On Tuesday, December 4, 2012 1:38:16 AM UTC-8, Ramy wrote:
But in case it wasn't clear, my proposal is not to get rid of flight recorders all together, but to just get rid of the approval requirements for badges and diplomas which are just personal achievements.

They may be just personal achievements, but there still needs to be a little something there that keeps mostly honest people, like myself, from "forgetting" the little things that sometimes make flights not quite valid. Like, managing to complete a 1000K flight except for the tiny little detail of still being 20 or 30 miles out on final glide at official sunset in a glider with no lights. Or, making a flight and somehow forgetting that Class A airspace begins at 18000 ft in our corner of the world. Or my personal almost, but not quite, achievement, the one time I managed to declare my perfect 1000K triangle out of TPH, climbing out with full water at 9:15 am, zipping out to Utah in no time, making it all the way back past Mt Grant to 10 miles out from my last turnpoint with essentially no turns, which should have been followed by an easy ride back to TPH. Except, the turnpoint was smack underneath a shelf of over-developed clouds, which were already dumping water. Since I wanted the "personal achievement", I had to try, with the pretty much inevitable result that I didn't make it back to TPH until the next day. Or, I could have just declared a moral victory, turned 10 miles out, and made it back for the BBQ, but somehow, it wouldn't have been the same.

I think the rules are there for valid reasons, and part of any achievement is managing to comply with the rules while making the flight. Without some independent means of demonstrating compliance with the declaration and rules, all you have is the pilots word. There is still a significant difference between "making" a 1000K flight, and actually getting the FAI diploma. So, yes, I still think we need flight recorders...