Metric details

Every pilot's reading on every behaviour, family by family.

Analysis computed

best: could be chance (0.30)

#	Pilot	NonSink%
1	Geoff Wong	56
2	Gareth Carter	56
3	Richard Binstead	55
4	Rafael Esquillaro	52
5	Andy McMurray	65
6	Phillip Mansell	57
7	Martin Joyce	57
8	Wally Arcidiacono	55
9	Jan Bennewitz	58
10	Frank Adler	47
11	Brian Webb	55
12	James Thompson	54
13	Kari Ellis	44
14	Zane Priebbenow	56

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 combine the estimates 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	11.2	293	1499
12:00 AEDT	12.4	279	2
13:00 AEDT	11.5	296	458
14:00 AEDT	11.1	309	536
15:00 AEDT	11.0	272	423
16:00 AEDT	12.4	274	80

Each circle gives one wind estimate. GlideComp uses centre drift where it can, and ground-speed modulation where it cannot. The direction is the vector mean of the estimates, in degrees the wind blows FROM (0° = north). The speed is the median of their magnitudes, because the length of a vector mean falls toward zero when the directions scatter.

Hours are shown in the competition’s time zone.

Wind by leg

Leg	Flown	Pilots	Circling	Speed (km/h)	Dir (°)	n	From pilots
ell094 (SSS)→tho084	13:45–14:02 AEDT	14	13:48–14:00 AEDT	14.5	277	59	12
tho084→bog065	13:52–16:01 AEDT	9	13:55–15:56 AEDT	10.4	303	546	9
bog065→ber062	14:51–16:17 AEDT	3	14:52–16:03 AEDT	11.1	265	161	3
ber062→tow040 (ESS)	—	0	—	—	—	0	0
tow040 (ESS)→ell030 (GOAL)	—	0	—	—	—	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. The first row is the whole task, measured over every climb of the day in one set, and not as an average of the hourly rows. This metric describes the day, so it has no value for each pilot.

Climb by hour

Period	Median (m/s)	p90 (m/s)	n
Whole task	1.1	2.4	525
12:00 AEDT	1.0	1.1	2
13:00 AEDT	1.2	2.7	184
14:00 AEDT	1.1	2.2	196
15:00 AEDT	1.0	2.1	128
16:00 AEDT	0.8	1.9	15

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. The whole-task row is measured over all of those climbs together, not averaged from the hours.

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	13:00–14:00 AEDT
Earliest takeoff	12:55 AEDT
Median takeoff	13:20 AEDT
Latest takeoff	13:32 AEDT

Best conditions is the one-hour window with the strongest median climb (1.2 m/s), among hours with enough climbs to be representative (≥20% of the busiest hour).

best: could be chance (0.26)

