Task 4 (Open)

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

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

Analysis computed

Pilots: 33
Airtime: 76h (13:16–18:07 AEDT)
Thermals: 24671 shared by 2+ pilots
Working band: 924–2577 m
Airtime split: 42%climbing
29%gliding
29%searching

2 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 111 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
13:37 AEDT	6	600–1200 m	+1.2 m/s	NW
13:47 AEDT	4	900–2400 m	+2.1 m/s	NE
13:54 AEDT	4	800–2300 m	+1.9 m/s	NE
13:56 AEDT	6	1100–2600 m	+2.8 m/s	E
13:57 AEDT	5	1800–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	W
13:59 AEDT	8	1400–2600 m	+1.7 m/s	NE
13:59 AEDT	4	2000–2600 m	+1.4 m/s	NE
14:00 AEDT	4	800–2300 m	+1.8 m/s	E
14:13 AEDT	5	2300–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	N
14:17 AEDT	4	2100–2500 m	+1.3 m/s	N
14:18 AEDT	4	1100–2500 m	+2.3 m/s	E
14:25 AEDT	5	1600–2300 m	+1.6 m/s	NW
14:29 AEDT	6	2300–2600 m	+1.2 m/s	N
14:31 AEDT	9	800–2600 m	+2.7 m/s	SE
14:33 AEDT	4	1300–2200 m	+2.0 m/s	N
14:35 AEDT	9	900–2600 m	+3.3 m/s	S
14:37 AEDT	7	1400–2300 m	+1.4 m/s	NE
14:38 AEDT	9	1400–2200 m	+1.4 m/s	E
14:39 AEDT	8	1300–2600 m	+3.1 m/s	E
14:43 AEDT	6	2300–2600 m	+1.4 m/s	S
14:44 AEDT	4	2200–2600 m	+1.6 m/s	N
14:44 AEDT	4	1900–2600 m	+1.4 m/s	NE
14:56 AEDT	7	1700–2600 m	+2.3 m/s	N
15:00 AEDT	4	900–2600 m	+2.7 m/s	S
15:07 AEDT	4	1400–2600 m	+3.0 m/s	SE
15:10 AEDT	4	1100–2200 m	+2.5 m/s	SE
15:12 AEDT	7	900–1500 m	+1.6 m/s	NW
15:15 AEDT	6	1900–2600 m	+2.0 m/s	W
15:15 AEDT	5	1100–1800 m	+1.7 m/s	S
15:16 AEDT	7	1400–2600 m	+2.3 m/s	W
15:18 AEDT	6	2000–2600 m	+1.9 m/s	W
15:19 AEDT	7	2000–2600 m	+1.7 m/s	W
15:22 AEDT	4	2000–2600 m	+1.7 m/s	N
15:27 AEDT	6	1600–2600 m	+2.2 m/s	E
15:30 AEDT	4	2200–2600 m	+1.5 m/s	NW
15:34 AEDT	4	1800–2600 m	+2.0 m/s	NE
15:40 AEDT	6	1900–2600 m	+1.6 m/s	E
15:43 AEDT	5	1500–2400 m	+1.8 m/s	W
15:50 AEDT	9	1800–2600 m	+2.4 m/s	W
15:50 AEDT	4	1900–2600 m	+2.3 m/s	S

Thermal at 14:31 AEDT — 9 pilots, 19 climbs

Wind 11.2 km/h from 318° (NW), measured from 217 circle estimates in the pilots' own tracks.
Model wind cross-check loading…
Leans 21° from vertical toward 125° (SE), within 12° of downwind.
Strongest on the SE side of the core at +3.2 m/s against +2.6 m/s on the NW side.
Multiple cores in 8 of 18 bands between 900 and 2600 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
Steve Docherty	-3.3 m/s	+3.5 m/s	+7.0 m/s
Jon Durand	-2.0 m/s	+3.3 m/s	+5.8 m/s
Rohan Taylor	-4.5 m/s	+3.0 m/s	+7.8 m/s
Rohan Holtkamp	-2.5 m/s	+2.3 m/s	+6.8 m/s
Olav Opsanger	-12.8 m/s	+2.0 m/s	+13.3 m/s
Adrian Connor	-2.0 m/s	+1.8 m/s	+5.3 m/s
Peter Adriaans	-1.0 m/s	+1.5 m/s	+5.0 m/s
Dustan Hansen	-2.0 m/s	+1.0 m/s	+3.8 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	351 / -72	415 m	583 m	+2.1 m/s	+11.8 m/s	108	3	2
2400–2500 m	438 / -131	306 m	527 m	+3.0 m/s	+13.3 m/s	91	3	1
2300–2400 m	491 / -287	114 m	76 m	+4.5 m/s	+5.8 m/s	46	3	1
2200–2300 m	441 / -295	48 m	68 m	+4.4 m/s	+5.8 m/s	46	2	1
2100–2200 m	409 / -270	63 m	110 m	+4.2 m/s	+6.0 m/s	47	2	1
2000–2100 m	397 / -254	55 m	82 m	+3.6 m/s	+6.3 m/s	54	2	1
1900–2000 m	362 / -245	50 m	69 m	+3.9 m/s	+6.0 m/s	53	2	1
1800–1900 m	337 / -224	62 m	83 m	+3.8 m/s	+5.3 m/s	51	2	1
1700–1800 m	327 / -166	69 m	93 m	+3.7 m/s	+5.5 m/s	55	2	1
1600–1700 m	285 / -167	137 m	223 m	+3.7 m/s	+8.3 m/s	66	3	1
1500–1600 m	217 / -126	167 m	216 m	+3.0 m/s	+8.0 m/s	103	4	2
1400–1500 m	184 / -78	177 m	253 m	+3.3 m/s	+9.3 m/s	121	4	3
1300–1400 m	157 / -15	164 m	255 m	+3.2 m/s	+8.3 m/s	124	4	2
1200–1300 m	104 / 43	184 m	295 m	+3.5 m/s	+8.3 m/s	115	4	2
1100–1200 m	45 / 62	194 m	279 m	+3.1 m/s	+11.0 m/s	157	6	2
1000–1100 m	15 / 72	213 m	303 m	+2.0 m/s	+6.8 m/s	326	8	2
900–1000 m	-14 / 127	244 m	350 m	+1.5 m/s	+6.0 m/s	395	8	2
800–900 m	-154 / 176	323 m	427 m	+0.8 m/s	+1.8 m/s	52	3	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.

