SkyHog said:
Thank you for grabbing it! Sometimes I hate the evil that lurks on the internet.
No problem. A cheap $11.34 for 2 years on the domain registration.
I temporarily redirected
http://www.operationfly.com/ to
http://www.shortfield.com/
I think some future challenge would need to satisfy these goals:
- Present a personal challenge (with reward by public recognition) that requires a visit to as many (or distant) airports as possible.
- Present an airport challenge - a motivation to make people visit airports that are otherwise rarely visited. And possibly do it sooner than later, and by more than one pilot.
- Make it so it is a perpetual challenge that does not require any form of manual "reset".
One possible set of rules that I think might satisfy all those requirements uses a rating system involving distance and time:
- A member accumulates points by declaring and providing proof of taking off from one airport (which may have been previously visited) and landing at any airport they have not already landed. Any number of refueling or rest stops of any duration are allowed between the two airports - it is only required that one airport was departed by air and the other arrived by air with ground travel limited to a minimum (e.g. taxi, takeoff, landing).
- The number of points awarded is proportional to the distance in nautical miles between the two airports multiplied by the number of days that has elapsed since the last visit at the landing airport by any other member. If no previous member has ever landed then 30 plus the number of days since the web challenge was started is used as the elapsed time since the last landing. In the event more than one member lands at an airport on the same day, all such members are awarded the points they would otherwise have (i.e. it's a tie.)
- Members are ranked and listed by the number of points they have accumulated.
So a collection of points gradually opens on all visits to all airports, making rarely visited airports more valuable than more frequently visited ones. And since a person can't get points for an airport more than once, they are constantly challenged to venture farther afield. A map provides a permanent record of what they've personally accomplished.
Rule 1 has the side-effect of allowing a person to get points for their "home field" when they return from their first landing airport. The rule also implicitly sets a (rather high IMHO) limit on the number of points a single pilot could ever get (there are only so many airports and a (so far) finite lifetime to fly to them.) Also, there probably should be some refinements on the refueling or rest stops aspect since I could see that getting abused.
Rule 2 makes rarely visited airports become increasingly valuable - more to more distant members than nearby ones! Rewarding such XC trips is a good thing IMHO. And a member may collect just as many points for going from A to D direct as by going A to B to C to D even if they've already got points for B and C. Also, a bit of game theory comes into play into determining WHEN to try for an airport you have yet to visit - wait for it to build points since its last visit reset - or go for it before somebody does a reset on it by visiting first?
The rating system allows new members to come on at any time and have a good chance of challenging long-time users by didn't of persistence.
Anyway - just some ideas.
