Task 2 (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: 39
Airtime: 95h (13:27–18:03 AEDT)
Thermals: 28677 shared by 2+ pilots
Working band: 884–2580 m
Airtime split: 43%climbing
27%gliding
30%searching

3 pilots are 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 126 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
13:46 AEDT	5	400–800 m	+1.2 m/s	N
13:50 AEDT	7	500–1500 m	+1.5 m/s	SE
13:52 AEDT	7	600–1700 m	+1.4 m/s	SW
14:02 AEDT	5	1300–1800 m	+1.1 m/s	W
14:04 AEDT	8	700–1500 m	+1.5 m/s	E
14:05 AEDT	9	800–2500 m	+1.9 m/s	E
14:06 AEDT	11	900–2600 m	+2.3 m/s	W
14:07 AEDT	6	1300–2600 m	+2.2 m/s	W
14:15 AEDT	5	1600–2100 m	+1.3 m/s	NW
14:18 AEDT	7	1900–2600 m	+1.8 m/s	W
14:19 AEDT	8	1300–2600 m	+2.1 m/s	SE
14:22 AEDT	11	900–2600 m	+2.7 m/s	NE
14:27 AEDT	12	1500–2600 m	+1.1 m/s	SE
14:30 AEDT	5	2200–2600 m	+1.3 m/s	W
14:31 AEDT	5	1000–2600 m	+2.3 m/s	NE
14:32 AEDT	8	800–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	S
14:33 AEDT	5	2200–2600 m	+1.0 m/s	NW
14:42 AEDT	6	1500–2500 m	+1.5 m/s	NE
14:46 AEDT	5	2100–2500 m	+2.1 m/s	W
14:48 AEDT	4	1300–2600 m	+1.6 m/s	NW
14:57 AEDT	4	800–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	SE
14:59 AEDT	5	1300–2600 m	+1.7 m/s	NE
15:00 AEDT	6	1600–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	NW
15:02 AEDT	10	1300–2600 m	+1.9 m/s	SW
15:16 AEDT	7	2200–2500 m	+0.8 m/s	SW
15:17 AEDT	7	2000–2300 m	+1.0 m/s	NE
15:20 AEDT	6	1900–2600 m	+1.9 m/s	S
15:20 AEDT	5	1900–2600 m	+1.9 m/s	E
15:22 AEDT	7	2100–2600 m	+1.8 m/s	SW
15:26 AEDT	6	1000–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	E
15:31 AEDT	9	1000–2600 m	+2.7 m/s	SW
15:35 AEDT	4	800–2600 m	+2.3 m/s	E
15:35 AEDT	8	2000–2600 m	+1.4 m/s	S
15:39 AEDT	6	1500–2600 m	+2.1 m/s	W
15:49 AEDT	5	2000–2600 m	+1.8 m/s	SW
15:50 AEDT	6	1600–2600 m	+2.0 m/s	NW
15:55 AEDT	8	1700–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	SW
15:57 AEDT	5	2200–2600 m	+1.7 m/s	NE
16:00 AEDT	5	1000–2400 m	+1.6 m/s	SW
16:05 AEDT	6	2200–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	NW

Thermal at 14:27 AEDT — 12 pilots, 27 climbs

Wind 17.5 km/h from 3° (N), measured from 38 circle estimates in the pilots' own tracks.
Model wind cross-check loading…
Leans 24° from vertical toward 318° (NW), 135° off downwind (183°).
Strongest on the SE side of the core at +1.3 m/s against +1.0 m/s on the NW side.

Watch this thermal in the 3D replay

Pilots in this thermal (climb rates)

Pilot	Min	Median	Max
Jason Lannstrom	-1.0 m/s	+2.8 m/s	+5.8 m/s
Andrew Sutton	-0.5 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+3.5 m/s
Jay Kubeil	-3.5 m/s	+1.3 m/s	+2.3 m/s
Paul Bissett-Amess	-1.5 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.0 m/s
Steve Docherty	-1.5 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+4.5 m/s
Rohan Holtkamp	-2.3 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+4.3 m/s
Mitch Butler	-5.0 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+4.0 m/s
Troy Horton	-1.3 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+3.3 m/s
Olav Opsanger	-0.3 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+2.0 m/s
Steve Blenkinsop	+0.3 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+1.5 m/s
Rohan Taylor	-1.5 m/s	+0.7 m/s	+3.3 m/s
Guy Hubbard	—	—	—

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
2500–2600 m	-22 / 249	87 m	172 m	+1.2 m/s	+3.3 m/s	99	2	1
2400–2500 m	-90 / 202	148 m	217 m	+0.9 m/s	+3.0 m/s	42	1	1
2300–2400 m	-55 / -31	159 m	294 m	+0.8 m/s	+4.5 m/s	378	8	1
2200–2300 m	41 / -24	246 m	515 m	+1.1 m/s	+3.5 m/s	117	5	1
1600–1700 m	200 / -166	94 m	139 m	+2.9 m/s	+5.8 m/s	35	1	1
1500–1600 m	231 / -115	70 m	194 m	+2.8 m/s	+5.3 m/s	28	1	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 = -0.79 (clear pattern, n = 39). 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 35 to about rank 1.

Field glide speed: median 60.3 km/h · p90 69.0 km/h (39 pilots)

Behaviour	Strength	What it means	Pilots measured
Glide speed between climbs		clear pattern
Glide L/D against the field median		clear pattern
Gliding wide of the optimal course line		clear pattern
Time spent flying with a gaggle		clear pattern
Arriving at ESS with height to spare		clear pattern
Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb		clear pattern
Distance covered between climbs		clear pattern
How often leaving the gaggle paid off		clear pattern
Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb		some pattern
How long after the gate opened the pilot started		some pattern
Climb rate at thermal exit		some pattern
Share of the height gain made outside thermals		some pattern
Climbs joined on another pilot's marker		some pattern
How low the pilot gets between climbs		some pattern
How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it		could be chance
Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking		could be chance
Climbing faster than the pilots sharing the thermal		could be chance
Gliding faster when the next climb is stronger		could be chance
Time to core thermals		could be chance
Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band		could be chance
How round and consistent the circles were		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 60.3 km/h · p90 69.0 km/h (39 pilots)

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 = -0.73 (clear pattern, n = 36). 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 35 to about rank 8. 3 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 = 0.63 (clear pattern, n = 36). 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 33. 3 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 = -0.62 (clear pattern, n = 39). 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 35 to about rank 5.

