Task 4 (Open)

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

The optimised route. Pilots fly it in the direction of the arrows. The radii, the leg distances and the start times are on the task page.

Analysis computed

Pilots: 34
Airtime: 62h (12:59–17:29 AEDT)
Thermals: 15041 shared by 2+ pilots
Working band: 848–2061 m
Airtime split: 36%climbing
25%gliding
39%searching

1 pilot is in the standings 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 average the vectors 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 — measured and modelled alike — share that one time axis, so a vertical scan compares the two at the same moment. Arrows fly WITH the wind — direction figures are degrees the wind blows from; 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 63 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.

Start	Pilots	Height band	Mean climb	Strongest side
13:09 AEDT	7	800–2200 m	+1.8 m/s	S
13:16 AEDT	7	900–2200 m	+2.2 m/s	S
13:39 AEDT	7	800–1500 m	+1.5 m/s	N
13:40 AEDT	7	1500–2200 m	+1.7 m/s	W
13:40 AEDT	4	900–2200 m	+1.4 m/s	NW
13:40 AEDT	5	1100–1400 m	+0.8 m/s	S
13:42 AEDT	10	900–1900 m	+1.2 m/s	SE
13:43 AEDT	5	1100–2200 m	+2.2 m/s	SW
13:48 AEDT	4	700–1300 m	+1.0 m/s	SW
13:52 AEDT	6	1000–2100 m	+1.2 m/s	SW
13:57 AEDT	5	1700–2100 m	+1.1 m/s	E
14:06 AEDT	7	800–1800 m	+1.5 m/s	S
14:10 AEDT	11	900–2300 m	+1.6 m/s	S
14:12 AEDT	3	1100–1600 m	+1.3 m/s	N
14:16 AEDT	7	1600–2400 m	+1.4 m/s	NW
14:22 AEDT	6	1000–2100 m	+1.7 m/s	SW
14:22 AEDT	9	600–2100 m	+1.1 m/s	SW
14:34 AEDT	2	700–1500 m	+1.7 m/s	S
14:37 AEDT	6	1100–2200 m	+2.0 m/s	S
14:38 AEDT	4	1500–2300 m	+1.4 m/s	NW
14:41 AEDT	3	700–2300 m	+1.2 m/s	E
14:48 AEDT	3	900–1900 m	+1.3 m/s	NE
14:49 AEDT	7	1500–2300 m	+2.1 m/s	W
14:50 AEDT	2	1100–2000 m	+1.8 m/s	E
14:53 AEDT	3	700–1700 m	+1.1 m/s	NE
14:58 AEDT	3	1200–2300 m	+1.8 m/s	N
14:59 AEDT	5	900–2400 m	+2.0 m/s	N
15:05 AEDT	2	900–2000 m	+1.8 m/s	E
15:11 AEDT	3	1000–2100 m	+1.2 m/s	NE
15:18 AEDT	2	1100–2000 m	+1.6 m/s	S
15:20 AEDT	4	1000–1500 m	+1.1 m/s	N
15:25 AEDT	3	1500–2000 m	+1.0 m/s	NW
15:28 AEDT	4	1100–1700 m	+1.3 m/s	W
15:30 AEDT	4	1300–1800 m	+0.8 m/s	W
15:42 AEDT	2	700–2200 m	+1.5 m/s	NW
15:43 AEDT	3	1200–1700 m	+1.2 m/s	NE
15:51 AEDT	2	1300–2100 m	+1.9 m/s	SE
15:58 AEDT	3	1100–1600 m	+1.3 m/s	N
16:08 AEDT	4	700–1600 m	+1.2 m/s	W
16:21 AEDT	3	500–1200 m	+1.4 m/s	E

Thermal at 14:10 AEDT — 11 pilots, 29 climbs

Wind 10.5 km/h from 2° (N), measured from 238 circle estimates in the pilots' own tracks.
Model wind cross-check loading…
Leans 16° from vertical toward 194° (SSW), within 12° of downwind.
Strongest on the S side of the core at +1.9 m/s against +1.8 m/s on the N side.
Multiple cores in 8 of 14 bands between 1400 and 2200 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
Jon Durand	-2.5 m/s	+2.0 m/s	+4.5 m/s
Neale Halsall	-1.0 m/s	+2.0 m/s	+3.5 m/s
Adrian Connor	-4.3 m/s	+1.8 m/s	+9.0 m/s
Jay Kubeil	-1.8 m/s	+1.8 m/s	+5.3 m/s
Todd Wisewould	+0.0 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+3.5 m/s
John Harriott	-1.8 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+5.0 m/s
Tushar Pokle	-3.5 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+4.0 m/s
Hossain Tefaili	-1.5 m/s	+1.3 m/s	+5.3 m/s
Richard Hughes	-0.8 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.0 m/s
Bruce Atkinson	—	—	—
James Wynd	—	—	—