#	Pilot	Out-climb	Core s	LeaveRate	Kept%	TopOut%	Round
1	Geoff Wong	53 (34 shared climbs)	54 (28 climbs ≥ 60 s)	0.9 (21 climbs ≥ 90 s)	88 (21/24 circling bouts led to climbs)	70 (mean on-course altitude 43% of band)	0.16 (179 circles, 44% left)
2	Gareth Carter	65 (39 shared climbs)	52 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.8 (11 climbs ≥ 90 s)	89 (16/18 circling bouts led to climbs)	87 (mean on-course altitude 62% of band)	0.16 (111 circles, 10% left)
3	Richard Binstead	72 (36 shared climbs)	62 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.4 (10 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (19/23 circling bouts led to climbs)	45 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	0.15 (139 circles, 1% left)
4	Rafael Esquillaro	75 (38 shared climbs)	41 (16 climbs ≥ 60 s)	2.1 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	95 (20/21 circling bouts led to climbs)	68 (mean on-course altitude 55% of band)	0.16 (82 circles, 5% left)
5	Andy McMurray	71 (27 shared climbs)	52 (17 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	76 (16/21 circling bouts led to climbs)	61 (mean on-course altitude 48% of band)	0.16 (214 circles, 49% left)
6	Phillip Mansell	55 (33 shared climbs)	37 (19 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.2 (13 climbs ≥ 90 s)	87 (20/23 circling bouts led to climbs)	46 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	0.10 (129 circles, 85% left)
7	Martin Joyce	64 (30 shared climbs)	80 (20 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.0 (19 climbs ≥ 90 s)	80 (20/25 circling bouts led to climbs)	44 (mean on-course altitude 35% of band)	0.13 (136 circles, 2% left)
8	Wally Arcidiacono	69 (28 shared climbs)	55 (22 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.1 (18 climbs ≥ 90 s)	87 (13/15 circling bouts led to climbs)	65 (mean on-course altitude 56% of band)	0.17 (119 circles, 11% left)
9	Jan Bennewitz	69 (42 shared climbs)	48 (21 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (15 climbs ≥ 90 s)	88 (15/17 circling bouts led to climbs)	29 (mean on-course altitude 29% of band)	0.16 (124 circles, 47% left)
10	Frank Adler	74 (19 shared climbs)	47 (9 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.9 (6 climbs ≥ 90 s)	67 (4/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	73 (mean on-course altitude 53% of band)	0.13 (54 circles, 31% left)
11	Brian Webb	57 (20 shared climbs)	70 (8 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.7 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	90 (9/10 circling bouts led to climbs)	70 (mean on-course altitude 41% of band)	0.14 (56 circles, 18% left)
12	James Thompson	67 (24 shared climbs)	35 (12 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (9 climbs ≥ 90 s)	83 (10/12 circling bouts led to climbs)	10 (mean on-course altitude 30% of band)	0.20 (91 circles, 3% left)
13	Kari Ellis	70 (11 shared climbs)	52 (5 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.3 (3 climbs ≥ 90 s)	100 (3/3 circling bouts led to climbs)	63 (mean on-course altitude 40% of band)	0.16 (17 circles, 0% left)
14	Zane Priebbenow	65 (15 shared climbs)	45 (8 climbs ≥ 60 s)	1.9 (5 climbs ≥ 90 s)	100 (6/6 circling bouts led to climbs)	47 (mean on-course altitude 42% of band)	0.11 (48 circles, 29% left)

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.

Acceptance by hour

Hour	Median accepted (%)	pilots
13:00 AEDT	100	14
14:00 AEDT	100	14
15:00 AEDT	85	10
16:00 AEDT	55	6

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

How round and consistent the circles were

Measured in ratio · no expected direction

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. There is no expected direction: a rough trace can be a pilot chasing a drifting or broken core rather than a pilot circling badly.

Turn direction across the field: 28% left (1499 circles).

best: could be chance (0.45)

#	Pilot	GlideSpd	GlideL/D	Wide%	Dolphin%
1	Geoff Wong	35.1 (24 glides, 98 min gliding)	1.07 (3 legs compared)	41 (3 legs completed)	8 (524 of 6550 m gained outside thermals)
2	Gareth Carter	41.7 (24 glides, 71 min gliding)	1.18 (3 legs compared)	16 (3 legs completed)	9 (411 of 4688 m gained outside thermals)
3	Richard Binstead	41.6 (25 glides, 84 min gliding)	0.96 (3 legs compared)	47 (3 legs completed)	10 (647 of 6805 m gained outside thermals)
4	Rafael Esquillaro	40.0 (19 glides, 67 min gliding)	1.24 (2 legs compared)	32 (2 legs completed)	8 (400 of 4807 m gained outside thermals)
5	Andy McMurray	42.0 (24 glides, 105 min gliding)	1.32 (2 legs compared)	71 (2 legs completed)	7 (429 of 5952 m gained outside thermals)
6	Phillip Mansell	36.1 (28 glides, 88 min gliding)	0.90 (2 legs compared)	57 (2 legs completed)	10 (704 of 6705 m gained outside thermals)
7	Martin Joyce	34.1 (21 glides, 79 min gliding)	0.87 (2 legs compared)	46 (2 legs completed)	6 (334 of 5525 m gained outside thermals)
8	Wally Arcidiacono	39.3 (21 glides, 78 min gliding)	1.11 (2 legs compared)	35 (2 legs completed)	8 (411 of 5088 m gained outside thermals)
9	Jan Bennewitz	29.2 (23 glides, 79 min gliding)	0.82 (2 legs compared)	51 (2 legs completed)	13 (636 of 4914 m gained outside thermals)
10	Frank Adler	40.3 (6 glides, 35 min gliding)	1.05 (1 leg compared)	17 (1 leg completed)	15 (266 of 1826 m gained outside thermals)
11	Brian Webb	41.0 (9 glides, 36 min gliding)	0.95 (1 leg compared)	21 (1 leg completed)	11 (173 of 1639 m gained outside thermals)
12	James Thompson	37.7 (14 glides, 54 min gliding)	0.81 (1 leg compared)	20 (1 leg completed)	14 (396 of 2806 m gained outside thermals)
13	Kari Ellis	37.1 (7 glides, 26 min gliding)	1.24 (1 leg compared)	18 (1 leg completed)	5 (61 of 1251 m gained outside thermals)
14	Zane Priebbenow	37.2 (11 glides, 33 min gliding)	1.00 (1 leg compared)	13 (1 leg completed)	12 (220 of 1796 m gained outside thermals)