74 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 14 pilots).

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.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.58 (clear pattern, n = 29). 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 28. 10 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

ESS altitude margin over final glide: top-10 median -75 m (n=10) vs rest median 159 m (n=19).

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 = 0.58 (clear pattern, n = 39). 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 12 to about rank 39.

Speed-section phase shares, field p25/median/p75: climb 37/38/44% · glide 31/35/39% · search 19/23/31%

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 = -0.56 (clear pattern, n = 36). 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 34 to about rank 23. 3 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

How often leaving the gaggle paid off

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.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.52 (clear pattern, n = 25). 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 23 to about rank 10. 14 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		clear pattern

The whole field at a glance

1. Olav Opsanger

2. Scott Barrett

3. Hughbert Alexander

4. Steve Docherty

5. James Atkinson

6. Adam Stevens

7. Guy Hubbard

8. Sam Prest

9. Rohan Taylor

10. Rohan Holtkamp

11. Peter Burkitt

12. Steve Blenkinsop

13. Stuart Cathcart

14. Peter Adriaans

15. Ward Gunn

16. Richard Martin

17. Paul Bissett-Amess

18. Jon Durand

19. Neale Halsall

20. Adrian Connor

21. James Wynd

22. Peter Tolhurst

23. Corinna Schwiegershausen

24. Jason Lannstrom

25. John Harriott

26. Troy Horton

27. Jay Kubeil

28. Andrew Sutton

29. Andrew Taylor

30. Peter Garrone

31. Neil Hooke

32. Jason Carman

33. Vic Hare

34. Magnus Ronningen

35. Dean Bayly

36. David Jackson

37. Mitch Butler

38. Mark Jeffree

39. Dustan Hansen

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 — Never-low flyers

28 pilots · ranks 1–37 · median 14.5 · middle half 7.8–22.3

Low — Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band group median P32 in this field (0.0 count)

1. Olav Opsanger
2. Scott Barrett
3. Hughbert Alexander
4. Steve Docherty
5. James Atkinson
6. Adam Stevens
7. Guy Hubbard
8. Sam Prest
9. Rohan Taylor (most typical of this group)
10. Rohan Holtkamp
11. Peter Burkitt
12. Steve Blenkinsop
13. Stuart Cathcart
14. Peter Adriaans
15. Ward Gunn
16. Richard Martin
17. Paul Bissett-Amess
18. Jon Durand
20. Adrian Connor
21. James Wynd
22. Peter Tolhurst
23. Corinna Schwiegershausen
24. Jason Lannstrom
26. Troy Horton
28. Andrew Sutton
29. Andrew Taylor
31. Neil Hooke
37. Mitch Butler

Group B — Wanderers

11 pilots · ranks 19–39 · median 33 · middle half 28.5–35.5

High — Gliding wide of the optimal course line group median P89 in this field (41 percent) · usually costly
Low — Glide L/D against the field median group median P11 in this field (0.83 ratio) · usually costly
High — Share of the height gain made outside thermals group median P87 in this field (13 percent)
Low — Time spent flying with a gaggle group median P16 in this field (11 percent)

19. Neale Halsall
25. John Harriott
27. Jay Kubeil
30. Peter Garrone
32. Jason Carman
33. Vic Hare (most typical of this group)
34. Magnus Ronningen
35. Dean Bayly
36. David Jackson
38. Mark Jeffree
39. Dustan Hansen

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, 39 pilots on 21 behavioural metrics formed 2 groups, with k searched from 2 to 6. The mean silhouette is 0.19. 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 (0.28)

#	Pilot	NonSink%
1	Olav Opsanger	61
2	Scott Barrett	57
3	Hughbert Alexander	55
4	Steve Docherty	58
5	James Atkinson	54
6	Adam Stevens	51
7	Guy Hubbard	58
8	Sam Prest	55
9	Rohan Taylor	57
10	Rohan Holtkamp	58
11	Peter Burkitt	55
12	Steve Blenkinsop	61
13	Stuart Cathcart	57
14	Peter Adriaans	57
15	Ward Gunn	55
16	Richard Martin	60
17	Paul Bissett-Amess	58
18	Jon Durand	57
19	Neale Halsall	60
20	Adrian Connor	54
21	James Wynd	58
22	Peter Tolhurst	54
23	Corinna Schwiegershausen	57
24	Jason Lannstrom	56
25	John Harriott	61
26	Troy Horton	55
27	Jay Kubeil	61
28	Andrew Sutton	59
29	Andrew Taylor	59
30	Peter Garrone	61
31	Neil Hooke	54
32	Jason Carman	58
33	Vic Hare	61
34	Magnus Ronningen	61
35	Dean Bayly	58
36	David Jackson	63
37	Mitch Butler	55
38	Mark Jeffree	56
39	Dustan Hansen	60

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	4.0	300	4755
13:00 AEDT	7.6	231	249
14:00 AEDT	4.6	306	1911
15:00 AEDT	3.8	307	1791
16:00 AEDT	3.6	296	737
17:00 AEDT	3.0	324	67

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)→THOWGL	14:03–16:45 AEDT	36	14:30–16:43 AEDT	8.2	336	295	22
THOWGL→CUDG	14:14–17:28 AEDT	35	14:15–17:25 AEDT	4.3	323	998	35
CUDG→TINTAL	14:50–17:05 AEDT	30	14:50–17:02 AEDT	2.6	281	1031	30
TINTAL→KHANCO (ESS)	15:32–17:47 AEDT	29	15:40–17:39 AEDT	5.4	277	172	14
KHANCO (ESS)→KHANCO (GOAL)	15:48–17:48 AEDT	29	17:17–17:17 AEDT	9.4	329	2	1