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
2200–2300 m	-51 / -107	218 m	298 m	+1.8 m/s	+4.5 m/s	43	2	1
2100–2200 m	-152 / -129	233 m	277 m	+2.3 m/s	+4.5 m/s	102	3	2
2000–2100 m	-102 / -80	312 m	488 m	+1.9 m/s	+4.8 m/s	195	4	2
1900–2000 m	-79 / 29	337 m	474 m	+1.9 m/s	+9.0 m/s	202	4	3
1800–1900 m	-32 / 89	355 m	494 m	+1.7 m/s	+7.8 m/s	253	6	2
1700–1800 m	17 / -80	340 m	464 m	+1.6 m/s	+6.5 m/s	286	7	2
1600–1700 m	72 / -30	185 m	303 m	+1.3 m/s	+4.0 m/s	361	6	2
1500–1600 m	92 / 28	162 m	254 m	+1.4 m/s	+3.3 m/s	394	6	2
1400–1500 m	121 / 16	146 m	223 m	+1.5 m/s	+5.0 m/s	285	6	2
1300–1400 m	116 / 106	154 m	265 m	+1.5 m/s	+3.8 m/s	286	5	1
1200–1300 m	43 / 147	146 m	238 m	+1.6 m/s	+4.0 m/s	245	4	1
1100–1200 m	-7 / 195	131 m	235 m	+1.4 m/s	+3.8 m/s	262	4	1
1000–1100 m	-140 / 249	108 m	162 m	+1.3 m/s	+3.5 m/s	199	3	1
900–1000 m	-224 / 308	158 m	264 m	+1.0 m/s	+2.5 m/s	33	2	1

How to read this: 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; the dashed arrow is the weather model's wind for the same place, time and altitudes — a model run, not an observation.

Which behaviours went with better results

Every row is one behaviour, measured for each pilot and then compared against the published placings (Spearman's rank correlation, ρ). Rank 1 is best, so a behaviour where more is better shows a negative ρ. A bigger bar means the behaviour tracked the placings more closely on this task, and pilots measured is how much of the analysed field the behaviour applied to — a reading drawn from half the field is thinner than one drawn from all of it. Select a row to see that behaviour plotted against rank — the chart stays in view while you work down the table.

Glide speed between climbs

Label every pilot

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.63 (clear pattern, n = 26). 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 27 to about rank 4. 8 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Field glide speed: median 54.0 km/h · p90 60.9 km/h (26 pilots)

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

clear pattern is |ρ| ≥ 0.5, some pattern ≥ 0.3 and faint pattern below — each only once the coefficient is bigger than chance alone produces at that many pilots (its noise floor). could be chance (in the statistics: within noise) means shuffling the placings produces a coefficient that size more than 5% of the time, so it cannot be told apart from luck however big it looks. too few pilots is fewer than 8 pilots with a value — not enough to tell either way.

Rank 21 behaviours against one day's results and a few will look strong on luck alone — the ones worth believing are those that repeat across tasks in the competition-level analysis.

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 54.0 km/h · p90 60.9 km/h (26 pilots)

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 = 0.62 (clear pattern, n = 28). 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 6 to about rank 34. 6 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Speed-section phase shares, field p25/median/p75: climb 26/32/35% · glide 22/30/33% · search 31/39/49%

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 = -0.61 (clear pattern, n = 19). 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 16 to about rank 10. 15 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Share of the height gain made outside thermals

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.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.61 (clear pattern, n = 25). 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 19. 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 = 0.58 (clear pattern, n = 19). 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 6 to about rank 18. 15 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Outcome checks

These are not behaviours. They measure the result itself, for example the time behind the leader and the race time lost, so they always follow the places. They are here as a check on the analysis. A weak pattern in this table means that something is wrong in the numbers, and not in the flying of any pilot. Their per-pilot tables stay in the Race craft section below.

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		could be chance

The whole field at a glance

1. Jon Durand

2. Neale Halsall

3. Mitch Butler

4. Jason Kath

5. Michael Smith

6. Paul Bissett-Amess

7. Richard Martin

8. Neil Hooke

9. Bruce Atkinson

10. Steve Docherty

11. Troy Horton

12. James Wynd

13. Todd Wisewould

14. Jay Kubeil

15. Hughbert Alexander

16. Adrian Connor

17. Ward Gunn

18. Peter Burkitt

19. Hossain Tefaili

20. Randall Clotworthy

21. John Harriott

22. Mick Lamb

23. Tushar Pokle

24. Donny Gardner

25. James Atkinson

26. Dean Bayly

27. Jason Carman

28. Dustan Hansen

29. Richard Hughes

30. Jason Lannstrom

31. Keith Lavers

32. Paul Lawrence

33. Colin Mackie

34. James McGinty

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. The columns start with the behaviours whose better end went with better places, continue through the behaviours that separated nobody, and end with the behaviours that ran the other way. A field that one behaviour separated therefore shades dark in the top-left corner, and a field where each pilot won differently does not. The band above rates how much pattern each group of columns holds: a clear, some or faint pattern, noise (could be chance), or too few pilots to tell. The family sections below carry the exact values. † This behaviour has no good or bad direction. The shade is the position in the field, and not the quality.

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. Each group carries the name of its strongest signature. A ★ marks the pilot most typical of their group.