Gliding wide of the optimal course line

Label every pilot

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.89 (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 3 to about rank 28. 4 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

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

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.

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.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.81 (clear pattern, n = 30). 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 28 to about rank 3. 3 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Field glide speed: median 58.6 km/h · p90 71.5 km/h (30 pilots)

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Measured in percent · lower is better

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

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.78 (clear pattern, n = 32). 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 2 to about rank 34. 1 pilot has no value and is not plotted.

Speed-section phase shares, field p25/median/p75: climb 36/38/41% · glide 29/37/40% · search 18/25/35%

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 = -0.68 (clear pattern, n = 32). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 28 to about rank 5. 1 pilot has no value and is not plotted.

45 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 8 pilots).

How low the pilot gets between climbs

Measured in percent · no expected direction

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

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.67 (clear pattern, n = 30). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 29 to about rank 8. 3 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it

Measured in percent · no expected direction

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

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.65 (clear pattern, n = 30). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 27 to about rank 3. 3 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

Distance covered between climbs

Measured in kilometres · higher is better

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

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.63 (clear pattern, n = 28). 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 22 to about rank 3. 5 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

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 = 0.61 (clear pattern, n = 19). Less is expected to be better here, and it was: top ranks gather to the left. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 5 to about rank 19. 14 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

ESS altitude margin over final glide: top-10 median 50 m (n=10) vs rest median 216 m (n=9).

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 = -0.60 (clear pattern, n = 29). 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 28 to about rank 9. 4 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 = -0.60 (clear pattern, n = 18). 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 15 to about rank 5. 15 pilots have no value and are 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 = -0.56 (clear pattern, n = 30). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 29 to about rank 3. 3 pilots have no value and are not plotted.

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.

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = 0.54 (clear pattern, n = 32). 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 33 to about rank 26. 1 pilot has no value and is not plotted.

Climbs joined on another pilot's marker

Measured in percent · no expected direction

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

Each dot is a pilot. ρ = -0.51 (clear pattern, n = 30). No expected direction — the sign is the finding: larger values went with better ranks here. The curve is a trend fitted through the dots: left to right it runs from about rank 25 to about rank 7. 3 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. Scott Barrett

2. Rohan Taylor

3. Rohan Holtkamp

4. Corinna Schwiegershausen

5. Jon Durand

6. Steve Docherty

7. Peter Burkitt

8. Olav Opsanger

9. Guy Hubbard

10. Jay Kubeil

11. Paul Bissett-Amess

12. Steven Crosby

13. Hughbert Alexander

14. Richard Martin

15. Stuart Cathcart

16. James Atkinson

17. Adrian Connor

18. Neale Halsall

19. John Harriott

20. Neil Hooke

21. Ward Gunn

22. Peter Adriaans

23. Mitch Butler

24. Peter Garrone

25. Andrew Taylor

26. Andrew Sutton

27. Mark Jeffree

28. James Wynd

30. Peter Tolhurst

31. Jason Carman

32. Dustan Hansen

33. Vic Hare

34. Magnus Ronningen

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 — Committed racers

14 pilots · ranks 1–25 · median 8 · middle half 4.3–11.8

Low — Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb group median P21 in this field (18 percent) · usually a strength
High — Time spent flying with a gaggle group median P79 in this field (40 percent)
High — How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it group median P78 in this field (87 percent)
Low — Gliding wide of the optimal course line group median P23 in this field (11 percent) · usually a strength

1. Scott Barrett
2. Rohan Taylor
3. Rohan Holtkamp
4. Corinna Schwiegershausen
5. Jon Durand (most typical of this group)
6. Steve Docherty
7. Peter Burkitt
9. Guy Hubbard
10. Jay Kubeil
11. Paul Bissett-Amess
12. Steven Crosby
13. Hughbert Alexander
15. Stuart Cathcart
25. Andrew Taylor

Group B — Escape artists

16 pilots · ranks 8–32 · median 21.5 · middle half 17.8–26.3

High — Low saves dug out from the bottom of the band group median P79 in this field (1.0 count)
Low — Distance covered between climbs group median P24 in this field (1.5 kilometres) · usually costly
High — Gliding wide of the optimal course line group median P75 in this field (41 percent) · usually costly
Low — Glide L/D against the field median group median P25 in this field (0.92 ratio) · usually costly

8. Olav Opsanger
14. Richard Martin
16. James Atkinson
17. Adrian Connor
18. Neale Halsall (most typical of this group)
19. John Harriott
20. Neil Hooke
21. Ward Gunn
22. Peter Adriaans
23. Mitch Butler
24. Peter Garrone
26. Andrew Sutton
27. Mark Jeffree
28. James Wynd
30. Peter Tolhurst
32. Dustan Hansen

Not clustered: 31. Jason Carman — only 4 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 33. Vic Hare — only 5 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%); 34. Magnus Ronningen — only 5 of 21 metrics available (needs ≥ 60%).

GlideComp groups the pilots by flying style, and not by score. It transforms the rank of every behavioural metric to a percentile inside the field. It then compares two pilots by the mean percentile gap over the metrics that both pilots have, and never fills in a missing value. Ward-linkage agglomeration forms the groups, and the best mean silhouette selects the number of groups. Each group carries the spread of the GAP ranks of its members, which shows where a style paid and where it did not. On this task, 30 pilots on 21 behavioural metrics formed 2 groups, with k searched from 2 to 6. The mean silhouette is 0.30. A value near 0 means soft group boundaries, and a value near 1 means tight, well-separated groups.