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.

Field glide speed: median 38.5 km/h · p90 41.6 km/h (14 pilots)

best: clear pattern (0.76)

#	Pilot	Floor%	LowSaves	km/climb	Search%
1	Geoff Wong	45 (11 descents, lowest -24% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -11% of band)	1.4 (mean shared-climb pctile 44%)	30
2	Gareth Carter	49 (11 descents, lowest -9% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 2% of band)	1.6 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	27
3	Richard Binstead	31 (15 descents, lowest -18% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -9% of band)	1.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 54%)	33
4	Rafael Esquillaro	47 (12 descents, lowest -4% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 7% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 57%)	26
5	Andy McMurray	32 (10 descents, lowest -28% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -23% of band)	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 40%)	38
6	Phillip Mansell	12 (14 descents, lowest -11% of band)	2.0 (deepest save from -2% of band)	0.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 49%)	33
7	Martin Joyce	13 (16 descents, lowest -12% of band)	3.0 (deepest save from -12% of band)	1.2 (mean shared-climb pctile 47%)	32
8	Wally Arcidiacono	44 (13 descents, lowest 5% of band)	1.0 (deepest save from 5% of band)	1.0 (mean shared-climb pctile 52%)	22
9	Jan Bennewitz	13 (14 descents, lowest -28% of band)	0.0	0.7 (mean shared-climb pctile 48%)	47
10	Frank Adler	61 (5 descents, lowest 27% of band)	0.0	1.9 (mean shared-climb pctile 51%)	32
11	Brian Webb	52 (5 descents, lowest -31% of band)	0.0	1.5 (mean shared-climb pctile 42%)	33
12	James Thompson	47 (7 descents, lowest -33% of band)	0.0	—	39
13	Kari Ellis	33 (5 descents, lowest 18% of band)	0.0	—	20
14	Zane Priebbenow	32 (6 descents, lowest -32% of band)	0.0	—	35

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.

Speed-section phase shares, field p25/median/p75: climb 29/33/36% · glide 30/35/42% · search 27/32/35%

best: too few pilots (0.52)

#	Pilot	InGaggle%	Marked%	LeaveWin%
1	Geoff Wong	40	34 (12/35 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
2	Gareth Carter	56	34 (11/32 climbs marked)	—
3	Richard Binstead	37	29 (11/38 climbs marked)	50 (1W–1L (2 departures))
4	Rafael Esquillaro	58	47 (14/30 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
5	Andy McMurray	42	33 (10/30 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
6	Phillip Mansell	29	22 (11/49 climbs marked)	100 (1W–0L (1 departure))
7	Martin Joyce	20	6 (2/32 climbs marked)	—
8	Wally Arcidiacono	11	31 (10/32 climbs marked)	—
9	Jan Bennewitz	21	34 (14/41 climbs marked)	—
10	Frank Adler	59	45 (5/11 climbs marked)	—
11	Brian Webb	58	71 (10/14 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
12	James Thompson	32	52 (13/25 climbs marked)	0 (0W–1L (1 departure))
13	Kari Ellis	40	78 (7/9 climbs marked)	—
14	Zane Priebbenow	17	20 (3/15 climbs marked)	—

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.