Group A — Fast gliders

5 pilots · ranks 1–10 · median 4 · middle half 2–5

High — Glide speed between climbs group median P84 in this field (60.5 kilometres per hour) · usually a strength
Low — Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb group median P22 in this field (27 percent) · usually a strength
Low — Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band group median P24 in this field (0.0 count)
Low — Share of the height gain made outside thermals group median P25 in this field (11 percent)

1. Jon Durand
2. Neale Halsall (most typical of this group)
4. Jason Kath
5. Michael Smith
10. Steve Docherty

Group B — Circle climbers

3 pilots · ranks 3–12 · median 9 · middle half 6–10.5

Low — Share of the height gain made outside thermals group median P4 in this field (3 percent)
High — Arriving at ESS with height to spare group median P95 in this field (385 metres) · usually costly
High — Distance covered between climbs group median P94 in this field (3.5 kilometres) · usually a strength
High — Time to core thermals group median P93 in this field (80 seconds) · usually costly

3. Mitch Butler
9. Bruce Atkinson
12. James Wynd (most typical of this group)

Group C — Punished leavers

4 pilots · ranks 8–17 · median 14 · middle half 11.8–15.5

Low — How often leaving the gaggle paid off group median P10 in this field (0 percent)
High — Final glide committed to when leaving the last climb group median P88 in this field (18.96 ratio)
Low — How round and consistent the circles were group median P20 in this field (0.15 ratio) · usually a strength
Low — How low the pilot gets between climbs group median P22 in this field (16 percent)

8. Neil Hooke
13. Todd Wisewould (most typical of this group)
15. Hughbert Alexander
17. Ward Gunn

Group D — Leave-it-lifting climbers

2 pilots · ranks 11–22 · median 16.5 · middle half 13.8–19.3

High — Climb rate at thermal exit group median P96 in this field (1.9 metres per second)
High — Climbs joined on another pilot's marker group median P94 in this field (57 percent)
High — Time spent flying with a gaggle group median P93 in this field (54 percent)
Low — Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb group median P19 in this field (50 percent)

11. Troy Horton (most typical of this group)
22. Mick Lamb

Group E — Quick corers

7 pilots · ranks 7–21 · median 18 · middle half 15–19.5

Low — Time to core thermals group median P11 in this field (21 seconds) · usually a strength
Low — Distance covered between climbs group median P11 in this field (0.8 kilometres) · usually costly
High — How low the pilot gets between climbs group median P87 in this field (44 percent)
High — Gliding wide of the optimal course line group median P83 in this field (50 percent) · usually costly

7. Richard Martin
14. Jay Kubeil
16. Adrian Connor
18. Peter Burkitt
19. Hossain Tefaili
20. Randall Clotworthy
21. John Harriott (most typical of this group)

Group F — Self-finders

4 pilots · ranks 6–29 · median 23.5 · middle half 18.8–25.3

Low — Climbs joined on another pilot's marker group median P8 in this field (4 percent)
High — Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking group median P89 in this field (68 percent)
Low — How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it group median P14 in this field (32 percent)
Low — How low the pilot gets between climbs group median P17 in this field (12 percent)

6. Paul Bissett-Amess
23. Tushar Pokle (most typical of this group)
24. Donny Gardner
29. Richard Hughes

Not clustered: 25. James Atkinson — only 2 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 26. Dean Bayly — only 1 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 27. Jason Carman — only 11 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 28. Dustan Hansen — only 1 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 30. Jason Lannstrom — only 3 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 31. Keith Lavers — only 2 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 32. Paul Lawrence — only 8 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 33. Colin Mackie — only 9 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 34. James McGinty — only 1 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%).

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. On this task, 25 pilots on 21 behavioural metrics formed 6 groups, with k searched from 2 to 6. The mean silhouette is 0.16. 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 (0.02)

#	Pilot	NonSink%
1	Jon Durand	61
2	Neale Halsall	59
3	Mitch Butler	58
4	Jason Kath	62
5	Michael Smith	59
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	66
7	Richard Martin	59
8	Neil Hooke	58
9	Bruce Atkinson	64
10	Steve Docherty	55
11	Troy Horton	57
12	James Wynd	64
13	Todd Wisewould	65
14	Jay Kubeil	63
15	Hughbert Alexander	62
16	Adrian Connor	62
17	Ward Gunn	59
18	Peter Burkitt	59
19	Hossain Tefaili	63
20	Randall Clotworthy	59
21	John Harriott	63
22	Mick Lamb	57
23	Tushar Pokle	67
24	Donny Gardner	68
25	James Atkinson	42
26	Dean Bayly	15
27	Jason Carman	43
28	Dustan Hansen	7
29	Richard Hughes	70
30	Jason Lannstrom	57
31	Keith Lavers	81
32	Paul Lawrence	73
33	Colin Mackie	67
34	James McGinty	11

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 average the vectors 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	3.9	17	3617
13:00 AEDT	4.1	10	681
14:00 AEDT	4.3	47	1457
15:00 AEDT	4.3	358	1109
16:00 AEDT	5.0	332	338
17:00 AEDT	4.2	16	32

The vector mean of the wind estimate of each circle. GlideComp uses centre drift where it can, and ground-speed modulation where it cannot. The direction is the degrees the wind blows FROM (0° = north).

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)→PINEMT	13:36–15:48 AEDT	19	13:38–15:47 AEDT	4.4	53	1055	19
PINEMT→LIGHTH	14:28–16:18 AEDT	15	14:29–16:16 AEDT	4.2	11	531	14
LIGHTH→TINTAL (GOAL)	15:12–16:57 AEDT	11	15:15–16:45 AEDT	8.6	356	266	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
13:00 AEDT	1.1	2.2	154
14:00 AEDT	1.0	1.8	395
15:00 AEDT	1.0	1.7	304
16:00 AEDT	0.9	1.5	81
17:00 AEDT	1.3	1.6	4

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	13:00–14:00 AEDT
Earliest takeoff	12:59 AEDT
Median takeoff	13:55 AEDT
Latest takeoff	16:03 AEDT

Best conditions is the one-hour window with the strongest median climb (1.1 m/s), among hours with enough climbs to be representative (≥20% of the busiest hour).

best: some pattern (0.45)

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. Lanes run strongest separator first, the ones that separated nobody last; the table below keeps its usual order. Right is the end the behaviour is expected to be better at — whether it paid on this task is the ranking's question, not this chart's. † No good or bad direction: right is simply the larger value. A lane's count is the pilots it applied to; the rest have no value for it, which is not a score of zero.

