Introduction

Syrac is a paragliding time attack platform. It allows you to race on permanent tasks and try to climb to the top of its leaderboard. You can also create and share your own tasks, challenging everyone to complete them as fast as possible.

Manifesto

Paragliding competitions are incredible events. You get to race with dozens of pilots across majestic landscapes, using gear which is nothing short of an engineering marvel. However, there are three important limitations:

scoring is obscure
competitions are expensive
weather plays an important part

The goal of Syrac is to offer an alternative to regular paragliding competitions by proposing solutions to these issues.

Scoring

Both local and international XC competitions have settled for an ever-changing way of computing the score of each pilot for a given flight. Scoring formulas have reached complexity levels such that you cannot know who is the winner of a task or a competition when you land.

Pilots have to wait for GPS tracks to be processed by closed-source software implementing loosely-defined specifications¹ in order to elect their winner. Even though the reasons for introducing such complexity can be justified, it can also be argued that the evolution of scoring has hurt competitiveness.

Syrac addresses this issue by coming back to the essence of racing: time. The only thing that matters in a leaderboard is the time it took a pilot to complete the task from the Start of Speed Section (SSS) to the End of Speed Section (ESS).

Cost

Paragliding is an expensive sport. Equipment constitutes a significant budget, and has to be renewed fairly often. Local competitions are fairly affordable, but international competitions often involve long-haul flights, hotel bookings, logistics costs as well as registration fees. This cost of entry restricts high-level competition access to relatively wealthy pilots.

Syrac is free. Use it, give us your feedback, and we can make it better together. Everyone is welcome. We don't sell your data, we don't force you to see dumb ads, and we never will.

Weather

Competitions are scheduled months in advance so pilots can only hope for favourable weather conditions during the event. In the past, several international events spanning multiple weeks have had as little as a couple of flyable days.

Syrac tasks are here forever. Once a task is created, anyone can try to get the fastest time in as many attempts as they wish. This allows pilots who are not able fly every day to still be able to compete for the top of the leaderboard.

We hope Syrac offers an interesting alternative to XC competitions and permanent rankings, enabling pilots from all backgrounds to race together.

See FAI Sporting Code or PWCA rules. ↩

Rules

Syrac is designed to have a few simple rules, which are described here. If you think some of these rules are not fair or could be improved, feel free to suggest a change.

Tasks

Creating tasks

Everyone can create tasks using either built-in XCTrack features or third-party tools. There are some restrictions regarding the tasks that can be submitted:

tasks should be submitted in XCTrack format
tasks should be of type ELAPSED-TIME
tasks must have a Start of Speed Section (SSS) and an End of Speed Section (ESS)
tasks must have between 0 and 20 turnpoints, including SSS and ESS
turnpoint radius must be between 100m and 100km
optimized task distance between SSS and ESS must be between 5km and 500km

In order to prevent spam, free users can create a maximum of 10 tasks per 24-hour window.

Deleting tasks

You can only delete the tasks you created, and which have not been completed yet. As soon as someone (including you) completes a given task, it becomes part Syrac's permanent task pool.

If you were the first one to complete a task which was deleted, feel free to re-create the task yourself and submit your track.

If you wish to request the deletion of a completed task, or the update of task metadata, please request a manual change. Make sure to include a link to the task as well as a clear explanation of the requested changes.

Flights

Everyone can submit attempts for all tasks, without limits. Only submit your own tracks, they are tied to your user account. You can submit multiple attempts to the same task (or different ones) during the same day. Tracks should be submitted as IGC files with a valid signature.

Cheating

The following actions are considered cheating. Cheating users will first receive a warning, and then be permanently banned from the platform should they attempt to cheat again.

submitting a flight track which is not yours
submitting a forged IGC file

Privacy Policy

Effective Date: October 1, 2025

Data We Collect

We collect the following data:

Account Information: Username and email.
Task Data: Task contents, if you submit them.
Track Data: Tracks recorded by flight instruments, if you submit them.
Server Logs: IP address and user agent information.

How We Use Your Data

We use your data to:

Manage your account.
Display submitted tasks and rankings.
Provide and improve the app’s functionality.

We process your data under the lawful bases of contract (providing you with the app’s functionality) and consent (where you actively choose to submit tasks or tracks).

We do not share your data with third parties, except for essential service providers (e.g., hosting) who are contractually obligated to protect it. We do not sell your data or use it for advertising.

Cookies and Tracking

We use only strictly necessary cookies (e.g., session management). We do not use third-party cookies or tracking technologies.

Data Storage and Security

Your data is stored on servers in Germany and the Netherlands. All data is encrypted in transit and protected with strict access controls. In case of a data breach, we will notify affected users as required by law.

Data Retention

We retain your data as long as your account exists. Upon account deletion, your tracks are immediately deleted. Tasks are transferred to an anonymous service user to provide continuity of existing rankings.

Your Rights

You can:

Access your account data, tasks and tracks.
Delete all your data instantly via your settings page.
Request a copy of your data.

You also have the right to request correction, restrict or object to processing, and to lodge a complaint with your local data protection authority.

By email: hello at syrac dot org
By opening an issue on GitHub

Syrac