“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	1.9	56
14:00 AEDT	1.2	2.3	503
15:00 AEDT	1.3	2.3	516
16:00 AEDT	1.1	2.0	295
17:00 AEDT	0.7	1.0	22

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	13:27 AEDT
Median takeoff	14:12 AEDT
Latest takeoff	15:56 AEDT

Best conditions is the one-hour window with the strongest median climb (1.3 m/s), among hours with enough climbs to be representative (≥20% of the busiest hour).

best: some pattern (0.50)

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	Olav Opsanger	67 (48 shared climbs)	39 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.7 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	63 (5/8 circling bouts led to climbs)	86 (mean on-course altitude 71% of band)	0.21 (180 circles, 26% left)
2	Scott Barrett	56 (11 shared climbs)	65 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.1 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	100 (11/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	67 (mean on-course altitude 23% of band)	0.23 (36 circles, 86% left)
3	Hughbert Alexander	74 (31 shared climbs)	41 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.9 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	73 (8/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	82 (mean on-course altitude 75% of band)	0.16 (97 circles, 27% left)
4	Steve Docherty	75 (39 shared climbs)	37 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.8 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	88 (7/8 circling bouts led to climbs)	92 (mean on-course altitude 76% of band)	0.14 (186 circles, 29% left)
5	James Atkinson	66 (34 shared climbs)	55 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.7 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (4/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	94 (mean on-course altitude 70% of band)	0.15 (97 circles, 5% left)
6	Adam Stevens	80 (27 shared climbs)	40 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	100 (9/9 circling bouts led to climbs)	86 (mean on-course altitude 58% of band)	0.17 (177 circles, 86% left)
7	Guy Hubbard	52 (26 shared climbs)	51 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (17 climbs ≥ 90 s)	91 (10/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	98 (mean on-course altitude 64% of band)	0.26 (54 circles, 33% left)
8	Sam Prest	79 (28 shared climbs)	35 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	75 (6/8 circling bouts led to climbs)	91 (mean on-course altitude 73% of band)	0.11 (118 circles, 47% left)
9	Rohan Taylor	68 (26 shared climbs)	44 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (10/14 circling bouts led to climbs)	92 (mean on-course altitude 58% of band)	0.17 (124 circles, 55% left)
10	Rohan Holtkamp	69 (32 shared climbs)	35 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	88 (7/8 circling bouts led to climbs)	63 (mean on-course altitude 53% of band)	0.16 (139 circles, 41% left)
11	Peter Burkitt	76 (41 shared climbs)	37 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (10/14 circling bouts led to climbs)	58 (mean on-course altitude 55% of band)	0.16 (174 circles, 37% left)
12	Steve Blenkinsop	66 (28 shared climbs)	70 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	89 (8/9 circling bouts led to climbs)	98 (mean on-course altitude 61% of band)	0.18 (234 circles, 22% left)
13	Stuart Cathcart	54 (20 shared climbs)	57 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.8 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	70 (7/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	78 (mean on-course altitude 70% of band)	0.18 (91 circles, 27% left)
14	Peter Adriaans	74 (23 shared climbs)	49 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	62 (8/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	89 (mean on-course altitude 68% of band)	0.15 (138 circles, 11% left)
15	Ward Gunn	76 (19 shared climbs)	63 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (8/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	76 (mean on-course altitude 58% of band)	0.16 (122 circles, 1% left)
16	Richard Martin	62 (37 shared climbs)	62 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	73 (8/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	82 (mean on-course altitude 67% of band)	0.14 (208 circles, 28% left)
17	Paul Bissett-Amess	66 (36 shared climbs)	55 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (10/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	80 (mean on-course altitude 63% of band)	0.19 (139 circles, 60% left)
18	Jon Durand	69 (32 shared climbs)	35 (21 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	85 (11/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	50 (mean on-course altitude 50% of band)	0.13 (222 circles, 39% left)
19	Neale Halsall	77 (13 shared climbs)	35 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	77 (10/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	59 (mean on-course altitude 52% of band)	0.19 (150 circles, 5% left)
20	Adrian Connor	62 (34 shared climbs)	34 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.7 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	81 (13/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	92 (mean on-course altitude 76% of band)	0.18 (146 circles, 18% left)
21	James Wynd	56 (15 shared climbs)	112 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.2 (16 climbs ≥ 90 s)	53 (8/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	82 (mean on-course altitude 46% of band)	0.15 (10 circles, 0% left)
22	Peter Tolhurst	68 (47 shared climbs)	39 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.8 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	80 (12/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	77 (mean on-course altitude 65% of band)	0.19 (110 circles, 31% left)
23	Corinna Schwiegershausen	41 (15 shared climbs)	120 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-1.3 (19 climbs ≥ 90 s)	60 (9/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	95 (mean on-course altitude 45% of band)	0.32 (20 circles, 65% left)
24	Jason Lannstrom	70 (60 shared climbs)	44 (28 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (18 climbs ≥ 90 s)	81 (13/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	73 (mean on-course altitude 58% of band)	0.16 (83 circles, 57% left)
25	John Harriott	58 (12 shared climbs)	80 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.1 (16 climbs ≥ 90 s)	34 (10/29 circling bouts led to climbs)	73 (mean on-course altitude 48% of band)	0.21 (63 circles, 10% left)
26	Troy Horton	76 (38 shared climbs)	36 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.8 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	59 (10/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	62 (mean on-course altitude 58% of band)	0.17 (163 circles, 58% left)
27	Jay Kubeil	69 (66 shared climbs)	16 (27 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.7 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (12/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	58 (mean on-course altitude 53% of band)	0.15 (192 circles, 65% left)
28	Andrew Sutton	72 (30 shared climbs)	34 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	69 (11/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	72 (mean on-course altitude 55% of band)	0.16 (156 circles, 66% left)
29	Andrew Taylor	52 (14 shared climbs)	90 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.2 (18 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (9/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	84 (mean on-course altitude 62% of band)	— (7 circles, 43% left)
30	Peter Garrone	67 (29 shared climbs)	50 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	68 (13/19 circling bouts led to climbs)	84 (mean on-course altitude 57% of band)	0.16 (112 circles, 35% left)
31	Neil Hooke	55 (18 shared climbs)	63 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.1 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	73 (11/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	95 (mean on-course altitude 60% of band)	0.13 (130 circles, 67% left)
32	Jason Carman	49 (7 shared climbs)	100 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.1 (20 climbs ≥ 90 s)	68 (17/25 circling bouts led to climbs)	46 (mean on-course altitude 45% of band)	0.37 (15 circles, 20% left)
33	Vic Hare	—	54 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	36 (4/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	46 (mean on-course altitude 50% of band)	0.17 (173 circles, 69% left)
34	Magnus Ronningen	67 (21 shared climbs)	37 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (5/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	89 (mean on-course altitude 62% of band)	0.16 (262 circles, 100% left)
35	Dean Bayly	69 (30 shared climbs)	35 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	70 (7/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	76 (mean on-course altitude 61% of band)	0.12 (106 circles, 24% left)
36	David Jackson	67 (25 shared climbs)	68 (8 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (5/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	10 (mean on-course altitude 25% of band)	0.12 (111 circles, 0% left)
37	Mitch Butler	47 (25 shared climbs)	58 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	92 (11/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	97 (mean on-course altitude 64% of band)	0.19 (99 circles, 34% left)
38	Mark Jeffree	77 (11 shared climbs)	22 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	57 (4/7 circling bouts led to climbs)	2 (mean on-course altitude 36% of band)	0.20 (51 circles, 31% left)
39	Dustan Hansen	58 (5 shared climbs)	62 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	55 (6/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	86 (mean on-course altitude 57% of band)	0.18 (61 circles, 52% 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
14:00 AEDT	100	22
15:00 AEDT	82	38
16:00 AEDT	67	34
17:00 AEDT	11	8
18:00 AEDT	0	2

