Even though I treated the Sept 13 Elsinore event as a cross country flight rather than a race to goal, it's worth doing some analysis of what I did or didn't do in terms of racing. At 77km, this was my second longest ever cross country flight, just 12km short of my personal best at 87km.
The results are telling - Dimitri blitzed the rest of the field on speed, with a 40,5 km/h average speed - right up there in world class racing pilots in my opinion.
He did this by using doing several things that I didn't do:
- Got really high at the start, turning very tightly in a single huge thermal way to the south. I haven't checked with him, but this thermal was potentially indicated by a sailplane that climbed out very quickly in that area, perhaps some local knowledge, and also that it was still sunny at the south end of the convergence cloud
- Raced on full speed the whole way
- Flew straight on the course line most of the time, which was possible because of the extremely high cloudbase (14,000ft)
The results are telling - Dimitri blitzed the rest of the field on speed, with a 40,5 km/h average speed - right up there in world class racing pilots in my opinion.
He did this by using doing several things that I didn't do:
- Got really high at the start, turning very tightly in a single huge thermal way to the south. I haven't checked with him, but this thermal was potentially indicated by a sailplane that climbed out very quickly in that area, perhaps some local knowledge, and also that it was still sunny at the south end of the convergence cloud
- Raced on full speed the whole way
- Flew straight on the course line most of the time, which was possible because of the extremely high cloudbase (14,000ft)
| Id | Name | Nat | Glider | Sponsor | SS | ES | Time | km/h | Dist. | Dist. Points | Lead. Points | Time Points | Total | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 235 | Dmitri Soloviev | M | USA | Ozone Delta 2 | 13:37:51 | 15:16:28 | 01:38:37 | 40,5 | 68,22 | 440,6 | 62,4 | 497,0 | 1000 | |
| 2 | 270 | Jason Kinch | M | USA | Niviuk Artik 2 | 13:18:38 | 15:18:53 | 02:00:15 | 33,3 | 68,22 | 440,6 | 105,5 | 283,7 | 830 | |
| 3 | 205 | Russ Detwiler | M | USA | Nova Mentor 3 | 13:20:26 | 15:21:46 | 02:01:20 | 33,0 | 68,22 | 440,6 | 76,6 | 276,6 | 794 | |
| 4 | 243 | Mark Graham | M | USA | Air Design Volt | 13:18:44 | 15:38:23 | 02:19:39 | 28,6 | 68,22 | 440,6 | 53,5 | 170,1 | 664 | |
| 5 | 272 | Phil Russman | M | USA | Ozone Mantra 4 | 13:35:19 | 15:59:45 | 02:24:26 | 27,7 | 68,22 | 440,6 | 11,5 | 145,2 | 597 | |
| 6 | 229 | Peter Hill | M | USA | Ozone Delta 2010 | 13:29:25 | 16:15:36 | 02:46:11 | 24,1 | 68,22 | 440,6 | 43,2 | 41,2 | 525 | |
| 7 | 233 | Allen Thoe | M | USA | Ozone Rush 4 | 13:31:36 | 27,20 | 308,1 | 308 | ||||||
| 8 | 269 | Josh Gelb | M | USA | Gradient Bumblebee | 13:29:40 | 26,92 | 306,6 | 307 |
Here is what I did by comparison:
- Climbed slowly but consistently at the start right under the big convergence cloud in the shadow. Even though I climbed higher than I had ever flown (1000ft higher than ever before), I didn't particularly try and optimise my climb rate, or even take the climb to the top (I was getting worried about cloud suck)
- Ignored the sailplane further to the south who climbed 10,000ft in minutes.
- Allowed myself to get low, which given the day's conditions, was completely unnecessary. Speed to fly theory dictates staying at the height range where the thermal climb rates were highest, which I am guessing was 8000-13000ft.
- I underestimated the headwind at the end of the race. I should have flown into the wind at higher altitude, instead of ending up lower down, battling 25km/h winds for the final 5km at low altitude