Task 3 (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: 47
Airtime: 94h (13:10–17:51 AEDT)
Thermals: 18447 shared by 2+ pilots
Working band: 786–1601 m
Airtime split: 31%climbing
16%gliding
53%searching

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 92 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
13:24 AEDT	8	800–1300 m	+0.8 m/s	N
13:27 AEDT	9	800–1700 m	+1.6 m/s	N
13:32 AEDT	12	900–1900 m	+1.8 m/s	N
13:34 AEDT	15	900–1700 m	+1.2 m/s	S
13:41 AEDT	9	800–1500 m	+1.4 m/s	SW
13:41 AEDT	19	800–1700 m	+1.3 m/s	N
13:54 AEDT	5	1200–1500 m	+1.1 m/s	NE
13:54 AEDT	21	800–1600 m	+1.1 m/s	NW
13:55 AEDT	22	800–1600 m	+1.3 m/s	N
13:55 AEDT	5	700–1500 m	+0.7 m/s	NW
13:59 AEDT	7	1100–1700 m	+1.1 m/s	SW
14:00 AEDT	8	1300–1600 m	+1.0 m/s	SE
14:06 AEDT	12	700–1500 m	+1.0 m/s	NW
14:09 AEDT	9	1100–1500 m	+0.9 m/s	S
14:09 AEDT	18	1000–1600 m	+1.2 m/s	NW
14:11 AEDT	5	900–1400 m	+0.9 m/s	NW
14:23 AEDT	11	900–1700 m	+1.0 m/s	SW
14:26 AEDT	6	700–1200 m	+1.2 m/s	W
14:27 AEDT	10	800–1600 m	+1.4 m/s	NW
14:28 AEDT	7	1000–1400 m	+1.1 m/s	N
14:29 AEDT	8	1000–1500 m	+1.1 m/s	NE
14:31 AEDT	6	900–1700 m	+0.9 m/s	S
14:34 AEDT	9	1000–1300 m	+0.8 m/s	SE
14:38 AEDT	8	1000–1500 m	+1.3 m/s	NE
14:38 AEDT	5	1100–1600 m	+1.0 m/s	W
14:38 AEDT	8	1100–1400 m	+1.1 m/s	NW
14:40 AEDT	6	700–1500 m	+1.4 m/s	SW
14:41 AEDT	11	1000–1400 m	+0.8 m/s	W
14:44 AEDT	11	900–1900 m	+1.2 m/s	SE
14:47 AEDT	8	900–1700 m	+1.4 m/s	S
14:53 AEDT	5	1000–1600 m	+1.6 m/s	E
14:53 AEDT	5	1000–1400 m	+1.0 m/s	SW
14:56 AEDT	5	300–1500 m	+1.5 m/s	NW
15:05 AEDT	5	1100–1500 m	+1.3 m/s	E
15:08 AEDT	6	1400–1800 m	+1.3 m/s	SW
15:14 AEDT	11	900–1900 m	+1.5 m/s	NW
15:15 AEDT	5	1000–2100 m	+2.0 m/s	E
15:24 AEDT	5	900–1900 m	+1.9 m/s	SE
15:27 AEDT	5	600–1100 m	+1.3 m/s	S
15:39 AEDT	5	1100–1700 m	+1.5 m/s	W

Thermal at 13:55 AEDT — 22 pilots, 59 climbs

Wind 13.1 km/h from 250° (WSW), measured from 216 circle estimates in the pilots' own tracks.
Model wind cross-check loading…
Leans 40° from vertical toward 84° (E), within 15° of downwind.
Strongest on the N side of the core at +1.7 m/s against +0.9 m/s on the S side.
Multiple cores in 1 of 8 bands between 1300 and 1400 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
Cedric Joyce	-2.0 m/s	+2.0 m/s	+3.8 m/s
Peter Burkitt	-4.0 m/s	+1.8 m/s	+4.8 m/s
Ken Millard	-1.3 m/s	+1.8 m/s	+5.0 m/s
David Drabble	-1.5 m/s	+1.8 m/s	+5.7 m/s
Vic Hare	-2.5 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+5.8 m/s
Olav Opsanger	-3.5 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+6.0 m/s
Pawel Cedro	-1.5 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+5.3 m/s
Rory Duncan	-1.5 m/s	+1.3 m/s	+3.3 m/s
Steve Docherty	-1.0 m/s	+1.3 m/s	+4.0 m/s
Steve Blenkinsop	-1.0 m/s	+1.3 m/s	+2.8 m/s
Guy Hubbard	-2.0 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.5 m/s
Jon Durand	-2.0 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.5 m/s
Mitch Butler	-1.5 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+4.3 m/s
Neale Halsall	-3.5 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.5 m/s
Tony Cross	-1.0 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+2.5 m/s
Scott Barrett	-1.5 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+4.8 m/s
Rich Reinauer	-3.0 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.8 m/s
Gordon Rigg	-0.8 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.5 m/s
Paul Bissett-Amess	-1.5 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+1.8 m/s
Brett Davis	-0.8 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+2.3 m/s
Andrew Sutton	-1.0 m/s	+0.8 m/s	+1.8 m/s
Nils Vesk	—	—	—

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
1500–1600 m	200 / 184	92 m	137 m	+1.3 m/s	+4.5 m/s	250	6	1
1400–1500 m	101 / 73	197 m	395 m	+1.3 m/s	+6.0 m/s	588	14	1
1300–1400 m	0 / 35	201 m	354 m	+1.2 m/s	+5.8 m/s	1125	19	3
1200–1300 m	-76 / 18	182 m	346 m	+1.4 m/s	+5.7 m/s	540	11	1
1100–1200 m	-196 / 64	101 m	273 m	+1.8 m/s	+4.3 m/s	157	4	1
1000–1100 m	-266 / 64	45 m	64 m	+2.4 m/s	+5.0 m/s	123	3	1
900–1000 m	-306 / 54	89 m	198 m	+1.4 m/s	+3.8 m/s	233	4	1
800–900 m	-364 / 97	73 m	131 m	+0.7 m/s	+2.3 m/s	80	4	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.

How often leaving the gaggle paid off

Label every pilot

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.65 (too few pilots, n = 6). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. There is no trend curve. Too few pilots have a value to fit one that means anything. 41 pilots have no value and are not plotted, including the #1, #2 and #3 ranked pilots.