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: 41% left (4756 circles).

best: clear pattern (0.79)

#	Pilot	GlideSpd	GlideL/D	SpeedToFly	Wide%	Dolphin%
1	Olav Opsanger	77.4 (8 glides, 40 min gliding)	1.07 (5 legs compared)	13.0 (7 glide→climb pairs)	8 (5 legs completed)	8 (300 of 3777 m gained outside thermals)
2	Scott Barrett	70.5 (11 glides, 48 min gliding)	1.05 (4 legs compared)	4.4 (10 glide→climb pairs)	8 (5 legs completed)	4 (177 of 5055 m gained outside thermals)
3	Hughbert Alexander	67.3 (13 glides, 48 min gliding)	1.19 (5 legs compared)	5.9 (13 glide→climb pairs)	11 (5 legs completed)	7 (314 of 4455 m gained outside thermals)
4	Steve Docherty	70.0 (17 glides, 52 min gliding)	1.20 (4 legs compared)	-4.4 (16 glide→climb pairs)	11 (5 legs completed)	6 (228 of 3957 m gained outside thermals)
5	James Atkinson	61.9 (12 glides, 54 min gliding)	1.17 (4 legs compared)	1.0 (11 glide→climb pairs)	10 (5 legs completed)	7 (274 of 4066 m gained outside thermals)
6	Adam Stevens	68.8 (13 glides, 55 min gliding)	1.09 (5 legs compared)	-4.5 (12 glide→climb pairs)	9 (5 legs completed)	5 (202 of 4447 m gained outside thermals)
7	Guy Hubbard	68.2 (14 glides, 50 min gliding)	1.07 (4 legs compared)	-3.5 (13 glide→climb pairs)	17 (5 legs completed)	3 (131 of 4684 m gained outside thermals)
8	Sam Prest	70.4 (13 glides, 50 min gliding)	1.06 (4 legs compared)	4.6 (12 glide→climb pairs)	8 (5 legs completed)	8 (379 of 4590 m gained outside thermals)
9	Rohan Taylor	67.7 (12 glides, 63 min gliding)	1.12 (4 legs compared)	0.4 (11 glide→climb pairs)	20 (5 legs completed)	7 (369 of 5030 m gained outside thermals)
10	Rohan Holtkamp	64.9 (20 glides, 62 min gliding)	1.10 (5 legs compared)	-0.0 (19 glide→climb pairs)	19 (5 legs completed)	11 (493 of 4398 m gained outside thermals)
11	Peter Burkitt	66.6 (13 glides, 57 min gliding)	1.02 (4 legs compared)	1.7 (12 glide→climb pairs)	12 (5 legs completed)	10 (494 of 4834 m gained outside thermals)
12	Steve Blenkinsop	67.8 (13 glides, 61 min gliding)	0.93 (5 legs compared)	-8.0 (12 glide→climb pairs)	13 (5 legs completed)	3 (140 of 5383 m gained outside thermals)
13	Stuart Cathcart	57.3 (11 glides, 55 min gliding)	1.17 (5 legs compared)	-1.0 (10 glide→climb pairs)	9 (5 legs completed)	3 (136 of 4447 m gained outside thermals)
14	Peter Adriaans	60.6 (21 glides, 64 min gliding)	1.04 (5 legs compared)	1.4 (20 glide→climb pairs)	14 (5 legs completed)	7 (287 of 4408 m gained outside thermals)
15	Ward Gunn	60.1 (19 glides, 72 min gliding)	1.19 (5 legs compared)	1.3 (18 glide→climb pairs)	18 (5 legs completed)	8 (406 of 5211 m gained outside thermals)
16	Richard Martin	63.8 (20 glides, 69 min gliding)	1.09 (5 legs compared)	0.2 (19 glide→climb pairs)	17 (5 legs completed)	12 (554 of 4773 m gained outside thermals)
17	Paul Bissett-Amess	59.7 (15 glides, 74 min gliding)	1.11 (5 legs compared)	-1.2 (14 glide→climb pairs)	31 (5 legs completed)	9 (408 of 4516 m gained outside thermals)
18	Jon Durand	60.7 (17 glides, 70 min gliding)	1.01 (4 legs compared)	3.1 (16 glide→climb pairs)	16 (5 legs completed)	10 (514 of 5375 m gained outside thermals)
19	Neale Halsall	64.1 (21 glides, 63 min gliding)	0.98 (5 legs compared)	-2.3 (20 glide→climb pairs)	23 (5 legs completed)	13 (685 of 5386 m gained outside thermals)
