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?

If you declare a flight for a badge you need to make all turn points per
the sporting code. I understand your frustration, but that is how it is
defined in the rules.

The only way you could make silver distance without making your declared
turn point is to go straight out and land more than 50km away from your
start.

Peter