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?