World's Fastest Glider Race - 12 Lessons How To Win - Most Detailed Glider Race Analysis On YouTube

[@johnseaborn5852]

Thank you for posting the most in-depth contest flight analysis ever seen. This fight was an especially memorable one for me. Your straight from the cockpit video format combined with your first-rate analysis uncovers some of the most important lessons about racing sailplanes in strong weather. Soaring, particularly contest flying, is a journey on which there is always room for improvement, and the participants never stop learning.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Many thanks John! I really appreciate your feedback. The best way to progress is to learn from the best :-) If you can think of things I missed or that I should focus on specifically, I’d love to talk to you about that. Thanks for all your help and mentorship!

[@leonardzl1]

@@ChessInTheAir Thanks for this. I had a front row seat for most of this master performance. I could even watch John pull away on FLARM when our paths split at Delano Peak. You might note that a cooperative buddy flying with you can reduce competitive risk, help with optimizing lines and provide motivation to keep pressing. A8 and I were essentially in visible range for over 2 hours in the heart of the day. No comms, flying slightly different lines. We leap frogged each other probably a half dozen times, exploiting the benefits of flying trail, increasing both of our speeds, besides just being incredibly fun. My lesson? When you have a good thing going, don't take a significant competitive risk for a small potential payoff.

[@ChessInTheAir]

@@leonardzl1 Many thanks for sharing your insights, Dave! Yes, I get that playing off each other can be a great benefit. I’m still very new to this contest flying thing and have a lot to learn!

[@ryszardkrolikowski9592]

@@ChessInTheAir Clemens with many of your statements I don't agree. John reads the clouds way better than you, and he can choose better lines. Glider performance would come to play when you are same good cloud reader as John or when some high speed dashes are required. Cloud reading will come to you after few thousands hrs of racing. Try to fly with John in high performance 2 seater to hear his critique, ask questions and cut hrs needed. The best platform is side by side, like Stemme so we can point clouds and see if thermal is pushing you away of the line or it is your response. Thx for posting. Ryszard

[@w8stral]

If I could give 100 thumbs up I would. This is literally the best Glider cross country flight instruction ever covering nearly EVERYTHING other than BAD weather.

[@GLIDERS1]

Great Video !

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks!

[@jstjern1]

I probably learned more from this as a beginning XC pilot than from multiple own flights. Thank you for the sterling work!

[@hankdelen7383]

Wow Clemens, I'm absolutely speechless. What a fantastic expose on competition racing. For those of us who love cross country flying this was an absolute treat and thank you for the considerable effort to put this video up. It's an incremental game of chess and the best pilots always come out in front. Best wishes for the competition flying journey ahead!

[@richnicholson1393]

From a noncurrent SGS1-26 pilot thanks for taking me along on such a great day and for your easily understood analysis.

[@PureGlide]

Yip 01:38:00 always follow the clouds, including the ones right above you! Avoid the side of a cloud. And stop all that turning nonsense :) What an amazing day, it's a whole different ball game with those altitudes, I can't wait to get over there one day! Thanks for the great video too, must have taken ages to make.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi Tim, yes indeed! You should and visit! Would love to fly with you!

[@noelwade]

@Pure Glider / Tim - Good stuff. There are many of us here in the western US that enjoy your content. I'm sure if you make it out to the States we could definitely get you in the air in a few different places. :-)

[@no-engine-no-cry]

Already the first 15 minutes are phenomenal content. Now I have to book some time to watch the whole thing.

[@VijaySingh-qm3gl]

What an amazingly captivating, informational, educational video! You have set a really high standard here - akin to a revolution in production of gliding videos. Others will be scrambling to catch up. You have spent so much time and energy to produce this - thank you so much for this gift.

[@IdeologieUK]

I watched your 1000km triangle task in Colorado. Today I joined my local gliding club at RAF Benley, a famous Battle of Britain field. I guess what I’m saying is thanks for the inspiration to fly again! My last flight as a private pilot flying GA was back in 99! 👍

[@ChessInTheAir]

That’s great! I wish you many wonderful hours in the sky!

[@IdeologieUK]

@@ChessInTheAir Danke Clemens! 👍

[@estebanpettenazza1]

Same Same Thank you for posting the most in-depth contest flight analysis ever seen, keep doing this mate.

[@DON112751]

That was great! Stayed for the whole thing!

[@aircloud1]

I'm a paragliding pilot since 32 years, flew a few comps years ago and still xc. Your video ist absolut fantastic, especially the reason why and why not and so on written below. Maybe the longest vid i've ever seen, but was fun. Congrats for this!

[@BigRigWA]

Awesome video. Really good analysis of the flights and where gains can be made or lost.

[@dinos8557]

What a fantastic analysis of a contest day, greatly appreciated. I watched it over 3 nights after my wife went to bed, the vario which is music to a glider pilots ears is not my wife's favorite sound. I think I was suffering O2 deprivation because of the altitudes or the 1:00 am viewing. I kept getting drowsy but pushed through.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Many thanks for the kind feedback! Much appreciated!

[@desertpoj]

My favourite bit was when you used the Dickensian phrase: ‘unbeknownst to me.’ I also learned a great deal about gliding and my newly acquired Ventus 2C; unfortunately no X or T though. They were certainly not thermals or cruising altitudes from the land of Dickens. Great video, thank you.

[@jamesstory7517]

Thank you so much for the analysis! I feel slightly robbed by my previous instructors for not teaching me this stuff

[@crazymusk]

Great Job!! This might be the best XC learning video available - you should think about sell it on DVD :-) Congratulations!!!! MA

[@timothyclark7052]

This is my favorite glider video on KZbin and I've watched a lot :). I'm new to cross country and I've learned a lot from your video. Thank you for spending the time to put this together!

