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Racing versus Cross Country Soaring
If you aren't competent at flying cross country, then don't race.  Visit our other page that talks about crossountry flying.

That last thermal before the finish line.
How high should you be in that last thermal before you head for the finish?  If it is going up at 5 knots, should you stay with it all the way to the top, even though it will put you a couple of thousand feet higher than you need to be?

Here is what November Kilo had to say on this subject:

Years ago George Moffat talked about minutes and seconds in racing.  I have become much more aware of this during the past year.  I lost two contests over 11 days by a total of 6 minutes.  The last day of the Regional competition I was flying with JJ and had final glide made at a Macready setting of 3, (we were at the same altitude)on the way in (about 30 miles out) I passed through a 5 kt thermal that turned into a 10 kt thermal for JJ. He took it, I didn't and he beat me by 1 1/2 minutes or 11 pts. for the contest.  The tip is if you have a setting of 3kts and hit a thermal in excess of that (5 kts) take the thermal to an altitude to come in at a higher setting i.e. 5 kts, you will then improve your overall speed.  The trick is to maintain that 5 kt gain, when it drops off you should leave.

Winds on final glide.
Whatever the wind has been while you were on course is probably not the wind in the last 5,000 feet of altitude as you approach the finish line.  Before you start that final glide, make an educated guess on what the winds will be on your final glide.  Set those winds into the final glide computer manually, and use them for the basis of altitude required on final glide!

but it's hard to get any contriutions in this area.  I think I'll start a "tips" page on racing secrets - if I ever get anyone else to contribute some of their "secrets".

Starting.
Start as soon as possible- assuming that the Contest Director did not start the launch before there was any lift.  The gate opens 15 minutes after the last launch in each class, so that should be plenty of time to get ready to head out, assuming you were in the top half of the grid lineup.  If you are slow, then others will pass you, but you will be able to catch up more easily because they will mark thermals for you to use.  Start later only if you are firmly convinced that the weather will change for the better - not usually the case!  Be as high and as fast as legally possible when starting.  With the new 5 mile radius system you have a lot of options on selecting the last thermal you will use before you officially start.

On course.
Don't go way off course to follow lift unless the CD has chosen a long leg, which is over a no-lift area, or the lift is reliably better and certain off-course.  If it is nearly a toss-up between the lift on couse and the lift off course, then stay on course.  The lift has to be positively better off course if you are going to take the "long way" to the next goal.

Predict where the next thermal will be!  Get a sense of the cycle time of the lift.  Plan your climbs so that you are arriving at the lift well before it is maturing.  If you are 5 or 10 miles from some nice lift on course, it will take you 5 or 10 minutes to get there.  If you head for it five minutes after it dies, then you will probably arrive just as it is rebuilding - that would be good timing.

Preparation.
Do your homework.  Know the places where the lift will be before you even get to the field.  Study the topo charts and know the prevailing winds for that time of year.   You know the task before the launch, you have it loaded in the computer, look at the chart, think about where the wind might be on the surface, and predict the locations of the lift.  Using an L-Nav Cambridge system, declare the task and start the task while you are on the ground.

Speed to Fly.
Have the correct speeds in your computer, so that you are flying effeciently.  Be sure the water ballast numbers are correct.  Start off with a McCready of two.  If things are going poorly, bring it down to one.  If you are finding good lift, and it is becoming predictable raise that McCready up to a 3 or 4.  But I never go over 90 kts between thermals - even with my five different flap settings.

Final glide.
If you are planning to finish at redline, you are planning poorly.  You should have just enough airspeed and altitude at your last thermal so that you will be at 1,000 feet at best glide speed (for that McCready setting) over the finish line.

What you don't want is the following......  ending up flying very fast and being very high as you are approaching the finish line.  Put a manual wind into the glide computer.  Do this when you are on the inbound to the last turnpoint before the finish line.  Predict what the average wind will be on the final glide, especially that last 3 or 4 thousand feet of descent.  Leave that last thermal when you have the correct altitude.  It is better to have a ground speed of 50 on final glide, and have your altitude correct, then to have a ground speed of zero as you continue climbing in that last good thermal, and then try to make up for that zero groundspeed  by flying the final glide at an excessive and inefficient speed.

Maybe some of you will share your racing/ cross-country "secrets" with others.  Why not share?  Did you have to learn the hard way?  Probably.  Did you have to discover many of these things on your own?  Probably.  Will the tips on this page eliminate the need for newer pilots to learn these tricks?  No.  Pilots may read these type of tips or suggestions, but trying to put them into effective use is something else.  Let's help new pilots discover how to fly fast.  Give them the benefit of your experience.  They won't understand it at first, but eventually the light may go on.  It will make this a safer sport!