Glider flies 100km in just 36 minutes (uncut)

This flight takes us along a line of lift to Marienthal, Namibia. Watch closely as I try to max out the 60-minute average speed calculated by our flight computer. This value is my primary indication of how we are performing on various phases of the flight. Here we achieved 150-160kph averaged over the 60 minute period, which was about twice of what I am used to in Germany. This means, that 100km of distance is dealt with in just over an half an hour. With real cloudstreets or convergences, 60-minute speeds can excess the 200kph mark!
Key to success is a precise flying style, not brute force speeding. Try to anticipate the vario movements, slow down and speed up consequently and in the right moments. Circle only if needed and in the strongest lifts. If the lift doesn't feel right, abort and continue. Don't be distracted by windshear causing a vario movement (still one of my weaknesses!). Also pay attention to the flap positions, although they are not even closely as important as the factors above.
Four hours before sunset, at 15:45, we had already flown 600km which meant completing the 1000km challenge on that day was a piece of cake judging by what lay ahead of us. In the end, the final glide turned out to be more difficult than we thought, but thats material for another video:)
Flight track: www.weglide.or...
Camera: www.insta360.c...
Mount: www.stefly.aer...
My club: lfv-mainz.com
Weather forecast: skysight.io
Veronica Flying: www.veronica-f...
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[@go2cloudbase]

Great video. I fly similar but with some important differences, but don't really know which is better. I have a theory, but I don't know if I am right, these things are hard to test in soaring, there is no control group :). On days like these, the best days in Nevada are similar, I fly purely visually according to the clouds and rarely let the interthermal vario direct my cruise speed. I'm trying to circle in 8-10 kts only, with clean entry's and exits, and even trying to minimizing straight flight in lift at min sink or best L/D speed. So, I rarely push and pull directed by the vario and fly block speeds instead. I will pull up based on what I'm seeing with the clouds and pick my climb locations well ahead of time, and it needs to be either a big dark cloud or a street. I enter streets as low as I dare but still connect and center quickly and effectively, trying to maintain my STF speed between pullups/climbs. My idea here is that on fantastic days like this I think we may be flying too slow between thermals due to pulling up and cruising at min sink at cloudbase or otherwise. Rather, isn't it better to maintain interthermal SFT based on the true average climb rate between clouds and only circle in the best lift while also minimizing straight flying at min sink of best l/d? Of course all of this is only used in the best conditions and modified when exiting to lesser conditions or trying to reach good conditions. I came upon this idea by looking at Keith Essex flight traces. He is flying very fast and his flight traces are very sawtooth! Especially when conditions are very good.

[@someguydino6770]

Sierra Sierra ....was a book about soaring that I read many moons ago