http://www.bogongcup.com/current.html

I am interested in what happened in the second task of the 2010 Bogong Cup. I
decided to use SeeYou and some of the other pilots' track logs to review what I
had experienced. I provide this as an example of what you can do with an
analysis tool to help you understand your own flying.

On the last day of the Bogong Cup we were on the south west facing Mt. Emu
launch above the Kiewa valley on a day with lighter west winds than on the
previous seven days. Still they were west winds and our task was to fight them
to the west to get a second turnpoint over a mountain range to Clearspot near
Bright, in the Ovens valley.

I launched fairly early in the queue into difficult prospects. After getting low
in front of launch I started working weak and broken lift on a ridge line. I was
staring at the prospect of landing before I found this bit of lift so I kept
telling myself to be patient, to hang on to it and to keep track of it as the
wind blew me and it back to the east over the tree covered hill side that I was
darn close to. My focus at this point was quite narrow and close.

It felt good as the lift improved, as I climbed faster and faster relative to
those pilots that I could see near me around the launch, and as other pilots
started launching seeing my prospects improve. I felt proud of myself as I
climbed up above almost everyone (maybe everyone). My focus expanded to see if
other pilots were climbing faster (they weren't) and to where I would go to
next.

After climbing to 6,500', which is 2,000' over launch, I  proceeded north
along the ridge line to find, on my own, the next thermal. There were a few
pilots north of me, most of them five kilometers to the north. I went to a
slight notch in the ridge line ,an area that I suspected might yield a thermal,
and it did.  I was able to add another thousand feet to my altitude (up to
7,500'). It was just a mark of my superior airmanship (in my own mind) that half
a dozen other pilots came to join me in this sweet little thermal. I was plenty
high, I had plenty of time to get near the start cylinder, and I had plenty of
other pilots around to help out.

The next move was toward the edge of the twenty kilometer entry start circle a
few kilometers further north. Julia had out climbed me in the last thermal and
led the way. She and I left the others circling behind us as we headed out.
There were a few pilots to our north closer to the start cylinder but they were
low and essentially telling us that the lift ahead was poor.

Julia found lift right at the edge of the entry start cylinder which somewhat
co-incidentally was right over the last high point on the ridge before the large
gap in the ridge line at Coral Bank. The task committee had actually meant to
size the start cylinder so that its edge would be in the middle of the gap, but
there was a slight miscalculation.

Julia found the lift first, but I found better lift just before her spot while
she lost her lift. I started turning with tight circles (a very visible signal
of good lift) and soon everyone who had been with us in the last thermal came
and joined me at about my level, 6000'. Julia came over to join in and was 800'
over the rest of us. Rohan was still back near launch. It was nineteen minutes
before the start window opened. I had a good idea where everyone was. I was in a
good position. I was climbing. It felt good.

I had been leading finding three thermals so that was inspiring. I was
confident. I wasn't on top of everyone, but I wasn't below everyone either.

This thermal right at the edge of the entry start cylinder drifted us just
inside the cylinder over the next nine minutes. At this point I was feeling like
I was in a good position, if only the thermal would hold for the next ten
minutes. At 8,700' I was 100' over Jonny who had just left the thermal, about
equal with everyone else, except Corinna and Oli at 9,100'. But it was not to
last.

Jonny is the gold triangle, Rohan in green, I'm red.

I was definitely concerned as the thermal weakened as we approached 9,000'. That
was supposed to be the top of the lift according to the forecast, and I could
see that it was unlikely that we would get much higher and that we still had ten
minutes to wait for the start time. Also we were drifting into the start
cylinder and I have a tendency to search for lift outside an entry start
cylinder (I am not alone in this tendency) which decreases my chances of
actually finding lift.

The thermal quit on us and we all headed south west looking for something to
maintain us at our exalted altitude. Zero lift at this point would have been
fine. Julia had already left taking the second start time.

Jonny, Lukas and to some extent Corinna were the most successful in holding onto
their altitude. I was not, sinking to 7,100' in the next ten minutes. Jonny and
Lukas found a little less than 50 fpm to stay with, while I found 180 fpm down.
This was disheartening. I felt a bit hopeless against the down air.

The start window was opening so all the pilots headed back toward the edge of
the entry start circle. A thousand feet lower than Jonny, Oli or Corinna, I
joined Rohan at my altitude in a thermal just inside the start cylinder a minute
and a half after the start window opened. We both gained a thousand feet getting
ourselves into the game.

At this point I figured it was a good idea to have a few pilots out in front,
after all what choice did I have, and I needed the altitude that I was gaining
as I climbed to be sure that I could make it across the gap safely and with a
good chance of finding lift on the other side on the top of the ridge line and
not down the face of the mountain range. So climbing in this thermal was what I
needed to do.

This is the situation three minutes and ten seconds after the last start window
opened:

Lukas Bader at 7,100' was out in the lead to the right (east) having just headed
off when the window opened. Steve Blenkisop at 7,600' was leading the pilots a
kilometer upwind to the west. He was followed by Jonny, a thousand feet higher,
Corinna, 400' below Jonny, and Oli, a hundred feet higher than Jonny. Rohan at
7,800', me at 8,000' and Hans Kiefinger at 8,800' brought up the rear of our
little train.

I could only see Steve and Rohan. Apparently I didn't look up enough to spot
Jonny, Corinna and Oli. Lukas may have been too far away and too far to the
right for me to easily see. I formed a mental picture of two pilots in front of
me leading with Julia way out in front having left nineteen minutes before.

At this point I wanted to be higher and closer to the front, but with markers
out in front I felt that I could leave it up to them to find the next thermal. I
was high enough that I didn't have to take anything but the best lift. I wanted
to fly straight and fast until the next strong thermal.

Looking back on it now, I wish I had been able to spot the other pilots to have
a better idea of my situation and what I could expect coming up down the range.

Continued in the next issue.