Starting

Starting in a gliding competition is a critical phase of the flight and can make or break your score. Once the task is set, you get some time to get ready, then all the competitors get to the grid into their gliders and get launched by tow planes usually up to 2000 feet.

Launching 50 or so gliders can take up to an hour so launched gliders hang around the start gate (an imaginary line of about 10km long) and wait. Once all gliders have launched the comp control announce the start gate open and then you can make a start. However, you dont have to make a start at that time, you can start any time you like after the gate is open.

What happens then depends on the conditions, if the day is good then it's worth waiting for others to start because 1) they will mark thermalls for you and 2) the conditions generally improve later on. However if you get it wrong you might get left behind too late in the day to get round the task so it's a dangerous game to play. If on the other hand you start too early then you would normally get overtaken by later starters.

In particular on a day with no cumulus clouds to mark thermals you must not leave too early because you will be marking climbs (thermals) for later starters, so on such "blue" day there is normally a cat and mouse game with people making dummy starts and then coming back to restart.