[@ChessInTheAir]

Great, thanks! I appreciate your kind feedback. Good luck on your XC adventures!

[@timothyclark7052]

​@ChessInTheAir Did you ever get the oudie N? If so, how do you like it?

[@TapioBlue]

Well, I hope you and John enjoyed a nice cold beer after the race!

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi Janne, John Seaborn is a fellow club colleague in Boulder who has been highly instrumental in my own development as a glider pilot. He and his wife/crew Brenda are a power team. I’m honored to consider them friends and be able to learn from them.

[@imsoaring]

That's a hell of a project! Nice to see that my decisions would have coincided with some of the better ones made. Also a usefull illustration of just how bad an idea it is to make 'just one more turn' when you don't need it!

[@4586johnc]

This description epitomises most gliding trips on a good soaring day. Good and bad decisions. Good luck and bad luck, and relief when the last thermal gets you home. Nice commentary.

[@heracliosilva3835]

Amazing analysis! I got fascinated! Good job, thanks for posting.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Much appreciated!

[@HamiltonFonteII]

Awesome video!!! The most in-depth contest flight analysis I have ever seen!!! Congratulations!!!

[@ChessInTheAir]

Glad it was helpful!

[@BlokartS260]

This absolutely deserves a thumbs up, well done.

[@71Kailee]

What a wonderful resource for any glider pilot trying to improve his speed cross country. Thank you so much for this - I've learned more in the 2-and-a-bit hours watching this than could be learned with trial and error (or instruction) in years. Your (likely significant) time producing this gem is most appreciated! Can't emphasise this enough - and will recommend to all flying buddies.

[@tadeksmutek5840]

Thank you very much for this brilliant lecture and a lot of analytical work done for this! Great work! Good luck to you and all other glider pilots!

[@eeslhpl16]

No mountain here where I fly, so a real eye opener! Brilliant flight on your part-soooo fast. You have to feel great about what you were able to do. Great video-great flight!

[@cforlong]

Terrific video. You put a lot of work into this. I watched it twice. I learned so much. Thank you sir.

[@davidbowes5915]

A Fantastic video, watching for the second time; always good to refresh at the start of the season. Thank you for posting this and doing the analysis; very much appreciated. Thank you!!

[@joelmathieu2035]

Great video. Brillant analysis. Bravo. From france by an old pilot.

[@dk302]

Just found your channel and this video. Fantastic work!! I learnt more by watching this video than flying gliders (poorly) in real life. I appreciate the effort and hard work and look forward to more in the future hopefully.

[@simongault5804]

Just discovered your channel. wow fantastic Sailplane video, can't wait watch more. I also have a Ventus 2cxt and learnt so much from your video. Love ya work , thank you. Cheers, Simon

[@ChessInTheAir]

Awesome, thank you!

[@rafaelquerino5154]

it was a great example of how professional you are... it was lengthy but totally worth watching and learn from you comments and strategic point of view. what a class you have given to us!!! congrats

[@geoffreylotz3661]

1:08 57...is that a South African accent I hear? I am so glad I watched this. What a fascinating analysis of what I am finding to be an increasingly fascinating sport. Wow! I cannot imagine the hours of number crunching, editing and so on that has gone into making a video like this, so thank you for the time, the effort and the committment to make it and then make it available to the world. And, congratulations on your performance - I would be rather proud of myself if I were you. Lastly, thanks for distilling all these takeaways into such an understandable and convincing format. Much appreciated.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks Geoffrey, glad you liked it. This video was indeed a lot of work but I learned a lot in the process. There are a bunch of South Africans in the sport in the US. We have at least two in our club and one of them was flying in this particular race as well.

[@ToddHahn]

Great analysis. This is a great resource for cross-country soaring pilots. Thanks much for the incredible amount of work you must have put into this.

[@DubaiWeekendsOnABudget]

Great video, love the analysis, learning so much, couldn't find this level of details any where else, thank you 😊

[@LSVFlachkurbler]

theres so much information in this video regarding competition flying, I think its one of the most valuable pieces of information in youtube regarding this topic. I agree to everything you say here. However: I found out at some point, that the pilots pushing forward even with a speed which I found to high in terms of MC theory and therefore sinking in front and ahead of me, giving me a (shortlived) good feeling about beeing cleverer, mostly succeded. They reached the 4.5m thermal 1 minute befor me and I could only see them from below from that moment on. Time is so valueable in these conditions... Next thing, but you have already noticed that: You are correct in the prediction of the right cloud side but you are simply overdoing the offset. Have been there before and made the same mistake. Sometimes the best spot under the cloud is simply the darkest spot... Next thing valid for booming conditions: If you hit a thermal and believe its the core, never make a search circle with small bank. If you believe its a good climb, then immediatly go full bank and center later. Otherwise you are strongly increasing the risc of entering sink. And if you dont believe its a good climb and the core, flatten out and continue. Pulling out a search circle in these conditions and without the desperate need to climb is always statistically a No-Go. Next thing: Avoid all these little micro pullups. Completely OK in worse conditions these pullups reduce your average speed in booming conditions without much gain. If you do pullups, then do them with visual confirmation of the cloud, everything screaming its going up strong, and then do them with full commitment. You may even then reduce your speed further than you did if you are flying through a 5m thermal.

