Task 3 (Open)

How the field flew this task, and which behaviours separated it.

View task

The optimised route — radii, leg distances and start times are on the task page.

Analysis computed

Pilots: 34
Airtime: 85h (12:46–18:03 AEDT)
Thermals: 24661 shared by 2+ pilots
Working band: 866–2152 m
Airtime split: searching32%
climbing43%
gliding25%

1 pilot is in the scores but not in this analysis. Which, and why

What the weather did

From the weather model

Independent of the tracklogs: modelled conditions for the task area.

Fetching the day’s weather — it will appear here in a moment.

From the pilots' tracks

What the field actually flew — wind, climb strength and leg timing measured from every pilot's tracklog.

The day’s wind, hour by hour and leg by leg. What the air did, read from the field itself. We estimate the wind from the circling of every pilot. The first method is the drift of the circle centre, and the second method, used when the first is not available, is the modulation of the ground speed. We then combine the estimates two ways. The table by hour of day shows how the wind increased and changed direction through the day. The table by speed-section leg shows the wind on each part of the course. This metric describes the day, so it has no value for each pilot.

How strong the day’s climbs were, hour by hour. When the day started, reached its peak, and ended. We group the thermal climbs of all pilots by the hour in which each climb started, labelled in the time zone of the competition. The median and the 90th-percentile average climb rate for each hour show how the lift developed. This metric describes the day, so it has no value for each pilot.

Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking. How much of the flight was in air worth being in. The value is the share of the airborne time of a pilot, on the shared grid, with a 30 s-smoothed vario at or above −0.5 m/s. The time they flew, the line they steered and the way the flight ended all feed this value. It is therefore a reading of the day as much as of the pilot. There is no expected direction, and the sign of the correlation is the finding. The timing table compares the window of the day’s best climbs against the time when the field launched.

All charts share that one time axis. Arrows fly WITH the wind — direction figures are degrees the wind blows from.

A vertical scan compares the measured and the modelled at the same moment. Arrow length and opacity track speed and sample count.

On the per-leg chart the pale bar is when the field flew that leg, and the solid band inside it is the circling its wind was measured from — a leg the field glided is measured in a sliver of the time it was flown.

Exact numbers are in the day family’s tables under “The metrics in detail”.

The day's thermals

The 40 most-shared of 60 multi-pilot thermals, reconstructed by pooling every pilot's track through the same climb. Everything shown is measured from the tracks — no fitted lift model. Select a thermal to see it in detail.

Thermal at 13:38 AEDT — 10 pilots, 22 climbs

Wind 10.3 km/h from 298° (WNW), measured from 96 circle estimates in the pilots' own tracks.
Model wind cross-check loading…
Leans 48° from vertical toward 90° (E), within 28° of downwind.
Strongest on the NW side of the core at +1.5 m/s against +1.2 m/s on the SE side.
Multiple cores in 2 of 5 bands between 900 and 1300 m — separate feeders (⬧ in the rose) before they merged.

Watch this thermal in the 3D replay

Pilots in this thermal (climb rates)

Pilot	Min	Median	Max
Adrian Connor	-2.0 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+6.0 m/s
Howard Taylor	-2.3 m/s	+1.3 m/s	+3.3 m/s
Richard Martin	-2.3 m/s	+1.3 m/s	+3.5 m/s
Mick Lamb	+0.5 m/s	+0.5 m/s	+2.0 m/s
Rob Larkin	-1.0 m/s	+0.5 m/s	+1.5 m/s
Josh Woods	—	—	—
Steven Crosby	—	—	—
Rob de Groot	—	—	—
Col Jackson	—	—	—
Bradley Elliott	-1.0 m/s	-1.0 m/s	-1.0 m/s

Each pilot's slowest, typical and best climb over their own vario samples in this thermal — a negative minimum means they touched sink inside it.

Band table (exact numbers)

Band	Core offset E/N (m)	Working radius	Extent	Mean climb	Best climb	Samples	Pilots	Cores
1200–1300 m	177 / 23	110 m	151 m	+1.5 m/s	+5.0 m/s	93	2	2
1100–1200 m	141 / 54	61 m	106 m	+1.6 m/s	+4.5 m/s	111	4	1
1000–1100 m	76 / 27	124 m	189 m	+1.4 m/s	+4.0 m/s	194	3	1
900–1000 m	-103 / 24	148 m	194 m	+1.0 m/s	+6.0 m/s	259	6	2
800–900 m	-267 / 46	145 m	216 m	+0.8 m/s	+3.0 m/s	65	3	1

Start	Pilots	Height band	Mean climb	Strongest side
13:02 AEDT	5	800–1400 m	+1.3 m/s	SW
13:07 AEDT	4	1000–1700 m	+1.0 m/s	SE
13:25 AEDT	4	900–1200 m	+1.1 m/s	N
13:30 AEDT	7	1200–2000 m	+1.4 m/s	SW
13:37 AEDT	7	900–1700 m	+1.7 m/s	NE
13:38 AEDT	10	800–1300 m	+1.2 m/s	NW
13:42 AEDT	6	1600–1900 m	+1.3 m/s	NE
13:52 AEDT	7	1100–2100 m	+1.4 m/s	S
13:53 AEDT	6	700–1400 m	+0.8 m/s	SE
13:56 AEDT	5	1200–1600 m	+1.2 m/s	NW
13:59 AEDT	10	700–1900 m	+1.5 m/s	E
14:00 AEDT	6	1700–2100 m	+1.2 m/s	SE
14:02 AEDT	6	900–1900 m	+1.4 m/s	SW
14:04 AEDT	4	800–1600 m	+1.4 m/s	NW
14:20 AEDT	5	1300–1700 m	+1.4 m/s	SW
14:24 AEDT	4	1500–2100 m	+1.7 m/s	E
14:26 AEDT	4	1400–2200 m	+1.6 m/s	S
14:30 AEDT	3	1200–1800 m	+1.3 m/s	E
14:31 AEDT	3	1600–1900 m	+1.2 m/s	SE
14:40 AEDT	5	1500–2000 m	+1.1 m/s	W
14:41 AEDT	4	1200–2500 m	+2.2 m/s	SW
14:41 AEDT	3	1300–1600 m	+1.0 m/s	NE
14:50 AEDT	4	1700–2100 m	+1.0 m/s	SE
14:53 AEDT	3	1800–2500 m	+1.4 m/s	W
14:58 AEDT	5	1600–2400 m	+1.5 m/s	SW
14:59 AEDT	3	1000–1700 m	+1.9 m/s	S
15:01 AEDT	4	1700–2100 m	+1.2 m/s	SE
15:11 AEDT	5	1700–2100 m	+1.6 m/s	SW
15:15 AEDT	3	1500–2400 m	+1.4 m/s	NE
15:18 AEDT	5	1200–2400 m	+1.3 m/s	NE
15:18 AEDT	4	1000–2200 m	+1.8 m/s	S
15:27 AEDT	3	2000–2500 m	+1.4 m/s	W
15:27 AEDT	3	1100–1900 m	+1.5 m/s	NE
15:28 AEDT	4	1600–2100 m	+1.6 m/s	N
15:32 AEDT	3	1100–2300 m	+2.4 m/s	SW
15:35 AEDT	4	2200–2500 m	+1.5 m/s	NW
15:39 AEDT	3	1800–2300 m	+1.8 m/s	W
15:40 AEDT	6	2000–2500 m	+1.1 m/s	N
15:45 AEDT	3	1300–1800 m	+1.0 m/s	E
15:58 AEDT	3	1300–1900 m	+1.3 m/s	SE

The dashed arrow is the weather model’s wind — a model run, not an observation.

Each thermal pools every pilot’s fixes through the same climb into 100 m altitude bands. A band’s core is the lift-weighted centre of its fixes, so the rose and the sector readings are already normalised for the thermal’s lean and drift.

Wedge length is relative climb by side of the core; the dashed ring is the measured working radius and the dotted ring the widest the field ranged. The solid arrow is the wind measured from the pilots’ circles.

Which behaviours went with better ranks

Each row is one behaviour, compared against the published ranks. Select a row to plot it against rank.