The metrics in detail

best: some pattern (0.44)

#	Pilot	NonSink%
1	Scott Barrett	52
2	Rohan Taylor	51
3	Rohan Holtkamp	51
4	Corinna Schwiegershausen	52
5	Jon Durand	53
6	Steve Docherty	52
7	Peter Burkitt	54
8	Olav Opsanger	55
9	Guy Hubbard	56
10	Jay Kubeil	54
11	Paul Bissett-Amess	57
12	Steven Crosby	55
13	Hughbert Alexander	54
14	Richard Martin	55
15	Stuart Cathcart	56
16	James Atkinson	59
17	Adrian Connor	55
18	Neale Halsall	59
19	John Harriott	61
20	Neil Hooke	63
21	Ward Gunn	56
22	Peter Adriaans	55
23	Mitch Butler	58
24	Peter Garrone	62
25	Andrew Taylor	54
26	Andrew Sutton	63
27	Mark Jeffree	61
28	James Wynd	60
30	Peter Tolhurst	61
31	Jason Carman	63
32	Dustan Hansen	55
33	Vic Hare	36
34	Magnus Ronningen	26

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	6.6	306	3788
13:00 AEDT	7.1	337	263
14:00 AEDT	7.5	312	939
15:00 AEDT	7.0	307	1364
16:00 AEDT	5.7	285	877
17:00 AEDT	5.8	299	342
18:00 AEDT	14.9	331	3

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)→LIGHTH	14:15–16:13 AEDT	29	14:18–16:10 AEDT	8.5	313	194	21
LIGHTH→HALFWY	14:29–17:40 AEDT	26	14:29–17:31 AEDT	6.6	309	1135	25
HALFWY→PINEFO	15:01–17:03 AEDT	22	15:03–16:59 AEDT	6.8	289	853	21
PINEFO→CUDG	15:29–17:54 AEDT	19	15:47–17:44 AEDT	5.8	321	291	9
CUDG→CORRY (ESS)	15:45–18:02 AEDT	19	15:45–17:46 AEDT	7.6	306	17	5
CORRY (ESS)→CORRY (GOAL)	15:53–18:02 AEDT	19	—	—	—	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	2.1	62
14:00 AEDT	1.3	2.6	326
15:00 AEDT	1.3	2.4	484
16:00 AEDT	1.1	2.0	243
17:00 AEDT	1.0	1.6	91

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	13:16 AEDT
Median takeoff	14:14 AEDT
Latest takeoff	15:15 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: clear pattern (0.65)

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	Scott Barrett	63 (14 shared climbs)	60 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-0.4 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	100 (10/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	95 (mean on-course altitude 56% of band)	— (7 circles, 43% left)
2	Rohan Taylor	74 (25 shared climbs)	52 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	2.0 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	91 (10/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	72 (mean on-course altitude 59% of band)	0.17 (84 circles, 94% left)
3	Rohan Holtkamp	81 (27 shared climbs)	39 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	2.2 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (10/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	89 (mean on-course altitude 68% of band)	0.13 (100 circles, 77% left)
4	Corinna Schwiegershausen	63 (7 shared climbs)	119 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-1.0 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	80 (12/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	92 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	— (8 circles, 88% left)
5	Jon Durand	75 (24 shared climbs)	45 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	100 (11/11 circling bouts led to climbs)	86 (mean on-course altitude 65% of band)	0.15 (138 circles, 86% left)
6	Steve Docherty	76 (22 shared climbs)	39 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	76 (13/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	85 (mean on-course altitude 66% of band)	0.16 (126 circles, 73% left)
7	Peter Burkitt	70 (39 shared climbs)	41 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.9 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (10/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	89 (mean on-course altitude 66% of band)	0.19 (115 circles, 97% left)
8	Olav Opsanger	69 (51 shared climbs)	15 (15 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.8 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	81 (13/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	44 (mean on-course altitude 45% of band)	0.19 (168 circles, 31% left)
9	Guy Hubbard	56 (34 shared climbs)	48 (25 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (22 climbs ≥ 90 s)	85 (11/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	87 (mean on-course altitude 59% of band)	0.24 (56 circles, 95% left)
10	Jay Kubeil	76 (38 shared climbs)	40 (21 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	71 (12/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	75 (mean on-course altitude 63% of band)	0.15 (95 circles, 65% left)
11	Paul Bissett-Amess	74 (27 shared climbs)	71 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.5 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	62 (8/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	86 (mean on-course altitude 67% of band)	0.14 (108 circles, 69% left)
12	Steven Crosby	69 (36 shared climbs)	45 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	74 (14/19 circling bouts led to climbs)	89 (mean on-course altitude 62% of band)	0.19 (117 circles, 57% left)
