AT, TAT, MAT?

On Oct 13, 6:39*am, Brian wrote:
Just one more comment. The thing that makes the top pilots so good is
the ability to adapt the or even predict the conditions. *They know
when to go fast and the know when not to. They know when they can get
low and when they shouldn't. How they do this is just basic soaring
skills but they somehow do it better than the 2nd place guy. I have
yet heard anyone explain how they do this consistantly. I suspect it
is just years of experience.

How to come in at the back of the pack I am a much better expert at,
but it is the same things that will put you there. Falling out of the
lift band and having to climb back up in the 1 knot thermal after
passing up the 4 knot thermal will lose you a lot of time. And staying
high and stopping often in really strong conditions with a large lift
band will cause you to fall behind as well. As you can see what works
one day may not work the next or even from one hour to the next. The
pilot that can shift gears at the right time and fly both of these
conditions best on the same day will win the day. The pilot that can
adapt on a consistant basis will win the contest.

The math of getting around the couse fast is pretty simple. Fly the
McCready numbers for the conditions and you will do well. You will do
excellent if you can fly the McCready speed for the next thermal
instead of the last one. Of course there is some art to find the
thermals as well.

Brian

I agree with the first point Brian makes but not necessarily the
second. IMHO there are two fundamental and ironclad rules for fast
racing:

1) Don't take weak thermals - by this I mean take only the strongest
20% or so on average.
2) Don't get low.

Brian's first point speaks to the inherent tension between 1) and 2).
Sailplane racing is a game of maximizing probabilities - if you can
understand your odds at any given point in the flight you will fly
faster than if you can't. By odds I mean things like the probability
of finding a top 20% thermal from where you are at any given time.
McCready speeds are a nice way to think about whether you should be
flying faster or slower for the average lift conditions and through
patches of sink, but being off by even 15 knots on cruise speed is
going to make only about a 1.5 minute difference in task time over a
3.5 hour task. By contrast taking a single thermal at 4 knots instead
of 5 knots for 3000 feet costs you the same time. Fussing around for
three turns in zero sink before you core a thermal cost the same time.
I fly 85-knots dry most days, 95 knots if it's smokin' and 75 knots if
I'm in trouble. That's it.

The main skill I see in going fast is knowing when to press on for the
better thermal versus knowing that the one you've got is the best
you're likely to get before you run out of altitude and ideas. Always
feeling the urge to "press on" - and knowing when to resist it - is
the main point.

I remember taking a start one day last year and gliding, gliding,
gliding for something like 45 miles finding nothing great. I passed on
a couple of 3 knot thermals and was getting low enough that I was
about to turn back towards some fields rather than press on. I pushed
into a wind shadow bowl for one last shot at a climb and found an 11-
knotter. Within three turns a 100 seeding point pilot rolled in
beneath me. I found that thermal at the edge of my comfort zone - I
recall he wasn't particularly nervous about his altitude. For both of
us an 11-knot climb for 7,000 feet really helped the old average.

It's all about managing your odds.

9B