Glide speed between climbs

Label every pilot

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.90 (clear pattern, n = 32). More is expected to be better here, and it was: top ranks gather to the right. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 31 to about rank 1. 2 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Field glide speed: median 57.5 km/h · p90 69.3 km/h (32 pilots)

Behaviour	Strength	What it means	Pilots measured
Glide speed between climbs		clear pattern
How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it		clear pattern
How low the pilot gets between climbs		clear pattern
Time spent flying with a gaggle		clear pattern
Climbs joined on another pilot's marker		clear pattern
Distance covered between climbs		clear pattern
Glide L/D against the field median		clear pattern
Gliding wide of the optimal course line		clear pattern
Final glide committed to when leaving the last climb		clear pattern
Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb		clear pattern
Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb		some pattern
How often leaving the gaggle paid off		could be chance
Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking		could be chance
Climb rate at thermal exit		could be chance
Time to core thermals		could be chance
How round and consistent the circles were		could be chance
Share of the height gain made outside thermals		could be chance
Gliding faster when the next climb is stronger		could be chance
Arriving at ESS with height to spare		could be chance
Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band		could be chance
Climbing faster than the pilots sharing the thermal		could be chance

Metrics with a clear pattern, plotted against rank

Glide speed between climbs

Measured in kilometres per hour · higher is better

How fast the pilot moves down the course when they are on a glide. The value is the duration-weighted mean ground speed over every glide after the start, which is the glide distance divided by the glide time. A higher value means more ground covered in each minute between climbs.

Field glide speed: median 57.5 km/h · p90 69.3 km/h (32 pilots)

How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it

Measured in percent · no expected direction

Does the pilot climb to the top of every thermal, or leave with lift still above them? We take the altitude where they left each thermal after the start, as a percentage of the day’s working band. 0% is the floor of the field and 100% is its ceiling. The value is the median. There is no expected direction: a climb to the top buys height in reserve, and an early departure buys time.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.75 (clear pattern, n = 32). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 32 to about rank 4. 2 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

How low the pilot gets between climbs

Measured in percent · no expected direction

How low the pilot goes before the next climb. A high value is a race with height in reserve, and a low value is a flight that goes down near the ground. We take each pair of climbs that the pilot made after the start, and we find the lowest point between them. We keep only the gaps that go down 100 m or more, because a top-up between two climbs is not a descent. We do not count a sled run or the glide to goal, because the pilot made no climb after them. The value is the median of those low points, as a percentage of the day's working band. 0% is where the lowest tenth of the field's climbs started, and 100% is where the highest tenth stopped. Thus a negative value shows that the pilot went lower than almost all of the field. The pilot must have two or more of these descents. There is no expected direction. The sign of the correlation says whether height in reserve pays.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.67 (clear pattern, n = 28). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 33 to about rank 7. 6 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Measured in percent · no expected direction

Whether the pilot raced with other pilots or alone. The value is the share of their flying time after the start inside a detected gaggle, that is, clustered with one other racing pilot or more on the shared time grid. There is no expected direction. A gaggle increases the power to search for lift, but it also holds a pilot to its own speed. The sign of the correlation says which of the two occurred here.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.66 (clear pattern, n = 34). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 31 to about rank 1.

57 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 6 pilots).

Climbs joined on another pilot's marker

Measured in percent · no expected direction

How much of the lift of the pilot another pilot found first. The value is the share of their climbs after the start where another pilot was already established in the same thermal when they arrived. Established means 30 s or more into the climb, and still climbing. A high value means they mostly climb on the markers of other pilots. A low value means they find their own air. There is no expected direction. A marker is free information, but it puts a pilot where the last climb was, and not where the next one is.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.62 (clear pattern, n = 30). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 31 to about rank 5. 4 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Distance covered between climbs

Measured in kilometres · higher is better

How far the pilot gets down the course before they must stop and circle again. This is the direct reading of how often they stop. The value is the scored flown distance divided by the number of thermals taken after the start, so 3 km means three kilometres of course for each climb. The pilot must fly 20 km or more. The note of each pilot adds their mean climb percentile inside shared thermals, so you can read the number of stops together with the climb strength. Long legs between weak climbs is a different day from long legs between strong ones.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.62 (clear pattern, n = 27). More is expected to be better here, and it was: top ranks gather to the right. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 20 to about rank 8. 7 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Glide L/D against the field median

Measured in ratio · higher is better

Whether the pilot found better air on glide than the other pilots on the same leg. For each completed speed-section leg, we take the pilot's glide-phase L/D. That is the path distance divided by the net altitude lost during the glides, and we skip a leg that loses less than 100 m. We divide it by the median L/D of the field on that same leg, and then average over the legs. 1.10 means the pilot glided 10% further for each metre lost than the usual pilot on those legs.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.59 (clear pattern, n = 25). More is expected to be better here, and it was: top ranks gather to the right. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 24 to about rank 7. 9 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Gliding wide of the optimal course line

Measured in percent · lower is better

How much further the pilot flew on glide than the optimised course line needed. 0% is a flight exactly along the line, and 12% is a glide 12% further than necessary. On each completed speed-section leg, we compare the pilot's route with the optimised distance of the leg, weighted by that optimised distance. Only the glides are measured at their full path length. Circling and searching contribute their entry-to-exit displacement instead. A climb or a search for lift therefore never reads as a wide line, because a pilot chooses a line only on glide. 0% is a real value that a pilot can reach: a pilot who flies the line of the optimiser scores exactly zero.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.59 (clear pattern, n = 25). Less is expected to be better here, and it was: top ranks gather to the left. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 5 to about rank 25. 9 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Final glide committed to when leaving the last climb

Measured in ratio · no expected direction

How optimistic the pilot was about their final glide. A pilot wins or loses a task by the height at which they leave the last climb. At the last climb of the pilot before ESS, or before the landing, we divide the distance to goal by their height above goal. That is the glide ratio they committed to. 8 means they left and needed 8:1 to make goal. The value counts only when that climb ended within 1.5 times the length of the last course leg longer than 1 km from goal — when ESS and goal share a waypoint, the zero-length hop between them is not that leg. There is no expected direction: a marginal glide wins if it connects, and loses if it does not.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.58 (clear pattern, n = 23). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with worse ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 7 to about rank 26. 11 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Measured in percent · lower is better

Time that goes into neither a climb nor progress down the course. This is the time spent to find lift, to stay up, and to decide what to do next. The value is the share of the speed-section time, from the start to ESS or to the landing, in which the pilot neither climbed in a thermal nor glided with real net speed. A lower value means less time lost between climbs.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.56 (clear pattern, n = 34). Less is expected to be better here, and it was: top ranks gather to the left. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 1 to about rank 32.

Speed-section phase shares, field p25/median/p75: climb 34/43/49% · glide 23/29/34% · search 20/27/41%

Outcome checks

These measure the result, not a behaviour, so they always follow the ranks.

Outcome	Strength	What it means	Pilots measured
Race time behind the leader at ESS		clear pattern
Race time lost against the fastest pilots, leg by leg		clear pattern

The whole field at a glance

1. Steven Crosby

2. Josh Woods

3. Hughbert Alexander

4. Tyler Borradaile

5. Rohan Taylor

6. Paul Bissett-Amess

7. Rory Duncan

8. Peter Burkitt

9. Ward Gunn

10. Rob de Groot

11. Dick Heffer

12. Richard Martin

13. Bradley Elliott

14. Adrian Connor

15. Mick Lamb

16. James Atkinson

17. John Greenwood

19. Peter Garrone

20. Dustan Hansen

21. John Harriott

22. Andy Schmidt

23. James Morgan

24. Col Jackson

25. Brett Gilmour

26. Hossain Tefaili

27. James McGinty

28. Nolan Bear

29. Justin Gilmour

30. Rob Larkin

31. Howard Taylor

32. Andre Johnson

33. Joe Baker

34. Les Bestt

35. Richard Hughes

The pilots in rank order against every behaviour. A darker cell is a better percentile in this field, and an empty cell is a behaviour that does not apply.

Pilot style clusters

The groups are flying style, and not score. The spread of ranks in each group shows where that style paid and where it did not.