13	Hughbert Alexander	50 (22 shared climbs)	64 (23 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.1 (23 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (15/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	97 (mean on-course altitude 61% of band)	0.31 (16 circles, 94% left)
14	Richard Martin	73 (28 shared climbs)	38 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.6 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (15/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	48 (mean on-course altitude 44% of band)	0.14 (231 circles, 29% left)
15	Stuart Cathcart	57 (37 shared climbs)	51 (32 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.7 (24 climbs ≥ 90 s)	92 (22/24 circling bouts led to climbs)	85 (mean on-course altitude 66% of band)	0.17 (114 circles, 96% left)
16	James Atkinson	66 (55 shared climbs)	42 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (16 climbs ≥ 90 s)	78 (14/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	54 (mean on-course altitude 52% of band)	0.15 (235 circles, 75% left)
17	Adrian Connor	67 (24 shared climbs)	36 (25 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (18 climbs ≥ 90 s)	75 (12/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	84 (mean on-course altitude 66% of band)	0.17 (222 circles, 22% left)
18	Neale Halsall	67 (40 shared climbs)	54 (27 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (20 climbs ≥ 90 s)	79 (15/19 circling bouts led to climbs)	50 (mean on-course altitude 51% of band)	0.16 (230 circles, 44% left)
19	John Harriott	73 (55 shared climbs)	55 (24 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (19 climbs ≥ 90 s)	56 (18/32 circling bouts led to climbs)	52 (mean on-course altitude 47% of band)	0.14 (262 circles, 13% left)
20	Neil Hooke	54 (46 shared climbs)	51 (27 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (18 climbs ≥ 90 s)	76 (22/29 circling bouts led to climbs)	59 (mean on-course altitude 55% of band)	0.16 (261 circles, 69% left)
21	Ward Gunn	66 (32 shared climbs)	42 (13 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.9 (8 climbs ≥ 90 s)	68 (15/22 circling bouts led to climbs)	82 (mean on-course altitude 58% of band)	0.14 (136 circles, 13% left)
22	Peter Adriaans	62 (24 shared climbs)	43 (18 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	81 (13/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	66 (mean on-course altitude 52% of band)	0.15 (142 circles, 14% left)
23	Mitch Butler	75 (12 shared climbs)	39 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (12 climbs ≥ 90 s)	64 (9/14 circling bouts led to climbs)	64 (mean on-course altitude 55% of band)	0.13 (162 circles, 69% left)
24	Peter Garrone	56 (10 shared climbs)	40 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.8 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	84 (16/19 circling bouts led to climbs)	59 (mean on-course altitude 46% of band)	0.16 (128 circles, 15% left)
25	Andrew Taylor	73 (8 shared climbs)	90 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	-0.5 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	63 (5/8 circling bouts led to climbs)	77 (mean on-course altitude 54% of band)	— (9 circles, 78% left)
26	Andrew Sutton	66 (26 shared climbs)	35 (21 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	65 (11/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	27 (mean on-course altitude 29% of band)	0.17 (206 circles, 86% left)
27	Mark Jeffree	57 (26 shared climbs)	69 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.6 (7 climbs ≥ 90 s)	69 (9/13 circling bouts led to climbs)	57 (mean on-course altitude 41% of band)	0.22 (131 circles, 44% left)
28	James Wynd	58 (13 shared climbs)	68 (14 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.2 (14 climbs ≥ 90 s)	44 (7/16 circling bouts led to climbs)	22 (mean on-course altitude 24% of band)	0.30 (17 circles, 59% left)
30	Peter Tolhurst	63 (35 shared climbs)	36 (11 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	80 (8/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	20 (mean on-course altitude 14% of band)	0.17 (68 circles, 100% left)
31	Jason Carman	40 (2 shared climbs)	105 (6 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.3 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	—	—	— (9 circles, 56% left)
32	Dustan Hansen	63 (10 shared climbs)	49 (7 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.7 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	53 (9/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	68 (mean on-course altitude 45% of band)	0.16 (75 circles, 93% left)
33	Vic Hare	—	—	—	—	—	— (6 circles, 0% left)
34	Magnus Ronningen	—	—	—	—	—	— (7 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	100	19
15:00 AEDT	88	30
16:00 AEDT	75	25
17:00 AEDT	50	12
18:00 AEDT	0	1