[@ChessInTheAir]

These are great tips - many thanks! I noticed the pull up thing in Condor as well. Unless thermals are weak and wide it makes no sense to pull up. I suppose it’s a combination of always being somewhat too late (with pulling and then pushing) and also all the extra drag associated with substantial speed changes. It’s a hard thing to change, especially for someone like me who tends to err on the conservative side. The exploratory turn problem makes sense too. Thanks again!

[@LSVFlachkurbler]

@@ChessInTheAir I did a mathematical analysis from my flights in Namibia, calculating backwards from the IGC file (with the known polar) to get a profile of the netto airmass. And then I tried to put different flying styles into this airmass and see what works best. The final conclusion was, that flying without any pullup is better than doing pullups where every 4th pullup was in flat air. So you can do pullups and may increase your average speed (slightly), but you have to be 95% certain that you are doing them at the right spot. If you do the math even taking into account the different g-loads changing the polar, you also find out the right technic for the pullup. A pullup into a 5m thermal has to be such, that you pull the stick at high speeds (high g-loadings do not harm if flying fast) and then let the glider shoot up and you may even do a parabolic roundout at the top with speeds lower than 100km/h in 0.6g and then immediatly smoothly accelerate again. In the wide namibian thermals this works out quite nice. But as I wrote before, your confidence that this is a good climb has to be large.

[@ChessInTheAir]

@@LSVFlachkurbler that’s awesome- thanks for sharing! Do you still have your analysis, and if so would you mind sharing it with me? Email [e-mail]. Auch gerne auf Deutsch:-). Würde mich sehr interessieren.

[@LSVFlachkurbler]

@@ChessInTheAir OK, have sent you an email with the analysis, sorry for the delay

[@mikeoliver4223]

This really is an excellent piece of post flight analysis. I've been flying gliders x country for 30 years andI reckon I've learned alot from watching this. Thanks.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Glad you enjoyed it! I learned a lot too :-)

[@brushitoff503]

Again, epic video. Man I hope you are well & share more again.

[@lowik1973]

The best tacical XC learning content I have seen. Thank you for putting this together. Really liked the format with on screen text rater than speaking. Made it easier to reflect on my own decision process. 🙏😎👍

[@dgrombach1]

Glad that you explain things in the video

[@shadeburst]

Loved it. I've seen better avionics but you didn't let that hold you back.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks! Avionics don’t really improve the glide performance :-) Almost all of the useful information is outside the cockpit. The one thing I felt was missing is good intelligence of where the other gliders are, whether they’re circling, and what their climb rates are. Other than that more modern avionics is would make a very minor difference. (Maybe with the exception of real time wind.).

[@LastOfTheBoomers]

Thank you so much, you manage to create amazing learning tool.

[@ChessInTheAir]

I’m glad you found it helpful!

[@SkywaySoaring]

Thank you for taking the time to make this video, which I know must have taken you a long time to produce. The analysis and explanations were invaluable to me as I learn this sport. I learned so much from this video, so thank you again!

[@Gianky640220]

My greatest compliments and thanks for such an enjoyable and highly useful insight of your thoughts and choices! Watched it with utmost interest, trying to anticipate your choices just as I were flying in your glider. Great mental training during italian winter!

[@BobWa43]

Thank you, what an incredible piece of work, both fascinating and instructive, a whole string of pearls. The visuals along with the analysis are priceless. Thanks again, this video should be on every cross country pilots' list.

[@kelvinvanbaalen6495]

Was the man flying with an engine? 😝 Awesome video!

[@siliconebobsqpts]

Nice energy control on the landing . Enjoyed the ride

[@petermichaelgro7468]

Thanks for this great video. I appreciate the hard work you have done for all of us. What I like most is your willingness to attribute achievements where they come from - better piloting skills not material. I would like to experience souch conditions in europe. This is just unbelievable. This was for me the best time invested to become a better pilot. Thanks fo sharing this. Peter

[@ChessInTheAir]

Many thanks for the kind words!

[@marco2often]

Thank you! The reference to ' Wining' by Moffatt already was made. You may include Reichmann as well. You added the self-reflection to it in a wonderful way. This is setting today's standard on what you can learn to improve your skill in modern gliding.

[@onthemoney7237]

Really good thanks makes me want to buy another plane a glider this time👍

[@kipongstad787]

another great video, really lays out the difference between xc tasks and contest/race. A bit like difference between going on a multi day bike tour and being in the Tour De France.

[@renelans]

Just a brilliant video. Thank you. Must have been real hard work to do all the excellent analysis. Can’t wait for another. Well done.

[@glidingnick]

Thanks for these great insights into your thoughts. It's reminiscent of some of the flying I've done in Australia and Africa in the past. Also lots of good pilot A vs pilot B commentary like in the original Winning Book.

[@flightvision]

That is amazing to watch. Thank you! I'll have to skip a bit after having watched the first 40min in total. There is so much information in it! Just a hint from a viewer: It would be great (and maybe even less work?) to have a voice-over. Also I would love to see the vario a bit better ;)

[@yurikuit5735]

I just found your channel and I have really enjoyed watching your videos. I've flown gliders for about 11 years, but that was about 20 years ago... Had to stop due to real-life commitments (wife, kids, work, etc.) but never lost the appreciation and the love for the sport/hobby. Thankfully we have Condor 2 now which allows me to at least fly from behind the desk. Your videos, the stories you tell along with the self-critique/self-reflection and the presentation with the occasional maps for the situational awareness have made me look closer at my own flying and adjust my technique and way of looking around and planning where to fly next. I can safely say, your videos have contributed to an overall improvement of my (computer-)flying skills. I hope someday to be able to start real flying again, but until then I look forward to your next videos and my flights in Condor 2.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi Yuri, thanks for the nice comments. I've published a number of articles on flying and racing in Condor as well. If you're interested you can find them here: chessintheair.com/condor-exercises/

[@yurikuit5735]

@@ChessInTheAir thanks will check them out for sure

[@antoniouribe564]

Thank you very much for this extraordinarios video and race analysis.

