The good stuff keeps pouring in... And its very much appreciated! I
also happen to know that there are a few other contest-newbies lurking
on this thread, and hopefully learning as well. :-)

On Oct 13, 1:22*pm, wrote:
is long. Another thing to keep in mind is to try to avoid making
dogleg courselines - you don't get any credit for the extra distance.

Quick clarification on this:

I hear people talk about "going deeper into the circles" - but there's
nothing special about staying inside the cylinder if you appear to be
below minimum time, right? For example: say there's a cloud-street
just outside the first turnpoint cylinder that runs at an angle to
your second turnpoint course-line. Rather than going deep into the
first cylinder (past the center mark) and then making a shorter leg to
the next waypoint, couldn't you run into the cylinder as far as the
lift is strong, then turn back and hit the cloud-street and keep your
ground-speed up... Oh, wait...

Hehehe, just realized my mistake in the middle of this train of
thought: The scoring isn't based on the average airspeed/ground-speed
of the glider, with penalties if you miss the TPs or come in under-
time... Your speed is based on the most advantageous fix recorded
inside each cylinder, isn't it? :-P

--Noel
(Now secretly hoping for a simple AT in his first contest flight) :-)