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

How round and consistent the circles were

Measured in ratio · lower is better

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

Turn direction across the field: 55% left (3789 circles).

best: clear pattern (0.89)

#	Pilot	GlideSpd	GlideL/D	SpeedToFly	Wide%	Dolphin%
1	Scott Barrett	76.6 (9 glides, 45 min gliding)	1.11 (5 legs compared)	0.1 (8 glide→climb pairs)	12 (5 legs completed)	5 (238 of 4814 m gained outside thermals)
2	Rohan Taylor	70.4 (17 glides, 56 min gliding)	1.08 (5 legs compared)	-0.3 (16 glide→climb pairs)	11 (5 legs completed)	7 (335 of 4807 m gained outside thermals)
3	Rohan Holtkamp	73.0 (16 glides, 51 min gliding)	1.10 (5 legs compared)	0.5 (15 glide→climb pairs)	10 (5 legs completed)	3 (153 of 4820 m gained outside thermals)
4	Corinna Schwiegershausen	64.0 (8 glides, 41 min gliding)	0.98 (5 legs compared)	-3.0 (7 glide→climb pairs)	6 (5 legs completed)	3 (167 of 5486 m gained outside thermals)
5	Jon Durand	64.2 (18 glides, 61 min gliding)	1.06 (5 legs compared)	-0.8 (17 glide→climb pairs)	11 (5 legs completed)	6 (311 of 5047 m gained outside thermals)
6	Steve Docherty	70.6 (16 glides, 51 min gliding)	0.96 (5 legs compared)	4.9 (15 glide→climb pairs)	10 (5 legs completed)	5 (247 of 5269 m gained outside thermals)
7	Peter Burkitt	63.6 (18 glides, 59 min gliding)	1.31 (5 legs compared)	-1.4 (17 glide→climb pairs)	11 (5 legs completed)	10 (450 of 4633 m gained outside thermals)
8	Olav Opsanger	72.6 (30 glides, 60 min gliding)	0.92 (5 legs compared)	1.3 (29 glide→climb pairs)	15 (5 legs completed)	27 (2108 of 7822 m gained outside thermals)
9	Guy Hubbard	71.3 (12 glides, 50 min gliding)	1.01 (5 legs compared)	-5.2 (11 glide→climb pairs)	11 (5 legs completed)	4 (229 of 5824 m gained outside thermals)
10	Jay Kubeil	61.5 (18 glides, 69 min gliding)	1.08 (5 legs compared)	-2.1 (17 glide→climb pairs)	13 (5 legs completed)	7 (338 of 4927 m gained outside thermals)
11	Paul Bissett-Amess	65.2 (12 glides, 62 min gliding)	1.18 (5 legs compared)	4.5 (11 glide→climb pairs)	15 (5 legs completed)	11 (492 of 4518 m gained outside thermals)
12	Steven Crosby	63.7 (15 glides, 70 min gliding)	1.13 (5 legs compared)	-2.0 (14 glide→climb pairs)	20 (5 legs completed)	9 (501 of 5385 m gained outside thermals)
13	Hughbert Alexander	58.4 (16 glides, 60 min gliding)	1.01 (5 legs compared)	0.2 (15 glide→climb pairs)	9 (5 legs completed)	1 (85 of 5663 m gained outside thermals)
14	Richard Martin	65.6 (24 glides, 91 min gliding)	0.97 (5 legs compared)	5.8 (23 glide→climb pairs)	39 (5 legs completed)	8 (657 of 8034 m gained outside thermals)
15	Stuart Cathcart	53.8 (21 glides, 84 min gliding)	1.01 (5 legs compared)	-1.3 (20 glide→climb pairs)	20 (5 legs completed)	4 (296 of 6790 m gained outside thermals)
16	James Atkinson	57.7 (21 glides, 88 min gliding)	1.06 (5 legs compared)	-2.6 (20 glide→climb pairs)	26 (5 legs completed)	14 (1039 of 7305 m gained outside thermals)
17	Adrian Connor	49.8 (28 glides, 106 min gliding)	0.93 (5 legs compared)	3.4 (27 glide→climb pairs)	29 (5 legs completed)	12 (970 of 8318 m gained outside thermals)
18	Neale Halsall	58.1 (28 glides, 110 min gliding)	1.05 (5 legs compared)	1.4 (27 glide→climb pairs)	44 (5 legs completed)	14 (1073 of 7645 m gained outside thermals)
19	John Harriott	53.3 (42 glides, 138 min gliding)	0.92 (5 legs compared)	0.8 (41 glide→climb pairs)	32 (5 legs completed)	18 (1477 of 8007 m gained outside thermals)
20	Neil Hooke	55.3 (33 glides, 95 min gliding)	0.82 (3 legs compared)	0.6 (32 glide→climb pairs)	33 (3 legs completed)	12 (845 of 6855 m gained outside thermals)
21	Ward Gunn	55.9 (24 glides, 86 min gliding)	1.05 (3 legs compared)	1.0 (23 glide→climb pairs)	41 (3 legs completed)	12 (724 of 6077 m gained outside thermals)
22	Peter Adriaans	58.7 (19 glides, 73 min gliding)	0.94 (3 legs compared)	-0.2 (18 glide→climb pairs)	44 (3 legs completed)	10 (585 of 6033 m gained outside thermals)
23	Mitch Butler	66.9 (13 glides, 61 min gliding)	1.17 (2 legs compared)	-0.6 (12 glide→climb pairs)	41 (2 legs completed)	13 (457 of 3481 m gained outside thermals)
24	Peter Garrone	50.8 (20 glides, 72 min gliding)	0.87 (2 legs compared)	-1.9 (19 glide→climb pairs)	41 (2 legs completed)	6 (316 of 5165 m gained outside thermals)
25	Andrew Taylor	47.5 (7 glides, 56 min gliding)	1.00 (2 legs compared)	-4.8 (6 glide→climb pairs)	38 (2 legs completed)	4 (167 of 4091 m gained outside thermals)
26	Andrew Sutton	47.0 (20 glides, 76 min gliding)	0.78 (2 legs compared)	-3.5 (19 glide→climb pairs)	42 (2 legs completed)	14 (697 of 4857 m gained outside thermals)
27	Mark Jeffree	49.0 (11 glides, 46 min gliding)	0.74 (1 leg compared)	0.4 (10 glide→climb pairs)	57 (1 leg completed)	6 (203 of 3230 m gained outside thermals)
28	James Wynd	54.4 (6 glides, 35 min gliding)	0.90 (1 leg compared)	4.6 (6 glide→climb pairs)	50 (1 leg completed)	3 (80 of 2539 m gained outside thermals)
30	Peter Tolhurst	45.8 (9 glides, 31 min gliding)	0.74 (1 leg compared)	0.9 (8 glide→climb pairs)	43 (1 leg completed)	25 (392 of 1562 m gained outside thermals)
31	Jason Carman	—	—	—	—	—
32	Dustan Hansen	54.3 (9 glides, 37 min gliding)	—	2.3 (8 glide→climb pairs)	—	31 (459 of 1501 m gained outside thermals)
33	Vic Hare	—	—	—	—	—
34	Magnus Ronningen	—	—	—	—	—

Glide speed between climbs

Measured in kilometres per hour · higher is better

Field glide speed: median 58.6 km/h · p90 71.5 km/h (30 pilots)

best: clear pattern (0.78)