Group A — Committed racers

9 pilots · ranks 1–29 · median 8 · middle half 3–11

Low — Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb group median P12 in this field (17 percent) · usually a strength
Low — Climb rate at thermal exit group median P13 in this field (-0.0 metres per second)
High — How often leaving the gaggle paid off group median P88 in this field (100 percent)
Low — Share of the height gain made outside thermals group median P14 in this field (3 percent)

1. Steven Crosby
2. Josh Woods
3. Hughbert Alexander (most typical of this group)
4. Tyler Borradaile
8. Peter Burkitt
10. Rob de Groot
11. Dick Heffer
13. Bradley Elliott
29. Justin Gilmour

Group B — Outclimbed in company

2 pilots · ranks 7–9 · median 8 · middle half 7.5–8.5

Low — Climbing faster than the pilots sharing the thermal group median P2 in this field (34 percent) · usually costly
High — Share of the height gain made outside thermals group median P98 in this field (32 percent)
High — Distance covered between climbs group median P98 in this field (31.5 kilometres) · usually a strength
High — Glide L/D against the field median group median P98 in this field (7.92 ratio) · usually a strength

7. Rory Duncan (most typical of this group)
9. Ward Gunn

Group C — High-band operators

6 pilots · ranks 5–23 · median 13 · middle half 7.5–18.5

High — How low the pilot gets between climbs group median P87 in this field (57 percent)
Low — Time to core thermals group median P17 in this field (41 seconds) · usually a strength
High — Glide L/D against the field median group median P79 in this field (1.17 ratio) · usually a strength
High — Climb rate at thermal exit group median P77 in this field (0.8 metres per second)

5. Rohan Taylor
6. Paul Bissett-Amess (most typical of this group)
12. Richard Martin
14. Adrian Connor
20. Dustan Hansen
23. James Morgan

Group D — Glide bleeders

10 pilots · ranks 15–28 · median 21.5 · middle half 17.5–24.8

Low — Glide L/D against the field median group median P17 in this field (0.84 ratio) · usually costly
High — Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band group median P77 in this field (2.0 count)
Low — Glide speed between climbs group median P24 in this field (51.7 kilometres per hour) · usually costly
High — Gliding wide of the optimal course line group median P75 in this field (19 percent) · usually costly

15. Mick Lamb
16. James Atkinson
17. John Greenwood
19. Peter Garrone (most typical of this group)
21. John Harriott
22. Andy Schmidt
24. Col Jackson
25. Brett Gilmour
26. Hossain Tefaili
28. Nolan Bear

Group E — Deep diggers

4 pilots · ranks 30–33 · median 31.5 · middle half 30.8–32.3

Low — How low the pilot gets between climbs group median P4 in this field (-18 percent)
Low — How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it group median P5 in this field (2 percent)
Low — Climbs joined on another pilot's marker group median P5 in this field (0 percent)
Low — Time spent flying with a gaggle group median P8 in this field (0 percent)

30. Rob Larkin (most typical of this group)
31. Howard Taylor
32. Andre Johnson
33. Joe Baker

Not clustered: 27. James McGinty — only 5 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 34. Les Bestt — only 7 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 35. Richard Hughes — only 9 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%).

31 pilots on 21 behavioural metrics formed 5 groups.

GlideComp groups the pilots by flying style, and not by score. It transforms the rank of every behavioural metric to a percentile inside the field. It then compares two pilots by the mean percentile gap over the metrics that both pilots have, and never fills in a missing value. Ward-linkage agglomeration forms the groups, and the best mean silhouette selects the number of groups. Each group carries the spread of the GAP ranks of its members, which shows where a style paid and where it did not.

k was searched from 2 to 6. The mean silhouette is 0.26 — a value near 0 means soft group boundaries, and a value near 1 means tight, well-separated groups.

The metrics in detail

best: could be chance (0.32)

#	Pilot	NonSink%
1	Steven Crosby	53
2	Josh Woods	55
3	Hughbert Alexander	56
4	Tyler Borradaile	59
5	Rohan Taylor	59
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	58
7	Rory Duncan	90
8	Peter Burkitt	53
9	Ward Gunn	93
10	Rob de Groot	59
11	Dick Heffer	57
12	Richard Martin	57
13	Bradley Elliott	61
14	Adrian Connor	66
15	Mick Lamb	63
16	James Atkinson	62
17	John Greenwood	64
19	Peter Garrone	63
20	Dustan Hansen	56
21	John Harriott	67
22	Andy Schmidt	56
23	James Morgan	64
24	Col Jackson	65
25	Brett Gilmour	65
26	Hossain Tefaili	63
27	James McGinty	100
28	Nolan Bear	63
29	Justin Gilmour	56
30	Rob Larkin	62
31	Howard Taylor	61
32	Andre Johnson	59
33	Joe Baker	64
34	Les Bestt	44
35	Richard Hughes	67

The day’s wind, hour by hour and leg by leg

Measured in kilometres per hour · no expected direction

What the air did, read from the field itself. We estimate the wind from the circling of every pilot. The first method is the drift of the circle centre, and the second method, used when the first is not available, is the modulation of the ground speed. We then combine the estimates two ways. The table by hour of day shows how the wind increased and changed direction through the day. The table by speed-section leg shows the wind on each part of the course. This metric describes the day, so it has no value for each pilot.

Wind by hour

Period	Speed (km/h)	Dir (°)	n
Whole task	8.2	257	2656
12:00 AEDT	14.3	298	7
13:00 AEDT	8.1	268	336
14:00 AEDT	8.1	220	956
15:00 AEDT	8.1	266	727
16:00 AEDT	8.9	277	456
17:00 AEDT	7.7	195	174

Each circle gives one wind estimate. GlideComp uses centre drift where it can, and ground-speed modulation where it cannot. The direction is the vector mean of the estimates, in degrees the wind blows FROM (0° = north). The speed is the median of their magnitudes, because the length of a vector mean falls toward zero when the directions scatter.

Hours are shown in the competition’s time zone.

Wind by leg

Leg	Flown	Pilots	Circling	Speed (km/h)	Dir (°)	n	From pilots
ELLIOT (SSS)→WALWA	13:41–16:34 AEDT	25	13:46–16:29 AEDT	8.1	182	956	24
WALWA→LIGHTH	14:41–17:46 AEDT	19	14:41–17:45 AEDT	9.2	271	682	19
LIGHTH→KHANCO (GOAL)	15:34–17:41 AEDT	17	15:39–17:37 AEDT	7.6	218	69	10

“Flown” is when the field was ON the leg — the first pilot entering to the last leaving — over the “Pilots” who started and flew the whole leg.

“Circling” is the narrower window the wind was actually measured in: first to last circle estimate any pilot logged while on the leg, from “From pilots” pilots. Glides produce no estimate, so a leg the field mostly glided shows a sliver of its flown window (or “—” where no one circled at all) — and a late leg the leaders glided can be measured EARLIER than the leg before it without either being wrong.

How strong the day’s climbs were, hour by hour

Measured in metres per second · no expected direction

When the day started, reached its peak, and ended. We group the thermal climbs of all pilots by the hour in which each climb started, labelled in the time zone of the competition. The median and the 90th-percentile average climb rate for each hour show how the lift developed. This metric describes the day, so it has no value for each pilot.

Climb by hour

Hour	Median (m/s)	p90 (m/s)	n
12:00 AEDT	1.1	1.5	9
13:00 AEDT	1.0	1.6	141
14:00 AEDT	0.9	1.7	346
15:00 AEDT	1.0	1.9	260
16:00 AEDT	0.9	1.6	140
17:00 AEDT	0.6	1.4	54

The average climb rate of every thermal use across the field, grouped by the start of the climb. The hours are in the time zone of the competition.

Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking

Measured in percent · no expected direction

How much of the flight was in air worth being in. The value is the share of the airborne time of a pilot, on the shared grid, with a 30 s-smoothed vario at or above −0.5 m/s. The time they flew, the line they steered and the way the flight ended all feed this value. It is therefore a reading of the day as much as of the pilot. There is no expected direction, and the sign of the correlation is the finding. The timing table compares the window of the day’s best climbs against the time when the field launched.

Day timing

	Time
Best conditions	15:00–16:00 AEDT
Earliest takeoff	12:46 AEDT
Median takeoff	13:47 AEDT
Latest takeoff	16:45 AEDT

Best conditions is the one-hour window with the strongest median climb (1.0 m/s), among hours with enough climbs to be representative (≥20% of the busiest hour).

best: clear pattern (0.75)

One lane per behaviour, one dot per pilot, placed by percentile within the pilots that behaviour could be measured on — so a dot's position says where a pilot sat, never how spread the field was. Hover a pilot to light them up in every lane at once.