#	Pilot	Out-climb	Core s	LeaveRate	Kept%	TopOut%	Round
1	Jon Durand	61 (27 shared climbs)	63 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (10/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	78 (mean on-course altitude 64% of band)	0.15 (188 circles, 45% left)
2	Neale Halsall	75 (30 shared climbs)	46 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (16 climbs ≥ 90 s)	91 (10/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	75 (mean on-course altitude 61% of band)	0.15 (184 circles, 44% left)
3	Mitch Butler	56 (17 shared climbs)	80 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.5 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	59 (10/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	59 (mean on-course altitude 54% of band)	0.24 (20 circles, 80% left)
4	Jason Kath	76 (21 shared climbs)	42 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	53 (8/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	49 (mean on-course altitude 45% of band)	0.13 (267 circles, 85% left)
5	Michael Smith	67 (13 shared climbs)	48 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (10/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	59 (mean on-course altitude 49% of band)	0.16 (167 circles, 55% left)
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	76 (34 shared climbs)	50 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (12/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	34 (mean on-course altitude 38% of band)	0.15 (186 circles, 81% left)
7	Richard Martin	72 (36 shared climbs)	3 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	81 (13/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	54 (mean on-course altitude 56% of band)	0.19 (217 circles, 30% left)
8	Neil Hooke	64 (32 shared climbs)	46 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	60 (12/20 circling bouts led to climbs)	53 (mean on-course altitude 50% of band)	0.15 (199 circles, 70% left)
9	Bruce Atkinson	58 (16 shared climbs)	100 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	55 (11/20 circling bouts led to climbs)	85 (mean on-course altitude 62% of band)	0.22 (24 circles, 83% left)
10	Steve Docherty	67 (17 shared climbs)	45 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	70 (14/20 circling bouts led to climbs)	60 (mean on-course altitude 50% of band)	0.19 (40 circles, 55% left)
11	Troy Horton	66 (42 shared climbs)	49 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (12/24 circling bouts led to climbs)	56 (mean on-course altitude 54% of band)	0.17 (212 circles, 94% left)
12	James Wynd	49 (17 shared climbs)	75 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	47 (8/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	53 (mean on-course altitude 52% of band)	0.31 (15 circles, 60% left)
13	Todd Wisewould	64 (36 shared climbs)	72 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	65 (11/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	44 (mean on-course altitude 51% of band)	0.15 (233 circles, 80% left)
14	Jay Kubeil	71 (49 shared climbs)	18 (10 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	74 (17/23 circling bouts led to climbs)	55 (mean on-course altitude 50% of band)	0.15 (127 circles, 59% left)
15	Hughbert Alexander	65 (38 shared climbs)	24 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	73 (11/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	45 (mean on-course altitude 42% of band)	0.17 (170 circles, 61% left)
16	Adrian Connor	68 (56 shared climbs)	4 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	81 (13/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	73 (mean on-course altitude 51% of band)	0.17 (164 circles, 43% left)
17	Ward Gunn	70 (26 shared climbs)	79 (8 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (7 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (10/14 circling bouts led to climbs)	29 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	0.15 (155 circles, 31% left)
18	Peter Burkitt	69 (27 shared climbs)	27 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (9/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	63 (mean on-course altitude 45% of band)	0.17 (140 circles, 96% left)
19	Hossain Tefaili	58 (41 shared climbs)	34 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	58 (7/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	63 (mean on-course altitude 44% of band)	0.12 (140 circles, 61% left)
20	Randall Clotworthy	65 (17 shared climbs)	38 (9 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (5/7 circling bouts led to climbs)	85 (mean on-course altitude 46% of band)	0.20 (85 circles, 76% left)
21	John Harriott	68 (28 shared climbs)	21 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (5/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	64 (mean on-course altitude 36% of band)	0.17 (64 circles, 58% left)
22	Mick Lamb	65 (21 shared climbs)	55 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	2.2 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (3/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	52 (mean on-course altitude 37% of band)	0.19 (50 circles, 46% left)
23	Tushar Pokle	71 (20 shared climbs)	34 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	60 (9/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	29 (mean on-course altitude 34% of band)	0.15 (201 circles, 86% left)
24	Donny Gardner	42 (7 shared climbs)	53 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	63 (5/8 circling bouts led to climbs)	24 (mean on-course altitude 8% of band)	0.29 (12 circles, 83% left)
25	James Atkinson	100 (1 shared climb)	—	—	—	—	— (8 circles, 88% left)
26	Dean Bayly	—	—	—	—	—	— (1 circles, 100% left)
27	Jason Carman	61 (3 shared climbs)	120 (3 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.2 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	25 (1/4 circling bouts led to climbs)	6 (mean on-course altitude -12% of band)	— (1 circles, 0% left)
28	Dustan Hansen	—	—	—	—	—	—
29	Richard Hughes	59 (10 shared climbs)	49 (10 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	29 (2/7 circling bouts led to climbs)	42 (mean on-course altitude 22% of band)	0.11 (145 circles, 77% left)
30	Jason Lannstrom	1 (2 shared climbs)	53 (2 climbs ≥ 60 s)	—	—	—	— (4 circles, 100% left)
31	Keith Lavers	—	—	—	—	—	0.22 (12 circles, 100% left)
32	Paul Lawrence	65 (3 shared climbs)	38 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	—	—	0.18 (124 circles, 69% left)
33	Colin Mackie	44 (9 shared climbs)	44 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	0 (0/3 circling bouts led to climbs)	—	0.18 (61 circles, 61% left)
34	James McGinty	—	—	—	—	—	— (1 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	75	9
14:00 AEDT	71	22
15:00 AEDT	67	25
16:00 AEDT	43	13