#	Pilot	Floor%	LowSaves	km/climb	Search%
1	Scott Barrett	60 (9 descents, lowest 29% of band)	0.0	5.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 45%)	4
2	Rohan Taylor	62 (11 descents, lowest 11% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 14% of band)	3.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 57%)	18
3	Rohan Holtkamp	70 (10 descents, lowest 27% of band)	0.0	3.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 65%)	16
4	Corinna Schwiegershausen	65 (9 descents, lowest 39% of band)	0.0	5.3 (mean shared-climb pctile 51%)	8
5	Jon Durand	58 (10 descents, lowest 28% of band)	0.0	3.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 63%)	14
6	Steve Docherty	63 (9 descents, lowest 27% of band)	0.0	3.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 59%)	23
7	Peter Burkitt	76 (10 descents, lowest 19% of band)	0.0	2.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 55%)	26
8	Olav Opsanger	26 (25 descents, lowest -33% of band)	0.0	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 62%)	28
9	Guy Hubbard	51 (8 descents, lowest -29% of band)	0.0	3.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 42%)	12
10	Jay Kubeil	62 (13 descents, lowest 14% of band)	0.0	2.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 57%)	20
11	Paul Bissett-Amess	71 (7 descents, lowest 60% of band)	0.0	3.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 49%)	25
12	Steven Crosby	55 (12 descents, lowest 3% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 4% of band)	2.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 56%)	24
13	Hughbert Alexander	68 (15 descents, lowest -11% of band)	0.0	4.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 41%)	14
14	Richard Martin	29 (16 descents, lowest -28% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -1% of band)	1.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	24
15	Stuart Cathcart	53 (15 descents, lowest -3% of band)	0.0	2.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 41%)	18
16	James Atkinson	30 (12 descents, lowest 4% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 4% of band)	1.8 (mean shared-climb pctile 43%)	26
17	Adrian Connor	63 (13 descents, lowest 18% of band)	0.0	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	23
18	Neale Halsall	41 (12 descents, lowest -23% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 5% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	30
19	John Harriott	33 (11 descents, lowest -10% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -9% of band)	1.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 51%)	44
20	Neil Hooke	39 (13 descents, lowest -20% of band)	0.0	1.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 39%)	32
21	Ward Gunn	68 (13 descents, lowest -30% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -19% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 45%)	35
22	Peter Adriaans	37 (10 descents, lowest 5% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from 9% of band)	1.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 41%)	23
23	Mitch Butler	50 (7 descents, lowest 24% of band)	0.0	2.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 68%)	33
24	Peter Garrone	22 (10 descents, lowest -21% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -21% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 49%)	24
25	Andrew Taylor	46 (6 descents, lowest 10% of band)	0.0	5.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 37%)	18
26	Andrew Sutton	6 (12 descents, lowest -4% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from 1% of band)	1.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 46%)	41
27	Mark Jeffree	37 (8 descents, lowest -3% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 6% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 38%)	35
28	James Wynd	-5 (6 descents, lowest -34% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from -9% of band)	2.1 (mean shared-climb pctile 42%)	39
30	Peter Tolhurst	-0 (6 descents, lowest -30% of band)	0.0	—	48
31	Jason Carman	—	—	—	—
32	Dustan Hansen	26 (5 descents, lowest -19% of band)	0.0	—	59
33	Vic Hare	—	0.0	—	100
34	Magnus Ronningen	—	0.0	—	45

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 36/38/41% · glide 29/37/40% · search 18/25/35%

best: clear pattern (0.68)

#	Pilot	InGaggle%	Marked%	LeaveWin%
1	Scott Barrett	56	54 (7/13 climbs marked)	100 (2W–0L (2 departures))
2	Rohan Taylor	45	73 (16/22 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
3	Rohan Holtkamp	78	71 (15/21 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
4	Corinna Schwiegershausen	17	14 (2/14 climbs marked)	—
5	Jon Durand	56	65 (15/23 climbs marked)	33 (1W–2L (3 departures))
6	Steve Docherty	68	57 (13/23 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
7	Peter Burkitt	33	54 (15/28 climbs marked)	100 (2W–0L (2 departures))
8	Olav Opsanger	8	31 (16/51 climbs marked)	100 (2W–0L (2 departures))
9	Guy Hubbard	83	74 (14/19 climbs marked)	33 (1W–2L (3 departures))
10	Jay Kubeil	13	17 (5/29 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
11	Paul Bissett-Amess	60	92 (23/25 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
12	Steven Crosby	32	40 (12/30 climbs marked)	—
13	Hughbert Alexander	36	56 (10/18 climbs marked)	33 (1W–2L (3 departures))
14	Richard Martin	8	13 (5/40 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
15	Stuart Cathcart	20	38 (11/29 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
16	James Atkinson	31	45 (19/42 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
17	Adrian Connor	10	27 (14/51 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
18	Neale Halsall	15	12 (6/49 climbs marked)	—
19	John Harriott	12	24 (17/71 climbs marked)	0 (0W–3L (3 departures))
20	Neil Hooke	24	21 (10/47 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
21	Ward Gunn	12	29 (12/42 climbs marked)	—
22	Peter Adriaans	16	6 (2/31 climbs marked)	—
23	Mitch Butler	1	0 (0/23 climbs marked)	—
24	Peter Garrone	0	0 (0/31 climbs marked)	—
25	Andrew Taylor	0	13 (1/8 climbs marked)	—
26	Andrew Sutton	10	3 (1/39 climbs marked)	—
27	Mark Jeffree	31	67 (10/15 climbs marked)	—
28	James Wynd	18	64 (7/11 climbs marked)	33 (1W–2L (3 departures))
30	Peter Tolhurst	22	45 (9/20 climbs marked)	—
31	Jason Carman	—	—	—
32	Dustan Hansen	1	0 (0/17 climbs marked)	—
33	Vic Hare	0	—	—
34	Magnus Ronningen	0	—	—

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Measured in percent · no expected direction

45 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 8 pilots).

best: clear pattern (0.61)

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	Scott Barrett	201	0	0.0	-27
2	Rohan Taylor	13	57	4.0	67
3	Rohan Holtkamp	214	0	4.0	105
4	Corinna Schwiegershausen	126	330	11.7	374
5	Jon Durand	46	332	14.1	-125
6	Steve Docherty	79	273	14.3	-109
7	Peter Burkitt	47	589	15.3	284
8	Olav Opsanger	7	619	16.6	33
9	Guy Hubbard	79	570	18.0	-31
10	Jay Kubeil	68	739	24.0	291
11	Paul Bissett-Amess	175	1061	29.6	116
12	Steven Crosby	29	1439	30.0	175
13	Hughbert Alexander	107	1364	35.2	70
14	Richard Martin	21	3003	59.3	216
15	Stuart Cathcart	172	3139	65.9	484
16	James Atkinson	124	3450	70.3	405
17	Adrian Connor	223	5251	102.0	311
18	Neale Halsall	36	5183	96.0	125
19	John Harriott	216	6832	128.2	719
20	Neil Hooke	380	3201	—	—
21	Ward Gunn	376	2650	—	—
22	Peter Adriaans	24	2690	—	—
23	Mitch Butler	1993	1761	—	—
24	Peter Garrone	2220	3341	—	—
25	Andrew Taylor	2082	2880	—	—
26	Andrew Sutton	2732	4201	—	—
27	Mark Jeffree	814	1462	—	—
28	James Wynd	230	1370	—	—
30	Peter Tolhurst	2731	1049	—	—
31	Jason Carman	—	—	—	—
32	Dustan Hansen	687	—	—	—
33	Vic Hare	-1403	—	—	—
34	Magnus Ronningen	793	—	—	—