[@chrishamilton4999]

I am on my third viewing of this sensational and highly educational video. This is an incredibly generous gift by you to the world-wide glider fratern/soror/ity ..... many thanks to you. It is hundreds of hours of your highly focussed learning and experimentation bundled into a couple of hours. You are giving us your years and years of experience absolutely gratis and you give us all your decision making considerations so clearly. Your descriptions of the sky-scape and the judgements you have to make en-route and the factors you have to consider in your decision-making are a priceless gift . Repeated watching will enhance the absorption of the many lessons here. If we ever get over Covid, I would love to drop over to your gliding club (from Australia) and shake your hand and thank you in person!

[@ChessInTheAir]

Oh Chris, thank you so much for your exceedingly kind feedback! I am deeply humbled. I hope you’ll make it to Boulder, Colorado and I would happily go fly with you! Cheers mate, Clemens

[@chrishamilton4999]

I go out this afternoon to buy my first of soon to be many lottery tickets to ensure my early arrival in Colorado …..

[@StayUpStrack]

Perfect use of video, IGC traces, straight forward soaring math... simply FANTASTIC! Adding music to the end after the GoPro cut out was icing on the cake. It took me 3 days to get through it all, but I was on my toes the whole time wondering whether you're going to follow through with what I anticipated. FWIW, on this trip I would have followed lines more similar to you than John, e.g. choice A towards Bryce Woodlands. I wonder if John decided to simply put the pedal to the metal after hitting the 12 kt thermal thinking there was more of that to come. Thanks so much for sharing. Oh, also nice interviews with Chuck the Sky. Also very insightful. You're a force to be reckoned with already. Keep up the great work! I desperately needed and glad you recommended IGC-spy. Going to check it out now.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi Taylor, thanks for the very generous feedback. John is an outstanding pilot with maybe 10x more experience than what I have. He definitely has more confidence in the strength of the lift to come and is more comfortable getting lower but the fact that he flew in better netto throughout simply proves beyond reasonable doubt that he chose the better lines overall. Re: IGC Spy, it is designed to be used for contest analysis for contests based on FAI task rules (e.g. only start lines are supported, no cylinder and no start out the top as is typical for US contests). If you want to use it for your own flights you have to create a racing task after the fact based on the flight you flew. I found this to be too much work for me given that the information is of limited value without direct comparison to other pilots who flew the same route in the same conditions. For my own OLC flying I use SeeYou supplemented by WeGlide. WeGlide is a new (and better) competitor to OLC. The Germans have more their OlC type contests to WeGlide this year. I upload my flights to both platforms. WeGlide provides stats such as radius, bank angle, and thermaling speeds for each leg flown. That is a super useful tool to help you understand if you thermal precisely enough. It is super easy to use and it takes hardly any effort at all to upload a flight trace to just another platform.

[@ashleywelch2143]

Brilliant riveting stuff. Thanks. More would be good.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks!

[@pcordellyb]

Thanks so much for the time and effort for this video. It’s a modern update to Moffets book Winning. I think there were some timing issues with cloud-thermal cycling It appeared that you were having to work the back half of the cloud streets life, whereas John’s timing was a bit better (luck). I’ve really enjoyed your You Tube vids. Keep them coming.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks for the comments! That’s kind of you. I wouldn’t attribute much to luck here since John and I started at the same time. I also found some newly developing clouds on final glide that would not have existed when he passed earlier, so I’d say the luck part probably evened out. And yes, I suspect Moffat’s book which I read a few years ago must have inspired the methodology.

[@andreymishukov8798]

Thanks a lot for the effort and sharing those information❤

[@joeevens1368]

Many thanks for setting a new standard in soaring video's. Not often do so many performance oriented soaring pilots have an opportunity to become better and more consistently successful while sitting on their butt at home. There is value here for pilots of all soaring machines. Some will gain from your effort, others will not, making the gap between competition oriented pilots and recreational pilots even larger. Inevitable, as it should be, though kinda sad. As a currently retired, several decade, several thousand hour Hang glider competition and XC pilot, even I can continue refining my game vicariously, even though not currently flying. Not dissimilar to the what I gained by absorbing Reichmann and Mcready forty some years ago, at the very beginning. (Getting old sucks and there are so many cool things to do before it's over. Less than 20 good years left.) In fact, theory and tactics haven't changed all that much. Keep up with the great video's, and most useful of all, the running commentary and analysis. Every Big Air pilot can relate. On your personal quest to become considered one of the all time best, just continue the path you're on. Watch those seconds and the minutes will take care of themselves.....JE

[@MojaveRedRocks]

Wow -- fantastically informative and very interesting! Thank you for going through this huge effort to inform we of little knowledge!

[@ChessInTheAir]

If I go back 4 years I hardly knew anything myself. Writing things down or creating such videos forces me to process information more in-depth which ultimately helps me learn. That's at the core of why I do it. It's not all altruism ;-)

[@BaronVonOrvil]

Truly outstanding video👍👍👍educational and inspiring

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thank you!

[@Dzordzikk]

WOW, great analysis, thank you.