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: 66% left (3617 circles).

best: clear pattern (0.63)

#	Pilot	GlideSpd	GlideL/D	SpeedToFly	Wide%	Dolphin%
1	Jon Durand	59.9 (15 glides, 51 min gliding)	0.91 (3 legs compared)	-1.0 (14 glide→climb pairs)	19 (3 legs completed)	6 (238 of 3906 m gained outside thermals)
2	Neale Halsall	60.5 (13 glides, 61 min gliding)	0.99 (3 legs compared)	-2.7 (12 glide→climb pairs)	26 (3 legs completed)	12 (496 of 3985 m gained outside thermals)
3	Mitch Butler	58.2 (11 glides, 57 min gliding)	0.89 (3 legs compared)	3.0 (10 glide→climb pairs)	27 (3 legs completed)	3 (119 of 4612 m gained outside thermals)
4	Jason Kath	62.7 (20 glides, 72 min gliding)	1.05 (3 legs compared)	5.7 (20 glide→climb pairs)	46 (3 legs completed)	12 (634 of 5354 m gained outside thermals)
5	Michael Smith	61.7 (9 glides, 70 min gliding)	1.14 (3 legs compared)	0.4 (8 glide→climb pairs)	39 (3 legs completed)	11 (436 of 4105 m gained outside thermals)
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	51.4 (13 glides, 75 min gliding)	1.06 (3 legs compared)	-1.1 (12 glide→climb pairs)	29 (3 legs completed)	14 (490 of 3395 m gained outside thermals)
7	Richard Martin	61.0 (17 glides, 66 min gliding)	1.04 (3 legs compared)	0.6 (16 glide→climb pairs)	46 (3 legs completed)	14 (586 of 4123 m gained outside thermals)
8	Neil Hooke	55.2 (13 glides, 76 min gliding)	0.97 (3 legs compared)	-0.6 (12 glide→climb pairs)	29 (3 legs completed)	12 (572 of 4623 m gained outside thermals)
9	Bruce Atkinson	51.1 (11 glides, 72 min gliding)	1.06 (3 legs compared)	0.8 (10 glide→climb pairs)	26 (3 legs completed)	5 (179 of 3602 m gained outside thermals)
10	Steve Docherty	51.3 (11 glides, 73 min gliding)	1.05 (3 legs compared)	-0.1 (10 glide→climb pairs)	38 (3 legs completed)	5 (222 of 4519 m gained outside thermals)
11	Troy Horton	49.0 (26 glides, 98 min gliding)	0.86 (3 legs compared)	2.8 (25 glide→climb pairs)	45 (3 legs completed)	16 (950 of 5828 m gained outside thermals)
12	James Wynd	55.2 (6 glides, 55 min gliding)	0.97 (2 legs compared)	3.6 (6 glide→climb pairs)	23 (2 legs completed)	3 (98 of 3915 m gained outside thermals)
13	Todd Wisewould	59.5 (24 glides, 77 min gliding)	0.91 (2 legs compared)	-0.5 (23 glide→climb pairs)	27 (2 legs completed)	19 (652 of 3520 m gained outside thermals)
14	Jay Kubeil	56.7 (35 glides, 87 min gliding)	1.37 (2 legs compared)	-0.6 (34 glide→climb pairs)	43 (2 legs completed)	30 (1160 of 3814 m gained outside thermals)
15	Hughbert Alexander	54.2 (24 glides, 63 min gliding)	0.98 (2 legs compared)	0.8 (23 glide→climb pairs)	31 (2 legs completed)	32 (1074 of 3344 m gained outside thermals)
16	Adrian Connor	48.9 (26 glides, 81 min gliding)	0.81 (1 leg compared)	0.7 (25 glide→climb pairs)	111 (1 leg completed)	24 (1122 of 4658 m gained outside thermals)
17	Ward Gunn	60.8 (14 glides, 63 min gliding)	1.02 (1 leg compared)	0.4 (13 glide→climb pairs)	116 (1 leg completed)	15 (579 of 3849 m gained outside thermals)
18	Peter Burkitt	57.3 (14 glides, 43 min gliding)	1.13 (1 leg compared)	0.9 (13 glide→climb pairs)	50 (1 leg completed)	14 (425 of 2940 m gained outside thermals)
19	Hossain Tefaili	52.7 (18 glides, 54 min gliding)	0.87 (1 leg compared)	-0.3 (17 glide→climb pairs)	87 (1 leg completed)	27 (734 of 2709 m gained outside thermals)
20	Randall Clotworthy	50.0 (6 glides, 33 min gliding)	—	-0.2 (5 glide→climb pairs)	—	27 (217 of 793 m gained outside thermals)
21	John Harriott	50.7 (10 glides, 33 min gliding)	—	-0.7 (9 glide→climb pairs)	—	22 (358 of 1630 m gained outside thermals)
22	Mick Lamb	52.3 (7 glides, 30 min gliding)	—	0.6 (6 glide→climb pairs)	—	29 (466 of 1620 m gained outside thermals)
23	Tushar Pokle	44.1 (18 glides, 64 min gliding)	—	0.9 (17 glide→climb pairs)	—	24 (688 of 2858 m gained outside thermals)
24	Donny Gardner	35.4 (4 glides, 32 min gliding)	—	—	—	9 (124 of 1436 m gained outside thermals)
25	James Atkinson	—	—	—	—	—
26	Dean Bayly	—	—	—	—	—
27	Jason Carman	42.3 (1 glides, 8 min gliding)	—	—	—	—
28	Dustan Hansen	—	—	—	—	—
29	Richard Hughes	53.9 (4 glides, 22 min gliding)	—	—	—	26 (164 of 626 m gained outside thermals)
30	Jason Lannstrom	—	—	—	—	—
31	Keith Lavers	—	—	—	—	—
32	Paul Lawrence	—	—	—	—	—
33	Colin Mackie	—	—	—	—	—
34	James McGinty	—	—	—	—	—

