor in case you get into some strong sink. I set my "safety altitude" at 2000 feet, having had one occasion where I just barely got back safely.
If going distance you try to hop from "within range" of one little airport to the next.
If you "land out", it's a pain in the butt. You either call the club and have the tow plane come and get you from a suitable airfield, or if you land in a field someplace you need some helpers to bring your trailer, take the glider apart, and drag it home. Or you crash someplace.
Many of the contest gliders have motors (that they don't use else they're either out or penalized) that makes the pilot a bit more brave.
15 miles is pretty far. If you are up high, say, 5000 feet, the airport looks pretty close. It looks farther and farther away the lower you are at that distance.
3000 feet drop (to safety altitude) over 15 miles gives you a sink rate of 200 feet per mile, a glide ratio of 26.4, which is not too hard to acheive (in my old glider).
4000 feet drop would still put you at the airport at pattern altitude, and would be a 19.8:1 glide ratio.
Usually I'll find some lift on the way back, toward the airport, and be able to continue the flight.
There's an 18 year old at the club, whose father is an A320 Captain, who is on the fast track and in the contest. I'll post his flight later against one of the probablyr high-finishers.
If you are young, you may have less experience but still be brave and indestructible. Old you may have the latest machine along with many years of expreience. I'm old and have a little experience.
The 18 year old is flying a
DG400 owned by the
Lakeland Aero Club, that caters to youngsters. He's wearing the red shirt in the scond video on that page. That DG400 had an engine that is probably removed because it doesn't work anymore, possible rebuild in progress. The doors for the engine to pop out were all taped over.It was manufactured in 1987, registration
N400YE.
All the gliders carry some sort of GPS flight recorder, and surely they all have some display with the targets.
There will be a starting line, or a circle, that you fly across or into to start your race. There may be starting alstitude limits. Then there will be three or four "turnpoints", with a circle of varying radius around them. You touch the circle you made that turn, but going deeper gives you more points.around them. Miss the circle alltogether and you're out. Then there is some circle or line for the finish, and probably a minimum finish altitude.
Of course the rules go much deeper than that -
https://www.dropbox.com/s/uu321wqk83vfo7u/SSA Competition Rules 2023.pdf?dl=1
You don't win anything that I know of but maybe a trophy and bragging rights, as far as I know.
Folks show up in their motor homes, pay the entry fee, and spend a week or ten days immersed in the whole theng.
I'm not that sociable.