20	Adrian Connor	56.5 (21 glides, 76 min gliding)	0.99 (4 legs compared)	1.3 (20 glide→climb pairs)	15 (5 legs completed)	13 (655 of 5018 m gained outside thermals)
21	James Wynd	64.6 (7 glides, 50 min gliding)	0.92 (5 legs compared)	1.2 (6 glide→climb pairs)	15 (5 legs completed)	2 (92 of 5340 m gained outside thermals)
22	Peter Tolhurst	53.9 (18 glides, 81 min gliding)	0.92 (4 legs compared)	2.9 (17 glide→climb pairs)	17 (5 legs completed)	10 (596 of 5936 m gained outside thermals)
23	Corinna Schwiegershausen	60.3 (8 glides, 63 min gliding)	0.95 (5 legs compared)	-7.2 (7 glide→climb pairs)	26 (5 legs completed)	5 (327 of 6468 m gained outside thermals)
24	Jason Lannstrom	52.9 (21 glides, 75 min gliding)	0.86 (4 legs compared)	2.7 (20 glide→climb pairs)	25 (5 legs completed)	8 (504 of 6033 m gained outside thermals)
25	John Harriott	52.7 (10 glides, 103 min gliding)	1.11 (4 legs compared)	0.5 (9 glide→climb pairs)	15 (5 legs completed)	6 (347 of 5747 m gained outside thermals)
26	Troy Horton	51.6 (21 glides, 86 min gliding)	0.92 (5 legs compared)	0.5 (20 glide→climb pairs)	18 (5 legs completed)	11 (711 of 6451 m gained outside thermals)
27	Jay Kubeil	58.5 (36 glides, 95 min gliding)	1.00 (4 legs compared)	-0.6 (35 glide→climb pairs)	54 (5 legs completed)	20 (1478 of 7473 m gained outside thermals)
28	Andrew Sutton	53.3 (24 glides, 92 min gliding)	0.99 (5 legs compared)	3.6 (23 glide→climb pairs)	26 (5 legs completed)	11 (687 of 6127 m gained outside thermals)
29	Andrew Taylor	53.5 (9 glides, 71 min gliding)	0.88 (4 legs compared)	3.8 (8 glide→climb pairs)	14 (5 legs completed)	3 (173 of 6357 m gained outside thermals)
30	Peter Garrone	51.7 (21 glides, 67 min gliding)	0.71 (3 legs compared)	0.9 (20 glide→climb pairs)	25 (3 legs completed)	7 (351 of 5121 m gained outside thermals)
31	Neil Hooke	59.4 (13 glides, 61 min gliding)	0.84 (2 legs compared)	-1.9 (12 glide→climb pairs)	19 (2 legs completed)	2 (96 of 5019 m gained outside thermals)
32	Jason Carman	47.1 (11 glides, 67 min gliding)	0.67 (2 legs compared)	0.1 (10 glide→climb pairs)	53 (2 legs completed)	5 (313 of 6548 m gained outside thermals)
33	Vic Hare	65.7 (10 glides, 47 min gliding)	1.09 (2 legs compared)	-0.4 (9 glide→climb pairs)	41 (2 legs completed)	14 (246 of 1695 m gained outside thermals)
34	Magnus Ronningen	45.5 (12 glides, 50 min gliding)	0.75 (2 legs compared)	-3.9 (11 glide→climb pairs)	43 (2 legs completed)	15 (364 of 2484 m gained outside thermals)
35	Dean Bayly	45.9 (10 glides, 48 min gliding)	0.71 (2 legs compared)	-3.6 (9 glide→climb pairs)	41 (2 legs completed)	12 (362 of 2996 m gained outside thermals)
36	David Jackson	53.3 (8 glides, 36 min gliding)	0.83 (1 leg compared)	2.7 (7 glide→climb pairs)	3 (1 leg completed)	19 (261 of 1338 m gained outside thermals)
37	Mitch Butler	63.4 (14 glides, 60 min gliding)	—	-2.2 (13 glide→climb pairs)	—	4 (180 of 4987 m gained outside thermals)
38	Mark Jeffree	50.2 (4 glides, 27 min gliding)	—	—	—	21 (99 of 469 m gained outside thermals)
39	Dustan Hansen	53.4 (11 glides, 37 min gliding)	—	2.5 (10 glide→climb pairs)	—	13 (227 of 1688 m gained outside thermals)

Glide speed between climbs

Measured in kilometres per hour · higher is better

Field glide speed: median 60.3 km/h · p90 69.0 km/h (39 pilots)

best: clear pattern (0.58)