Behaviour	Strength	What it means	Pilots measured
How often leaving the gaggle paid off		too few pilots
Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb		clear pattern
Glide L/D against the field median		clear pattern
Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band		clear pattern
Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb		clear pattern
How low the pilot gets between climbs		clear pattern
Time spent flying with a gaggle		some pattern
How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it		some pattern
Gliding wide of the optimal course line		could be chance
Share of the height gain made outside thermals		could be chance
Glide speed between climbs		could be chance
Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking		could be chance
How long after the gate opened the pilot started		could be chance
Time to core thermals		could be chance
Climbing faster than the pilots sharing the thermal		could be chance
Climb rate at thermal exit		could be chance
How round and consistent the circles were		could be chance
Climbs joined on another pilot's marker		could be chance
Distance covered between climbs		could be chance
Gliding faster when the next climb is stronger		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 20 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.

1 behaviour was measured on fewer than 8 pilots — too few to tell either way, so read those rows as a hint at most.

Metrics with a clear pattern, plotted against rank

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 = 0.65 (clear pattern, n = 46). 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 7 to about rank 43. 1 pilot has no value and is not plotted.

Speed-section phase shares, field p25/median/p75: climb 18/23/30% · glide 21/26/31% · search 40/50/58%

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 = -0.58 (clear pattern, n = 25). More is expected to be better here, and it was: top ranks gather to the right. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 24 to about rank 12. 22 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band

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.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.56 (clear pattern, n = 46). 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 25 to about rank 1. 1 pilot has no value and is not plotted.

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.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.54 (clear pattern, n = 40). 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 41 to about rank 6. 7 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

How low the pilot gets between climbs

Measured in percent · no expected direction

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

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.53 (clear pattern, n = 26). 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 27 to about rank 18. 21 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 lost against the fastest pilots, leg by leg		could be chance

The whole field at a glance

1. Nils Vesk

2. Rory Duncan

3. Tony Cross

4. Gordon Rigg

5. Jon Durand

6. Guy Hubbard

7. Vic Hare

8. Steve Docherty

9. Rich Reinauer

10. Ward Gunn

11. Rohan Holtkamp

12. Olav Opsanger

13. Ken Millard

14. Mitch Butler

15. Paul Bissett-Amess

16. Neale Halsall

17. Ian Miller

18. Pawel Cedro

19. Stuart Cathcart

20. Michael Free

21. Grant Tatham

22. John Harriott

23. Steve Blenkinsop

24. Neill Hollingsworth

25. Adrian Connor

26. Gary Herman

27. Todd Wisewould

28. Neil Hooke

29. Mark Jeffree

30. Jochen Zeischka

31. Andrew Sutton

32. Gavin Nicholls

33. Troy Horton

34. Bobby Gillham

35. Diego Mendonca

36. David Drabble

37. Cedric Joyce

38. Peter Garrone

39. Trent Brown

40. Brett Davis

41. Peter Burkitt

42. Enda Carrigan

43. Scott Barrett

44. Marty Hearne

45. Bruce Atkinson

46. Tushar Pokle

47. Wayne Johnston

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 — Escape artists

16 pilots · ranks 1–35 · median 12.5 · middle half 5.8–18.3

High — Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band group median P82 in this field (1.0 count)
Low — Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb group median P21 in this field (39 percent) · usually a strength
Low — Share of the height gain made outside thermals group median P22 in this field (16 percent)
High — How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it group median P70 in this field (50 percent)

1. Nils Vesk
3. Tony Cross
4. Gordon Rigg
5. Jon Durand
6. Guy Hubbard (most typical of this group)
9. Rich Reinauer
10. Ward Gunn
12. Olav Opsanger
13. Ken Millard
15. Paul Bissett-Amess
17. Ian Miller
18. Pawel Cedro
19. Stuart Cathcart
25. Adrian Connor
34. Bobby Gillham
35. Diego Mendonca

Group B — Lift keepers

15 pilots · ranks 2–44 · median 23 · middle half 15–34

High — Share of the flight spent in air that wasn’t sinking group median P83 in this field (65 percent)
Low — Time to core thermals group median P22 in this field (30 seconds) · usually a strength
Low — Climbing faster than the pilots sharing the thermal group median P24 in this field (62 percent) · usually costly
Low — How round and consistent the circles were group median P31 in this field (0.15 ratio) · usually a strength

2. Rory Duncan
7. Vic Hare
8. Steve Docherty
14. Mitch Butler
16. Neale Halsall
20. Michael Free
22. John Harriott
23. Steve Blenkinsop
27. Todd Wisewould
28. Neil Hooke
32. Gavin Nicholls
36. David Drabble
38. Peter Garrone (most typical of this group)
40. Brett Davis
44. Marty Hearne

Group C — Lone wolves

9 pilots · ranks 11–46 · median 29 · middle half 24–39

Low — Time spent flying with a gaggle group median P10 in this field (0 percent)
Low — Climbs joined on another pilot's marker group median P14 in this field (0 percent)
High — Climbing faster than the pilots sharing the thermal group median P84 in this field (76 percent) · usually a strength
High — How long after the gate opened the pilot started group median P84 in this field (6063 seconds) · usually costly

11. Rohan Holtkamp
21. Grant Tatham
24. Neill Hollingsworth
26. Gary Herman
29. Mark Jeffree
37. Cedric Joyce
39. Trent Brown
42. Enda Carrigan (most typical of this group)
46. Tushar Pokle

Not clustered: 30. Jochen Zeischka — only 11 of 20 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 31. Andrew Sutton — only 9 of 20 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 33. Troy Horton — only 10 of 20 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 41. Peter Burkitt — only 9 of 20 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 43. Scott Barrett — only 11 of 20 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 45. Bruce Atkinson — only 9 of 20 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 47. Wayne Johnston — only 1 of 20 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, 40 pilots on 20 behavioural metrics formed 3 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 (0.22)

