Shortest distance flown by wood?? :D

"Ray Lovinggood" wrote in
message

The club required those seeking the Silver Distance
to fly wood. In this case, the Ka-8 was the ship to
be used. I think the club thought making the flight
in something like the Standard Astir or ASW-15 would
make it too easy.

Actually I agree with that club's approach. You can probably do 50Km from
one good thermal in a modern glass ship. When I did my Silver distance back
in '78 I flew an ASK18 ( Ka8 with Ka6CR wings) and I needed four good
thermals to make the distance. Finding those thermals when you are in
unfamiliar territory is the real challenge. I did the 5 hrs in thermals
local to the club and most of those were old friends.

I think the Silver badge needs a bit of up-dating to take account of the
better equipment which is now available. I would replace the 5 hours with a
second cross-country of at least 150Km to be done in a straight line (ie no
landing back at home) and bump up the height gain to 2000m. I believe the
original intention of the Silver badge was for it to be completed in one
flight. In the kind of kit around in the 1930's the Gold distance would have
needed at least five hours and I guess the idea was for people to keep going
and not stop at 50Kms.

As for the shortest c/c done in wood, I think my check flight for going
cross country has a claim. I landed my Olympia 2b in the field behind our
airfield about 300 yards short of the normal take off point because I wasn't
paying attention to an increase in wind speed. The CFI signed my log book
for cross country OK, but grounded me for a fortnight, which I had to spend
driving the winch. My fellow pilots and I lifted that Oly over the boundary
hedge to save a de-rig. The hardest thing to bear was their laughter as they
climbed through the hedge to rescue me. Cost me a bomb in beer.

Alistair Wright
UK 4759

Alistair Wright wrote:

snip

I think the Silver badge needs a bit of up-dating to take account of the
better equipment which is now available. I would replace the 5 hours with a
second cross-country of at least 150Km to be done in a straight line (ie no
landing back at home) and bump up the height gain to 2000m. I believe the
original intention of the Silver badge was for it to be completed in one
flight. In the kind of kit around in the 1930's the Gold distance would have
needed at least five hours and I guess the idea was for people to keep going
and not stop at 50Kms.

snip

Nice ideas. I've always thought the Silver was silly except in a 1-26
or similar. 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 ;-) I think it would be reasonable to recognize the
altitude gain separately though.



Shawn

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
* Change "netto" to "net" to email me directly
* "Transponders in Sailplanes" http://tinyurl.com/y739x4
* "A Guide to Self-launching Sailplane Operation" at www.motorglider.org

i would support a "variable" silver badge distance requirement based
on glide ratio. as said above, one thermal will get you 50 Km in a
good glider. In my glider, One thermal got me about 30 Km. Perhaps
there could be a calibration to your actual distance flown based on
glide ratio, similar to the 1% rule.

and Ray, I will definitely post all my flights here. I certainly have
fun flying them, and landing out, and telling you all about it!