Silver Distance Denied

At 04:07 06 April 2015, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
The badge process has withstood the test of time in building confidence
and=
skill. It took me three tries to finally get my diamond out and return.
I
=
learned much from each flight, plus the fights got me flying further from
h=
m each time. On the first attempt the Cambridge data logger recorded
point=
s on either side of the turn point quadrant and if you drew a line
between
=
the points the line would go through the quadrant, but it was rejected
for
=
not hanging a Piont in the quadrant.

You don't say when this was, but for a number of years a line through the
quadrant has been an option in the Sporting Code. Sounds as though you were
robbed.

The second time, the logger lost GPS
=
signal for about four minutes while I was at the turn Piont. I was
heading=
for home when the logger re-established contact, I turned around and
repea=
ted the turn point but the claim was rejected as I had lost GPS and thus
no=
logging for four minutes. It was obvious to Judy Lincoln that on both
flig=
hts I completed the required distance but I was not in technical
compliance=

I would fight that one too. If the Pressure barogram shows that you could
not have landed and re-launched (no ground within range at a height shown
on the barogram), where's the problem?
Anyway you would need to be very quick to land and re-launch in four
minutes!

But then I haven't seen the trace.

.. So I flew it a third time! I had not been flying 500 k's more like
200k=
's, each summer weekend, all the sudden I did three 500 k's on three
succes=
sive weekends. I think not getting the badge on the first two attempts
was=
responsible for seriously expanding my range. If your badge claim is
deni=
ed, try try again, you will learn.

Dear Tim:

The time frame of the flights discussed was approximately 1996. I certainly was frustrated with the first denial, the second one I could understand as the recorder had stopped recording for about four minutes, but was very obvious I could not have landed and took off and climbed to altitude in that that short time frame. However, it was all a blessing in disguise. Before these flights I had been circling the airport maybe out to 50 - 70 miles at most. Now all the sudden I found I could declare a 500 K fly it and do the same thing again on suppose! Before these flights I had actually been passed about 20 miles out returning to the airport by an instructor flown ASK-21, I was flying a pre-winglet ASW-24 (my first real glider). Before the ASW-24 I had been renting the fixed wheel single seat Grob. I was still learning to fly the ASW-24, I thought it climbed best at 60 knots and all the experienced pilots were telling me I did not know what I was talking about I should be thermaling at 50 knots. Turns out I was right, the following year JJ installed winglets, that really made a big difference. That was a great bird. I remember the second year I had it, I set a goal of flying 400 hours. I flew all the time, if the weather was good during the week I would take a day (or two) off work to fly. I went on a soaring vacation for week to Minden and another week to Hobbs. Found out flying in the flat land is scary, in the mountains if I get low I tuck in close to the mountains, in flat land there is no place to tuck into I ended the season with 275 hours and there was just no way I could ever take that much time off of work again. I learned as much from the failures to earn the badge as I did from earning the badge. I sold the 24 moved up in size and had much fun until work, family and other interests lead me to stop soaring for other pursuits. I am back to soaring now and looking forward to this year and to buying a glider.