On Friday, August 21, 2015 at 9:11:52 AM UTC-7, Andy Blackburn wrote:

Aside - Eric, as I look at your trace you caught the lead guys not because you used Flarm to find superior climbs (they were actually slightly weaker), but because you flew 3-4 miles less distance by cutting the first turn, which nearly exactly offset starting 3-4 miles behind them. I'm sure it was reassuring to find the pre-start gaggle, but it's not clear that you got any advantage from it - short of not landing out on a weak day, which is hard to prove would have happened since no one landed out on that leg that I could see.


Sorry EriK - don't know why I keep typo-ing your name - :-(

Also - we are talking about 11 points of leeching benefit (that is hard to directly attribute to Flarm leeching since it got you poorer climbs. However, if I take UH's suggestion as to the Flarm benefit you got, the alternative may have been a P3 landout. Which would have been a better result for judging your performance that day - a maximum of 11 points of leeching benefit or a landout penalty for not staying with the gaggle much more closely at the start? Remember, before Flarm people still were able to gaggle up, leech, etc. They just did it by staying close enough to read the other guys' contest numbers.

9B