How long after the gate opened the pilot started

Measured in seconds · lower is better

Start execution

Pilot	Delay	Alt m	Band %	Behind km
Scott Barrett	3:21	2301	83	9.1
Rohan Taylor	0:13	2525	97	9.4
Rohan Holtkamp	3:34	2253	80	9.2
Corinna Schwiegersha	2:06	2374	88	1.6
Jon Durand	0:46	2304	83	8.8
Steve Docherty	1:19	2432	91	8.7
Peter Burkitt	0:47	2587	101	9.3
Olav Opsanger	0:07	2288	83	8.1
Guy Hubbard	1:19	2443	92	8.7
Jay Kubeil	1:08	2394	89	0.7
Paul Bissett-Amess	2:55	2452	92	9.2
Steven Crosby	0:29	2556	99	0.0
Hughbert Alexander	1:47	2530	97	8.6
Richard Martin	0:21	2483	94	0.0
Stuart Cathcart	2:52	2301	83	9.2
James Atkinson	2:04	2513	96	9.3
Adrian Connor	3:43	2480	94	9.1
Neale Halsall	0:36	2430	91	7.8
John Harriott	3:36	2551	98	2.5
Neil Hooke	6:20	2460	93	2.4
Ward Gunn	6:16	2567	99	8.7
Peter Adriaans	0:24	2342	86	8.2
Mitch Butler	33:13	2583	100	1.9
Peter Garrone	37:00	2487	95	3.5
Andrew Taylor	34:42	2452	92	1.9
Andrew Sutton	45:32	2467	93	9.6
Mark Jeffree	13:34	2209	78	8.0
James Wynd	3:50	2569	100	9.6
Peter Tolhurst	45:31	2339	86	9.1
Dustan Hansen	11:27	2580	100	8.7
Vic Hare	-23:23	356	-34	0.0
Magnus Ronningen	13:13	333	-36	12.3

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

Race time lost against the fastest pilots, leg by leg

Measured in seconds · lower is better

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

Rohan Taylor against the winner, leg by leg: bars hanging below the line are time lost, bars above are time gained; over the 5 compared legs, +7:07 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→LIGHTH	LIGHTH→HALFWY	HALFWY→PINEFO	PINEFO→CUDG	CUDG→ESS	Total
Scott Barrett	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00
Rohan Taylor	+2:03	-3:16	+6:32	+2:33	-0:45	+7:07
Rohan Holtkamp	-0:12	+0:02	+2:10	+2:25	-0:38	+3:47
Corinna Schwiegersha	+7:00	-2:38	+2:19	+4:21	+1:52	+12:54
Jon Durand	+0:32	+2:04	+9:51	+2:51	+1:27	+16:44
Steve Docherty	+1:05	+0:28	+10:08	+3:27	+1:13	+16:22
Peter Burkitt	+4:27	+8:20	-0:14	+3:31	+1:52	+17:55
Olav Opsanger	+0:26	+1:22	+3:05	+11:28	+3:29	+19:49
Guy Hubbard	+0:38	+1:01	+11:49	+2:04	+4:33	+20:05
Jay Kubeil	+9:15	+0:33	+10:11	+4:09	+2:02	+26:10
Paul Bissett-Amess	+6:15	+10:17	+10:03	+2:39	+0:45	+29:59
Steven Crosby	+9:02	-4:25	+20:43	+5:40	+1:51	+32:51
Hughbert Alexander	+2:27	+16:11	+9:11	+4:37	+4:18	+36:45
Richard Martin	+6:21	+8:08	+32:51	+15:19	-0:18	+62:20
Stuart Cathcart	+7:50	+8:13	+30:16	+18:30	+1:36	+66:24
James Atkinson	+5:56	+25:14	+20:27	+17:20	+2:39	+71:36
Adrian Connor	+14:02	+24:08	+30:26	+31:05	+1:55	+101:36
Neale Halsall	+0:51	+27:43	+21:04	+47:20	+1:51	+98:48
John Harriott	+14:27	+26:17	+31:05	+45:08	+11:01	+127:57
Neil Hooke	+7:30	+31:32	+23:13	—	—	+62:15
Ward Gunn	+10:49	+15:43	+26:32	—	—	+53:04
Peter Adriaans	+3:12	+22:17	+28:15	—	—	+53:44
Mitch Butler	+0:20	+30:09	—	—	—	+30:29
Peter Garrone	+13:05	+45:55	—	—	—	+59:00
Andrew Taylor	+8:23	+42:55	—	—	—	+51:18
Andrew Sutton	+8:15	+65:04	—	—	—	+73:20
Mark Jeffree	+26:53	—	—	—	—	+26:53
James Wynd	+25:21	—	—	—	—	+25:21
Peter Tolhurst	+20:00	—	—	—	—	+20:00

