Strategy
◊ From
Mark Hayman and Adrian Thomas: The race only really
starts 15‐20km from goal. Up to this point the lead gaggle is
working as a team ‐ spreading out to find lift on glide, searching
for better cores, and letting searchers back into the thermal if they don't
find anything. They're still flying fast, but it's as a group, not as
individuals. As soon as someone is confident that they'll get to goal on their
own they break from the pack and it's a dog‐eat‐dog race to the line. As Adrian
said elsewhere recently, you want to be top of the gaggle in the final climb
before goal.
◊ It
takes something like 15 to 20 seconds to swing a turn in a thermal.
If you're striking
out at say 50km/h between thermals, then approximately 3 more turns in a
thermal puts you a kilometer behind!! (1 minuto a 50 km/h são 833metros !)
◊ One
that I like to tell newcomers is that they should know with whom they are
sharing the skies, i.e. they should learn to recognize the good pilots in the
comp so they know whom to be influenced by. In my view you cannot follow anyone
on a paraglider (at least not if the person being followed is trying to loose
you) but you can be inspired by their decision‐making. And it
is important to be inspired by the good and not by the bad
pilots. Newcomers often equate glider class with experience,
and follow anyone flying a hot looking wing. THAT DOESN'T
WORK. There are scores of hopeless losers flying superhot looking
wings. So you gotta identify who is who, and try to keep
the interesting ones in focus.
Quite often you'll
find that someone is making an unusual move, and if it is one of the good
pilots you better try to work out what she has seen that you haven't.
On the subject of
seeing there just is no substitute for good eyesight in this game. Spotting
leaves, butterflies, birds, cobwebs, gliders at unlikely distances is the best
secret trick there is.
◊ Mads
is spot on, the difference between the top pilots and the good ones is how much
they see. Bruce often comes up to me after a task and comments on where I got
stuck, or where I got a good climb, and I often have absolutely no idea where
he was at the time.... Russell does the same. Bruce claims he likes to know
where every pilot within sight is all the time‐ in front and
behind ‐ and keep stabs on how they are doing. That way he knows well
in advance where climbs are coming from, which lines are working, and whether
conditions are deteriorating from one side of the course or the other.
It is amazing how
much difference really watching what is going on can make.
◊ When
you're gliding on bar and you expect to find a thermal soon (e.g. your flying
towards a
climbing gaggle or a
good trigger point) then stay on the bar all the way into the core of the
thermal. The temptation is, when you think there's lift ahead, to come off the
bar early, get your hands on the brakes, and go into a sort‐of
search/thermalling mode, ready to find the centre on the thermal and
deal with the associated turbulence. This is a waste of time! If
you can see where the core is (e.g. there are climbing gliders) then fly
straight at it at full speed (respecting other pilots already in the thermal,
of course) and only come off the bar when you feel the lift increase and then
just start to diminish, indicating that you've found the core. Come off the bar
to convert your speed into height and immediately start coring! You've just
gained maybe 5‐10m in the conversion and are turning in the heart of the
thermal while your slow friend is still timidly flying into the edge of the
lift at trim speed. You'll be tens of meters above him by the time he finds the
core. If you don't know where the core is then you can still search faster on
full bar. I first heard about this technique when someone was describing Russ
Ogden's flying at the
Ozone Chabre Open a couple of years ago.
Secondly, to be able
to select climbs while flying on bar you need to know the sink rate of your
glider at speed. You should have a good idea of the sink rate at both half and
full bar so you can judge the strength of the thermals you fly through without
slowing down.
Finally, the book
"Secrets of Champions" by Denis Pagen, although about hang gliding,
has lots of amazing insight that is also equally applicable to paragliders. Recommended.
◊ 1. Launch
early ‐ there are few things worse than being stuck on launch behind
some cluster‐f#@% while the A‐team is climbing out and the start is in 15
minutes. So don't put yourself in a hole before you even get in the air. Shit
happens fast so get your shit together early.
2. The
speed bar is no substitute for your brain and anyone with half a brain can mash
the bar. This is a thinking sport. Find the top lift, lemme say it again...FIND
THE TOP OF THE LIFT! Then go on big glides to logical points, and don't just
look for a good line, look for a good angle, and DON'T get sucked into chucking
worthless circles with anyone along the way. Fast is not fast, efficient is
fast.
3. Know
the pivotal moment (AKA‐last chance). This is the moment where you make a stand
verses gliding on. These moments are hard to identify when you are not
obviously low, but you'll know when the moment was after you've dirted. Learn
to see it coming earlier.