#	Pilot	NonSink%
1	Nils Vesk	63
2	Rory Duncan	65
3	Tony Cross	63
4	Gordon Rigg	64
5	Jon Durand	64
6	Guy Hubbard	63
7	Vic Hare	63
8	Steve Docherty	66
9	Rich Reinauer	61
10	Ward Gunn	58
11	Rohan Holtkamp	49
12	Olav Opsanger	62
13	Ken Millard	61
14	Mitch Butler	64
15	Paul Bissett-Amess	65
16	Neale Halsall	65
17	Ian Miller	64
18	Pawel Cedro	60
19	Stuart Cathcart	63
20	Michael Free	68
21	Grant Tatham	63
22	John Harriott	69
23	Steve Blenkinsop	69
24	Neill Hollingsworth	57
25	Adrian Connor	61
26	Gary Herman	57
27	Todd Wisewould	62
28	Neil Hooke	65
29	Mark Jeffree	62
30	Jochen Zeischka	65
31	Andrew Sutton	65
32	Gavin Nicholls	63
33	Troy Horton	62
34	Bobby Gillham	62
35	Diego Mendonca	59
36	David Drabble	71
37	Cedric Joyce	60
38	Peter Garrone	67
39	Trent Brown	62
40	Brett Davis	67
41	Peter Burkitt	47
42	Enda Carrigan	53
43	Scott Barrett	59
44	Marty Hearne	64
45	Bruce Atkinson	52
46	Tushar Pokle	63
47	Wayne Johnston	24

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	3.6	184	6830
13:00 AEDT	1.6	226	903
14:00 AEDT	3.4	241	2659
15:00 AEDT	6.2	169	2267
16:00 AEDT	7.1	141	924
17:00 AEDT	3.4	93	77

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)→TOOMA	14:21–16:24 AEDT	25	14:27–16:24 AEDT	6.7	171	1231	25
TOOMA→PINEMT	14:47–16:45 AEDT	9	14:48–16:42 AEDT	8.6	148	578	9
PINEMT→HALFWY	16:12–17:42 AEDT	1	16:12–16:51 AEDT	3.6	114	3	1
HALFWY→TOWONG	—	0	—	—	—	0	0
TOWONG→CORRY (ESS)	—	0	—	—	—	0	0
CORRY (ESS)→CORRY (GOAL)	—	0	—	—	—	0	0

“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	0.9	1.6	221
14:00 AEDT	0.9	1.4	655
15:00 AEDT	1.0	1.7	607
16:00 AEDT	1.0	1.7	229
17:00 AEDT	0.9	1.3	25

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	13:10 AEDT
Median takeoff	14:02 AEDT
Latest takeoff	15:40 AEDT

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

best: clear pattern (0.54)