Glide speed between climbs

Measured in kilometres per hour · higher is better

Field glide speed: median 54.0 km/h · p90 60.9 km/h (26 pilots)

best: clear pattern (0.62)

#	Pilot	Floor%	LowSaves	km/climb	Search%
1	Jon Durand	39 (7 descents, lowest -9% of band)	0.0	2.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 43%)	23
2	Neale Halsall	29 (8 descents, lowest -30% of band)	0.0	2.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 56%)	27
3	Mitch Butler	31 (8 descents, lowest 4% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from 12% of band)	3.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	18
4	Jason Kath	24 (8 descents, lowest -13% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from 2% of band)	1.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 59%)	32
5	Michael Smith	34 (6 descents, lowest -22% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -20% of band)	2.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	37
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	12 (8 descents, lowest -26% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -25% of band)	2.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 59%)	37
7	Richard Martin	35 (9 descents, lowest 21% of band)	0.0	1.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 54%)	37
8	Neil Hooke	34 (7 descents, lowest -8% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -1% of band)	1.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 47%)	34
9	Bruce Atkinson	41 (8 descents, lowest 18% of band)	0.0	3.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	23
10	Steve Docherty	29 (7 descents, lowest 16% of band)	0.0	2.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	23
11	Troy Horton	41 (8 descents, lowest -21% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -16% of band)	1.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 51%)	40
12	James Wynd	18 (5 descents, lowest -50% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 15% of band)	4.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 35%)	21
13	Todd Wisewould	20 (9 descents, lowest -25% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 13% of band)	1.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 38%)	46
14	Jay Kubeil	21 (10 descents, lowest -28% of band)	0.0	0.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 55%)	46
15	Hughbert Alexander	11 (9 descents, lowest -50% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 11% of band)	0.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 47%)	51
16	Adrian Connor	64 (10 descents, lowest -33% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -9% of band)	0.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 61%)	38
17	Ward Gunn	4 (7 descents, lowest -33% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -12% of band)	1.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	41
18	Peter Burkitt	62 (7 descents, lowest -38% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 14% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 49%)	48
19	Hossain Tefaili	44 (5 descents, lowest 1% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 13% of band)	0.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 43%)	51
20	Randall Clotworthy	79 (3 descents, lowest -10% of band)	0.0	—	44
21	John Harriott	32 (4 descents, lowest -8% of band)	0.0	—	54
22	Mick Lamb	3 (3 descents, lowest -30% of band)	0.0	—	40
23	Tushar Pokle	19 (4 descents, lowest -10% of band)	0.0	—	58
24	Donny Gardner	-3 (2 descents, lowest -19% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -17% of band)	—	35
25	James Atkinson	—	—	—	—
26	Dean Bayly	—	—	—	—
27	Jason Carman	—	0.0	—	60
28	Dustan Hansen	—	—	—	—
29	Richard Hughes	—	0.0	—	66
30	Jason Lannstrom	—	—	—	—
31	Keith Lavers	—	—	—	—
32	Paul Lawrence	—	0.0	—	13
33	Colin Mackie	—	0.0	—	91
34	James McGinty	—	—	—	—

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 26/32/35% · glide 22/30/33% · search 31/39/49%

best: some pattern (0.45)

