http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=11760

There comes a time that you want to fly a little bit faster. Maybe you’ve been to a contest or two and you’ve seen what amazing speeds the top pilots achieve – and often in surprisingly bad conditions. Maybe you want to go for a badge, or just cover a little more territory in your cross-country flying. We are glued to this sport by obsessive self-improvement, and a little more speed soon becomes the focus of that obsession.

A better pilot or a better glider?

Many pilots think that the key to going faster is to spend a lot of money on new gliders. They don’t go to contests because “I won’t be competitive in this old thing.” In fact, small differences in pilot technique outweigh huge differences in expensive fiberglass. You usually see new gliders at the top of the score sheet only because great pilots tend to put the money and effort into flying the latest gliders. The top pilots would sill win if they had to fly 20 year old gliders.

To see what a little thinking and practicing can do, let’s set a goal of cutting down 3 circles per hour. This doesn’t seem like much, maybe one circle every other thermal. How many of us do not, three times per hour, take a circle that gains nothing; maybe searching for a thermal that isn’t there, indecisive about leaving, or centering poorly? That seems like an achievable goal for a season’s practice.

Thanks to Ron Gleason.