25 gaggle episodes detected (peak size 11 pilots).

best: could be chance (0.30)

#	Pilot	StartDly	TimeLost	FinalGl
1	Geoff Wong	18	1093	—
2	Gareth Carter	17	0	—
3	Richard Binstead	60	505	—
4	Rafael Esquillaro	26	0	—
5	Andy McMurray	92	480	—
6	Phillip Mansell	16	1076	—
7	Martin Joyce	452	1347	—
8	Wally Arcidiacono	6	65	1.94 (left last climb 1.5 km out at 1095 m)
9	Jan Bennewitz	456	2621	—
10	Frank Adler	3	7	—
11	Brian Webb	90	98	—
12	James Thompson	58	123	—
13	Kari Ellis	60	66	—
14	Zane Priebbenow	437	0	—

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.

Start execution

Pilot	Delay	Alt m	Band %	Behind km
Geoff Wong	0:18	1860	95	0.3
Gareth Carter	0:17	1908	99	0.3
Richard Binstead	1:00	1811	91	0.8
Rafael Esquillaro	0:26	1868	96	0.3
Andy McMurray	1:32	1649	76	1.1
Phillip Mansell	0:16	1668	78	0.0
Martin Joyce	7:32	1650	76	4.2
Wally Arcidiacono	0:06	1869	96	0.1
Jan Bennewitz	7:36	1498	63	4.3
Frank Adler	0:03	1834	93	0.0
Brian Webb	1:30	1609	73	1.1
James Thompson	0:58	1700	81	0.6
Kari Ellis	1:00	1462	60	0.5
Zane Priebbenow	7:17	1485	62	4.0

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.

Gareth Carter, over 3 compared legs: -44:29 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→tho084	tho084→bog065	bog065→ber062	ber062→ESS	Total
Geoff Wong	+0:00	+0:00	+0:00	—	+0:00
Gareth Carter	-0:20	+0:41	-44:50	—	-44:29
Richard Binstead	-0:37	-0:33	-9:47	—	-10:57
Rafael Esquillaro	-0:19	+0:43	—	—	+0:24
Andy McMurray	+1:30	+25:27	—	—	+26:57
Phillip Mansell	-1:39	+36:50	—	—	+35:10
Martin Joyce	-0:20	+41:21	—	—	+41:01
Wally Arcidiacono	+1:08	+3:53	—	—	+5:01
Jan Bennewitz	+0:52	+61:46	—	—	+62:38
Frank Adler	+0:09	—	—	—	+0:09
Brian Webb	+1:40	—	—	—	+1:40
James Thompson	+2:06	—	—	—	+2:06
Kari Ellis	+1:08	—	—	—	+1:08
Zane Priebbenow	-0:17	—	—	—	-0:17

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.

A line that stops early is a pilot who landed. The top 5 are coloured; the table below has every pilot.

Horserace — minutes behind the leader at each turnpoint

Pilot	ell094	tho084	bog065	ber062	tow040	ell030
Geoff Wong	0.3	1.7	0.5	44.5	—	—
Gareth Carter	0.2	1.3	0.8	0.0	—	—
Richard Binstead	0.9	1.8	0.0	34.2	—	—
Rafael Esquillaro	0.4	1.5	1.0	—	—	—
Andy McMurray	1.5	4.4	28.7	—	—	—
Phillip Mansell	0.2	0.0	35.6	—	—	—
Martin Joyce	7.5	8.6	48.7	—	—	—
Wally Arcidiacono	0.0	2.6	5.3	—	—	—
Jan Bennewitz	7.5	9.8	70.4	—	—	—
Frank Adler	0.0	1.6	—	—	—	—
Brian Webb	1.5	4.6	—	—	—	—
James Thompson	0.9	4.4	—	—	—	—
Kari Ellis	1.0	3.5	—	—	—	—
Zane Priebbenow	7.2	8.4	—	—	—	—

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.

Metric details

Day profile & windbest: could be chance (0.30)

Climbingbest: could be chance (0.26)

Glidingbest: could be chance (0.45)

Glide speed between climbs

Decision-makingbest: clear pattern (0.76)

Share of race time spent hunting for the next climb

Gagglebest: too few pilots (0.52)

Time spent flying with a gaggle

Race craftbest: could be chance (0.30)

best: could be chance (0.30)

best: could be chance (0.26)

best: could be chance (0.45)

best: clear pattern (0.76)

best: too few pilots (0.52)

best: could be chance (0.30)