4. Fly
your own flight. It's really easy to get sucked into some bad decisions because
everyone around you is doing it. Pilots often say "I fly better by myself
then I do in competitions". This means they'reflying someone else’s flight
and not their own. You know how to fly, go with your gut.
5. Never,
never, never give up
◊ Cooperate
with the pilots in the same gaggle as you. If you only follow you might learn
some things but you won´t have the respect of your fellow pilots nor will you
learn about self‐confidence and making your own decisions.
Who dares
wins. If you never make bold decisions, you might be among the first
ten but you will never be first.
◊ "Being
in front and low does not mean you're in the lead. It took me 5 years to work
that one out."Rob Whittall
◊ Tying
in with Bill's tip that you should never, ever give up, it's worth recognizing
that as the level of competition goes up, the number of mistakes that you can
make and still do well goes down. The positive interpretation of
this is that in introductory competitions you can make a couple of mistakes and
still do well overall. If you get stuck soaring a bowl for 15
minutes waiting for the next cycle in a friendly comp like the Ozone Chabre
Open, BPCup or Rat Race then you can still finish in the top ten, so don't stress
too much if this happens. Focus on staying in the air, get back up
high and back on course.
Take it as a great
opportunity to learn and build experience. Of course, at PWC level,
three minutes is the difference between top 10 and 60th.
Other people get
stuck too, and it's a lot easier to catch up than to lead out. If you're behind
then watch the pilots in front of you to see what works the best so you can go
directly by the best route. If you do fall behind then you do need to fly fast
(i.e. make good, fast decisions) to catch up. Don't be tempted to stick with
your gaggle if there are pilots ahead on the course. By their very nature,
later gaggles fly more slowly so don't let yourself be dragged down to their
level. This means that you'll end up leading out from your gaggle, but you've
been paying attention to the pilots in front so you should know exactly where
you're going.
Personally, if I can
stay up then I like to launch as soon as the window opens (quote from Hayman at
St André: "Ah, Tom's launched. Window must be open.") Many pilots
hang around on launch because they're worried about bombing out. But you've
practiced in weak conditions, you've watched the wind dummies find thermals and
even the school gliders are floating around above launch. By taking off early you
get clear airspace to make the best use of the thermals, you get to check out
the air mass and maybe the first part of the course and you get plenty of time
to settle into flying mode and observe the
best pilots. Mark
Hayman always seems to be one of the last to take off: when I launch he usually
hasn't even unpacked, but he times it right: he's on the start line when the
gun goes. Mark can do this because he flies 20+ comps per year and is very
experienced. I've still got lots to learn!
On starts, the best
start position is not on the edge of the start cylinder closest to launch. The
best starting position is on the edge of the start cylinder at base upwind of
the first turnpoint. Sometimes this means that you have to fly through the
start cylinder, past the turnpoint and out the other side. You might need to
take off as soon as the window opens to have time to do this. Even if there's
not time to fly to the far side of the start cylinder, just flying part way
round it so your first leg is crosswind rather than into wind can give you a
significant advantage.
Don't worry too much
about hitting the start cylinder exactly on the gun. A few seconds at the finish
line will only cost you a few points, but being over the line can score you
zero for the entire task. Early on it's easy to catch up with the leaders so
don't worry if you're ten seconds behind. You do have to fly fast immediately
after the start to make sure that you're in the lead gaggle, but once you're
established with the leaders you can relax a bit and let the gaggle make the
decisions.
In the flats gaggles
are king. Without obvious triggers you need to work as a team to find the next thermal.
This means you should stick with the gaggle unless you're feeling exceptionally
stupid (see Eduardo's tips above). In the mountains thermal triggers are more
predictable and you can fly more as an individual. I've made the mistake of
going off on my own in the plains too many times, I still haven't learned this.
Another one from Mark
Hayman. Don't be afraid to push on poor days. It's very rare that the lead
gaggle bombs out and a slower pilot makes it to goal (but it does happen
sometimes). If the lead gaggle does bomb out then it's probably a very poor day
and won't be worth many points overall so it's better to land with them most of
the way around the course. Flying conservatively (slowly) can cost you a lot of
points if the lead gaggle does make it to goal.
GAP leading out
points aren't worth it. Think through the scoring system for the competition.
If they'reusing GAP then it's very rare for anyone to score 1000 points for the
task. It's much easier to get a good score by taking a later start and flying
through the gaggles than it is by trying to lead out. Leading out is fun but
won't win you the day. If there are no leading out points at all then don't
lead out!
