Le mardi 24 mars 2020 22:29:38 UTC+1, son_of_flubber a écritÂ*:
Maybe I'm the only pilot put off the entire badge system by the 5 hour duration flight. I'd surely get dull and bored after ~3.5 hours and flying dull increases risk. The benefit that I'd subjectively assign to a longer flight does not offset the risk that I subjectively perceive.

Even though I'm already an old guy, my endurance in the air has slowly increased over a decade of flying to about 3 hours. For a younger pilot, 5 hour duration flight might be more a matter of skillfully finding lift, and less a matter of raw endurance.

It is a sad fact that some clubs ask that their members get the duration leg of the silver badge before allowing them to do the distance leg. Even in a low performance ship (I did it in a Ka8), the 50 km take 1 to 2 hours, so why would you have to do the 5 hours first? You'll do them without even noticing it if you try the 300 km distance leg for gold in a low performance ship (I did my first 300 km triangle in a Ka6E in 6 and 1/2 hours, still one of my favourite memories even if it was disallowed as a badge flight due to a faulty turn point picture).

I'd say one of the key points if you're going to try and go XC without formal two-place training, is to learn to know the region you're going to fly over. In the 80's, I did it by studying ordnance maps (no Google maps in these days) during the winter months. It helped me find my goal aerodrome. If you're using a gps for the 50 km, you'll lose half the fun...

By the way: you CAN put this in your smartphone: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_poli...h-8083-13a.pdf