#	Pilot	Floor%	LowSaves	km/climb	Search%
1	Olav Opsanger	66 (7 descents, lowest 47% of band)	0.0	4.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	20
2	Scott Barrett	38 (11 descents, lowest -27% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -23% of band)	4.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 43%)	9
3	Hughbert Alexander	71 (9 descents, lowest -41% of band)	0.0	3.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 67%)	23
4	Steve Docherty	73 (12 descents, lowest 52% of band)	0.0	2.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 55%)	23
5	James Atkinson	77 (9 descents, lowest 25% of band)	0.0	3.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 47%)	14
6	Adam Stevens	36 (9 descents, lowest -3% of band)	0.0	3.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 67%)	17
7	Guy Hubbard	62 (13 descents, lowest -8% of band)	0.0	4.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 32%)	15
8	Sam Prest	73 (10 descents, lowest 43% of band)	0.0	3.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 67%)	22
9	Rohan Taylor	64 (10 descents, lowest -6% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 2% of band)	3.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 51%)	19
10	Rohan Holtkamp	59 (15 descents, lowest -2% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 8% of band)	2.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	23
11	Peter Burkitt	49 (10 descents, lowest -13% of band)	0.0	2.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 53%)	24
12	Steve Blenkinsop	63 (8 descents, lowest 0% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 8% of band)	4.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	20
13	Stuart Cathcart	68 (8 descents, lowest 53% of band)	0.0	4.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 39%)	21
14	Peter Adriaans	75 (10 descents, lowest 4% of band)	0.0	2.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 59%)	24
15	Ward Gunn	65 (11 descents, lowest -12% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -12% of band)	2.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 56%)	23
16	Richard Martin	64 (12 descents, lowest -10% of band)	0.0	2.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	35
17	Paul Bissett-Amess	56 (10 descents, lowest 12% of band)	0.0	2.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	17
18	Jon Durand	51 (15 descents, lowest -7% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -3% of band)	2.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 53%)	25
19	Neale Halsall	41 (10 descents, lowest -13% of band)	0.0	2.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 51%)	22
20	Adrian Connor	74 (13 descents, lowest 45% of band)	0.0	1.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 54%)	35
21	James Wynd	26 (7 descents, lowest 9% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 9% of band)	4.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	19
22	Peter Tolhurst	63 (12 descents, lowest 8% of band)	0.0	1.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 49%)	28
23	Corinna Schwiegershausen	43 (6 descents, lowest 16% of band)	0.0	6.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 29%)	12
24	Jason Lannstrom	44 (10 descents, lowest -10% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -10% of band)	1.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 55%)	20
25	John Harriott	36 (8 descents, lowest -10% of band)	3.0 (deepest save from -10% of band)	3.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	28
26	Troy Horton	38 (10 descents, lowest 10% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 14% of band)	1.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 60%)	33
27	Jay Kubeil	38 (10 descents, lowest -12% of band)	0.0	1.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 56%)	32
28	Andrew Sutton	43 (13 descents, lowest -8% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -8% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	29
29	Andrew Taylor	59 (9 descents, lowest 11% of band)	0.0	4.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 34%)	13
30	Peter Garrone	75 (13 descents, lowest -22% of band)	0.0	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 41%)	32
31	Neil Hooke	80 (9 descents, lowest -7% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -7% of band)	2.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 33%)	27
32	Jason Carman	22 (10 descents, lowest -8% of band)	0.0	1.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 26%)	24
33	Vic Hare	29 (3 descents, lowest 20% of band)	0.0	2.2	44
34	Magnus Ronningen	52 (5 descents, lowest 10% of band)	0.0	1.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	35
35	Dean Bayly	54 (5 descents, lowest 13% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 13% of band)	1.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	30
36	David Jackson	-6 (4 descents, lowest -30% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -3% of band)	2.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	43
37	Mitch Butler	64 (12 descents, lowest 13% of band)	0.0	—	17
38	Mark Jeffree	-1 (2 descents, lowest -7% of band)	0.0	—	60
39	Dustan Hansen	73 (5 descents, lowest -22% of band)	0.0	—	47

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 37/38/44% · glide 31/35/39% · search 19/23/31%

best: clear pattern (0.62)

#	Pilot	InGaggle%	Marked%	LeaveWin%
1	Olav Opsanger	58	88 (15/17 climbs marked)	83 (5W–1L (6 departures))
2	Scott Barrett	25	13 (2/16 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
3	Hughbert Alexander	71	81 (17/21 climbs marked)	80 (4W–1L (5 departures))
4	Steve Docherty	64	52 (12/23 climbs marked)	100 (3W–0L (3 departures))
5	James Atkinson	67	65 (13/20 climbs marked)	100 (2W–0L (2 departures))
6	Adam Stevens	23	19 (4/21 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
7	Guy Hubbard	51	29 (5/17 climbs marked)	67 (2W–1L (3 departures))
8	Sam Prest	70	71 (15/21 climbs marked)	100 (3W–0L (3 departures))
9	Rohan Taylor	34	39 (7/18 climbs marked)	—
10	Rohan Holtkamp	53	14 (4/28 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
11	Peter Burkitt	65	57 (17/30 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
12	Steve Blenkinsop	44	67 (10/15 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
13	Stuart Cathcart	53	69 (11/16 climbs marked)	60 (3W–2L (5 departures))
14	Peter Adriaans	54	39 (9/23 climbs marked)	100 (3W–0L (3 departures))
15	Ward Gunn	10	26 (7/27 climbs marked)	—
16	Richard Martin	27	58 (19/33 climbs marked)	67 (2W–1L (3 departures))
17	Paul Bissett-Amess	38	50 (14/28 climbs marked)	0 (0W–2L (2 departures))
18	Jon Durand	38	26 (9/34 climbs marked)	100 (2W–0L (2 departures))
19	Neale Halsall	11	12 (4/34 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
20	Adrian Connor	22	47 (17/36 climbs marked)	67 (2W–1L (3 departures))
21	James Wynd	25	43 (6/14 climbs marked)	—
22	Peter Tolhurst	55	57 (20/35 climbs marked)	—
23	Corinna Schwiegershausen	32	36 (4/11 climbs marked)	100 (2W–0L (2 departures))
24	Jason Lannstrom	53	67 (24/36 climbs marked)	100 (4W–0L (4 departures))
25	John Harriott	14	28 (5/18 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
26	Troy Horton	44	26 (10/39 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
27	Jay Kubeil	29	33 (22/67 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
28	Andrew Sutton	34	40 (18/45 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
29	Andrew Taylor	22	35 (6/17 climbs marked)	—
30	Peter Garrone	11	28 (10/36 climbs marked)	—
31	Neil Hooke	27	33 (6/18 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
32	Jason Carman	1	12 (2/17 climbs marked)	—
33	Vic Hare	0	0 (0/14 climbs marked)	—
34	Magnus Ronningen	15	44 (8/18 climbs marked)	—
35	Dean Bayly	18	70 (14/20 climbs marked)	—
36	David Jackson	0	25 (2/8 climbs marked)	—
37	Mitch Butler	65	44 (7/16 climbs marked)	—
38	Mark Jeffree	0	25 (1/4 climbs marked)	—
39	Dustan Hansen	0	0 (0/13 climbs marked)	—