Take each day
separately. Unless you're battling for the top spots, paragliding competitions
are a series of single races with every day counting an equal amount. Don't let
a good or bad position "psych" you out into taking more or less risk.
In the final days the competition leaders will mark the pilots directly behind
them in an attempt to maintain their positions. If you're not leading then
don't bother to do this: the extra mental stress will reduce your performance
and you'll do better by just ignoring your current position and focusing on
flying as well as possible on the day.
Finally, from Adrian
Thomas. You don't need to win tasks to win competitions. The glory of the day
does go the task winner, typically a brilliant but inconsistent pilot who got
lucky. However, it's the consistent pilots who win the weeks and the
titles. If you define your goal to be not win the task but rather just finish
in the top ten each day then you might have less fun but you will get to take
home the trophies.
◊ Final
glide is different ‐ suppose you are with 5 others, whoever goes
first and makes it is the one who wins. So what generally happens is you all
climb to close to the glide‐slope and then the thermal linggets a bit hectic
because everyone is trying to maximize climb while also watching the numbers
decrease on their glide‐required display. Someone will decide they can make it
and go, and as soon as they do everyone else goes.
Usually, you start
looking for final glide about 1/2 to 2/3rds of the way round the course. I've
often made 20k final glides, many times made 30k and a few times made 40k
finals. If you are still in XC mode when others have gone on to final glides
you are nowhere. The trouble is, of course, final glides of that sort of length
often involve long sections in lift (maybe ridge running), might involve
transitions and changes of direction, and often involve flying round one or
more turnpoints. Very few instruments are good at calculating final glide round
turnpoints.
A lot of the top
pilots calculate the height required at various spots along the course before
taking off.
◊ One
thing that hasn't been mentioned much here before is the importance of the
mental part of things ‐ the head, if you will.
A long time ago I
began suspecting that in any given high‐level comp there would be XX pilots
with the objective flying skills to win overall. Among them, only a handful or
so would have the confidence to actually acknowledge this ‐ in other
words, to actively believe that they would win the comp, or at least SHOULD win
the comp.
I still think this is
the case, and what's more I think the one out of that handful who believes it
most earnestly will actually usually win.
This is the reason
why supreme confidence in the wing you fly makes such a
difference ‐ because you cannot persuade your subconscious that
you'll win unless you know you're flying a competitive wing.
Take the case of
Chrigel Maurer: He got a prototype back in 2005 that was simply WAY better than
anything else out there. It gave him, on top of his numerous other
qualities, a supreme confidence that rubbed off on his flying style, his
decision making, everything. Today, even if the other brands have caught
up with his wing, he still feels at the core of his soul that he should win,
that he has THE RIGHT to win ‐ so he possibly doesn't need the extra
performance of a superior wing any more.
There are other cases
similar to this one, Hausi Bollinger in the mid‐nineties springs to mind.
Same with the Valic's
today really ‐ everyone is saying how they fly much faster/better
than anyone else, so it slowly becomes reasonable for them to earnestly THINK
that they deserve to win. So they do.
I believe that a good
coach and /or some study of mental training techniques is very worthwhile in
this respect. The coach, if she is worth her salt, can help you BELIEVE that
you have what it takes, and thereading can help you build up psychological
practices that will help you REMEMBER this even when you are low.
And
BTW ‐ this is what makes sport, and competitive sport, so fascinating
to partake in. If it was solely about pushing more bar it wouldn't be worth
doing now would it?
◊ Getting
the start right is important ‐ for psychological reasons. You'll feel
you're there, one of the Dudes, a Sky God etc, and all this matters immensely
for your well‐being during the rest of the task. The few seconds gained have
zero impact on your end results of the day.
And for the second
part ‐ so how do you propose to make up any time by being faster
around the course? In that scenario you're flying Elapsed Time surely, because
if you have a Race, shaking, or even loosing, the gaggle is going to be
mother.. hard.
In lower level comps
where you may get away from the gaggle OK, it may work, but at higher level sthere's
usually NO getting away from the gaggle no matter how fast you go.
Tomas Brauner told me
not long ago that he's never too bothered about the beginning of the race because
he knows it'll be "easy" to catch up ‐ now that is a
winning mentality, because it doesn't shake you if you mistimed that start
(happens to us all once in a while).
◊ I
believe several pilots have commented that in the early stages of a task
competitions are all about team work. In most competitions the
only time the gaggles get really big is at the start of the task.