[@rianmonnahan]

Very nice video... and while you were creeping along at 180 kts at 17000ft, back in France at the the Issoudun Intl Open, we were lucky to manage 40 kts with just a 3000ft ceiling. Just goes to show you how important the climb rate is to overall performance

[@thomasbaro7377]

This is amazing content. Thank you so much for providing this in depth analysis. I especially like the fact that you’re providing the flight in real time without any editing or music on top. Bundled with your written comments it gives incredible insight to your flight. A great lesson for me! Also I don’t miss in flights comments from you and I know that not everybody likes or wants to talk in flight all the time. I only wonder if your written comments afterwards reflect your thoughts in flight. I would assume that watching the video by yourself already helped you to their on some of your decisions. However, in tens of learning this doesn’t make a difference for me. Just leaves me a bit curious. :) Currently I’m 35 minutes into the video and will continue now. I guess I will be watching it more than once. So, thanks again for taking all that effort. It’s truly inspiring.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi Thomas, thanks for your comments. Good questions. It's hard for me to say how much goes through my head in flight vs. how much I only process afterwards. It's definitely a combination. Clearly I am not doing computational analysis in flight - I am not that good in math ;-) - and that was really the main focus of this specific video. But there is also much more that goes through my head that doesn't make it into the comments. E.g., I repeatedly think about land-out options even if there doesn't seem to be any risk of landing out. I just trained myself in Colorado never to fly into an area where I don't know what to do when the unexpected happens and I get low and can't find a climb. I also think a lot about what part of a cloud to fly under and which whisps I can use to connect gaps between clouds, whether clouds are developing or decaying, how the weather might develop in the next 10 minutes / 30 minutes / 1 hour etc. There's a lot of randomness in what I'm thinking and my thoughts are kind of messy and jump around a lot. Emotions come into play too. Soaring has correctly been described as a manic-depressive sport. At one moment you feel great and minutes later you scold yourself for mistakes you made. Than you try to shake the off because they are just sunk cost and there's nothing you can do about the past. The comments also have to be more structured so they can tell a story. So there is definitely a difference between what I'm thinking and what is shown in the comments. Btw - I tried to do inflight comments but have found it difficult for many of the reasons mentioned here, plus they tend to force more structure in my thinking than there is really there in the moment. Not sure it this helps.

[@thomasbaro7377]

Hi Clemens, it definitely helps and can totally relate to your thoughts. I just got myself an old GoPro Hero 3 and will be trying to do some filming. However I highly doubt that I will be that experienced in analyzing situations like you did any time soon. But I want to use the camera to rethink about flights and thus improve on future flights. Even though I am not flying competitions I would love to improve on XC gliding because I already enjoy it a lot when I fly, make assumptions and hopefully see that my assumptions were correct :) - let's see how far I get with those ideas.

[@ChessInTheAir]

@@thomasbaro7377 yes, filming your flights will definitely help you identify additional lessons learned that you missed. And the post flight analysis and reflection will help you memorize your lessons learned much better. At least that’s how it was (and is) for me.

[@thomasbaro7377]

Just finished the whole thing. Thanks Shaun for taking all that effort. It’s really inspiring to follow your thoughts. Let’s see if I can analyze my flights in a similar way. I’ll check out my new camera gear and hopefully during my next gliding vacation in Austria (Zell am See) I’ll be comfortable enough to use it.

[@lautoka63]

Clemens, I'm really enjoying this and am watching it in bursts. Early on, you wonder why John is gaining more height in a thermal than you, whereas you do well at the next thermal. I sat close to the TV so that I could see your instrument panel more clearly; you were simply thermalling too fast. In the thermal where you made the comparison, you were flying at 65 - 70 kts, whereas in the next you were back to a more appropriate 60 kt. That's the opinion of the two pilots in this household, the younger of whom wins contests in a Discus 2b.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks for the comment! Good observation. I did notice indeed that I have been thermaling too fast especially with full water ballast and I am confident that I could climb better by thermaling slower and I'm making a deliberate effort to slow down a bit more. 60 kts seems to be ok in the Ventus 2 with full water ballast as long as the thermals aren't very turbulent. That said, however, it is not the main reason for why John is outperforming me on these climbs. Why do I know this? Because John's thermaling speed is the same as mine. The IGC-SPY software identifies thermaling speeds based on igc traces and John's average thermal speed is the same as mine. He may need a higher speed given the greater wingloading of the JS3 but he outperforms me in some of these thermals despite flying at the same high speed.

[@lautoka63]

@@ChessInTheAir Well, if he stays fast and you thermal more slowly, at least you'll match him. Still enjoying your video, thanks.

[@jbatlanta]

This video is the best! Thank You.

[@n1352-m1i]

Thank you for this captivating video (I've watched it twice in full already)... your detailed analysis sparks lots of thoughts, that I'm hoping to translate into paragliding to some extent (not flying glider yet, though this was my child's dream, quite a few decades ago now)

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks for the kind comment. Glad it was helpful. Sounds like you’re getting to the age where a landing gear with suspension may be better than relying on your legs ;-).

[@n1352-m1i]

@@ChessInTheAir it is indeed, or would be soon enough, but I'm trying my best to delay that moment and feel young still (I passed my paragliding licence here in France in 1990)

[@lotophagi711]

Excellent.