#	Pilot	Out-climb	Core s	LeaveRate	Kept%	TopOut%	Round
1	Steven Crosby	50 (13 shared climbs)	100 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-0.1 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	79 (11/14 circling bouts led to climbs)	103 (mean on-course altitude 48% of band)	0.38 (17 circles, 53% left)
2	Josh Woods	72 (18 shared climbs)	65 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-0.0 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	76 (13/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	65 (mean on-course altitude 59% of band)	— (7 circles, 57% left)
3	Hughbert Alexander	65 (13 shared climbs)	63 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.2 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	69 (9/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	93 (mean on-course altitude 67% of band)	0.28 (18 circles, 56% left)
4	Tyler Borradaile	49 (18 shared climbs)	90 (21 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-0.1 (21 climbs ≥ 90 s)	86 (18/21 circling bouts led to climbs)	74 (mean on-course altitude 45% of band)	0.33 (18 circles, 44% left)
5	Rohan Taylor	78 (19 shared climbs)	47 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	89 (16/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	66 (mean on-course altitude 56% of band)	0.20 (128 circles, 91% left)
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	65 (48 shared climbs)	38 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	94 (16/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	71 (mean on-course altitude 68% of band)	0.20 (113 circles, 78% left)
7	Rory Duncan	37 (5 shared climbs)	85 (5 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.5 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	15 (4/27 circling bouts led to climbs)	88 (mean on-course altitude 74% of band)	0.30 (21 circles, 71% left)
8	Peter Burkitt	77 (17 shared climbs)	55 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	55 (11/20 circling bouts led to climbs)	93 (mean on-course altitude 67% of band)	0.22 (13 circles, 100% left)
9	Ward Gunn	32 (5 shared climbs)	130 (5 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	13 (2/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	100 (mean on-course altitude 86% of band)	— (8 circles, 63% left)
10	Rob de Groot	73 (15 shared climbs)	64 (23 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (20 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (16/24 circling bouts led to climbs)	60 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	0.30 (33 circles, 85% left)
11	Dick Heffer	53 (10 shared climbs)	100 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-0.3 (19 climbs ≥ 90 s)	79 (15/19 circling bouts led to climbs)	83 (mean on-course altitude 38% of band)	0.36 (25 circles, 32% left)
12	Richard Martin	77 (35 shared climbs)	35 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	69 (11/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	75 (mean on-course altitude 65% of band)	0.19 (197 circles, 52% left)
13	Bradley Elliott	64 (16 shared climbs)	130 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-0.2 (19 climbs ≥ 90 s)	70 (16/23 circling bouts led to climbs)	76 (mean on-course altitude 38% of band)	0.35 (15 circles, 73% left)
14	Adrian Connor	42 (42 shared climbs)	41 (33 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (24 climbs ≥ 90 s)	80 (20/25 circling bouts led to climbs)	72 (mean on-course altitude 58% of band)	0.15 (266 circles, 28% left)
15	Mick Lamb	76 (14 shared climbs)	55 (32 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (24 climbs ≥ 90 s)	92 (22/24 circling bouts led to climbs)	45 (mean on-course altitude 44% of band)	0.21 (32 circles, 75% left)
16	James Atkinson	67 (27 shared climbs)	40 (32 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (23 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (24/29 circling bouts led to climbs)	50 (mean on-course altitude 47% of band)	0.17 (270 circles, 40% left)
17	John Greenwood	67 (47 shared climbs)	48 (35 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (26 climbs ≥ 90 s)	79 (22/28 circling bouts led to climbs)	67 (mean on-course altitude 47% of band)	0.17 (256 circles, 38% left)
19	Peter Garrone	74 (21 shared climbs)	56 (31 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.8 (23 climbs ≥ 90 s)	87 (27/31 circling bouts led to climbs)	48 (mean on-course altitude 34% of band)	0.18 (300 circles, 94% left)
20	Dustan Hansen	73 (21 shared climbs)	56 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	68 (15/22 circling bouts led to climbs)	76 (mean on-course altitude 48% of band)	0.19 (122 circles, 71% left)
21	John Harriott	42 (20 shared climbs)	60 (30 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.3 (27 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (15/27 circling bouts led to climbs)	54 (mean on-course altitude 44% of band)	0.22 (40 circles, 0% left)
22	Andy Schmidt	73 (34 shared climbs)	60 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	100 (12/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	29 (mean on-course altitude 29% of band)	0.17 (135 circles, 64% left)
23	James Morgan	56 (41 shared climbs)	41 (29 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (21 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (15/21 circling bouts led to climbs)	83 (mean on-course altitude 59% of band)	0.17 (208 circles, 83% left)
24	Col Jackson	46 (19 shared climbs)	50 (25 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.3 (17 climbs ≥ 90 s)	63 (12/19 circling bouts led to climbs)	58 (mean on-course altitude 30% of band)	0.27 (40 circles, 75% left)
25	Brett Gilmour	58 (42 shared climbs)	43 (25 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	73 (8/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	31 (mean on-course altitude 28% of band)	0.22 (91 circles, 89% left)
26	Hossain Tefaili	42 (5 shared climbs)	150 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.2 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	77 (10/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	31 (mean on-course altitude 26% of band)	0.38 (12 circles, 50% left)
27	James McGinty	—	—	—	0 (0/23 circling bouts led to climbs)	—	—
28	Nolan Bear	65 (4 shared climbs)	54 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (8/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	58 (mean on-course altitude 50% of band)	0.20 (51 circles, 49% left)
29	Justin Gilmour	73 (15 shared climbs)	58 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.3 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	73 (11/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	64 (mean on-course altitude 52% of band)	0.21 (22 circles, 27% left)
30	Rob Larkin	66 (6 shared climbs)	40 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (5/9 circling bouts led to climbs)	-10 (mean on-course altitude -7% of band)	0.23 (54 circles, 98% left)
31	Howard Taylor	74 (11 shared climbs)	53 (5 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	33 (1/3 circling bouts led to climbs)	11 (mean on-course altitude 4% of band)	0.15 (73 circles, 86% left)
32	Andre Johnson	58 (4 shared climbs)	53 (10 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.5 (7 climbs ≥ 90 s)	60 (6/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	-7 (mean on-course altitude -13% of band)	0.33 (12 circles, 58% left)
33	Joe Baker	56 (27 shared climbs)	6 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	2.0 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	40 (2/5 circling bouts led to climbs)	25 (mean on-course altitude 18% of band)	0.22 (53 circles, 77% left)
34	Les Bestt	65 (2 shared climbs)	85 (2 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.5 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	—	—	— (3 circles, 0% left)
35	Richard Hughes	—	80 (6 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	—	41 (mean on-course altitude 10% of band)	— (3 circles, 100% left)

Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb

Measured in percent · no expected direction

How selective the pilot is about the lift they stop for. Each period of circling of 30 s or more after the start counts as lift that the pilot sampled. If the period overlaps a detected thermal, the pilot kept that lift. If it does not, they turned a few circles and left it. The value is the percentage kept. A low value means they are selective. A high value means they keep almost every climb they turn in. There is no expected direction: selection wins on a strong day and wastes time on a weak one.

Acceptance by hour

Hour	Median accepted (%)	pilots
13:00 AEDT	100	13
14:00 AEDT	76	30
15:00 AEDT	73	27
16:00 AEDT	60	19
17:00 AEDT	37	10
18:00 AEDT	0	1

Median per-pilot acceptance %, bucketed by the hour (competition time zone).

How round and consistent the circles were

Measured in ratio · lower is better

Whether the pilot flies clean, repeatable circles, or moves around the thermal. We fit each detected circle by least squares. The RMS fit error divided by the fitted radius measures how round the turn was. The value is the median over all of the circles of the pilot. A lower value means smoother and more consistent turns.

Turn direction across the field: 63% left (2656 circles).

best: clear pattern (0.90)