The most important
thing is to keep the gaggle circulating nicely. There is rarely any need to
dive into every bubble that comes your way. You tend to just fly around in the
gaggle and follow areas of greater lift and allow the whole gaggle to drift
with you, and of course keep tabs on the better pilots.
The only time you
would want to aggressively core a thermal is if you are off by yourself, either
out on course or outside the main gaggle.
I guess you could use
aggressive thermalling to psych out the opposition but you would also need the skills
to back that up or you just end up looking like a dick.
◊ BTW,
I made a couple of elementary mistakes in a recent comp.
I took off on task
and did not have a clear idea of the order of turn points and goal and assumed
I would just follow GPS. Some of the legs of the task were so close together I
could not clearly see the task on the screen and my poor brain was confused by
the turnpoint sequence and the codes used to identify the turnpoints. As a result I wasted a heap of
time (and had a very nice time while doing it)Also, I passed through the goal
cylinder faster than the recording interval on my GPS so there was some hassle
for the scoring system because I did not have a track point in goal. You need
to make sure your GPS is recording frequently enough to record the task
properly and make sure you stay in each cylinderlong enough to record a point.
Flying skills
◊ OK,
here's the first part of the mistakes I made in competition last year. It was
my first season of proper competition. Previously I'd done a couple of the
excellent Ozone Chabre Opens and just one round of the British Championships. I
list my mistakes here so that I and maybe others can learn from them. All my
decisions were my own responsibility,Ozone Chabre Open, practice task
(tracklog)It was an elapsed time task so I took a late start to get a fast
time. I was pretty quick around the course until I bombed on final glide. There
was a headwind from the final turnpoint to goal, meaning that you needed an
extra climb between the turnpoint and goal. Lots of gliders had landed short in
front of me but I thought I could just speed bar through and make it. This
didn't work and I realized too late,groveled for a low save for a while, and
eventually sank out.
Lesson: You might
think you're on final glide but realistically monitor your progress: you might
need another climb. Look for clues (like headwinds and pilots landing short)
and make the decision early,while you're still high, as to whether to push on
or find a climb. Avoid "tunnel vision" on the goal ‐‐ just because
you can see it doesn't mean that you'll make it! Ozone Chabre Open,
task 2 (tracklog)I'd got stuck earlier, but had taken a direct line that got me
back to the lead gaggle. However, I was low.
Leaving a reasonable
climb to connect with the final ridge before goal, I arrived too low and landed
atthe bottom of the ridge to watch tens of pilots fly over my head and into
goal as I packed up.
Lesson: I raced
myself into the ground. The first priority should be "get to goal",
and only secondly should it be "get to goal fast". Possibly getting
stuck earlier had made me impatient. Take each part of the course separately
and don't try to rush because you made a bad decision earlier.
Ozone Chabre Open,
task 3 (tracklog)
It was an elapsed
time task, but I went early (with Russ, Rudd and Mark) because conditions were
weakand I thought that they'd get worse. In fact they got better and the later
pilots had much faster times,but that's not the mistake. Enjoying being with
the "lead gaggle", I left the last climb as soon as my glide computer
said I could make it. It wasn't a particularly buoyant glide and I had to stop
in some very weaklift until I thought I could make it again. I left too early
and landed short, inside the 1km time cylinderbut outside the 400m goal
cylinder. Once again, on the score sheet I was the first pilot not in goal.
Lesson: Give yourself
a reasonable margin on final glide. Ulric Jessop (the task winner on that day)explained
to me later that leaving with zero margin is stupid. A sinky final glide can
require an extra 400m of altitude, so if you're below 400m when you hit that
sink then you'll land short. If you're going to give yourself zero margin then
make sure that there's guaranteed lift on the way that's as strong as your final
climb and be prepared to divert to use it before it's too late!
Technique
◊ There's
already been a lot of advice published on the web, for example:
From Kelly Farina:
http://www.austrianarena.com/blog/?p=149
http://www.austrianarena.com/blog/?p=109
Collected by Jerome:
http://www.expandingknowledge.com/Jerome/PG/Main.htm#Technique_FlyingSkills
(unfortunately the
skynomad site which hosts some of the articles seems to be down at the moment)There
was also a very good article about getting into comp flying in Cross Country
magazine a couple of years back, I'll dig out the reference when I get home.
◊ Using
speedbar to avoid collapses on glide is efficient ‐ you glide better
if you use active pitch control on the bar, speeding up when you hit updrafts,
to avoid pitching back and slowing when you hit down drafts to avoid pitching
forwards. Its hard work, but beneficial.
The same is not true
of brake action. Using the brakes to stop the wing moving around and catch collapses
before they happen hurts performance a lot.