[@go2cloudbase]

Excellent video, pretty good example of how to fly on a strong day imo. I wonder if John Seaborn agrees with you about his speed to fly speed, it would be great to hear what he thinks about that. And isn't STF based on indicated airspeed? How did you get his indicated speed? Also, I fly a Ventus B and to change speeds from the climb to cruise speeds used here I seem to have to change pitch much more, pulling up steeply entering and diving exiting thermals. Your V2 seems to get to 95-100 kts with little pitch change! I'm going to look into that on my next flights.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi, thank you! You raise three points and I want to respond to all. (1) John gave me great feedback on my video. One of his comments was "the key to go fast, oddly, is not pushing too hard. This is counter-intuitive, and this misunderstanding can be seen when people ask you about how hard you are leaning on the stick on a fast day. You again illustrated this beautifully in your analysis. Slow down and go faster? Doug Jacobs has a great saying, “don’t over fly the day". So this seems to imply that he agrees that flying faster isn't the key to finishing first. But you can interpret it for yourself. (2) RE: your question whether STF should be correctly based on IAS or TAS this is complicated and I am not 100% sure of the answer. Why is is complicated: flight computers do indeed use IAS for STF calculations and actual climb rates in thermals for vertical speed. There is a mismatch: the vertical speed is based on actual speeds vs. the horizontal speed is based on IAS (and therefore too high). The glider polar, however, which the flight computer uses to tell you whether you should fly faster or slower based on the expected next climb (aka your MC setting) is assumed to be constant at all altitudes. So there's a big mismatch and I think it is fair to question the accuracy of the STF calculation. IMO, STF calculations produced by flight computers are incorrect at altitude - they prompt you to fly faster than you should. I think it would be more appropriate to use TAS rather than IAS and I am not alone in that belief. However, I have not studied this in detail and am not confident in my answer. I would be curious what you think and why. The speeds that I used came from IGCSpy which analyzed the IGC track. It actually uses ground speeds and ignores the wind for speed calculations. TAS would of course equal ground speed only in zero wind. All this shows that even the most detailed analysis must still be taken with a grain of salt... (3) With respect to speed changes and attitude: yes, you're right in your observation. I mostly use flap changes to change speed and use relatively little elevator input. That's why the nose doesn't change all that much relative to the horizon. Especially fully ballasted this works to the point that speeds between about 60 and 105 kts can all be accomplished with flap settings. I don't know if this is aerodynamically most efficient, though. It may be more efficient to also adjust the trim somewhat, especially to alleviate the downward pressure from the elevator at higher speeds instead of flying with flaps in the most negative high speed settings. However, I like how flying just with flaps is extremely intuitive and minimizes the workload because no trim adjustments are needed. But it is quite possible that some performance is left in the table. Sorry for the long response. :-)

[@GenuineFlolie]

As a non pilot, being at 1:47, I already dispise this "John" figure. 🙂 Just kidding, very informative video, well done and tx.

[@Alex-und-Flux]

Verry nice explanation! Thanks a lot!

[@MysticFogGarden]

I took a nap half the way through, so it seems I will have to invent AI autopilot for me to complete a race like that...thanks for all your hard work.

[@StickandGlider]

Very well done!

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thank you very much!

[@davidscott430]

Thanks, it looks like this will be the video I watch for the next week or so! Sucks about GoPros reliability, they have cut many great videos short.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Yes, I recently bought an Osmo Action instead. So far it’s been much more reliable.

[@davidscott430]

@@ChessInTheAir I just finished it 8 days later. Wow, thank you for putting this together, lots of work and very well done.

[@francoisb.4710]

Super vidéo !! très intéressante et surtout très instructive !! J'ai une question : j'ai le sentiment que tous les virages ne sont pas assez inclinés, tout le long du vol. Est-ce que c'est une particularité des ascendances en Arizona d'être très larges ou un choix tactique de votre part ? En Europe, on tourne beaucoup plus inclinés ! Hey, beautiful and very intristing captation ! It seems me that your banking in the lift is not enough, all along the race, to compare with european lifts. Agree or not agree ?

[@ronsanders2634]

An absolutely stunning analysis. I can not say more than the previous comments. Can I ask what vario are you using please?

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks for the kind feedback! The vario was an old Cambridge 302. I have since replaced it with an LXNav S10 with Hawk (which works much better).

[@dc85337]

I can agree with all you have done - except for the last part about being 400 feet too high at the finish line Height converts to speed with is moving time. In other words, you should have dived towards the finish line at max speed farther out and finished just above minimum height, which would have converted height/speed to exit speed which is max speed, which decreases time spent on course which increases net time lost which gives a faster course (for you). Or did I miss something?

[@victorsalcedo4073]

Wow, thanks.

[@fritzdit7829]

wow absolutely brilliant. I was transfixed. I think you need to go fly in South Africa and meet up with those clever chaps in Potchefstroom to place an order for your JS. 🤣🤣🤣🤣 although by the looks of it it was more pilot performance than glider performance 👍👍

[@latenightsoaring]

Great video!!

[@SuperReasonable]

At 16,000’ your IAS is very different to your TAS… at 100kts, IAS, your TAS is a lot higher, around 1/3rd higher in fact using the 2% difference for each thousand feet rule.

[@fire111111]

What a fantastic video! You captured much of the beauty, strategy and challenge posed by cross-country racing I wish more people would try for themselves! What kind of camera did you use to capture the footage and what software did you use for editing and captioning? It took me several days to digest the whole video, I bet it took you forever to create it but we thank you for your work!!!

[@ChessInTheAir]

Thanks for the kind comment! I’m glad you found the video helpful. Not sure what camera I used at that time but the camera is really not very important. I now have an Osmo Action which I find more reliable than a Go Pro. The image quality is not a problem because there is always plenty of light. My editing is all in Final Cut Pro.

[@Dzordzikk]

Is really safe to fly very near to VNE in that very strong lift conditions????