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	Nils Vesk	40 (18 shared climbs)	100 (23 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.1 (22 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (14/21 circling bouts led to climbs)	51 (mean on-course altitude 38% of band)	0.37 (22 circles, 86% left)
2	Rory Duncan	63 (25 shared climbs)	33 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	69 (18/26 circling bouts led to climbs)	27 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	0.15 (278 circles, 54% left)
3	Tony Cross	76 (55 shared climbs)	33 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	93 (14/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	63 (mean on-course altitude 55% of band)	0.18 (317 circles, 83% left)
4	Gordon Rigg	79 (28 shared climbs)	57 (25 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (16 climbs ≥ 90 s)	90 (18/20 circling bouts led to climbs)	44 (mean on-course altitude 53% of band)	0.18 (288 circles, 76% left)
5	Jon Durand	63 (69 shared climbs)	33 (25 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	85 (11/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	57 (mean on-course altitude 54% of band)	0.15 (306 circles, 58% left)
6	Guy Hubbard	67 (56 shared climbs)	43 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	69 (11/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	59 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	0.16 (291 circles, 71% left)
7	Vic Hare	66 (73 shared climbs)	6 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	64 (14/22 circling bouts led to climbs)	49 (mean on-course altitude 48% of band)	0.15 (357 circles, 72% left)
8	Steve Docherty	62 (64 shared climbs)	34 (21 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	68 (17/25 circling bouts led to climbs)	32 (mean on-course altitude 32% of band)	0.19 (242 circles, 75% left)
9	Rich Reinauer	67 (49 shared climbs)	32 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	75 (9/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	8 (mean on-course altitude 33% of band)	0.18 (176 circles, 86% left)
10	Ward Gunn	70 (19 shared climbs)	36 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (6/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	50 (mean on-course altitude 32% of band)	0.18 (136 circles, 32% left)
11	Rohan Holtkamp	75 (11 shared climbs)	23 (6 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	40 (2/5 circling bouts led to climbs)	23 (mean on-course altitude 43% of band)	0.19 (96 circles, 42% left)
12	Olav Opsanger	74 (41 shared climbs)	32 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	89 (8/9 circling bouts led to climbs)	54 (mean on-course altitude 43% of band)	0.14 (267 circles, 51% left)
13	Ken Millard	67 (73 shared climbs)	33 (9 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (10/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	34 (mean on-course altitude 24% of band)	0.20 (230 circles, 44% left)
14	Mitch Butler	59 (59 shared climbs)	20 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (7 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (12/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	36 (mean on-course altitude 48% of band)	0.17 (302 circles, 88% left)
15	Paul Bissett-Amess	60 (50 shared climbs)	38 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	70 (7/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	26 (mean on-course altitude 25% of band)	0.19 (185 circles, 72% left)
16	Neale Halsall	63 (54 shared climbs)	25 (10 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (4/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	62 (mean on-course altitude 36% of band)	0.16 (186 circles, 78% left)
17	Ian Miller	67 (26 shared climbs)	35 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (4/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	64 (mean on-course altitude 44% of band)	0.14 (132 circles, 90% left)
18	Pawel Cedro	76 (42 shared climbs)	36 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (7 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (2/4 circling bouts led to climbs)	5 (mean on-course altitude 16% of band)	0.19 (125 circles, 64% left)
19	Stuart Cathcart	60 (26 shared climbs)	50 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (17 climbs ≥ 90 s)	53 (10/19 circling bouts led to climbs)	52 (mean on-course altitude 27% of band)	0.21 (72 circles, 100% left)
20	Michael Free	57 (22 shared climbs)	25 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (5/9 circling bouts led to climbs)	9 (mean on-course altitude 8% of band)	0.11 (161 circles, 34% left)
21	Grant Tatham	72 (20 shared climbs)	42 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	58 (7/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	25 (mean on-course altitude 20% of band)	0.19 (137 circles, 89% left)
22	John Harriott	62 (32 shared climbs)	33 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	60 (3/5 circling bouts led to climbs)	20 (mean on-course altitude 24% of band)	0.15 (129 circles, 45% left)
23	Steve Blenkinsop	56 (31 shared climbs)	30 (10 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (2/3 circling bouts led to climbs)	14 (mean on-course altitude 1% of band)	0.13 (239 circles, 73% left)
24	Neill Hollingsworth	86 (7 shared climbs)	19 (6 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (3/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	29 (mean on-course altitude 20% of band)	0.26 (68 circles, 66% left)
25	Adrian Connor	75 (17 shared climbs)	49 (8 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	80 (8/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	33 (mean on-course altitude 30% of band)	0.16 (92 circles, 34% left)
26	Gary Herman	72 (19 shared climbs)	20 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	43 (3/7 circling bouts led to climbs)	31 (mean on-course altitude 39% of band)	0.19 (80 circles, 43% left)
27	Todd Wisewould	57 (43 shared climbs)	6 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	40 (2/5 circling bouts led to climbs)	62 (mean on-course altitude 34% of band)	0.17 (152 circles, 94% left)
28	Neil Hooke	55 (31 shared climbs)	32 (5 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	50 (3/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	101 (mean on-course altitude 67% of band)	0.13 (116 circles, 84% left)
29	Mark Jeffree	76 (8 shared climbs)	54 (3 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (4/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	0 (mean on-course altitude 20% of band)	0.14 (76 circles, 84% left)
30	Jochen Zeischka	68 (26 shared climbs)	40 (6 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	—	-27 (mean on-course altitude -22% of band)	0.20 (127 circles, 67% left)
31	Andrew Sutton	66 (13 shared climbs)	41 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	—	—	0.15 (90 circles, 92% left)
32	Gavin Nicholls	63 (25 shared climbs)	103 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	38 (3/8 circling bouts led to climbs)	15 (mean on-course altitude 13% of band)	0.16 (125 circles, 75% left)
33	Troy Horton	74 (15 shared climbs)	33 (5 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	0 (0/3 circling bouts led to climbs)	—	0.16 (79 circles, 99% left)
34	Bobby Gillham	41 (14 shared climbs)	50 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.4 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	20 (1/5 circling bouts led to climbs)	—	0.29 (14 circles, 86% left)
35	Diego Mendonca	70 (15 shared climbs)	36 (8 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	57 (4/7 circling bouts led to climbs)	30 (mean on-course altitude 39% of band)	0.20 (75 circles, 95% left)
36	David Drabble	62 (14 shared climbs)	33 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	25 (1/4 circling bouts led to climbs)	8 (mean on-course altitude 3% of band)	0.16 (149 circles, 100% left)
37	Cedric Joyce	82 (22 shared climbs)	33 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (5/7 circling bouts led to climbs)	13 (mean on-course altitude 8% of band)	0.18 (118 circles, 98% left)
38	Peter Garrone	44 (32 shared climbs)	24 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	25 (1/4 circling bouts led to climbs)	56 (mean on-course altitude 26% of band)	0.14 (81 circles, 88% left)
39	Trent Brown	74 (32 shared climbs)	36 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	33 (1/3 circling bouts led to climbs)	9 (mean on-course altitude -9% of band)	0.13 (144 circles, 100% left)
40	Brett Davis	61 (28 shared climbs)	20 (6 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	17 (1/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	109 (mean on-course altitude 26% of band)	0.14 (168 circles, 100% left)
41	Peter Burkitt	84 (6 shared climbs)	80 (2 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (1 climb ≥ 90 s)	—	—	0.16 (32 circles, 100% left)
42	Enda Carrigan	82 (5 shared climbs)	69 (2 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (1 climb ≥ 90 s)	—	19 (mean on-course altitude 4% of band)	0.19 (44 circles, 98% left)
43	Scott Barrett	67 (27 shared climbs)	33 (3 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (1 climb ≥ 90 s)	—	-48 (mean on-course altitude -48% of band)	0.17 (93 circles, 100% left)
44	Marty Hearne	72 (17 shared climbs)	34 (5 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (2 climbs ≥ 90 s)	57 (4/7 circling bouts led to climbs)	29 (mean on-course altitude 28% of band)	0.17 (111 circles, 100% left)
45	Bruce Atkinson	70 (6 shared climbs)	45 (4 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	—	—	0.23 (14 circles, 100% left)
46	Tushar Pokle	77 (19 shared climbs)	58 (8 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (4 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (5/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	17 (mean on-course altitude 25% of band)	0.12 (107 circles, 95% left)
47	Wayne Johnston	—	—	—	—	—	— (1 circles, 100% left)

Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb

Measured in percent · no expected direction

Acceptance by hour

Hour	Median accepted (%)	pilots
14:00 AEDT	63	20
15:00 AEDT	67	39
16:00 AEDT	50	25
17:00 AEDT	40	7

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: 74% left (6830 circles).

best: clear pattern (0.58)

