Keith Gould — March 17
Thermal Skill Metrics
📊 What the Data Shows
A step back from the breakthrough Mar 16 flight. All three metrics dropped — lock-in went from 1.4 to 2.8 turns, consistency from 91% to 84%, extraction from 40% to 31%. These numbers are close to your career averages, which suggests Mar 16 was the outlier (in a good way), not today.
The thermals were weaker today. Avg climb 0.47 m/s vs 0.62 on Mar 16. Peak climb 1.53 vs 1.64. Weaker thermals are harder to center — the core is narrower and less forgiving. Lock-in taking longer makes sense in this context.
You stayed local. All 7 thermals were in the Domi house thermal area (9.237-9.241, -83.817 to -83.835). No XC push today — you worked the home thermals for 53 minutes before gliding out west to land 4.8km away.
Per-Thermal Breakdown
| # | Time | Gain | Peak | Duration | Avg Climb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| T1 | 14:15 | +228m | 792m | 4:50 | 0.79 m/s |
| T2 | 14:23 | +23m | 693m | 0:49 | 0.47 m/s |
| T3 | 14:24 | +53m | 734m | 1:51 | 0.48 m/s |
| T4 | 14:26 | +86m | 790m | 4:47 | 0.30 m/s |
| T5 | 14:33 | +175m | 809m ⭐ | 5:12 | 0.56 m/s |
| T6 | 14:44 | +234m | 804m | 6:31 | 0.60 m/s |
| T7 | 14:56 | +9m | 536m | 0:58 | 0.16 m/s |
Times shown in Costa Rica time (UTC-6). T5 reached the day's max altitude at 809m. T6 was the longest thermal at 6:31 — a grind for 234m.
Career Trend
| Date | Duration | Max Alt | Lock-in | Consistency | Extraction |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 14 | 77 min | 835m | Pre-metrics | ||
| Jan 26 | 73 min | 817m | Pre-metrics | ||
| Jan 29 | 53 min | 833m | Pre-metrics | ||
| Mar 5 | 88 min | 901m | Pre-metrics | ||
| Mar 11 | 37 min | 763m | Pre-metrics | ||
| Mar 13 | 63 min | 878m | Pre-metrics | ||
| Mar 16 | 32 min | 867m | 1.4 | 91% | 40% |
| Mar 17 | 53 min | 809m | 2.8 | 84% | 31% |
Mar 16 (green) remains the personal best across all three metrics.
Altitude Profile
Flight Map
Thermal Detail
📋 Takeaways
Not every flight will be a personal best. Mar 16 was a breakthrough — tighter turns, longer commits, better instrumentation. Today's weaker thermals (0.47 avg vs 0.62) made centering harder. The technique improvements from Mar 16 are still there — T1 gained 228m in under 5 minutes, which is solid.
T4 is worth examining. 4:47 in a thermal but only +86m (0.30 m/s). That's a long time in weak lift. On Mar 16, you were leaving weak thermals faster and finding better ones. Today you stayed and ground it out — sometimes that's the right call when there's nothing better nearby.
The house thermal was the whole flight. All 7 thermals within a tight area. When conditions don't support pushing out, working the home thermal and logging airtime is still good practice.