On 2 Oct, 15:48, Chris Reed wrote:
Ian wrote:

OK, let's introduce an inverse-speed condition. Silver distance to be
done in no less than two hours, gold five, diamond seven. No dawdling
allowed. It would mean that good days were no advantage.

Hmm. I may have to work on this a bit.

Ian

Think you might need to. I flew my Gold distance in over 6 hours, but on
a day when the club pundit decided it wasn't worth a launch. I reckon I
earned it properly! Haven't yet managed Diamond, but in my Open Cirrus
in the UK I don't expect to take less than seven hours if I ever do
manage it.

Then you'll have no problem with my minimum time limits! Of course you
will be going rather further than the Ka8 drivers, but I am sure
you'll agree that that's quite fair ...

And what about Silver in a K8 into any kind of a headwind?

Flying wood into headwinds is pointless and rather ostentatious.
Downwind is for dashing!

My experience of talking to pilots who are trying for their Silver
distance is that the hard part is leaving gliding range of the home
airfield. I guess the exception might be flying somewhere you can take
one climb overhead, and the rest is final glide, but that doesn't happen
in my part of the world. The main barrier for Silver is psychological,
not ability or glider performance.

I remember an enormous sense of liberation when I set off on my first
cross country - which was also my Silver Distance, as it happened.

Ian