That is why comp
pilots fly hands off on transitions even in strong conditions.
That is also why
pilots trying to maximize performance will tolerate collapses even if they
might have avoided them.
This is, of course,
all rather more advanced than is relevant to 40% asymmetrics ridge soaring at Dunstable
on a DHV1.
FWIW I regularly get
asymmetrics, usually on the outside tip in thermals. They are trivial and pop
out as Ishift inwards towards the core (they tell you are at the edge of the
thermal). I also get occasional asymmetrics, and rare frontals on bar. My
theory is that if I don't take occasional hits I am not gliding fast enough.
From Russ Ogden: Work
on your climbing skills. People like Russ and Mads are amazing climbers: they always
seem to climb to the top of the stack and stay there. The golden rule here is
never be satisfied with the lift that you're in. If you see someone climbing
faster than you then full speedbar to their core immediately. If you do even
one turn just to see if they are really doing better then they'll overtake you.
The decision should
be automatic and instantaneous. And I'm really serious about using full
speedbar to move between cores in thermals.
Personally I always
have in mind a minimum acceptable climb rate which depends on what I've
experienced so far
that day, what I expect and how low (desperate) I am. As a rough rule this
should be no less than 1m/s less than the strongest climb you have experienced
so far that day, unless you're really low. Then, immediately reject (fly
straight through) any lift weaker than that. If you find a good core then leave
it as soon as it drops below your threshold, don't mill around hoping for it to
get stronger. One of the traits that you see in the very top pilots is that
they are very selective about their climbs: as soon it starts to weaken they
leave. Mark Hayman tells a funny story from the PWC in Italy last year. He's
thermalling in the lead gaggle in a decent climb but Chrigel Maurer is out
ahead, has bagged the turnpoint, and is flying back towards the gaggle.
"Oh, cool,", thinks Mark, "I'll get to see how the world's best
pilot thermals." Chrigel flies straight at the gaggle and then straight
through it without even bothering to turn! Chrigel then dives into the lee of
the mountain (where no‐one else dares to fly),connects with some screamer and
disappears into orbit. "Oh, that'll be why he's number 1," grumbles Mark.
It's hard to
over‐emphasize how important confidence is when it comes to fast decision
making.
Confidence that you
can climb as well as anyone else so if someone else can stay up then so can
you.
Confidence that
you'll find lift on glide or at your next thermal trigger. Confidence allows
you to make a decision and act upon it with total commitment, with an
assumption of success. Less experienced pilots take every climb as high as they
can then fly at best glide and try to hedge their bets by flying over as many
thermal triggers as possible. This floating about the sky is the way to start
your XC flying career but it is not the way to win competitions.
Confidence comes from
experience, practice and good equipment. Experience of XC flying gives you the ability
to make the right decision, to identify your next climb so you fly in the right
direction. Practice means that you keep your skills sharp. One of the best
things you can do is fly on weak days and try to get to and stay at the top of
the stack. If you can reliably do this then you'll know that you'll be able climb
out if a decision ever goes wrong. Equipment means having a glider that you can
thermal well and that you trust so you can fly it at 100% of its potential.
Practice pulling asymmetrics, frontals, spiraldives, wingovers, SATs, helis,
full stalls, spins everything when you get the chance. Trusting yourself on your
glider means that you can fully commit to your decisions.
◊
Flying fast has little to do with flying on full bar on
every transition. Speed is in your decision making, and importantly in not
making mistakes. As pilots improve the average speed that they can fly at
around a course without bombing out goes up. An average XC pilot manages about
20km/h average(in zero wind) and a good XC pilot might do 25km/h. PWC gaggles
do about 35km/h and the top pilots average over 38km/h.
So, here are some
games to play to help your speed:
‐ on weak days,
get to and stay at the top of the stack
‐ in thermals
monitor other pilots and full bar to any pilot climbing faster than you
‐ decide where
your next climb will be and fly straight to it without turning
‐ practice
turning your wing inside out in the air
‐ try the two
methods of gliding described in Kelly's blog above to find out which works best
for you Equipment Sooner or later you WILL have a problem with your GPS ... and
you will thank the day you decided to fly with a backup, have it with good
batteries, track log on and a small enough interval recording period !
Better, you can use
the two GPS actively by using different screens and different info on each
I have a Competino
and a Garmin 76 and while termalling I occasionally look more at the Garmin
(mappage with big zoom), on glide I have different data fields on each ...
There are many good
instruments out there ... but always use a backup !