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	LIGHTH	HALFWY	PINEFO	CUDG	CORRY	CORRY
Scott Barrett	26.7	2.8	4.3	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Rohan Taylor	23.6	1.7	0.0	2.2	4.7	4.0	4.0
Rohan Holtkamp	27.0	2.8	4.4	2.2	4.6	4.0	4.0
Corinna Schwiegersha	25.5	8.5	7.5	5.4	9.8	11.7	11.7
Jon Durand	24.1	0.7	4.3	9.9	12.7	14.1	14.1
Steve Docherty	24.7	1.9	3.9	9.7	13.1	14.3	14.3
Peter Burkitt	24.2	4.7	14.6	10.0	13.5	15.3	15.3
Olav Opsanger	23.5	0.0	2.9	1.6	13.1	16.6	16.6
Guy Hubbard	24.7	1.4	4.0	11.4	13.5	18.0	18.0
Jay Kubeil	24.5	9.8	11.9	17.8	21.9	24.0	24.0
Paul Bissett-Amess	26.3	8.6	20.5	26.1	28.8	29.6	29.6
Steven Crosby	23.9	9.0	6.1	22.5	28.1	30.0	30.0
Hughbert Alexander	25.2	3.7	21.4	26.3	30.9	35.2	35.2
Richard Martin	23.7	6.1	15.8	44.3	59.6	59.3	59.3
Stuart Cathcart	26.2	10.1	19.9	45.8	64.3	65.9	65.9
James Atkinson	25.4	7.4	34.2	50.3	67.7	70.3	70.3
Adrian Connor	27.1	17.2	42.9	69.0	100.1	102.0	102.0
Neale Halsall	24.0	0.9	30.2	46.9	94.2	96.0	96.0
John Harriott	27.0	17.5	45.3	72.1	117.2	128.2	128.2
Neil Hooke	29.7	13.3	46.4	65.2	—	—	—
Ward Gunn	29.6	16.5	33.8	56.0	—	—	—
Peter Adriaans	23.8	3.0	26.9	50.8	—	—	—
Mitch Butler	56.6	33.0	64.7	—	—	—	—
Peter Garrone	60.4	49.5	97.0	—	—	—	—
Andrew Taylor	58.1	42.5	87.0	—	—	—	—
Andrew Sutton	68.9	53.2	119.9	—	—	—	—
Mark Jeffree	36.9	39.9	—	—	—	—	—
James Wynd	27.2	28.6	—	—	—	—	—
Peter Tolhurst	68.9	65.0	—	—	—	—	—
Dustan Hansen	34.8	—	—	—	—	—	—
Vic Hare	0.0	—	—	—	—	—	—
Magnus Ronningen	36.6	—	—	—	—	—	—

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 50 m (n=10) vs rest median 216 m (n=9).

Footnotes

2 pilots in the standings but not in this analysis

Andrew Sutton — scored from a manual flight report — no tracklog to analyse
Peter Garrone — scored from a manual flight report — no tracklog to analyse

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

How the field is compared

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

Metric glossary

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

Day profile & wind

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

Climbing

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

Gliding

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

Decision-making

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

Gaggle

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

Race craft

How long after the gate opened the pilot started(“StartDly” in tables): Measured in seconds · lower is better
Every second between the opening of the gate and the crossing of the start line is a second lost for nothing. The value is the seconds from the start gate taken to the scored SSS crossing. On an elapsed-time task, the pilot’s own crossing is the reference, so the delay is 0 by definition. The start table adds the crossing altitude, and the distance behind the leading pilot who had already started.
Race time lost against the fastest pilots, leg by leg(“TimeLost” in tables): Measured in seconds · lower is better
For each completed speed-section leg, we compare the leg time of the pilot with the mean of the top 10 pilots by rank who completed that leg. Only the losses count, and we add them together. The sum of the leg times is the race time, and the rank defines the reference, so this metric follows the result by construction. Read the waterfall table, which shows every leg against the task winner, for the diagnosis. Do not read the correlation as a finding.
Race time behind the leader at ESS(“Behind” in tables): Measured in minutes · lower is better
At each speed-section turnpoint, we compare the elapsed race time of the pilot, which is the reaching time minus their own start, with the fastest pilot to that turnpoint. The value is the minutes behind at ESS. It follows the final rank almost exactly, because this metric is the sanity check of the evaluation.
Arriving at ESS with height to spare(“Spare m” in tables): Measured in metres · lower is better
Height still available at ESS that the pilot no longer needed. That altitude was available for more speed, and the pilot did not use it. The value is the altitude at ESS minus the altitude needed to glide to goal at the standard glide ratio of the sport, which is 5.0 for HG and 4.0 for PG (S7F §12.3.6). A large positive margin means the pilot arrived too high. A margin near zero means they flew the final glide with little height to spare.
Final glide committed to when leaving the last climb(“FinalGl” in tables): Measured in ratio · no expected direction
How optimistic the pilot was about their final glide. A pilot wins or loses a task by the height at which they leave the last climb. At the last climb of the pilot before ESS, or before the landing, we divide the distance to goal by their height above goal. That is the glide ratio they committed to. 8 means they left and needed 8:1 to make goal. The value counts only when that climb ended within 1.5 times the distance of the final leg from goal. There is no expected direction: a marginal glide wins if it connects, and loses if it does not.

Task 4 (Open)

What the weather did

From the weather model

From the pilots' tracks

The day's thermals

Thermal at 14:31 AEDT — 9 pilots, 19 climbs

Which behaviours went with better results

Gliding wide of the optimal course line

Metrics with a clear pattern, plotted against rank

Gliding wide of the optimal course line

Glide speed between climbs

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Time spent flying with a gaggle

How low the pilot gets between climbs

How much of the thermal the pilot climbed before leaving it

Distance covered between climbs

Arriving at ESS with height to spare

Glide L/D against the field median

How often leaving the gaggle paid off

Share of lift turned in that was kept as a climb

How long after the gate opened the pilot started

Climbs joined on another pilot's marker

Outcome checks

The whole field at a glance

Pilot style clusters

The metrics in detail

Day profile & windbest: some pattern (0.44)

Climbingbest: clear pattern (0.65)

Glidingbest: clear pattern (0.89)

Glide speed between climbs

Decision-makingbest: clear pattern (0.78)

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Gagglebest: clear pattern (0.68)

Race craftbest: clear pattern (0.61)

Footnotes

2 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: some pattern (0.44)

best: clear pattern (0.65)

best: clear pattern (0.89)

best: clear pattern (0.78)

best: clear pattern (0.68)

best: clear pattern (0.61)