On 2/3/2021 4:45 PM, wrote:
I have been around this game for a bit and have made all kind of flights, straight out flights, out and return flights, and the Bloody Triangle. I must say that the most difficult of them all is the declared triangle with minimum leg distances. Without a doubt the triangle is the most challenging of all.
Yes, you can run up and down the ridge, go straight out or go out and return, all are good flights, but the big triangle is the Bloody prize. What do you think?


Seeing the subject line and your location I thought you were talking
about the Bermuda Triangle...

I've always thought the pre-declared triangle is the best XC challenge.
And to make it even harder, I insisted on making the start/finish
point an apex of the triangle. I.e., no "start on leg".

I did 300km that way a while back, pre-declared to myself. 22 years
later I did it again, even slower, but officially recognized. Not in
the 1000km league Ramy is in, but a good challenge with my 12.6m wings
in the Eastern US. Now I need to do it again, faster - hopefully faster
than my glider's stall speed :-)

With such a triangle you get almost as far away from home as with an
O&R, and having to venture in two different directions you are likely to
enter different weather - and to suffer a headwind on at least one leg.
All this should be considered in the planning of the task before
declaration - another challenge.

Somewhere I've seen an informal club contest scheme, can't remember what
it was called (not the currently discussed "Proving Grounds"), where
this was formalized, in that the same distance got more points if an
O&R, and even more points if an FAI triangle. The current OLC doesn't
quite do that, but does add some points to closed-course flights for the
largest enclosed FAI triangle.