Part of the reason for having a 5 hour requirement
is to experience changing weather conditions and prove
the ability to find enough thermals in such conditions
to be able to stay up that long. This means strong,
tight thermals early in the day, and weaker, wider,
lazy thermals in the afternoon -- usually. I think
it is a good requirement. I once got 4:56 and it
was another two years before I crossed the 5hr time
line -- with a flight of 6:49 in a TG-3A. I found
it to be an extremely rewarding challenge. Some of
the intervening flights also exceeded 4:00.

It is good practice for distance flights; there is
a psychological/physical barrier around 2:30 - 3:30,
and learning to get past that makes distance flights
easier. One might argue that doing the distance also
covers the time, but practicing the duration until
one can handle that is less troublesome because it
saves retrieve problems. I wouldn't want to eliminate
the task.

At 00:30 30 April 2007, Eric Greenwell wrote:
Shawn wrote:

In addition, I think the badge altitude requirements
are
unrelated to XC ability, especially given the sophistication
of modern
varios. A pilot who can stay aloft for more than
an hour is familiar
with cloud base. Altitude gain becomes entirely dependent
on weather
conditions. A XC pilot who can fly 500K, never getting
1200m off the
ground (or 100m off the ridge) shouldn't have to travel
to where the
weather enables a 3000m climb to earn his or her Gold.
The point of the
badges (as I understand it) is to encourage cross
country flight, not
vacation planning ;-)

My understanding is the badges were set up not just
to encourage
cross-country soaring, but to encourage pilots to extend
themselves. The
altitude requirement does that, though some pilots
might have to travel
to do it, just as some might have to travel to do a
500K.

When the 3000m and 5000m requirements were first set,
it was never
intended that they be done exclusively in thermals,
but also in cloud
climbs and (later on, I think - not sure) in wave.
While US pilots can't
easily do cloud climbs, wave is a good option. I believe
that most US
pilots are no more than a day's drive from a gliderport
near wave, and
the remainder are no more than two days drive. A couple
days drive to a
new soaring location for a week of flying doesn't seem
to onerous to me!

I do think the badges could be adjusted to encourage
more pilots extend
themselves in their flying, but I don't haven't thought
about it much,
except to wonder if it should/could be integrated with
the OLC. Reducing
the paperwork would encourage more participation.

--
Eric Greenwell - Washington State, USA
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