#	Pilot	GlideSpd	GlideL/D	SpeedToFly	Wide%	Dolphin%
1	Steven Crosby	72.1 (8 glides, 52 min gliding)	1.16 (3 legs compared)	-0.9 (7 glide→climb pairs)	3 (3 legs completed)	6 (311 of 5555 m gained outside thermals)
2	Josh Woods	72.6 (12 glides, 55 min gliding)	0.94 (3 legs compared)	-10.9 (11 glide→climb pairs)	5 (3 legs completed)	3 (190 of 6212 m gained outside thermals)
3	Hughbert Alexander	69.4 (6 glides, 56 min gliding)	1.09 (3 legs compared)	-4.4 (5 glide→climb pairs)	-0 (3 legs completed)	2 (102 of 5021 m gained outside thermals)
4	Tyler Borradaile	69.8 (8 glides, 50 min gliding)	1.13 (3 legs compared)	12.4 (7 glide→climb pairs)	5 (3 legs completed)	5 (268 of 5352 m gained outside thermals)
5	Rohan Taylor	67.8 (16 glides, 68 min gliding)	1.34 (3 legs compared)	1.5 (15 glide→climb pairs)	6 (3 legs completed)	5 (228 of 4345 m gained outside thermals)
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	64.1 (24 glides, 72 min gliding)	1.20 (3 legs compared)	1.1 (23 glide→climb pairs)	15 (3 legs completed)	13 (627 of 4731 m gained outside thermals)
7	Rory Duncan	68.9 (2 glides, 34 min gliding)	9.41 (3 legs compared)	—	-0 (3 legs completed)	26 (258 of 994 m gained outside thermals)
8	Peter Burkitt	59.7 (10 glides, 68 min gliding)	0.98 (3 legs compared)	1.2 (9 glide→climb pairs)	2 (3 legs completed)	3 (176 of 5252 m gained outside thermals)
9	Ward Gunn	61.9 (2 glides, 106 min gliding)	6.42 (3 legs compared)	—	6 (3 legs completed)	39 (506 of 1302 m gained outside thermals)
10	Rob de Groot	64.6 (18 glides, 66 min gliding)	0.86 (3 legs compared)	-0.8 (17 glide→climb pairs)	1 (3 legs completed)	2 (159 of 6626 m gained outside thermals)
11	Dick Heffer	65.8 (9 glides, 67 min gliding)	0.94 (3 legs compared)	-3.2 (8 glide→climb pairs)	12 (3 legs completed)	2 (181 of 7587 m gained outside thermals)
12	Richard Martin	58.5 (27 glides, 100 min gliding)	1.06 (3 legs compared)	0.1 (26 glide→climb pairs)	23 (3 legs completed)	13 (882 of 6914 m gained outside thermals)
13	Bradley Elliott	63.7 (13 glides, 72 min gliding)	0.96 (3 legs compared)	-8.9 (12 glide→climb pairs)	12 (3 legs completed)	4 (298 of 7755 m gained outside thermals)
14	Adrian Connor	57.2 (25 glides, 93 min gliding)	1.00 (3 legs compared)	0.4 (24 glide→climb pairs)	10 (3 legs completed)	7 (435 of 5835 m gained outside thermals)
15	Mick Lamb	56.7 (19 glides, 86 min gliding)	0.94 (3 legs compared)	0.9 (18 glide→climb pairs)	16 (3 legs completed)	7 (489 of 7501 m gained outside thermals)
16	James Atkinson	56.5 (29 glides, 91 min gliding)	0.97 (3 legs compared)	-0.3 (28 glide→climb pairs)	21 (3 legs completed)	6 (409 of 6752 m gained outside thermals)
17	John Greenwood	64.0 (29 glides, 84 min gliding)	0.78 (3 legs compared)	8.9 (28 glide→climb pairs)	22 (3 legs completed)	16 (1416 of 9103 m gained outside thermals)
19	Peter Garrone	50.7 (28 glides, 85 min gliding)	0.68 (2 legs compared)	1.8 (27 glide→climb pairs)	10 (2 legs completed)	4 (318 of 7400 m gained outside thermals)
20	Dustan Hansen	60.3 (20 glides, 82 min gliding)	1.24 (2 legs compared)	3.0 (19 glide→climb pairs)	21 (2 legs completed)	4 (257 of 6305 m gained outside thermals)
21	John Harriott	51.6 (16 glides, 95 min gliding)	0.84 (1 leg compared)	2.8 (15 glide→climb pairs)	19 (1 leg completed)	7 (393 of 6040 m gained outside thermals)
22	Andy Schmidt	57.8 (14 glides, 59 min gliding)	0.89 (1 leg compared)	4.7 (13 glide→climb pairs)	22 (1 leg completed)	20 (942 of 4751 m gained outside thermals)
23	James Morgan	56.1 (22 glides, 79 min gliding)	1.14 (1 leg compared)	-0.0 (21 glide→climb pairs)	16 (1 leg completed)	9 (442 of 4949 m gained outside thermals)
24	Col Jackson	43.7 (10 glides, 53 min gliding)	0.59 (1 leg compared)	4.6 (9 glide→climb pairs)	7 (1 leg completed)	4 (174 of 4510 m gained outside thermals)
25	Brett Gilmour	51.1 (16 glides, 54 min gliding)	0.92 (1 leg compared)	0.3 (15 glide→climb pairs)	41 (1 leg completed)	15 (513 of 3315 m gained outside thermals)
26	Hossain Tefaili	51.8 (5 glides, 27 min gliding)	0.77 (1 leg compared)	2.0 (4 glide→climb pairs)	5 (1 leg completed)	4 (118 of 2912 m gained outside thermals)
27	James McGinty	—	—	—	—	—
28	Nolan Bear	44.4 (8 glides, 53 min gliding)	—	1.0 (7 glide→climb pairs)	—	5 (180 of 3816 m gained outside thermals)
29	Justin Gilmour	53.7 (8 glides, 34 min gliding)	—	-4.9 (7 glide→climb pairs)	—	2 (69 of 2989 m gained outside thermals)
30	Rob Larkin	56.0 (6 glides, 22 min gliding)	—	-6.2 (5 glide→climb pairs)	—	25 (297 of 1209 m gained outside thermals)
31	Howard Taylor	52.6 (3 glides, 10 min gliding)	—	—	—	—
32	Andre Johnson	43.4 (6 glides, 21 min gliding)	—	-2.2 (5 glide→climb pairs)	—	13 (133 of 1021 m gained outside thermals)
33	Joe Baker	49.1 (3 glides, 17 min gliding)	—	—	—	—
34	Les Bestt	—	—	—	—	—
35	Richard Hughes	42.5 (1 glides, 10 min gliding)	—	—	—	—

Glide speed between climbs

Measured in kilometres per hour · higher is better

Field glide speed: median 57.5 km/h · p90 69.3 km/h (32 pilots)

best: clear pattern (0.67)

#	Pilot	Floor%	LowSaves	km/climb	Search%
1	Steven Crosby	73 (7 descents, lowest 9% of band)	0.0	6.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	10
2	Josh Woods	52 (11 descents, lowest 10% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 13% of band)	4.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 54%)	18
3	Hughbert Alexander	41 (5 descents, lowest -5% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -5% of band)	6.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 60%)	11
4	Tyler Borradaile	49 (7 descents, lowest 36% of band)	0.0	4.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 43%)	13
5	Rohan Taylor	46 (8 descents, lowest 18% of band)	0.0	3.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 61%)	20
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	57 (14 descents, lowest -34% of band)	0.0	1.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 60%)	25
7	Rory Duncan	—	0.0	37.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 37%)	61
8	Peter Burkitt	42 (7 descents, lowest 5% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 6% of band)	4.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 54%)	20
9	Ward Gunn	—	0.0	25.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 26%)	59
10	Rob de Groot	34 (12 descents, lowest -31% of band)	4.0 (deepest save from -20% of band)	3.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 57%)	25
11	Dick Heffer	26 (9 descents, lowest -30% of band)	3.0 (deepest save from -30% of band)	5.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 47%)	16
12	Richard Martin	58 (11 descents, lowest 14% of band)	0.0	1.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 60%)	32
13	Bradley Elliott	41 (13 descents, lowest -11% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -11% of band)	4.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 61%)	17
14	Adrian Connor	57 (15 descents, lowest -11% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 7% of band)	1.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 31%)	33
15	Mick Lamb	30 (12 descents, lowest -21% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -13% of band)	2.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 62%)	20
16	James Atkinson	31 (20 descents, lowest -5% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from 1% of band)	1.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 50%)	29
17	John Greenwood	33 (18 descents, lowest -25% of band)	4.0 (deepest save from -23% of band)	1.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 53%)	37
19	Peter Garrone	19 (19 descents, lowest -32% of band)	3.0 (deepest save from -32% of band)	1.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 51%)	28
20	Dustan Hansen	55 (14 descents, lowest -12% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -12% of band)	2.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 50%)	25
21	John Harriott	32 (11 descents, lowest -4% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from 3% of band)	2.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 45%)	39
22	Andy Schmidt	1 (10 descents, lowest -36% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -5% of band)	1.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 53%)	26
23	James Morgan	58 (10 descents, lowest -29% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 8% of band)	1.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	36
24	Col Jackson	3 (7 descents, lowest -37% of band)	3.0 (deepest save from -9% of band)	2.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 37%)	27
25	Brett Gilmour	15 (7 descents, lowest -3% of band)	0.0	0.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 49%)	42
26	Hossain Tefaili	12 (6 descents, lowest -14% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -14% of band)	3.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	23
27	James McGinty	—	0.0	— (no climbs after the start)	65
28	Nolan Bear	15 (5 descents, lowest -8% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from 7% of band)	1.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 54%)	30
29	Justin Gilmour	46 (6 descents, lowest 18% of band)	0.0	2.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 56%)	23
30	Rob Larkin	-18 (3 descents, lowest -28% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -13% of band)	—	54
31	Howard Taylor	—	0.0	—	59
32	Andre Johnson	-32 (3 descents, lowest -33% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -23% of band)	—	51
33	Joe Baker	5 (2 descents, lowest -12% of band)	0.0	—	71
34	Les Bestt	—	0.0	—	18
35	Richard Hughes	—	0.0	—	64

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Measured in percent · lower is better

Speed-section phase shares, field p25/median/p75: climb 34/43/49% · glide 23/29/34% · search 20/27/41%

best: clear pattern (0.66)

