me, myself & I

No, this one is not gonna be the expression of my narcissism. Actually it's quite the opposite.

I've been thinking about and analyzing my glider flying for quite a while now and I'm slowly coming to some conclusions. Well, at least I think that I am considering the fact that I seem to have identified some of the problems causing the "not winning". Every time I go for a comp I keep saying that I'm going there to win while in fact I'm aiming much lower than that. This is one of the issues but I don't really think of it as a significant one.

We had a lot of flying in extremely changing and diverse weather conditions during the recent Nationals and this sort of opened my eyes to the problems I am encountering. We had quite a few low and weak days in the blue or under Cirrus. It was also low and slow but under overcast or rain during the Worlds in Sweden. I seem to be doing well in this kind of weather. I don't land out and keep coming back home no matter how bad it gets. As long as it is sort of soarable I'm able to stay airborne and patiently move kilometer by kilometer even if it takes hours. 

My problem though shows when the weather gets good or really good. I'm not good in changing gears and constantly moving fast. I am able to go really fast for parts of the flight but unable to keep the good speed up by getting too conservative too early. Switching to survival mode occurs way too fast and too high after missing one or two good thermals. I'm turning into the pessimistic mode and slow down even if it's not really necessary. Interesting though that I'm going much faster knowing that there is someone behind me. Do I like the "tail company" or is it my narcissism showing again in form of "show off" flying? Who knows.

Meanwhile I clocked almost 1200 hours in gliders and got really inpatient in Benalla. I should be flying better and faster by now, shouldn't I? I know that I can go fast. All my records are the best proof and I've flown them having way less hours than I do now. So what's the problem? Do I feel comfortable only on my own, flying the task that I have set for myself? If I could turn back the clock would I be able to fly all these records faster in a given weather? If yes, there is no problem but I can't prove it. I can't prove it to myself and this is the biggest issue. I got pessimistic and demotivated and this has to be fixed. But how?

I started by talking to others thinking that I'm not the only one having the feeling that I have reached some sort of plateau and I'm not progressing at all or fast enough. Sure enough it turned out I'm not the only one. I talked to the best and most experienced ones and some of them "been there, done that and got a T-Shirt" (typical Aussie saying as I was told). The key is not to give up and find a way out asap. So I'm searching for the way.

I already figured that I'm good in surviving in sometimes extremely weak conditions. I also think that my thermalling is not too bad. Flying with other gliders I noticed that I'm often climbing more effectively in a thermal. Maybe I should say thank you to the gliders that I'm flying or the fact that I'm usually bit lighter than the boys. One way or the other this part seems to work fine as well.
My XC tactic based on the development of WX is the thing to work on. Flying records and competitions is very different and therefore different tactics need to be applied. Flying a speed records is all about yourself and the speed you have to achieve. It's an easy calculation including the speed to achieve and the minimum thermal strength you have to take. After start you just keep pushing till you hit the right thermal and basically continue like this for the rest of your flight. Usually half way into the task you already know if your goal is achievable or not and a decision on continuing or breaking up can be made. In a competition though one more essential factor comes into the equation - other pilots and what they are doing. Everyone has the same task and same air under their wings. The clue is to make the best out of it.

Years back I was told by someone experienced to divide my working height band in 2 pieces. First one - from cloud base to half way there from the ground, and second one - from half the cloud base to the ground. I was supposed to take only the good thermals in the first part and be happy with weaker ones in the second one. What was I doing? I was stopping for unnecessary top up's not to fall into the second band.

I mentioned the other day that I had a great talk with Tobi on the grid. He suggested dividing the working height into 3 pieces. As an example lets say we have 6000 ft cloud base:

1. 6000 ft-4000 ft - if I think I hit a very good thermal I stop and allow myself one turn. If I don't have it nailed by then I leave it and keep going.
2. 4000 ft-2000 ft - I allow myself two turns trying to center the thermal. If the average is still not satisfying, I'm leaving.
3. 2000 ft - ground - Survival mode. If I have something I stay there and work it out to go back at least one level higher.

This makes more sense to me and allows effective usage of wider height band instead of racing in only half the air available. By the way looking at Tobi's results there's gotta be something about it :-)

Another thing I definitely have to work on is my final glide. Again, I'm too conservative. This has something to do with my previous experiences. I was flying empty Jantar Std. 3 in Poland. 50 km out I had my final glide with MC=4 kts and L/D required 24. It seemed to me like there was no way I wouldn't make it back. Well ... I ended up in a potato paddock exactly 1100 meters short of the airfield. As it turned out the headwind was much stronger than I was showing on the screen and of course I've chosen a path through sink streeting. It was many, many years back and I should be smarter by now.
Another example just few weeks back during the state comps in Ararat. 52 km out and 3000 ft (!!!) above final glide. Last thermal underneath a developing Cb was booming and I took it all the way up to convert it into speed. The last 52 km with 100 kts would make a difference on a short task. The approach area was hilly and as soon as I've fallen below a certain altitude sink was the only thing on my way. This would not be a problem here in Horsham, where you can keep flying straight till you touch the ground and then call for a tow plane to get you out of the paddock 10 times the size of the airfield. It scared the s... out of me in Ararat but somehow I made the runway. Barely. As it turned out I was not the only one with this problem.
It really happens - so how do I calculate my final glide?
I think I have to do some more intensive thinking on this subject. Also, the old portable hardware and software that I'm using now don't do the job properly anymore. A very needed update on everything will come soon ;-)

The more I think about it the more I wanna go out there and do well in a comp. It's good Horsham Week is coming up in the next weeks and I'll be able to put my new tactics to a test.