#	Pilot	GlideSpd	GlideL/D	SpeedToFly	Wide%	Dolphin%
1	Nils Vesk	50.7 (10 glides, 79 min gliding)	1.04 (3 legs compared)	0.3 (9 glide→climb pairs)	31 (3 legs completed)	6 (314 of 5384 m gained outside thermals)
2	Rory Duncan	48.6 (32 glides, 106 min gliding)	0.94 (2 legs compared)	3.0 (31 glide→climb pairs)	28 (2 legs completed)	20 (1157 of 5778 m gained outside thermals)
3	Tony Cross	52.7 (23 glides, 89 min gliding)	1.03 (2 legs compared)	5.1 (22 glide→climb pairs)	37 (2 legs completed)	17 (832 of 4856 m gained outside thermals)
4	Gordon Rigg	57.7 (34 glides, 87 min gliding)	1.04 (2 legs compared)	-0.8 (34 glide→climb pairs)	60 (2 legs completed)	15 (1083 of 7333 m gained outside thermals)
5	Jon Durand	59.2 (23 glides, 78 min gliding)	1.03 (2 legs compared)	-1.2 (22 glide→climb pairs)	31 (2 legs completed)	20 (900 of 4608 m gained outside thermals)
6	Guy Hubbard	60.3 (17 glides, 66 min gliding)	1.06 (2 legs compared)	-3.9 (16 glide→climb pairs)	33 (2 legs completed)	18 (735 of 4146 m gained outside thermals)
7	Vic Hare	63.2 (33 glides, 104 min gliding)	1.07 (2 legs compared)	2.1 (32 glide→climb pairs)	85 (2 legs completed)	27 (1628 of 5974 m gained outside thermals)
8	Steve Docherty	49.9 (25 glides, 81 min gliding)	1.07 (2 legs compared)	1.3 (24 glide→climb pairs)	79 (2 legs completed)	26 (1008 of 3809 m gained outside thermals)
9	Rich Reinauer	57.2 (18 glides, 57 min gliding)	1.19 (2 legs compared)	0.0 (17 glide→climb pairs)	51 (2 legs completed)	16 (526 of 3274 m gained outside thermals)
10	Ward Gunn	63.3 (12 glides, 57 min gliding)	1.02 (1 leg compared)	-1.5 (11 glide→climb pairs)	26 (1 leg completed)	17 (480 of 2855 m gained outside thermals)
11	Rohan Holtkamp	54.3 (4 glides, 33 min gliding)	1.16 (1 leg compared)	—	2 (1 leg completed)	17 (179 of 1051 m gained outside thermals)
12	Olav Opsanger	57.5 (13 glides, 52 min gliding)	0.99 (1 leg compared)	2.9 (12 glide→climb pairs)	90 (1 leg completed)	17 (487 of 2830 m gained outside thermals)
13	Ken Millard	58.1 (38 glides, 73 min gliding)	1.09 (1 leg compared)	-1.8 (37 glide→climb pairs)	120 (1 leg completed)	51 (3844 of 7532 m gained outside thermals)
14	Mitch Butler	57.7 (23 glides, 85 min gliding)	0.97 (1 leg compared)	0.3 (22 glide→climb pairs)	201 (1 leg completed)	23 (1070 of 4617 m gained outside thermals)
15	Paul Bissett-Amess	57.5 (11 glides, 43 min gliding)	1.05 (1 leg compared)	2.9 (10 glide→climb pairs)	72 (1 leg completed)	17 (321 of 1905 m gained outside thermals)
16	Neale Halsall	60.7 (7 glides, 31 min gliding)	1.15 (1 leg compared)	7.1 (6 glide→climb pairs)	23 (1 leg completed)	26 (269 of 1039 m gained outside thermals)
17	Ian Miller	54.6 (8 glides, 35 min gliding)	1.00 (1 leg compared)	3.3 (7 glide→climb pairs)	73 (1 leg completed)	18 (377 of 2078 m gained outside thermals)
18	Pawel Cedro	61.0 (3 glides, 15 min gliding)	0.94 (1 leg compared)	—	27 (1 leg completed)	13 (115 of 907 m gained outside thermals)
19	Stuart Cathcart	47.5 (12 glides, 51 min gliding)	0.92 (1 leg compared)	-5.8 (11 glide→climb pairs)	102 (1 leg completed)	11 (274 of 2438 m gained outside thermals)
20	Michael Free	54.0 (14 glides, 36 min gliding)	0.78 (1 leg compared)	0.0 (13 glide→climb pairs)	5 (1 leg completed)	35 (492 of 1391 m gained outside thermals)
21	Grant Tatham	49.7 (14 glides, 36 min gliding)	0.89 (1 leg compared)	-2.8 (13 glide→climb pairs)	7 (1 leg completed)	27 (557 of 2064 m gained outside thermals)
22	John Harriott	54.4 (10 glides, 34 min gliding)	0.89 (1 leg compared)	-0.8 (9 glide→climb pairs)	49 (1 leg completed)	42 (407 of 972 m gained outside thermals)
23	Steve Blenkinsop	56.0 (4 glides, 17 min gliding)	—	—	—	24 (146 of 598 m gained outside thermals)
24	Neill Hollingsworth	51.9 (4 glides, 20 min gliding)	0.73 (1 leg compared)	—	23 (1 leg completed)	31 (250 of 817 m gained outside thermals)
25	Adrian Connor	48.4 (11 glides, 38 min gliding)	0.83 (1 leg compared)	2.4 (10 glide→climb pairs)	25 (1 leg completed)	16 (265 of 1662 m gained outside thermals)
26	Gary Herman	57.4 (7 glides, 28 min gliding)	1.00 (1 leg compared)	9.7 (6 glide→climb pairs)	10 (1 leg completed)	24 (214 of 903 m gained outside thermals)
27	Todd Wisewould	63.6 (2 glides, 19 min gliding)	—	—	—	32 (181 of 566 m gained outside thermals)
28	Neil Hooke	58.5 (4 glides, 21 min gliding)	—	—	—	17 (100 of 578 m gained outside thermals)
29	Mark Jeffree	49.4 (8 glides, 31 min gliding)	—	2.6 (7 glide→climb pairs)	—	42 (279 of 673 m gained outside thermals)
30	Jochen Zeischka	55.2 (1 glides, 12 min gliding)	—	—	—	—
31	Andrew Sutton	—	—	—	—	—
32	Gavin Nicholls	57.0 (5 glides, 21 min gliding)	—	0.0 (4 glide→climb pairs)	—	30 (226 of 740 m gained outside thermals)
33	Troy Horton	—	—	—	—	—
34	Bobby Gillham	55.2 (1 glides, 18 min gliding)	—	—	—	1 (5 of 523 m gained outside thermals)
35	Diego Mendonca	61.6 (7 glides, 27 min gliding)	—	-4.8 (6 glide→climb pairs)	—	14 (211 of 1554 m gained outside thermals)
36	David Drabble	60.9 (3 glides, 12 min gliding)	—	—	—	47 (194 of 415 m gained outside thermals)
37	Cedric Joyce	46.8 (6 glides, 20 min gliding)	—	1.0 (5 glide→climb pairs)	—	24 (113 of 472 m gained outside thermals)
38	Peter Garrone	54.3 (4 glides, 17 min gliding)	—	—	—	20 (92 of 450 m gained outside thermals)
39	Trent Brown	54.5 (2 glides, 15 min gliding)	—	—	—	26 (138 of 522 m gained outside thermals)
40	Brett Davis	52.2 (1 glides, 19 min gliding)	—	—	—	3 (17 of 507 m gained outside thermals)
41	Peter Burkitt	—	—	—	—	—
42	Enda Carrigan	52.9 (2 glides, 11 min gliding)	—	—	—	—
43	Scott Barrett	51.8 (1 glides, 3 min gliding)	—	—	—	—
44	Marty Hearne	49.6 (6 glides, 22 min gliding)	—	4.5 (5 glide→climb pairs)	—	31 (290 of 939 m gained outside thermals)
45	Bruce Atkinson	—	—	—	—	—
46	Tushar Pokle	44.0 (5 glides, 19 min gliding)	—	1.2 (4 glide→climb pairs)	—	35 (140 of 396 m gained outside thermals)
47	Wayne Johnston	—	—	—	—	—

