Doing five hours while hovering around the airport is like flagpole sitting (at least at Moriarty!) It just shows you have a large bladder and a small imagination :-) Don't mean to be snarky, but western US soaring conditions are exceptional.

I've done lots of 5+ hour flights in hang gliders and sailplanes, with flight distances of 150+ km in hang gliders and a personal best of 745 km in my sailplane. I don't have ANY badges.

Gold Hat: "Badges? We ain't got no badges. We don't need no badges. I don't have to show you any stinkin' badges!" (From the film, "Treasure of the Sierra Madre," Alfonso Bedoya as "Gold Hat," 1948)