On Oct 11, 12:13*pm, "noel.wade" wrote:
Thanks, Raul. *I'm very familiar with the published information...
But as some of those authors point out - what people say about flying
and what people do _when_ flying are sometimes different. :-)

That's why I was looking for some anecdotal responses from competition
pilots... How often are they taking big climbs (regardless of whether
its a great thermal)? *How often are they driving far enough between
thermals to lose 2000' or more in altitude between climbs?

Take care,

--Noel

Try downloading the flightlogs from SSA.org sailplane racing, contest
results and use seeyou to look at the flights and statistics. Usually
the top three spots for each contest day are posted. That will
provide much more reliable data than anecdotal reports ever will.