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 54.9 km/h · p90 61.0 km/h (42 pilots)

best: clear pattern (0.65)

#	Pilot	Floor%	LowSaves	km/climb	Search%
1	Nils Vesk	16 (8 descents, lowest -16% of band)	4.0 (deepest save from -35% of band)	4.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 30%)	20
2	Rory Duncan	14 (14 descents, lowest -32% of band)	0.0	1.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 53%)	45
3	Tony Cross	18 (11 descents, lowest -17% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -7% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 54%)	36
4	Gordon Rigg	20 (15 descents, lowest -50% of band)	3.0 (deepest save from -50% of band)	0.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 62%)	40
5	Jon Durand	9 (6 descents, lowest -2% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 4% of band)	1.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	31
6	Guy Hubbard	27 (8 descents, lowest -49% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -23% of band)	1.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 45%)	35
7	Vic Hare	14 (10 descents, lowest -10% of band)	0.0	0.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	48
8	Steve Docherty	23 (10 descents, lowest -30% of band)	0.0	0.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	45
9	Rich Reinauer	-0 (9 descents, lowest -24% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 11% of band)	1.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	42
10	Ward Gunn	-4 (5 descents, lowest -45% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -30% of band)	1.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 56%)	49
11	Rohan Holtkamp	—	0.0	6.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 59%)	34
12	Olav Opsanger	26 (7 descents, lowest -18% of band)	0.0	1.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 58%)	34
13	Ken Millard	7 (13 descents, lowest -24% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -26% of band)	0.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 58%)	53
14	Mitch Butler	23 (8 descents, lowest -3% of band)	0.0	0.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	47
15	Paul Bissett-Amess	-8 (5 descents, lowest -19% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 7% of band)	1.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 44%)	37
16	Neale Halsall	23 (3 descents, lowest -36% of band)	0.0	2.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 47%)	52
17	Ian Miller	56 (3 descents, lowest 11% of band)	0.0	1.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	39
18	Pawel Cedro	—	1.0 (deepest save from -18% of band)	5.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 62%)	32
19	Stuart Cathcart	29 (5 descents, lowest -36% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -20% of band)	1.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 42%)	40
20	Michael Free	-11 (3 descents, lowest -27% of band)	0.0	1.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 34%)	63
21	Grant Tatham	-4 (4 descents, lowest -24% of band)	0.0	0.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 56%)	53
22	John Harriott	-26 (3 descents, lowest -48% of band)	0.0	1.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	58
23	Steve Blenkinsop	—	0.0	—	46
24	Neill Hollingsworth	-11 (2 descents, lowest -14% of band)	0.0	2.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 76%)	56
25	Adrian Connor	-12 (3 descents, lowest -18% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -13% of band)	—	38
26	Gary Herman	7 (3 descents, lowest -47% of band)	0.0	—	52
27	Todd Wisewould	—	0.0	—	53
28	Neil Hooke	—	0.0	—	50
29	Mark Jeffree	-14 (3 descents, lowest -37% of band)	0.0	—	59
30	Jochen Zeischka	—	0.0	—	66
31	Andrew Sutton	—	0.0	—	54
32	Gavin Nicholls	—	1.0 (deepest save from 4% of band)	—	73
33	Troy Horton	—	0.0	—	49
34	Bobby Gillham	—	0.0	—	50
35	Diego Mendonca	—	0.0	—	46
36	David Drabble	—	0.0	—	73
37	Cedric Joyce	-7 (4 descents, lowest -32% of band)	0.0	—	65
38	Peter Garrone	—	0.0	—	58
39	Trent Brown	—	0.0	—	50
40	Brett Davis	—	0.0	—	56
41	Peter Burkitt	—	0.0	—	81
42	Enda Carrigan	—	0.0	—	75
43	Scott Barrett	—	0.0	—	57
44	Marty Hearne	-2 (2 descents, lowest -15% of band)	0.0	—	75
45	Bruce Atkinson	—	0.0	—	17
46	Tushar Pokle	—	0.0	—	71
47	Wayne Johnston	—	—	—	—

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 18/23/30% · glide 21/26/31% · search 40/50/58%

best: too few pilots (0.65)