[@clemensceipek8919]

Good question! I’m not a physicist but I will try to answer as best I can. At these high altitudes Vne is well below the red line on the air speed indicator. So, even though we are at times close to VnE for a given (high) altitude, we’re not normally flying close to red line (which would far exceed VnE for these altitudes) and therefore the thermic turbulence is normally not a major concern. The main issue when approaching VnE at altitude is the risk of flutter because it is more a function of true air speed and not of indicated airspeed. So the simple answer is: when approaching VnE at high altitudes I am much more worried about flutter than I am worried about the structural integrity of the glider because of thermic turbulence. Hope this makes sense. My answer would be different if we were flying in lee side rotor on a strong wave day. There you really want to stay below the yellow arch on the ASI because the forces can be much stronger than on the strongest of thermal days.

[@johnedwards3621]

Did John use an instrument that calculates the core of a thermal? I recall seeing one being used in another glider video. I expected to see one being used in this competition. It didn't happen. BTW, the current maximum speed for RC gliders that use "dynamic soaring" is above 500 mph.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi John, thanks for your comment! I believe John used instruments from LXNav. Like other varios they will provide assistance in centering thermals but by far the most useful instrument for that is the human sense for vertical acceleration coupled with experience. While the instruments are very useful to measure the strength of the thermal, I do not think that the best pilots rely heavily on them for centering adjustments. I have flown with a variety of different varios (with and without specific centering aids) and don't notice all that much difference. The one exception is an instrument's ability to provide real time wind information. This is a current battlefield of innovation with different manufacturers searching for the optimal solution. In that area my instrumentation is ancient and can be a significant disadvantage, especially in situations where real time winds really matter (e.g. ridge soaring). With respect to dynamic sourcing, yes, I am aware of the immense speeds achieved by RC gliders. It is quite fascinating. At this point I can't see how the same techniques can be used by full-scale gliders. Dynamic RC soaring typically operates at a much smaller scale than full-scale gliders would be able to achieve and the g-loads are prohibitively high for full-scale gliders (and also their pilots). But it is very fascinating!

[@chrishamilton4999]

I certainly appreciate the text delivery of this pilot's description. Shouting at the mike while it is happening would be much more difficult to understand, and a great deal of strategic thinking would not come through.

[@jorissaint-genes8472]

One of the best gliding video ever. I think you flight this better than him. 11% glider performance for 8% of time behind. So let me suggest that you are 3% better than him 😉

[@ChessInTheAir]

:-). I don’t believe the polars from Jonkers. The JS 3 is better than my Ventus 2, but not 11% better. Not even in the best Nephi conditions. My best estimate is that it runs 6-7% faster at the speeds we saw in Nephi. John is definitely the better pilot ;-)

[@jorissaint-genes8472]

@@ChessInTheAir Should follow one right behind and agree to flight at the same speed to see the difference. Compare your flight with another pilot isn't right, pilot skill will always change the result and you can't flight 2 glider in the same moment and place

[@ChessInTheAir]

@@jorissaint-genes8472 yes, a perfect comparison would require laboratory conditions that are hard to find in the real world.

[@michalhemrle2400]

Hello. In minute 22 you explain with the help of speed polar what the difference will be in XC speed when you fly 100 or 111 kts. The result is 78 kts. Doesn't there be properly 78 mph? Alternatively, 68 kts? ... Anyway, thanks for the great video and great analysis ... I enjoyed it. I envy your gliding conditions ... we don't have them in the Czech Republic .... Happy landings from Europe..

[@ChessInTheAir]

Yes you are correct! I was obviously reading from the top line of the X axis description, which is in mph and not in kts, instead from the middle line.Fortunately I made the same mistake for the 111kt tangent to the speed polar so the point that I make is still valid: there’s hardly any difference in average XC cruise speed whether you fly at 100kts or at 111 kts. Thanks for noticing! Glad you enjoyed the video.

[@michalhemrle2400]

​@@ChessInTheAir I definitely agree with your theory. I have an ASG29E and in good conditions I also fly an average of 100 kts. We usually have only 6,500 feet of cloud bases, and 8,000 on perfect days. Well .. it's still beautiful :-)

[@Bleemus]

Brilliant!

[@LukasBarnard]

Wow. I really enjoyed watching this. And the time it took to edit and make such a fantastic video.!! Did fixed wing gliding get to this? All by the numbers? I think Clemens is a bit hard on himself. Luck has much to do with finding best lines. Maybe the only reason John won is that he pushed a bit harder. And in strong conditions, it's worth the risk

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi Lukas, thank you very much for the kind words! John's one of the best and has been flying at this level for much longer. I think experience is ket when finding the best lines. But you're right that I wasn't pushing as hard as I probably could have. Thanks for watching!

[@sudosuga]

@1:52:15 The clouds look mostly symmetrical. Perhaps a centered line had more lift? You might have been just out of the strongest zone.

[@ChessInTheAir]

Yes, good suggestion. On the Colorado Front Range we have a convergence zone where you have to fly on the upwind side of the clouds to be in the best air. I have done that so many times that this has become kind of my bias. I talked to John Seaborn after the flight and his advice was to flip the bias, i.e. go for the darkest bits of the clouds unless there is clear evidence that this is not where the best lift is, not the other way around.

[@soaruk3697]

Excellent video , but believe they had a task in Omarama which was completed above 200km/h.................