#	Pilot	InGaggle%	Marked%	LeaveWin%
1	Steven Crosby	63	67 (8/12 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
2	Josh Woods	69	78 (14/18 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
3	Hughbert Alexander	34	42 (5/12 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
4	Tyler Borradaile	54	35 (6/17 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
5	Rohan Taylor	37	62 (13/21 climbs marked)	67 (2W–1L (3 departures))
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	48	72 (34/47 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
7	Rory Duncan	38	—	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
8	Peter Burkitt	6	56 (9/16 climbs marked)	—
9	Ward Gunn	21	100 (3/3 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
10	Rob de Groot	13	19 (4/21 climbs marked)	—
11	Dick Heffer	27	14 (2/14 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
12	Richard Martin	28	36 (15/42 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
13	Bradley Elliott	14	44 (7/16 climbs marked)	—
14	Adrian Connor	9	44 (17/39 climbs marked)	0 (0W–2L (2 departures))
15	Mick Lamb	20	31 (11/35 climbs marked)	0 (0W–2L (2 departures))
16	James Atkinson	18	24 (11/46 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
17	John Greenwood	15	27 (17/64 climbs marked)	—
19	Peter Garrone	6	18 (7/40 climbs marked)	—
20	Dustan Hansen	23	42 (10/24 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
21	John Harriott	10	29 (7/24 climbs marked)	—
22	Andy Schmidt	18	20 (8/41 climbs marked)	—
23	James Morgan	40	60 (25/42 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
24	Col Jackson	7	25 (4/16 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
25	Brett Gilmour	30	33 (13/40 climbs marked)	0 (0W–2L (2 departures))
26	Hossain Tefaili	18	22 (2/9 climbs marked)	—
27	James McGinty	0	—	—
28	Nolan Bear	0	0 (0/15 climbs marked)	—
29	Justin Gilmour	58	82 (9/11 climbs marked)	—
30	Rob Larkin	4	6 (1/16 climbs marked)	—
31	Howard Taylor	0	0 (0/3 climbs marked)	—
32	Andre Johnson	0	0 (0/7 climbs marked)	—
33	Joe Baker	0	0 (0/3 climbs marked)	—
34	Les Bestt	15	—	—
35	Richard Hughes	0	—	—

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Measured in percent · no expected direction

57 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 6 pilots).

best: clear pattern (0.58)

#	Pilot	TimeLost	Behind	Spare m	FinalGl
1	Steven Crosby	58	0.0	279	9.02 (left last climb 17.7 km out at 2255 m)
2	Josh Woods	0	1.4	-96	7.85 (left last climb 9.1 km out at 1444 m)
3	Hughbert Alexander	453	4.3	44	8.78 (left last climb 15.3 km out at 2036 m)
4	Tyler Borradaile	510	11.5	77	9.59 (left last climb 21.2 km out at 2497 m)
5	Rohan Taylor	195	10.4	97	9.83 (left last climb 12.5 km out at 1564 m)
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	271	13.0	78	7.03 (left last climb 5.6 km out at 1088 m)
7	Rory Duncan	437	16.3	1107	—
8	Peter Burkitt	757	12.0	243	7.80 (left last climb 12.6 km out at 1908 m)
9	Ward Gunn	837	22.1	1201	—
10	Rob de Groot	1594	31.0	99	7.31 (left last climb 8.8 km out at 1492 m)
11	Dick Heffer	1881	43.5	112	8.54 (left last climb 15.4 km out at 2093 m)
12	Richard Martin	2150	46.0	222	5.85 (left last climb 5.6 km out at 1254 m)
13	Bradley Elliott	3128	64.3	375	5.20 (left last climb 7.9 km out at 1811 m)
14	Adrian Connor	3373	68.4	-79	10.54 (left last climb 8.2 km out at 1070 m)
15	Mick Lamb	3829	76.0	-36	9.67 (left last climb 16.4 km out at 1981 m)
16	James Atkinson	3824	75.9	91	6.96 (left last climb 5.4 km out at 1065 m)
17	John Greenwood	3968	78.3	163	5.49 (left last climb 5.8 km out at 1343 m)
19	Peter Garrone	3539	—	—	23.40 (left last climb 8.8 km out at 668 m)
20	Dustan Hansen	2028	—	—	10.07 (left last climb 18.7 km out at 2147 m)
21	John Harriott	3711	—	—	—
22	Andy Schmidt	833	—	—	133.41 (left last climb 18.1 km out at 426 m)
23	James Morgan	2194	—	—	—
24	Col Jackson	1892	—	—	—
25	Brett Gilmour	2632	—	—	—
26	Hossain Tefaili	1209	—	—	—
27	James McGinty	—	—	—	—
28	Nolan Bear	—	—	—	—
29	Justin Gilmour	—	—	—	—
30	Rob Larkin	—	—	—	24.54 (left last climb 18.7 km out at 1053 m)
31	Howard Taylor	—	—	—	25.79 (left last climb 19.7 km out at 1054 m)
32	Andre Johnson	—	—	—	111.70 (left last climb 21.0 km out at 478 m)
33	Joe Baker	—	—	—	39.25 (left last climb 18.2 km out at 753 m)
34	Les Bestt	—	—	—	—
35	Richard Hughes	—	—	—	13.88 (left last climb 15.2 km out at 1387 m)

How long after the gate opened the pilot started

Measured in seconds · lower is better

Every second between the opening of the gate and the crossing of the start line is a second lost for nothing. The value is the seconds from the start gate taken to the scored SSS crossing. On an elapsed-time task, the pilot’s own crossing is the reference, so the delay is 0 by definition. The start table adds the crossing altitude, and the distance behind the leading pilot who had already started.

Start execution

Pilot	Delay	Alt m	Band %	Behind km
Steven Crosby	0:00	1352	38	5.0
Josh Woods	0:00	1300	34	4.8
Hughbert Alexander	0:00	1590	56	19.0
Tyler Borradaile	0:00	1770	70	0.0
Rohan Taylor	0:00	1456	46	4.5
Paul Bissett-Amess	0:00	1537	52	4.6
Rory Duncan	0:00	2038	91	0.6
Peter Burkitt	0:00	2067	93	26.7
Ward Gunn	0:00	1689	64	22.4
Rob de Groot	0:00	1062	15	12.4
Dick Heffer	0:00	1700	65	6.5
Richard Martin	0:00	1438	44	16.0
Bradley Elliott	0:00	1315	35	16.1
Adrian Connor	0:00	1748	69	22.1
Mick Lamb	0:00	1309	34	5.1
James Atkinson	0:00	1949	84	23.1
John Greenwood	0:00	1443	45	22.5
Peter Garrone	0:00	1273	32	26.5
Dustan Hansen	0:00	1312	35	19.7
John Harriott	0:00	1482	48	22.3
Andy Schmidt	0:00	1596	57	18.1
James Morgan	0:00	1598	57	1.7
Col Jackson	0:00	1299	34	22.1
Brett Gilmour	0:00	1282	32	4.7
Hossain Tefaili	0:00	1306	34	3.7
James McGinty	0:00	0	-50	22.9
Nolan Bear	0:00	1736	68	27.3
Justin Gilmour	0:00	1384	40	4.6
Rob Larkin	0:00	977	9	5.1
Howard Taylor	0:00	1685	64	16.7
Andre Johnson	0:00	1138	21	4.9
Joe Baker	0:00	1895	80	7.8
Les Bestt	0:00	1282	32	16.1
Richard Hughes	0:00	1317	35	8.3

Delay = gate taken → SSS crossing. Behind km = extra distance to the next turnpoint vs the furthest-along already-started pilot at the moment of this start (time grid).

Race time lost against the fastest pilots, leg by leg

Measured in seconds · lower is better

For each completed speed-section leg, we compare the leg time of the pilot with the mean of the top 10 pilots by rank who completed that leg. Only the losses count, and we add them together. The sum of the leg times is the race time, and the rank defines the reference, so this metric follows the result by construction. Read the waterfall table, which shows every leg against the task winner, for the diagnosis. Do not read the correlation as a finding.

Josh Woods, over 3 compared legs: +1:22 overall. — marks a leg the pilot or the winner did not complete; the table below has every pilot.

