On Saturday, February 13, 2016 at 2:18:18 PM UTC-5, MNLou wrote:
Especially for an OLC flight where time or speed is not a critical component,
I would expect a more conservative strategy would be found to be the norm.

Absolutely wrong. OLC is a race, just like contests.
XC, you are always flying against the clock, the end-of-day, as fast as possible.
Otherwise you don't get home before sunset, end-of-lift, etc.
Time and speed is *always* critical.
IIRC explained in Reichmann ;-)