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Measured in percent · no expected direction

74 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 14 pilots).

best: clear pattern (0.58)

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. 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	StartDly	TimeLost	Behind	Spare m
1	Olav Opsanger	51	0	0.0	5
2	Scott Barrett	74	280	10.1	-122
3	Hughbert Alexander	24	107	12.2	29
4	Steve Docherty	44	384	12.9	-17
5	James Atkinson	36	62	16.6	-251
6	Adam Stevens	223	462	22.0	-173
7	Guy Hubbard	17	846	25.3	-203
8	Sam Prest	646	71	26.3	-100
9	Rohan Taylor	31	1104	27.1	57
10	Rohan Holtkamp	42	917	28.8	-50
11	Peter Burkitt	43	1052	30.0	-36
12	Steve Blenkinsop	112	1055	34.8	85
13	Stuart Cathcart	613	622	36.7	167
14	Peter Adriaans	585	666	37.0	30
15	Ward Gunn	95	1731	40.0	302
16	Richard Martin	26	1663	43.3	-31
17	Paul Bissett-Amess	30	1686	44.8	173
18	Jon Durand	5	2303	46.3	-44
19	Neale Halsall	224	1895	49.7	159
20	Adrian Connor	400	2033	54.8	134
21	James Wynd	314	2182	57.7	330
22	Peter Tolhurst	131	2374	57.9	408
23	Corinna Schwiegershausen	208	2369	59.1	224
24	Jason Lannstrom	513	2305	63.1	-161
25	John Harriott	812	4855	110.6	632
26	Troy Horton	899	3030	81.6	-92
27	Jay Kubeil	7	4654	93.8	300
28	Andrew Sutton	420	3793	86.4	105
29	Andrew Taylor	342	3531	80.7	730
30	Peter Garrone	181	2379	—	—
31	Neil Hooke	20	374	—	—
32	Jason Carman	335	3712	—	—
33	Vic Hare	4464	1337	—	—
34	Magnus Ronningen	626	2265	—	—
35	Dean Bayly	86	2381	—	—
36	David Jackson	123	0	—	—
37	Mitch Butler	871	—	—	—
38	Mark Jeffree	353	—	—	—
39	Dustan Hansen	1101	—	—	—

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
Olav Opsanger	0:51	2404	90	11.1
Scott Barrett	1:14	2451	92	10.2
Hughbert Alexander	0:24	2050	69	11.4
Steve Docherty	0:44	2283	82	11.0
James Atkinson	0:36	2159	75	11.1
Adam Stevens	3:43	2335	86	11.6
Guy Hubbard	0:17	2234	80	11.0
Sam Prest	10:46	2195	77	10.9
Rohan Taylor	0:31	2513	96	9.6
Rohan Holtkamp	0:42	2328	85	10.0
Peter Burkitt	0:43	2267	82	10.5
Steve Blenkinsop	1:52	2449	92	10.2
Stuart Cathcart	10:13	2256	81	11.3
Peter Adriaans	9:45	2293	83	11.0
Ward Gunn	1:35	2583	100	11.4
Richard Martin	0:26	2516	96	10.1
Paul Bissett-Amess	0:30	2501	95	10.1
Jon Durand	0:05	2511	96	10.5
Neale Halsall	3:44	2437	92	0.0
Adrian Connor	6:40	2467	93	10.3
James Wynd	5:14	2516	96	1.2
Peter Tolhurst	2:11	2484	94	10.7
Corinna Schwiegersha	3:28	2339	86	11.3
Jason Lannstrom	8:33	1522	38	9.9
John Harriott	13:32	2291	83	10.2
Troy Horton	14:59	2346	86	10.0
Jay Kubeil	0:07	2344	86	10.1
Andrew Sutton	7:00	2284	83	10.3
Andrew Taylor	5:42	2366	87	11.6
Peter Garrone	3:01	2459	93	11.4
Neil Hooke	0:20	2048	69	11.4
Jason Carman	5:35	2540	98	11.8
Vic Hare	74:24	2580	100	0.0
Magnus Ronningen	10:26	2329	85	11.8
Dean Bayly	1:26	2338	86	10.1
David Jackson	2:03	2568	99	10.8
Mitch Butler	14:31	2321	85	10.0
Mark Jeffree	5:53	2328	85	12.0
Dustan Hansen	18:21	2200	78	17.0

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.