#	Pilot	InGaggle%	Marked%	LeaveWin%
1	Nils Vesk	23	25 (4/16 climbs marked)	—
2	Rory Duncan	5	0 (0/52 climbs marked)	—
3	Tony Cross	46	30 (11/37 climbs marked)	—
4	Gordon Rigg	5	2 (1/61 climbs marked)	—
5	Jon Durand	74	27 (11/41 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
6	Guy Hubbard	12	26 (9/34 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
7	Vic Hare	26	19 (13/68 climbs marked)	—
8	Steve Docherty	46	27 (12/44 climbs marked)	—
9	Rich Reinauer	16	20 (5/25 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
10	Ward Gunn	15	13 (3/23 climbs marked)	—
11	Rohan Holtkamp	23	0 (0/5 climbs marked)	—
12	Olav Opsanger	38	18 (4/22 climbs marked)	—
13	Ken Millard	51	42 (25/59 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
14	Mitch Butler	53	16 (7/44 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
15	Paul Bissett-Amess	18	39 (7/18 climbs marked)	—
16	Neale Halsall	35	22 (2/9 climbs marked)	—
17	Ian Miller	50	30 (6/20 climbs marked)	—
18	Pawel Cedro	14	0 (0/4 climbs marked)	—
19	Stuart Cathcart	54	13 (2/16 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
20	Michael Free	30	0 (0/19 climbs marked)	—
21	Grant Tatham	13	15 (4/26 climbs marked)	—
22	John Harriott	66	33 (5/15 climbs marked)	—
23	Steve Blenkinsop	0	9 (1/11 climbs marked)	—
24	Neill Hollingsworth	0	0 (0/9 climbs marked)	—
25	Adrian Connor	26	18 (3/17 climbs marked)	—
26	Gary Herman	36	20 (2/10 climbs marked)	—
27	Todd Wisewould	47	50 (3/6 climbs marked)	—
28	Neil Hooke	26	25 (1/4 climbs marked)	—
29	Mark Jeffree	0	0 (0/13 climbs marked)	—
30	Jochen Zeischka	5	—	—
31	Andrew Sutton	76	—	—
32	Gavin Nicholls	52	38 (3/8 climbs marked)	—
33	Troy Horton	31	—	—
34	Bobby Gillham	6	—	—
35	Diego Mendonca	28	50 (6/12 climbs marked)	—
36	David Drabble	17	0 (0/6 climbs marked)	—
37	Cedric Joyce	0	0 (0/7 climbs marked)	—
38	Peter Garrone	18	40 (2/5 climbs marked)	—
39	Trent Brown	0	0 (0/7 climbs marked)	—
40	Brett Davis	23	—	—
41	Peter Burkitt	0	—	—
42	Enda Carrigan	0	0 (0/3 climbs marked)	—
43	Scott Barrett	0	—	—
44	Marty Hearne	20	30 (3/10 climbs marked)	—
45	Bruce Atkinson	0	—	—
46	Tushar Pokle	0	0 (0/6 climbs marked)	—
47	Wayne Johnston	—	—	—

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 5 pilots).

best: could be chance (0.19)

#	Pilot	StartDly	TimeLost
1	Nils Vesk	3702	0
2	Rory Duncan	2266	139
3	Tony Cross	4216	577
4	Gordon Rigg	2207	1064
5	Jon Durand	5477	0
6	Guy Hubbard	4813	23
7	Vic Hare	3082	1598
8	Steve Docherty	3941	1535
9	Rich Reinauer	3873	0
10	Ward Gunn	5993	0
11	Rohan Holtkamp	7958	0
12	Olav Opsanger	4817	252
13	Ken Millard	3606	1813
14	Mitch Butler	2759	2975
15	Paul Bissett-Amess	4692	422
16	Neale Halsall	6578	0
17	Ian Miller	4601	966
18	Pawel Cedro	5160	0
19	Stuart Cathcart	4844	1370
20	Michael Free	3512	450
21	Grant Tatham	4668	0
22	John Harriott	5567	286
23	Steve Blenkinsop	2471	—
24	Neill Hollingsworth	7623	0
25	Adrian Connor	5900	86
26	Gary Herman	6576	0
27	Todd Wisewould	6587	—
28	Neil Hooke	5385	—
29	Mark Jeffree	7149	—
30	Jochen Zeischka	3684	—
31	Andrew Sutton	4033	—
32	Gavin Nicholls	3922	—
33	Troy Horton	4024	—
34	Bobby Gillham	5811	—
35	Diego Mendonca	4698	—
36	David Drabble	4306	—
37	Cedric Joyce	2236	—
38	Peter Garrone	4816	—
39	Trent Brown	5441	—
40	Brett Davis	5971	—
41	Peter Burkitt	2070	—
42	Enda Carrigan	3529	—
43	Scott Barrett	3244	—
44	Marty Hearne	5921	—
45	Bruce Atkinson	8139	—
46	Tushar Pokle	6063	—
47	Wayne Johnston	—	—

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
Nils Vesk	61:42	1288	62	12.7
Rory Duncan	37:46	1337	68	2.1
Tony Cross	70:16	1192	50	13.3
Gordon Rigg	36:47	1451	82	1.7
Jon Durand	91:17	1143	44	11.2
Guy Hubbard	80:13	1342	68	10.7
Vic Hare	51:22	1214	53	7.8
Steve Docherty	65:41	1334	67	13.5
Rich Reinauer	64:33	1317	65	13.5
Ward Gunn	99:53	1435	80	13.4
Rohan Holtkamp	132:38	1867	133	14.2
Olav Opsanger	80:17	1373	72	11.2
Ken Millard	60:06	1099	38	11.8
Mitch Butler	45:59	1077	36	6.2
Paul Bissett-Amess	78:12	1302	63	11.3
Neale Halsall	109:38	1347	69	13.3
Ian Miller	76:41	658	-16	12.6
Pawel Cedro	86:00	1454	82	10.6
Stuart Cathcart	80:44	1222	54	10.7
Michael Free	58:32	996	26	11.1
Grant Tatham	77:48	1308	64	11.5
John Harriott	92:47	1526	91	11.4
Steve Blenkinsop	41:11	1241	56	5.6
Neill Hollingsworth	127:03	1636	104	14.0
Adrian Connor	98:20	1430	79	13.5
Gary Herman	109:36	1558	95	13.2
Todd Wisewould	109:47	1345	69	13.1
Neil Hooke	89:45	1308	64	10.8
Mark Jeffree	119:09	1578	97	13.1
Jochen Zeischka	61:24	1197	50	12.5
Andrew Sutton	67:13	1344	68	13.4
Gavin Nicholls	65:22	1328	67	13.6
Troy Horton	67:04	1368	71	13.5
Bobby Gillham	96:51	1278	60	12.9
Diego Mendonca	78:18	1221	53	11.2
David Drabble	71:46	1197	50	13.2
Cedric Joyce	37:16	1299	63	2.1
Peter Garrone	80:16	1247	57	10.6
Trent Brown	90:41	946	20	12.0
Brett Davis	99:31	1183	49	13.4
Peter Burkitt	34:30	1156	45	0.0
Enda Carrigan	58:49	1271	59	11.0
Scott Barrett	54:04	507	-34	14.9
Marty Hearne	98:41	934	18	13.5
Bruce Atkinson	135:39	1571	96	14.7
Tushar Pokle	101:03	1567	96	15.9

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.

