Shooting for maximum distance - pure and simple.
This type of archery needs a lot of space and level space at that.
The furthest distance shot with any bow is 2,047 yards (1,871.84m) . This was shot by the late Harry Drake in 1988 using a crossbow.
The furthest with a hand-held - and pulled - bow is 1,336 yds 1' 3" (1,222.01m) , shot by Don Brown with an unlimited conventional Flight bow in 1987.
(compared to the unlimited Longbow World Record of GB's Jeremy Spencer of 379.51m). Airfields or aerodromes are ideal, or the salt flats of the USA.
As in other types of archery there are various classes for different bow types - longbow, recurve, compound and specialist flight bows. Flight bows and arrows are at the cutting edge of archery technology as flight archers strive to get the maximum possible from them. It's like Formula 1 motor racing, where improvements to the cars and engines (like ABS or computerised engine management) can eventually be adopted by the mainstream car manufacturers. Metal risers, carbon arrows, faster strings and a lot more have come from flight archery.
3 arrows an end are shot, and then the archers go looking for their arrows. If they find them, the furthest arrow of the end is marked and another 3 ends are shot (in the USA, only one end is shot in competition). Furthest distance wins!
