If you happen
to declare something inadvertently by a bad attack of button pushing,
then you have only yourself to blame.

and the converse (or is it contrapositive), if you happen to declare
something inadvertently by attaching power to the logger, you have only
the manufacturer to blame.

It would seem from the experience of the originator of this thread that
at least part of the failure was due to his peers not giving sufficient
instruction on the do's and Don'ts required to verify the flight. There
is a basic assumption that a pre-silver pilot (except Al) does not have
an in depth understanding of the requirements and it is up to whoever
briefs him/her on the flight to advise on who preparations to make.

I almost laughed when I read this. Got quite a smile. The pilots
here who've been doing this 30 years haven't the slightest idea
what any of this badge mumbo jumbo means. There are so many
landmines, including loggers that self-declare when power is applied, and
broken springs, and questions about whether a tow release
start-point is also a turnpoint, that eyes glaze over and
most pilots just drool and twitch when this subject comes up.

I may not have the in depth understanding of the requirements,
but I'm smart enough to be surprised by anyone who does...

I'm also smart enough that I'll run my prospective future
badge distance flights by thebadgelady BEFORE the flight.