Leg waterfall — leg time vs the task winner

Pilot	SSS→WALWA	WALWA→LIGHTH	LIGHTH→ESS	Total
Steven Crosby	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00
Josh Woods	+6:56	-8:47	+3:12	+1:22
Hughbert Alexander	+3:18	-11:23	+12:22	+4:17
Tyler Borradaile	+16:51	-5:44	+0:21	+11:29
Rohan Taylor	+3:16	+0:56	+6:10	+10:22
Paul Bissett-Amess	+4:39	+3:19	+5:03	+13:01
Rory Duncan	+15:02	-0:22	+1:35	+16:16
Peter Burkitt	-4:25	+8:13	+8:15	+12:02
Ward Gunn	+4:19	+12:54	+4:54	+22:07
Rob de Groot	+33:34	-8:43	+6:10	+31:01
Dick Heffer	+31:08	+0:42	+11:42	+43:32
Richard Martin	+9:59	+33:14	+2:47	+46:00
Bradley Elliott	+41:59	+13:21	+8:59	+64:19
Adrian Connor	+37:23	+14:15	+16:47	+68:25
Mick Lamb	+31:14	+39:17	+5:29	+76:00
James Atkinson	+26:29	+37:47	+11:40	+75:56
John Greenwood	+37:27	+21:24	+19:29	+78:20
Peter Garrone	+34:45	+31:37	—	+66:22
Dustan Hansen	+30:56	+10:15	—	+41:12
John Harriott	+70:12	—	—	+70:12
Andy Schmidt	+22:14	—	—	+22:14
James Morgan	+44:55	—	—	+44:55
Col Jackson	+39:53	—	—	+39:53
Brett Gilmour	+52:13	—	—	+52:13
Hossain Tefaili	+28:30	—	—	+28:30

Each cell is the leg time of this pilot minus the leg time of the winner. A + value is slower than the winner, and a − value is faster. A — means that the pilot or the winner did not complete the leg.

The scalar metric instead adds the losses against the mean of the top 10 pilots who completed each leg. A leg flown faster than that reference contributes 0.

Race time behind the leader at ESS

Measured in minutes · lower is better

At each speed-section turnpoint, we compare the elapsed race time of the pilot, which is the reaching time minus their own start, with the fastest pilot to that turnpoint. The value is the minutes behind at ESS. It follows the final rank almost exactly, because this metric is the sanity check of the evaluation.

A line that stops early is a pilot who landed. The top 5 are coloured; the table below has every pilot.

Horserace — minutes behind the leader at each turnpoint

Pilot	WALWA	LIGHTH	KHANCO
Steven Crosby	4.4	8.1	0.0
Josh Woods	11.4	6.2	1.4
Hughbert Alexander	7.7	0.0	4.3
Tyler Borradaile	21.3	19.2	11.5
Rohan Taylor	7.7	12.3	10.4
Paul Bissett-Amess	9.1	16.0	13.0
Rory Duncan	19.5	22.7	16.3
Peter Burkitt	0.0	11.9	12.0
Ward Gunn	8.7	25.3	22.1
Rob de Groot	38.0	32.9	31.0
Dick Heffer	35.6	39.9	43.5
Richard Martin	14.4	51.3	46.0
Bradley Elliott	46.4	63.4	64.3
Adrian Connor	41.8	59.7	68.4
Mick Lamb	35.6	78.6	76.0
James Atkinson	30.9	72.3	75.9
John Greenwood	41.9	66.9	78.3
Peter Garrone	39.2	74.4	—
Dustan Hansen	35.4	49.3	—
John Harriott	74.6	—	—
Andy Schmidt	26.6	—	—
James Morgan	49.3	—	—
Col Jackson	44.3	—	—
Brett Gilmour	56.6	—	—
Hossain Tefaili	32.9	—	—
James McGinty	—	—	—
Nolan Bear	—	—	—
Justin Gilmour	—	—	—
Rob Larkin	—	—	—
Howard Taylor	—	—	—
Andre Johnson	—	—	—
Joe Baker	—	—	—
Les Bestt	—	—	—
Richard Hughes	—	—	—

The elapsed race time, from the pilot’s own start, minus the fastest elapsed time to that turnpoint. A — means that the pilot did not reach the turnpoint.

Arriving at ESS with height to spare

Measured in metres · lower is better

Height still available at ESS that the pilot no longer needed. That altitude was available for more speed, and the pilot did not use it. The value is the altitude at ESS minus the altitude needed to glide to goal at the standard glide ratio of the sport, which is 5.0 for HG and 4.0 for PG (S7F §13.4.6). A large positive margin means the pilot arrived too high. A margin near zero means they flew the final glide with little height to spare.

ESS altitude margin over final glide: top-10 median 98 m (n=10) vs rest median 112 m (n=7).

Footnotes

1 pilot in the scores but not in this analysis

Nariyuki Watabe — scored from a manual flight report — no tracklog to analyse

The correlations are measured against the published ranks, and those ranks include these pilots. Their behaviour cannot be measured without a tracklog.

How the field is compared

Everything that compares pilots to each other uses one shared clock. That includes gaggles, shared thermals, and the position of each pilot at the same moment. GlideComp resamples every track onto a common 10-second grid. Two pilots are therefore always compared at the same instant, whatever rate their instruments logged at.

Metric glossary

How GlideComp measures every metric on this page. On screen, the ⓘ beside a metric opens the same description in place. On paper, this section is the reference for all of them.

Day profile & wind

The day’s wind, hour by hour and leg by leg(“Wind” in tables): Measured in kilometres per hour · no expected direction
What the air did, read from the field itself. We estimate the wind from the circling of every pilot. The first method is the drift of the circle centre, and the second method, used when the first is not available, is the modulation of the ground speed. We then combine the estimates two ways. The table by hour of day shows how the wind increased and changed direction through the day. The table by speed-section leg shows the wind on each part of the course. This metric describes the day, so it has no value for each pilot.
How strong the day’s climbs were, hour by hour(“Climb/hr” in tables): Measured in metres per second · no expected direction
When the day started, reached its peak, and ended. We group the thermal climbs of all pilots by the hour in which each climb started, labelled in the time zone of the competition. The median and the 90th-percentile average climb rate for each hour show how the lift developed. This metric describes the day, so it has no value for each pilot.
Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking(“NonSink%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
How much of the flight was in air worth being in. The value is the share of the airborne time of a pilot, on the shared grid, with a 30 s-smoothed vario at or above −0.5 m/s. The time they flew, the line they steered and the way the flight ended all feed this value. It is therefore a reading of the day as much as of the pilot. There is no expected direction, and the sign of the correlation is the finding. The timing table compares the window of the day’s best climbs against the time when the field launched.

Climbing

Climbing faster than the pilots sharing the thermal(“Out-climb” in tables): Measured in percent · higher is better
When this pilot and other pilots were in the SAME thermal, who climbed faster? In every thermal that two pilots or more used, we rank each use by its average climb rate. The percentile of a use is the share of uses that were strictly slower. The value is the duration-weighted mean percentile over the shared climbs of the pilot. 50% is exactly average. 80% means they climbed faster than four in five of the pilots they shared lift with. The shared thermal is what separates centring skill from thermal selection: a pilot who only found better air gets no higher value here.
Time to core thermals(“Core s” in tables): Measured in seconds · lower is better
How long the pilot takes to get into the best lift after they arrive in a thermal. For each thermal of 60 s or more, we measure the seconds from the entry until the 30 s rolling climb rate first reaches 90% of its peak in that thermal. The value is the median across the thermals of the pilot. Every second here is a second spent climbing slower than the thermal can carry them.
Climb rate at thermal exit(“LeaveRate” in tables): Measured in metres per second · no expected direction
The median climb rate that the pilot left thermals at. For each thermal of 90 s or more, we take the climb rate over its final 30 s. A high value means they leave lift that still works. A low value means they stay in a climb until nothing is left. This is an absolute rate, so read it against the day: compare it with the median climb in "How strong the day’s climbs were". A pilot who leaves at 1.5 m/s leaves a good climb on a 1 m/s day, and takes the worst lift available on a 4 m/s day. There is no expected direction. The sign of the correlation says which behaviour paid on this task.
Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb(“Kept%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
How selective the pilot is about the lift they stop for. Each period of circling of 30 s or more after the start counts as lift that the pilot sampled. If the period overlaps a detected thermal, the pilot kept that lift. If it does not, they turned a few circles and left it. The value is the percentage kept. A low value means they are selective. A high value means they keep almost every climb they turn in. There is no expected direction: selection wins on a strong day and wastes time on a weak one.
How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it(“TopOut%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
Does the pilot climb to the top of every thermal, or leave with lift still above them? We take the altitude where they left each thermal after the start, as a percentage of the day’s working band. 0% is the floor of the field and 100% is its ceiling. The value is the median. There is no expected direction: a climb to the top buys height in reserve, and an early departure buys time.
How round and consistent the circles were(“Round” in tables): Measured in ratio · lower is better
Whether the pilot flies clean, repeatable circles, or moves around the thermal. We fit each detected circle by least squares. The RMS fit error divided by the fitted radius measures how round the turn was. The value is the median over all of the circles of the pilot. A lower value means smoother and more consistent turns.

