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#51
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:58:07 -0700, MNLou wrote:
A clarification on badge distance rules. All flights for Gold Distance, Diamond Distance, and Diamond Goal must be pre-declared - unless they are a point to point "downwind dash". Gold distance doesn't need to be predeclared, but the Diamond Goal flight does. Since both are 300 km, declare it anyway and, on completion you can claim it as Gold Distance and Diamond Goal. At least, that was the case when I did the flight and claimed both badge legs. Height claims require an IGC approved logger with a calibrated pressure sensor installed. If its calibration certificate is out of date it can be recalibrated after the flight: there is a short window allowed for doing that. However, if you're relying on post calibration, if conditions permit, do make sure you've given yourself a decent height margin rather than just scrambling over the target height in case the sensor has drifted. -- Martin | martin at Gregorie | gregorie dot org |
#52
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
Any special equipment needed for the altitude component for badges today? Like an altitude encoding transponder? Or does a simple GPS data logger suffice?
From the current Sporting Code https://www.fai.org/igc-documents : "FLIGHT RECORDER 1.1.5 An IGC-approved device to record pressure altitude and GPS position and altitude. A given FLIGHT RECORDER may be approved for all flights, all badges, or Silver through Diamond badge claims only. POSITION RECORDER 1.1.6 A NAC-approved device to record GPS data for Silver or Gold badge claims only." FR's have special barometric sensors. PR's can too, but most use GPS altitude, which has a error band of 100m applied. A list of PR's approved by NACs is at http://www.ukiws.demon.co.uk/GFAC/po..._recorders.htm . |
#53
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
On Thursday, March 26, 2020 at 5:00:30 PM UTC-5, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 13:58:07 -0700, MNLou wrote: A clarification on badge distance rules. All flights for Gold Distance, Diamond Distance, and Diamond Goal must be pre-declared - unless they are a point to point "downwind dash". Gold distance doesn't need to be predeclared, Per the Sporting Code and the SSA Badge Dude, indeed, Gold Distance - unless a downwind dash - needs to be predeclared. Please correct me if I'm wrong. Thanks! Lou |
#54
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
On Thu, 26 Mar 2020 19:59:20 -0700, MNLou wrote:
A clarification on badge distance rules. All flights for Gold Distance, Diamond Distance, and Diamond Goal must be pre-declared - unless they are a point to point "downwind dash". Gold distance doesn't need to be predeclared, Per the Sporting Code and the SSA Badge Dude, indeed, Gold Distance - unless a downwind dash - needs to be predeclared. Please correct me if I'm wrong. No, that's correct - the undeclared flight may be a straight line in any direction, otherwise it must be declared and must not have more than three declared turnpoints. ==== Do you guys have a 100 km diploma, or is that UK only? It has two parts: a) Completion of a 100 km declared closed circuit flight, set either as a triangle or as an out - and - return, starting and finishing with the crossing of a 1km start/finish line. b) Completion of a similar flight to that above, but at a minimum handicapped speed of 65 km per hour. The handicap list from the current Competition Handbook is to be used. I think flying something like that is quite a good introduction to XC soaring given UK airspace restrictions. -- Martin | martin at Gregorie | gregorie dot org |
#55
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
I agree with Wyll. Badges only matter to the people they matter to.
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#56
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
On Friday, March 27, 2020 at 9:19:59 AM UTC-6, Bret Hess wrote:
I agree with Wyll. Badges only matter to the people they matter to. Perhaps there's a east-west cultural divide here. |
#57
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
Hi John, I really empathize with your situation!
From my experience, even the right equipment is not enough for XC success. What's required is a culture, with leadership and mentors, and you might not look to your CFIG for that leadership - I've not found XC leaders in the CFI's of the clubs I've flown at, and that's fine. Friends Stan (Z1), Randy (EH), Charles (CP), Tony (1F), Wilf (K2), Adam (28) and others pulled me along and contextualized things - they taught me the card trick! I'm convinced that we (collectively) have the opportunity to usher in a new golden age of soaring - in fact, I get angry when people discuss the demise of soaring as a known outcome! 1) Lots of great gliders around, which may or may not be "expensive", they tend not to depreciate faster than inflation - I'm happy to have diversified into a share of a glider in November 2019 vs having held that capital in the market today (even if the glider market has soured, I can't fly an ETF) 2) Tools and forecasting - with a used Android phone ($90USD), XCSoar (free) and DrJack or Skysight.io you can have incredible confidence or foresight which previously required an MSc in meteorology and an $6000 moving map flight computer 3) Tell our story - between Facebook, Instagram, Tik Tok and other free content platforms we have an incredible opportunity to share the majesty of soaring like never before Your dilemma is one that I don't think tenured members care to empathize with, but is the core reason why the average age of a club tends to increase by 1 every year. When efforts are made to drive development programs, they require significant volumes of time of established members and tend to expire quickly or are only available on weekends when the weather is poor. Fear not - I bring you the/a solution! Over the past few years, some of my gliding buddies and I have created a platform to seed and solve any club's XC development culture (and member retention goals), and we're ready to bring it to the US in 2020! The 'Proving Grounds' is a club-specific platform with defined tasks, beautiful trophies to mount in your clubhouse or hangar and an automated email bot for pilots to email an .igc trace to. Our bot scores the trace against the tasks within a minute, returning your time, average speed and other details