http://ozreport.com/data/414Paris.igc

http://ozreport.com/data/414Mike.igc

Paris flying the Aeros Combat:

Mike flying the Moyes RX 3.5:

A higher resolution version is available by clicking on above.

Mike and Paris flew together the whole way. Paris is the red line. Mike appears
to be just above Paris for the whole way (but they are actually at about the
same altitude) until near the end where he gets 1,200'
lower but soon makes it up. Animating both tracklogs in SeeYou demonstrates how
close they flew together.

Paris writes:

First, I think the altitude readings on our track logs are a bit
off (I'm probably 120 feet higher than it shows, because during those last
glides, we were dead even on altitude). But my recollection of what happened
matches these track logs very well:

Mike and I had been flying closely together from about the 100km point, and at
about 45 km out, we were fanned out on glide. At this point, Mike hit a climb
first--I came in beneath him by a couple of hundred feet, and much to my
chagrin, I couldn't find anything nearly as strong as what he was in, though not
for a lack of looking (hence my 264fpm and his 370fpm and his gaining nearly a
thousand feet on me)--a classic "pinching," I think.

We then glided more or less together about 6-8 km to the next climb on a ridge
(though he was quite a bit higher than me now)--Jonas was already at the ridge
climbing, and I came in just below him, with Mike arriving a few hundred feet
above Jonas. At first I had something fairly weak just beneath Mike and Jonas,
but then I shifted over about a km to the end of the ridge and caught a much
better climb (I don't recall how strong it was exactly--5-600 fmp average(?)
With some stronger surges).

Len soon joined me at my altitude here and we topped it out together. Mike had
already topped out his climb and gone ahead on glide by the time I found this
thermal (and so had Jonas, though he was a fair bit lower than Mike). Mike and
Jonas then stopped about 5km further on in a weak climb over the next ridge
crossing.

Because I had just climbed out in a thermal quite a bit stronger than what Jonas
and Mike had just climbed in, I (with Len) was able to come into the next
thermal a few hundred feet higher than Mike, and maybe a thousand feet above
Jonas (who apparently came into this area a little too low and wasn't doing very
well). Lucas also joined us in this thermal at the same altitude as me at this
point (I'm not sure where he came from).

Mike was climbing quite a bit better than us below (he was evidently in a surge
that hadn't reached us yet), so he eventually climbed up to us. Given my
standing in the comp, I was happy to stay in the weak lift waiting for him,
knowing that my best strategy at this point was to simply fly in to goal with
Mike and be as conservative as Mike was willing to be (which fortunately was
quite conservative).

Then when Mike reached our altitude, the surge came with him, and Lucas and I
continued climbing with him, all of us remaining together for probably another
thousand feet or so until our instruments said we had final glide.

So from the moment Mike climbed up to us, we all three flew the remainder of the
flight pretty much wingtip to wingtip together (this is the point where our
track logs converge--the track log makes it look like I'm below Mike here, but
we're actually right next to each other for the remainder of the flight). We got
into a sinky line on final so had to stop for one more relatively weak short
climb before making it in.

Lucas, Mike and I all left this last thermal together at the same altitude, but
I seemed to be gliding a little better than Mike on the high speed final, so I
came in a few seconds ahead of him. Lucas must have been a little more
conservative on his final, so he came in about 10 seconds or so behind us.

Len and Jonas were both flying more aggressively than Mike, Lucas and I at this
point--Len kept pressing on during these last 23 km and made goal about 10
seconds ahead of us. Jonas was much lower than us and unfortunately landed a few
km short of goal. I imagine I would have been as aggressive as Jonas if I was in
his position (3rd overall with only about 50 points behind first), so I
completely sympathize with his risky strategy.