On Thursday, February 2, 2017 at 4:49:34 PM UTC-5, Sierra Whiskey wrote:
No argument there, it is difficult to quantify the climb performance utilizing upward moving air. This would take some evaluation of the wing loading and sink rate at thermaling speeds.

That in mind, the analysis of speed and sink comparisons does indicate that if those two gliders left the same thermal at the same altitude and at the same time, the lower performing glider would arrive at the same next thermal lower and after the higher performing glider. Any delta in the climb performance (if one could be accurately calculated) would be negated by the point of arrival in the next thermal. So in a way the climb performance of the glider is accounted for in the calculation, probably as an under-estimate.

The above is probably why it is also so difficult to handicap variable ballasted gliders!

A while back I developed a plan to create a variable handicap where a Contest Director (with the help of the Weather Adviser) would declare three components to the race: Task, MacCready Value for the day, and a wind value for the day. Each handicap for the day would be based on the sink rate of each glider at the given MC and Headwind Values defined for the day. The idea was to level the playing field between a PW-5 and an ASG-29 across the different soaring conditions.

Examples:
1) Strong Lift- ASG-29 will cruise much further and more efficiently than a PW-5
2) Weak Lift- PW-5 will climb and stay aloft much easier.
3) Heavy Wind- ASG-29 has much better penetration into a strong headwind.

The reality is that the development of this system would take a significant amount of time due to a lack of high resolution data for glide performance across the spectrum of aircraft. Though the solution is difficult to design and implement, it would provide a better system to handicap gliders based on the soaring conditions, and not just a single performance value. The negative impact of this system is the requirement for rules protecting the CD from making a less than desirable call on the day values, and would introduce some new soaring strategy to optimize the performance of each aircraft based on the variable handicap for the given conditions.

This all came about while I was trying to determine how each glider's handicap is calculated. Unfortunately I am still unclear on how that happens.

In regards to development of the system. You need to employ analytics to solve this problem. OLC data is all you need to find the levers.