#	Pilot	InGaggle%	Marked%	LeaveWin%
1	Jon Durand	15	43 (10/23 climbs marked)	—
2	Neale Halsall	32	30 (7/23 climbs marked)	—
3	Mitch Butler	43	47 (7/15 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
4	Jason Kath	30	32 (9/28 climbs marked)	100 (3W–0L (3 departures))
5	Michael Smith	30	47 (9/19 climbs marked)	67 (2W–1L (3 departures))
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	17	27 (6/22 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
7	Richard Martin	54	42 (15/36 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
8	Neil Hooke	74	67 (18/27 climbs marked)	33 (1W–2L (3 departures))
9	Bruce Atkinson	33	46 (6/13 climbs marked)	—
10	Steve Docherty	52	35 (6/17 climbs marked)	—
11	Troy Horton	55	57 (24/42 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
12	James Wynd	36	36 (4/11 climbs marked)	—
13	Todd Wisewould	46	33 (11/33 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
14	Jay Kubeil	44	48 (25/52 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
15	Hughbert Alexander	10	12 (5/41 climbs marked)	—
16	Adrian Connor	34	34 (17/50 climbs marked)	—
17	Ward Gunn	29	48 (13/27 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
18	Peter Burkitt	14	11 (2/19 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
19	Hossain Tefaili	48	41 (12/29 climbs marked)	—
20	Randall Clotworthy	8	0 (0/8 climbs marked)	—
21	John Harriott	30	33 (6/18 climbs marked)	—
22	Mick Lamb	53	56 (9/16 climbs marked)	—
23	Tushar Pokle	13	7 (2/27 climbs marked)	—
24	Donny Gardner	12	0 (0/5 climbs marked)	—
25	James Atkinson	—	—	—
26	Dean Bayly	—	—	—
27	Jason Carman	31	—	—
28	Dustan Hansen	—	—	—
29	Richard Hughes	0	0 (0/7 climbs marked)	—
30	Jason Lannstrom	—	—	—
31	Keith Lavers	—	—	—
32	Paul Lawrence	0	—	—
33	Colin Mackie	0	—	—
34	James McGinty	—	—	—

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.

47 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 9 pilots).

best: could be chance (0.25)

#	Pilot	StartDly	TimeLost	Behind	Spare m	FinalGl
1	Jon Durand	0	0	0.0	271	5.12 (left last climb 9.4 km out at 2095 m)
2	Neale Halsall	0	286	11.1	154	6.96 (left last climb 9.2 km out at 1585 m)
3	Mitch Butler	0	606	17.7	401	4.84 (left last climb 6.3 km out at 1564 m)
4	Jason Kath	0	372	22.7	277	4.85 (left last climb 6.0 km out at 1502 m)
5	Michael Smith	0	706	23.7	358	7.42 (left last climb 8.4 km out at 1399 m)
6	Paul Bissett-Amess	0	1445	24.6	-120	9.29 (left last climb 5.8 km out at 889 m)
7	Richard Martin	0	770	26.0	-108	9.49 (left last climb 8.3 km out at 1139 m)
8	Neil Hooke	0	1314	33.0	227	7.84 (left last climb 11.3 km out at 1706 m)
9	Bruce Atkinson	0	727	33.6	368	6.92 (left last climb 10.0 km out at 1705 m)
10	Steve Docherty	0	1165	40.7	76	8.58 (left last climb 11.1 km out at 1561 m)
11	Troy Horton	0	2251	50.2	213	5.89 (left last climb 6.6 km out at 1382 m)
12	James Wynd	0	875	—	—	—
13	Todd Wisewould	0	1313	—	—	21.10 (left last climb 6.6 km out at 579 m)
14	Jay Kubeil	0	968	—	—	20.59 (left last climb 6.6 km out at 584 m)
15	Hughbert Alexander	0	215	—	—	131.88 (left last climb 11.3 km out at 350 m)
16	Adrian Connor	0	1998	—	—	1.60 (left last climb 2.3 km out at 1682 m)
17	Ward Gunn	0	1527	—	—	16.83 (left last climb 3.3 km out at 460 m)
18	Peter Burkitt	0	0	—	—	22.81 (left last climb 3.1 km out at 398 m)
19	Hossain Tefaili	0	1370	—	—	8.83 (left last climb 5.6 km out at 901 m)
20	Randall Clotworthy	0	—	—	—	8.89 (left last climb 4.3 km out at 743 m)
21	John Harriott	0	—	—	—	15.28 (left last climb 7.9 km out at 778 m)
22	Mick Lamb	0	—	—	—	5.75 (left last climb 2.5 km out at 696 m)
23	Tushar Pokle	0	—	—	—	4.00 (left last climb 6.9 km out at 1993 m)
24	Donny Gardner	0	—	—	—	5.73 (left last climb 6.8 km out at 1453 m)
25	James Atkinson	—	—	—	—	—
26	Dean Bayly	—	—	—	—	—
27	Jason Carman	0	—	—	—	15.02 (left last climb 9.8 km out at 917 m)
28	Dustan Hansen	—	—	—	—	—
29	Richard Hughes	0	—	—	—	7.52 (left last climb 9.0 km out at 1461 m)
30	Jason Lannstrom	—	—	—	—	—
31	Keith Lavers	—	—	—	—	—
32	Paul Lawrence	0	—	—	—	—
33	Colin Mackie	0	—	—	—	—
34	James McGinty	—	—	—	—	—