to the requesting email address. Record your name, glider, date and ranking metric on magnetic slips and rank it by time or average speed on the aforementioned trophies (stainless steel task boards). We encourage clubs to start with a diamond-shaped task around their airfield which is safe as long as the pilot maintains 2500' above field elevation (1000' circuit altitude + 20:1 glide ratio). The next two tasks we suggest clubs plan over safe terrain with good landout options and that build on each other. This way a pilot attempting the largest task can bail on that task, but still have success on the middle task. Once the tasks are defined, there is next to no maintenance by any club member. The fixed tasks inform discussions supporting the novice XC pilot set to become the club's next XC mentor - that's you John! In 2019 the Soaring Association of Canada provided setup and subscription costs for 3 years for any interested club. So far, 14 of Canada's 21 gliding clubs have configured a Proving Grounds for their clubs (2 more pending) with effusively positive feedback - from a group not known for effusively positive feedback. In the middle of this crazy time, we are trying to start some conversations with SSA to see if they would do for US clubs as SAC has done in Canada to support the member clubs, and the sport of soaring with a scalable, no maintenance, high-value but low-cost program. This will ultimately make it less expensive overall and, I think, would be a great way for SSA to provide turn-key support for clubs without ongoing burden associated with other types of programs/initiatives. If anyone has names of folks who could be influential in helping motivate the SSA to support this kind of initiative, please follow up directly - or if you'd like more information specifically, do the same. I'm a "tenured" XC pilot and love racing the Proving Grounds for recognition I don't get on Skylines or OLC (among peers, not strangers) and to motivate others to try task flying and XC. But my greatest satisfaction from participating in the program at my club is when I saw a novice pilot nearly in tears with a sense of pride affixing their slip to the task board - gaining some recognition and accomplishing their first soaring milestone! I know this works in year 1, and I can't wait to see how it will evolve in my club by year 10+. Start now! If anyone can help us bring this to the US, I'd really appreciate any direction or conversation to that end. The feedback across Canada is that pilots really appreciate the platform which is creating excitement and engagement immediately upon delivery. For more info: soaringtasks.com "Proving Grounds" on Facebook or LinkedIn Article in SAC's 'Free Flight' magazine - http://sac.ca/index.php/en/free-flig...2/latest-issue Note the feedback in SAC's 2019 Annual Reports (find "Proving Grounds") - http://sac.ca/index.php/en/documents...l-reports/file I'm @paddy_mack on Instagram and Tik Tok Fly Deliberately. Fly Tasks. |
#58
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
If anyone can help us bring this to the US, I'd really appreciate any direction or conversation to that end. The feedback across Canada is that pilots really appreciate the platform which is creating excitement and engagement immediately upon delivery. For more info: soaringtasks.com "Proving Grounds" on Facebook or LinkedIn Article in SAC's 'Free Flight' magazine - http://sac.ca/index.php/en/free-flig...2/latest-issue Note the feedback in SAC's 2019 Annual Reports (find "Proving Grounds") - http://sac.ca/index.php/en/documents...l-reports/file I'm @paddy_mack on Instagram and Tik Tok Fly Deliberately. Fly Tasks. Patrick, this is a big enough initiative you should post again under its own subject line so it will get more exposure. |
#59
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
Le mardi 24 mars 2020 22:29:38 UTC+1, son_of_flubber a écritÂ*:
Maybe I'm the only pilot put off the entire badge system by the 5 hour duration flight. I'd surely get dull and bored after ~3.5 hours and flying dull increases risk. The benefit that I'd subjectively assign to a longer flight does not offset the risk that I subjectively perceive. Even though I'm already an old guy, my endurance in the air has slowly increased over a decade of flying to about 3 hours. For a younger pilot, 5 hour duration flight might be more a matter of skillfully finding lift, and less a matter of raw endurance. It is a sad fact that some clubs ask that their members get the duration leg of the silver badge before allowing them to do the distance leg. Even in a low performance ship (I did it in a Ka8), the 50 km take 1 to 2 hours, so why would you have to do the 5 hours first? You'll do them without even noticing it if you try the 300 km distance leg for gold in a low performance ship (I did my first 300 km triangle in a Ka6E in 6 and 1/2 hours, still one of my favourite memories even if it was disallowed as a badge flight due to a faulty turn point picture). I'd say one of the key points if you're going to try and go XC without formal two-place training, is to learn to know the region you're going to fly over. In the 80's, I did it by studying ordnance maps (no Google maps in these days) during the winter months. It helped me find my goal aerodrome. If you're using a gps for the 50 km, you'll lose half the fun... By the way: you CAN put this in your smartphone: https://www.faa.gov/regulations_poli...h-8083-13a.pdf |
#60
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The Decline of Soaring Awards
That is simply terrific!
I suggest you repost under your own subject line, just as Bret suggested. On 3/28/2020 9:13 AM, Bret Hess wrote: If anyone can help us bring this to the US, I'd really appreciate any direction or conversation to that end. The feedback across Canada is that pilots really appreciate the platform which is creating excitement and engagement immediately upon delivery. For more info: soaringtasks.com "Proving Grounds" on Facebook or LinkedIn Article in SAC's 'Free Flight' magazine - http://sac.ca/index.php/en/free-flig...2/latest-issue Note the feedback in SAC's 2019 Annual Reports (find "Proving Grounds") - http://sac.ca/index.php/en/documents...l-reports/file I'm @paddy_mack on Instagram and Tik Tok Fly Deliberately. Fly Tasks. Patrick, this is a big enough initiative you should post again under its own subject line so it will get more exposure. -- Dan, 5J |
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