Hi Terry,

To amplify on the other comment a little bit...

The Sporting Code is very specific on many aspects. It pays to do a close read, preferably with someone experienced in badge and record flying looking over your shoulder.

So, without getting too technical, in your case:

- Sequence matters. When you "declare" a course, the points must be flown as indicated. So if you declared a task Start/Point A/Point B/Finish you need to go in that order. You can't decide after launch to go Start/Point B/Point A/Finish.
- "Making" a turnpoint has very specific requirements. "Almost" and "Nearly" aren't in the vocabulary. You either have to fly beyond a turnpoint if using the FAI Sector (pie wedge) or get within 500M if using the FAI Cylinder (beer can). 501 meters doesn't cut it.

There are many other subtleties that can affect a given flight. Start/Finish Heights and loss of altitude penalties nab a lot of silver distance claims. So does not understanding the options for start/finish points (lines vs. sectors).

Also, it is often possible to claim "something" out of a partially completed task. For instance if you declared a triangle where you completed only 2 of 3 legs but one was a 50Km leg, you MIGHT be able to make a silver distance out of it.

Finally, I would comment that a competent Official Observer should have been able to ascertain whether or not the flight would qualify prior to submitting to the SSA. That's a little troubling...

Erik Mann (P3)
Formerly Badge and Record Chairman for SSA


On Sunday, March 29, 2015 at 9:27:13 AM UTC-4, Terry Pitts wrote:
All,

I was in Minden last week for the Wave Camp - had a great time. I flew my first (and longest!) solo cross country in a glider. I submitted the documentation for what I thought would be an acceptable Silver Distance, but it was rejected.

I was under the impression from what I've read here that "declare a flight, make at least one turn point, AND have a leg in the flight of at least 50km in there somewhere" was adequate.

I picked turn points north and south of Minden. After release, I headed south and chickened out well before the turn point. I headed north, gained some altitude (and admittedly comfort/confidence at this!). I slightly passed the northern turn point, and exactly crossed it headed south at 16,500'.

As I flew south, I slowly climbed. Shortly before the southern turn point, I was still in about a half knot of wave. I thought I flew over the southern turn point at 18,000'. It turns out I was slightly short.

The distance between the northern most and southern most points is 54km, yet it doesn't count?

Have I misunderstood what I've read here? I flew 185km that day; I'd never even made a cross country flight in a glider before, thought I had done it all right - a little frustrated.

I picked turn points further than 50km apart just in case I was a bit short, but didn't purposely turn before the turn point.

Thoughts?