[@ChessInTheAir]

Yes, indeed. I found that out after publishing. There were a few faster races in wave (Omarama) and on the ridge (South Africa) so this may "only" be the fastest race in thermal conditions. ;-)

[@mattmatt245]

If air space limits were not the issue, would it make sense to always climb all the way to the cloud base ? Also, when cursing under the cloud street, do you set your Macready manually or you're using dolphin mode ? Thanks

[@ChessInTheAir]

Hi Matt, higher is always better if all else is equal. However, there are often important differences where this is not the case. Eg, in ridge lift it is best to fly at ridge top, in wave where the wave is strongest, even in thermals the lift strength can vary and sometimes it drops off close to cloud base. Wind can be a facto too if wind direction and speed change with altitude. So, lots of variables that could lead to different answers. I am not sure if anyone has mathematically figured out exactly how MC speeds need to be altered under streets when you can gain substantial altitude just by pulling up and slowing down in strong lift. Personally I use MC speeds just to determine approximate speed ranges for a given glider based on expected conditions. But I don’t try to constantly adjust my speed in flight. “Chasing the needle” tends to be inefficient due to extra drag from control inputs, and you may do more harm than good by always being a few seconds behind (You cannot adjust the speed instantly and varios can never work in real time because they can only measure a change in vertical velocity once that change has already occurred.) lots has been written and said about this topic and opinions still vary widely.

[@mattmatt245]

@@ChessInTheAir You don't "chase the needle", so basically you don't react to small changes in your vertical speed, say less then 2m/s ?

[@ChessInTheAir]

@@mattmatt245 Strength of lift matters but so does expected duration. Sometimes you can tell by the looks of the clouds that you’re just about to enter an area of good lift that “should” last for several seconds at least. That would be a good time to pull up and slow down the very moment you feel a surge. On a ridge it can also be easy to tell where to expect the lift and in wave good lift can last for a long time. It’s much more difficult on blue days and in the absence of any obvious markers. Then you’re more dependent on your interpretation of the surge you’re feeling to judge whether you think it will last long enough to warrant a pull up. There’s not a simple mechanical answer, at least not for me. Soaring is only part science. It is also a bit of an art and experience and gut feel comes into play as well. Just my thoughts on this subject, others may do this differently.

[@ryanglover1940]

How do we upload contest files from the 2021 Uvalde contest?

[@ChessInTheAir]

If you go to www.igcspy.com/ it explains how to upload flights. There's an upload tool for contests that are available on Soaringspot, which is by far the easiest way to do it and that's how I did it for the Nephi contest. But most US contests are not on Soaringspot. Also, I understand that the tool currently only supports FAI rules (e.g. only start lines are used, no start out the top of the cylinder, etc) so I believe it would not work very well for contests run according to US rules. (Fortunately, FAI tasking rules were used instead of US rules for the 18m Nationals so it worked there.) In addition it's worth noting that IGC files can include inaccuracies that will throw off the analysis. E.g., I had to delete some individual flights from the Nephi contest because the errors in the IGC data files produced inaccurate results.

[@thomasbaro7377]

At 1:41:24 - I am wondering if that statement is actually true. Wouldn't you be able to fly faster if you don't follow MacCready but rather fly faster? You would sink more. But since the surrounding air is providing more lift you could have gone faster. Or were you already a VnE (Velocity to never exceed? From what I could see on the footage you were still a little bit away from that red line. In German one could say that you could push down the lift and thus convert it into speed (Das Steigen "wegdrücken".) Ah... a few seconds later you are actually stating something similar. Between the lifts, John is flying near VnE so that he can maximize the lifts - that makes sense as well.

[@ChessInTheAir]

You want to be able to use the best lift to climb. If you are flying so high that you have to fly close to Vne you are doing the right thing at the moment (converting the energy into speed) but you made a mistake earlier by spending too much time climbing in the last thermal and are therefore not able to use the strongest lift to climb. You would be faster overall had you not climbed as high previously and were now able to use the lift to climb in straight flight. You can do the math. Hope this makes sense. (Btw, as an aside, at the altitudes we are flying Vne is substantially lower than indicated. E.g., in my Ventus it is 124kts at about 17,000 ft. Vne is mainly a function of TAS, not IAS, and the limiting factor is flutter risk.)

[@noelwade]

Thomas - To add to what Clemens pointed out in his excellent comment: You can deduce things without employing math - instead think about the shape of the glider polar. Its flatter when flying slower and steeper when flying faster. That means when you are flying at moderate speeds you can increase your speed a reasonable amount and only affect your sink-rate by a small amount. The reverse is true at high airspeeds: A small increase in speed results in a big change in sink rate. Remember that kinetic energy (i.e. speed) can be exchanged with potential energy (i.e. altitude) - and your total energy is the sum of your kinetic and potential energy. Trading off lots of one kind of energy for only a small increase in the other type of energy is inefficient. To extend this thought-experiment: at the more-moderate parts of the polar curve you only need modest amounts of lift to offset your sink rate. This means that its easier to "net up" in total energy if you don't fly at the extreme high-end of the polar. So overall its more-efficient to leave lift slightly lower and climb while flying straight ahead, rather than get all the way up to cloud-base and then fly at VNE. :-P Note, however, that the "cloud-suck" effect (enhancing the total area of rising air that you can fly through) only occurs within a certain distance of cloud-base - so that may modify the optimum point to climb up to before flying along beneath a big cloud or cloud-street. As always, the realities of flying gliders optimally are always more nuanced and full of exceptions/modifiers than the mathematical theory!! :-)

[@thomasbaro7377]

Thanks Clemens and Noel for those excellent and comprehensive explanations!

[@markplain2555]

Oh no, I see John is selling his JS3.