Rory Duncan against the winner, leg by leg: bars hanging below the line are time lost, bars above are time gained; over the 2 compared legs, -9:07 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→TOOMA	TOOMA→PINEMT	PINEMT→HALFWY	HALFWY→TOWONG	TOWONG→ESS	Total
Nils Vesk	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	—	—	+0:00
Rory Duncan	-11:40	+2:33	—	—	—	-9:07
Tony Cross	+12:33	-7:48	—	—	—	+4:44
Gordon Rigg	-0:03	+17:57	—	—	—	+17:55
Jon Durand	+2:09	-20:55	—	—	—	-18:47
Guy Hubbard	-10:49	+0:37	—	—	—	-10:12
Vic Hare	+21:10	+8:37	—	—	—	+29:47
Steve Docherty	+19:00	+9:44	—	—	—	+28:44
Rich Reinauer	-3:56	-8:41	—	—	—	-12:37
Ward Gunn	+0:51	—	—	—	—	+0:51
Rohan Holtkamp	-21:33	—	—	—	—	-21:33
Olav Opsanger	+7:07	—	—	—	—	+7:07
Ken Millard	+33:09	—	—	—	—	+33:09
Mitch Butler	+52:31	—	—	—	—	+52:31
Paul Bissett-Amess	+9:57	—	—	—	—	+9:57
Neale Halsall	-6:11	—	—	—	—	-6:11
Ian Miller	+19:02	—	—	—	—	+19:02
Pawel Cedro	-10:37	—	—	—	—	-10:37
Stuart Cathcart	+25:45	—	—	—	—	+25:45
Michael Free	+10:25	—	—	—	—	+10:25
Grant Tatham	-4:24	—	—	—	—	-4:24
John Harriott	+7:41	—	—	—	—	+7:41
Neill Hollingsworth	-3:57	—	—	—	—	-3:57
Adrian Connor	+4:22	—	—	—	—	+4:22
Gary Herman	-14:54	—	—	—	—	-14:54

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	TOOMA	PINEMT	HALFWY	TOWONG	CORRY	CORRY
Nils Vesk	27.2	35.6	33.0	0.0	—	—	—
Rory Duncan	3.3	0.0	0.0	—	—	—	—
Tony Cross	35.8	56.7	46.3	—	—	—	—
Gordon Rigg	2.3	10.6	26.0	—	—	—	—
Jon Durand	56.8	67.3	43.8	—	—	—	—
Guy Hubbard	45.7	43.3	41.3	—	—	—	—
Vic Hare	16.9	46.4	52.5	—	—	—	—
Steve Docherty	31.2	58.6	65.8	—	—	—	—
Rich Reinauer	30.0	34.5	23.3	—	—	—	—
Ward Gunn	65.4	74.6	—	—	—	—	—
Rohan Holtkamp	98.1	85.0	—	—	—	—	—
Olav Opsanger	45.8	61.3	—	—	—	—	—
Ken Millard	25.6	67.1	—	—	—	—	—
Mitch Butler	11.5	72.4	—	—	—	—	—
Paul Bissett-Amess	43.7	62.0	—	—	—	—	—
Neale Halsall	75.1	77.3	—	—	—	—	—
Ian Miller	42.2	69.6	—	—	—	—	—
Pawel Cedro	51.5	49.3	—	—	—	—	—
Stuart Cathcart	46.2	80.4	—	—	—	—	—
Michael Free	24.0	42.9	—	—	—	—	—
Grant Tatham	43.3	47.3	—	—	—	—	—
John Harriott	58.3	74.4	—	—	—	—	—
Steve Blenkinsop	6.7	—	—	—	—	—	—
Neill Hollingsworth	92.5	97.0	—	—	—	—	—
Adrian Connor	63.8	76.6	—	—	—	—	—
Gary Herman	75.1	68.6	—	—	—	—	—
Todd Wisewould	75.3	—	—	—	—	—	—
Neil Hooke	55.3	—	—	—	—	—	—
Mark Jeffree	84.7	—	—	—	—	—	—
Jochen Zeischka	26.9	—	—	—	—	—	—
Andrew Sutton	32.7	—	—	—	—	—	—
Gavin Nicholls	30.9	—	—	—	—	—	—
Troy Horton	32.6	—	—	—	—	—	—
Bobby Gillham	62.4	—	—	—	—	—	—
Diego Mendonca	43.8	—	—	—	—	—	—
David Drabble	37.3	—	—	—	—	—	—
Cedric Joyce	2.8	—	—	—	—	—	—
Peter Garrone	45.8	—	—	—	—	—	—
Trent Brown	56.2	—	—	—	—	—	—
Brett Davis	65.0	—	—	—	—	—	—
Peter Burkitt	0.0	—	—	—	—	—	—
Enda Carrigan	24.3	—	—	—	—	—	—
Scott Barrett	19.6	—	—	—	—	—	—
Marty Hearne	64.2	—	—	—	—	—	—
Bruce Atkinson	101.2	—	—	—	—	—	—
Tushar Pokle	66.5	—	—	—	—	—	—

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.

Footnotes

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 3 (Open)

What the weather did

From the weather model

From the pilots' tracks

The day's thermals

Thermal at 13:55 AEDT — 22 pilots, 59 climbs

Which behaviours went with better results

How often leaving the gaggle paid off

Metrics with a clear pattern, plotted against rank

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Glide L/D against the field median

Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band

Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb

How low the pilot gets between climbs

Outcome checks

The whole field at a glance

Pilot style clusters

The metrics in detail

Day profile & windbest: could be chance (0.22)

Climbingbest: clear pattern (0.54)

Glidingbest: clear pattern (0.58)

Glide speed between climbs

Decision-makingbest: clear pattern (0.65)

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Gagglebest: too few pilots (0.65)

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Race craftbest: could be chance (0.19)

Footnotes

How the field is compared

Metric glossary

Day profile & wind

Climbing

Gliding

Decision-making

Gaggle

Race craft

best: could be chance (0.22)

best: clear pattern (0.54)

best: clear pattern (0.58)

best: clear pattern (0.65)

best: too few pilots (0.65)

best: could be chance (0.19)