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
Jon Durand	0:00	1841	82	13.1
Neale Halsall	0:00	1814	80	15.9
Mitch Butler	0:00	1759	75	3.2
Jason Kath	0:00	1912	88	3.6
Michael Smith	0:00	1529	56	0.6
Paul Bissett-Amess	0:00	1647	66	14.4
Richard Martin	0:00	1628	64	0.2
Neil Hooke	0:00	1596	62	1.0
Bruce Atkinson	0:00	2010	96	13.4
Steve Docherty	0:00	1607	63	0.7
Troy Horton	0:00	1650	66	0.0
James Wynd	0:00	1836	81	16.7
Todd Wisewould	0:00	1984	94	17.9
Jay Kubeil	0:00	1756	75	15.6
Hughbert Alexander	0:00	1774	76	13.9
Adrian Connor	0:00	1709	71	15.0
Ward Gunn	0:00	1518	55	0.2
Peter Burkitt	0:00	1082	19	13.2
Hossain Tefaili	0:00	1392	45	17.5
Randall Clotworthy	0:00	1926	89	17.2
John Harriott	0:00	1618	63	17.8
Mick Lamb	0:00	1575	60	1.4
Tushar Pokle	0:00	865	1	17.1
Donny Gardner	0:00	1073	19	13.5
Jason Carman	0:00	1073	19	18.1
Richard Hughes	0:00	1377	44	14.0
Paul Lawrence	0:00	1427	48	0.0
Colin Mackie	0:00	805	-4	11.6

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.

Neale Halsall against the winner, leg by leg: bars hanging below the line are time lost, bars above are time gained; over the 3 compared legs, +11:08 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→PINEMT	PINEMT→LIGHTH	LIGHTH→ESS	Total
Jon Durand	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00
Neale Halsall	+2:40	+10:15	-1:47	+11:08
Mitch Butler	+24:46	-10:15	+3:09	+17:41
Jason Kath	+16:23	-1:19	+7:38	+22:42
Michael Smith	+27:29	+5:43	-9:30	+23:42
Paul Bissett-Amess	-3:12	+1:49	+25:58	+24:35
Richard Martin	+16:27	+17:49	-8:15	+26:01
Neil Hooke	+37:51	-6:32	+1:42	+33:02
Bruce Atkinson	+19:43	+13:51	+0:03	+33:36
Steve Docherty	+17:21	+23:31	-0:12	+40:40
Troy Horton	+38:43	-5:06	+16:37	+50:14
James Wynd	+11:43	+20:04	—	+31:47
Todd Wisewould	+5:12	+27:23	—	+32:35
Jay Kubeil	+1:31	+21:37	—	+23:08
Hughbert Alexander	+4:38	+9:04	—	+13:42
Adrian Connor	+49:14	—	—	+49:14
Ward Gunn	+41:24	—	—	+41:24
Peter Burkitt	+15:06	—	—	+15:06
Hossain Tefaili	+38:47	—	—	+38:47

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.

Minutes behind the fastest pilot at each turnpoint — the leader runs along the top at zero, and a line that stops early is a pilot who landed. The top 5 are coloured; every pilot's exact numbers are in the table below.

Horserace — minutes behind the leader at each turnpoint

Pilot	PINEMT	LIGHTH	TINTAL
Jon Durand	3.2	1.4	0.0
Neale Halsall	5.9	14.3	11.1
Mitch Butler	28.0	15.9	17.7
Jason Kath	19.6	16.4	22.7
Michael Smith	30.7	34.6	23.7
Paul Bissett-Amess	0.0	0.0	24.6
Richard Martin	19.7	35.7	26.0
Neil Hooke	41.0	32.7	33.0
Bruce Atkinson	22.9	34.9	33.6
Steve Docherty	20.5	42.2	40.7
Troy Horton	41.9	35.0	50.2
James Wynd	14.9	33.2	—
Todd Wisewould	8.4	34.0	—
Jay Kubeil	4.7	24.5	—
Hughbert Alexander	7.8	15.1	—
Adrian Connor	52.4	—	—
Ward Gunn	44.6	—	—
Peter Burkitt	18.3	—	—
Hossain Tefaili	42.0	—	—
Randall Clotworthy	—	—	—
John Harriott	—	—	—
Mick Lamb	—	—	—
Tushar Pokle	—	—	—
Donny Gardner	—	—	—
Jason Carman	—	—	—
Richard Hughes	—	—	—
Paul Lawrence	—	—	—
Colin Mackie	—	—	—

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 §12.3.6). 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 249 m (n=10) vs rest median 213 m (n=1).

Footnotes

1 pilot in the standings but not in this analysis

Peter Adriaans — 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 average the vectors 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 §12.3.6). 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 distance of the final leg from goal. There is no expected direction: a marginal glide wins if it connects, and loses if it does not.

Task 4 (Open)

What the weather did

From the weather model

From the pilots' tracks

The day's thermals

Thermal at 14:10 AEDT — 11 pilots, 29 climbs

Which behaviours went with better results

Glide speed between climbs

Metrics with a clear pattern, plotted against rank

Glide speed between climbs

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Distance covered between climbs

Share of the height gain made outside thermals

Gliding wide of the optimal course line

Outcome checks

The whole field at a glance

Pilot style clusters

The metrics in detail

Day profile & windbest: could be chance (0.02)

Climbingbest: some pattern (0.45)

Glidingbest: clear pattern (0.63)

Glide speed between climbs

Decision-makingbest: clear pattern (0.62)

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Gagglebest: some pattern (0.45)

Race craftbest: could be chance (0.25)

Footnotes

1 pilot in the standings but not in this analysis

How the field is compared

Metric glossary

Day profile & wind

Climbing

Gliding

Decision-making

Gaggle

Race craft

best: could be chance (0.02)

best: some pattern (0.45)

best: clear pattern (0.63)

best: clear pattern (0.62)

best: some pattern (0.45)

best: could be chance (0.25)