Gliding

Glide speed between climbs(“GlideSpd” in tables): Measured in kilometres per hour · higher is better
How fast the pilot moves down the course when they are on a glide. The value is the duration-weighted mean ground speed over every glide after the start, which is the glide distance divided by the glide time. A higher value means more ground covered in each minute between climbs.
Glide L/D against the field median(“GlideL/D” in tables): Measured in ratio · higher is better
Whether the pilot found better air on glide than the other pilots on the same leg. For each completed speed-section leg, we take the pilot's glide-phase L/D. That is the path distance divided by the net altitude lost during the glides, and we skip a leg that loses less than 100 m. We divide it by the median L/D of the field on that same leg, and then average over the legs. 1.10 means the pilot glided 10% further for each metre lost than the usual pilot on those legs.
Gliding faster when the next climb is stronger(“SpeedToFly” in tables): Measured in kilometres per hour · higher is better
Speed to fly: the pilot flies faster when a good climb is in front of them, and slower when it is not. We pair each glide after the start with the climb rate of the next thermal that starts within 5 minutes. The value is the mean glide speed before climbs stronger than the median, minus the mean glide speed before weaker climbs. +8 km/h means the pilot flew 8 km/h faster into the good climbs. This is a PROXY, and not true speed to fly, because there is no glider polar data.
Gliding wide of the optimal course line(“Wide%” in tables): Measured in percent · lower is better
How much further the pilot flew on glide than the optimised course line needed. 0% is a flight exactly along the line, and 12% is a glide 12% further than necessary. On each completed speed-section leg, we compare the pilot's route with the optimised distance of the leg, weighted by that optimised distance. Only the glides are measured at their full path length. Circling and searching contribute their entry-to-exit displacement instead. A climb or a search for lift therefore never reads as a wide line, because a pilot chooses a line only on glide. 0% is a real value that a pilot can reach: a pilot who flies the line of the optimiser scores exactly zero.
Share of the height gain made outside thermals(“Dolphin%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
Dolphin flying: how much of the height that the pilot gained came outside of circling. The value is the share of the altitude gain after the start, smoothed over 10 s, that the pilot made outside a detected thermal. There is no expected direction. The sign of the correlation shows whether dolphin flying paid on this day.

Decision-making

How low the pilot gets between climbs(“Floor%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
How low the pilot goes before the next climb. A high value is a race with height in reserve, and a low value is a flight that goes down near the ground. We take each pair of climbs that the pilot made after the start, and we find the lowest point between them. We keep only the gaps that go down 100 m or more, because a top-up between two climbs is not a descent. We do not count a sled run or the glide to goal, because the pilot made no climb after them. The value is the median of those low points, as a percentage of the day's working band. 0% is where the lowest tenth of the field's climbs started, and 100% is where the highest tenth stopped. Thus a negative value shows that the pilot went lower than almost all of the field. The pilot must have two or more of these descents. There is no expected direction. The sign of the correlation says whether height in reserve pays.
Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band(“LowSaves” in tables): Measured in count · no expected direction
How many times the pilot got low and climbed out again. We count the climbs after the start that the pilot entered below 15% of the working band, and that then gained 300 m or more. Those are true low saves. Zero is a real value, and not a missing one: it means the pilot never got that low. There is no expected direction. The sign of the correlation says whether a climb-out or a flight that stays high pays.
Distance covered between climbs(“km/climb” in tables): Measured in kilometres · higher is better
How far the pilot gets down the course before they must stop and circle again. This is the direct reading of how often they stop. The value is the scored flown distance divided by the number of thermals taken after the start, so 3 km means three kilometres of course for each climb. The pilot must fly 20 km or more. The note of each pilot adds their mean climb percentile inside shared thermals, so you can read the number of stops together with the climb strength. Long legs between weak climbs is a different day from long legs between strong ones.
Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb(“Search%” in tables): Measured in percent · lower is better
Time that goes into neither a climb nor progress down the course. This is the time spent to find lift, to stay up, and to decide what to do next. The value is the share of the speed-section time, from the start to ESS or to the landing, in which the pilot neither climbed in a thermal nor glided with real net speed. A lower value means less time lost between climbs.

Gaggle

Time spent flying with a gaggle(“InGaggle%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
Whether the pilot raced with other pilots or alone. The value is the share of their flying time after the start inside a detected gaggle, that is, clustered with one other racing pilot or more on the shared time grid. There is no expected direction. A gaggle increases the power to search for lift, but it also holds a pilot to its own speed. The sign of the correlation says which of the two occurred here.
Climbs joined on another pilot's marker(“Marked%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
How much of the lift of the pilot another pilot found first. The value is the share of their climbs after the start where another pilot was already established in the same thermal when they arrived. Established means 30 s or more into the climb, and still climbing. A high value means they mostly climb on the markers of other pilots. A low value means they find their own air. There is no expected direction. A marker is free information, but it puts a pilot where the last climb was, and not where the next one is.
How often leaving the gaggle paid off(“LeaveWin%” in tables): Measured in percent · no expected direction
When a pilot leaves a gaggle that continues to fly, did the departure pay off? We compare the arrival of the pilot who left at the next turnpoint against the median arrival of the pilots who stayed. A win rate of more than 50% means their departures beat the gaggle. A pilot counts as a pilot who stayed only if they were still in the gaggle after the split, and reached that turnpoint after it.

Race craft

How long after the gate opened the pilot started(“StartDly” in tables): Measured in seconds · lower is better
Every second between the opening of the gate and the crossing of the start line is a second lost for nothing. The value is the seconds from the start gate taken to the scored SSS crossing. On an elapsed-time task, the pilot’s own crossing is the reference, so the delay is 0 by definition. The start table adds the crossing altitude, and the distance behind the leading pilot who had already started.
Race time lost against the fastest pilots, leg by leg(“TimeLost” in tables): Measured in seconds · lower is better
For each completed speed-section leg, we compare the leg time of the pilot with the mean of the top 10 pilots by rank who completed that leg. Only the losses count, and we add them together. The sum of the leg times is the race time, and the rank defines the reference, so this metric follows the result by construction. Read the waterfall table, which shows every leg against the task winner, for the diagnosis. Do not read the correlation as a finding.
Race time behind the leader at ESS(“Behind” in tables): Measured in minutes · lower is better
At each speed-section turnpoint, we compare the elapsed race time of the pilot, which is the reaching time minus their own start, with the fastest pilot to that turnpoint. The value is the minutes behind at ESS. It follows the final rank almost exactly, because this metric is the sanity check of the evaluation.
Arriving at ESS with height to spare(“Spare m” in tables): Measured in metres · lower is better
Height still available at ESS that the pilot no longer needed. That altitude was available for more speed, and the pilot did not use it. The value is the altitude at ESS minus the altitude needed to glide to goal at the standard glide ratio of the sport, which is 5.0 for HG and 4.0 for PG (S7F §13.4.6). A large positive margin means the pilot arrived too high. A margin near zero means they flew the final glide with little height to spare.
Final glide committed to when leaving the last climb(“FinalGl” in tables): Measured in ratio · no expected direction
How optimistic the pilot was about their final glide. A pilot wins or loses a task by the height at which they leave the last climb. At the last climb of the pilot before ESS, or before the landing, we divide the distance to goal by their height above goal. That is the glide ratio they committed to. 8 means they left and needed 8:1 to make goal. The value counts only when that climb ended within 1.5 times the length of the last course leg longer than 1 km from goal — when ESS and goal share a waypoint, the zero-length hop between them is not that leg. There is no expected direction: a marginal glide wins if it connects, and loses if it does not.

Task 3 (Open)

What the weather did

From the weather model

From the pilots' tracks

The day's thermals

Thermal at 13:38 AEDT — 10 pilots, 22 climbs

Which behaviours went with better ranks

Glide speed between climbs

Metrics with a clear pattern, plotted against rank

Glide speed between climbs

How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it

How low the pilot gets between climbs

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Climbs joined on another pilot's marker

Distance covered between climbs

Glide L/D against the field median

Gliding wide of the optimal course line

Final glide committed to when leaving the last climb

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Outcome checks

The whole field at a glance

Pilot style clusters

The metrics in detail

Day profile & windbest: could be chance (0.32)

Climbingbest: clear pattern (0.75)

Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb

Acceptance by hour

How round and consistent the circles were

Glidingbest: clear pattern (0.90)

Glide speed between climbs

Decision-makingbest: clear pattern (0.67)

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Gagglebest: clear pattern (0.66)

Race craftbest: clear pattern (0.58)

Footnotes

1 pilot in the scores but not in this analysis

How to read the table

How the field is compared

Metric glossary

Day profile & wind

Climbing

Gliding

Decision-making

Gaggle

Race craft

best: could be chance (0.32)

best: clear pattern (0.75)

best: clear pattern (0.90)

best: clear pattern (0.67)

best: clear pattern (0.66)

best: clear pattern (0.58)