Scott Barrett against the winner, leg by leg: bars hanging below the line are time lost, bars above are time gained; over the 4 compared legs, +9:42 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→THOWGL	THOWGL→CUDG	CUDG→TINTAL	TINTAL→ESS	Total
Olav Opsanger	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00
Scott Barrett	+7:49	-5:15	+5:43	+1:25	+9:42
Hughbert Alexander	+1:42	+0:13	+6:54	+3:52	+12:41
Steve Docherty	+2:15	+11:17	-1:47	+1:17	+13:02
James Atkinson	+3:26	+4:32	+5:29	+3:24	+16:50
Adam Stevens	+1:15	+1:15	+14:02	+2:34	+19:06
Guy Hubbard	+1:35	+13:05	+2:39	+8:32	+25:52
Sam Prest	+1:51	+4:22	+7:19	+2:51	+16:23
Rohan Taylor	+9:20	-0:56	+18:33	+0:28	+27:25
Rohan Holtkamp	+2:15	+20:10	+4:30	+2:03	+28:58
Peter Burkitt	+8:24	+6:32	+1:59	+13:16	+30:10
Steve Blenkinsop	+7:45	+6:55	+17:17	+1:51	+33:47
Stuart Cathcart	+4:20	+5:43	+12:17	+5:01	+27:21
Peter Adriaans	+4:24	+8:09	+8:55	+6:37	+28:06
Ward Gunn	+30:20	-1:42	+7:37	+3:02	+39:17
Richard Martin	+12:55	+14:55	+5:20	+10:32	+43:42
Paul Bissett-Amess	+6:57	+22:14	+7:52	+8:03	+45:06
Jon Durand	+8:39	+6:59	-2:01	+33:24	+47:01
Neale Halsall	+3:27	+27:18	+4:36	+11:30	+46:51
Adrian Connor	+16:57	+15:34	+4:26	+12:02	+48:58
James Wynd	+4:50	+11:59	+25:34	+10:58	+53:22
Peter Tolhurst	+11:11	+11:54	+18:53	+14:36	+56:33
Corinna Schwiegersha	+5:58	+36:16	+8:13	+6:02	+56:29
Jason Lannstrom	+24:22	+5:34	+16:01	+9:28	+55:25
John Harriott	+3:15	+19:24	+35:44	+39:32	+97:55
Troy Horton	+5:34	+33:35	+18:26	+9:54	+67:29
Jay Kubeil	+3:59	+63:26	+23:33	+3:36	+94:34
Andrew Sutton	+22:07	+22:47	+20:40	+14:39	+80:13
Andrew Taylor	+5:52	+20:31	+15:58	+33:29	+75:50
Peter Garrone	+17:47	+1:34	+31:20	—	+50:42
Neil Hooke	+3:33	+10:42	—	—	+14:15
Jason Carman	+25:59	+43:54	—	—	+69:53
Vic Hare	+9:02	+21:16	—	—	+30:18
Magnus Ronningen	+12:59	+32:47	—	—	+45:46
Dean Bayly	+10:18	+37:24	—	—	+47:42
David Jackson	+3:02	—	—	—	+3:02

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	ELLIOT	THOWGL	CUDG	TINTAL	KHANCO	KHANCO
Olav Opsanger	0.8	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Scott Barrett	1.2	8.2	3.0	8.7	10.1	10.1
Hughbert Alexander	0.3	1.3	1.5	8.4	12.2	12.2
Steve Docherty	0.6	2.1	13.4	11.6	12.9	13.0
James Atkinson	0.5	3.2	7.7	13.2	16.6	16.9
Adam Stevens	3.6	4.1	5.4	19.4	22.0	22.0
Guy Hubbard	0.2	1.0	14.1	16.8	25.3	25.4
Sam Prest	10.7	11.8	16.1	23.4	26.3	26.4
Rohan Taylor	0.4	9.0	8.1	26.6	27.1	27.5
Rohan Holtkamp	0.6	2.1	22.3	26.8	28.8	28.7
Peter Burkitt	0.6	8.3	14.8	16.8	30.0	30.1
Steve Blenkinsop	1.8	8.8	15.7	33.0	34.8	34.8
Stuart Cathcart	10.1	13.7	19.4	31.7	36.7	37.0
Peter Adriaans	9.7	13.3	21.5	30.4	37.0	37.2
Ward Gunn	1.5	31.1	29.4	37.0	40.0	40.1
Richard Martin	0.3	12.5	27.4	32.7	43.3	43.4
Paul Bissett-Amess	0.4	6.6	28.8	36.7	44.8	44.6
Jon Durand	0.0	7.9	14.9	12.9	46.3	46.3
Neale Halsall	3.6	6.3	33.6	38.2	49.7	50.1
Adrian Connor	6.6	22.8	38.3	42.8	54.8	54.6
James Wynd	5.1	9.2	21.2	46.8	57.7	57.6
Peter Tolhurst	2.1	12.5	24.4	43.3	57.9	58.1
Corinna Schwiegersha	3.4	8.6	44.8	53.1	59.1	59.0
Jason Lannstrom	8.5	32.1	37.6	53.7	63.1	63.3
John Harriott	13.4	15.9	35.3	71.1	110.6	110.7
Troy Horton	14.9	19.7	53.3	71.7	81.6	82.1
Jay Kubeil	0.0	3.3	66.7	90.2	93.8	94.7
Andrew Sutton	6.9	28.3	51.1	71.7	86.4	86.7
Andrew Taylor	5.6	10.7	31.2	47.2	80.7	80.9
Peter Garrone	2.9	20.0	21.5	52.9	—	—
Neil Hooke	0.2	3.0	13.7	—	—	—
Jason Carman	5.5	30.7	74.6	—	—	—
Vic Hare	74.3	82.6	103.8	—	—	—
Magnus Ronningen	10.4	22.6	55.4	—	—	—
Dean Bayly	1.3	10.9	48.3	—	—	—
David Jackson	2.0	4.2	—	—	—	—
Mitch Butler	14.4	—	—	—	—	—
Mark Jeffree	5.8	—	—	—	—	—
Dustan Hansen	18.3	—	—	—	—	—

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

ESS altitude margin over final glide: top-10 median -75 m (n=10) vs rest median 159 m (n=19).

Footnotes

3 pilots in the standings but not in this analysis

Alexander Kot — scored from a manual flight report — no tracklog to analyse
Randall Clotworthy — scored from a manual flight report — no tracklog to analyse
Dustan Hansen — 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 2 (Open)

What the weather did

From the weather model

From the pilots' tracks

The day's thermals

Thermal at 14:27 AEDT — 12 pilots, 27 climbs

Which behaviours went with better results

Glide speed between climbs

Metrics with a clear pattern, plotted against rank

Glide speed between climbs

Glide L/D against the field median

Gliding wide of the optimal course line

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Arriving at ESS with height to spare

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Distance covered between climbs

How often leaving the gaggle paid off

Outcome checks

The whole field at a glance

Pilot style clusters

The metrics in detail

Day profile & windbest: could be chance (0.28)

Climbingbest: some pattern (0.50)

Glidingbest: clear pattern (0.79)

Glide speed between climbs

Decision-makingbest: clear pattern (0.58)

Gagglebest: clear pattern (0.62)

Race craftbest: clear pattern (0.58)

Footnotes

3 pilots 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 (0.28)

best: some pattern (0.50)

best: clear pattern (0.79)

best: clear pattern (0.58)

best: clear pattern (0.62)

best: clear pattern (0.58)