Frank & all,

Great subject, it's my favorite and the essence of the "go faster"
game we all like to play. I certainly agree with Tim. Competing in
Gliders - Winning With Your Mind by Leo and Ricky Brigliadori is the
latest and greatest must have book in your soaring Library for the
"just a little bit faster please" (nod to BB) type pilot.

Here's the really interesting part concerning the answers (so far) to
your questions, every one of the comments are generally correct. The
theory of how and what to set your MC for inter-thermal runs and final
glides are generally known, the fact that most are setting MC slightly
less than the actual average achieved climb rate is well known, not
speed chasing the vario is a given today, height band evaluation,
adjusting for the conditions or obstacles ahead and long glides
chasing lift bands followed by climbing in only the strongest thermals
of the day all equate to faster XC speeds and the list goes on and on.
So you toss all that info in a blender then go flying and see what's
working today, be creative by varying the techniques.

So the real key and IMHO the most enjoyable part of what we do is when
we're tapping into our creative side. This is the side that quietly
informs us when to apply a little, slightly in advance of the obvious
gear shifting, creative wondering in lift bands or perhaps making that
90 degree turn and then finding just what you're looking for when
perhaps none of this was obvious to our right side of the brain. The
numbers side of the game, as I see it is really only a checklist
guideline, to be applied as an appropriate and important rule of
thumb. However the rewards are often found on the edges or perhaps
somewhat outside of the numbers. I doubt if many have won the day or
got around a 1,000k by just following the numbers. Having said that
somewhere between 70kts and 110kts sounds about right to me ;-)
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