I've found it a little funny that there's all this fuss about
the measuring devices, yet I've read in several articles about
silver badge flights and radio chatter and finding
thermals despite:

SC 3, 2.1.1 a

"The Silver distance flight should be flown without navigational
or other assistance given over the radio (other than permission
to land on an airfield) or help or guidance from other aircraft."

This sport has elements of the honor system in it already, there
are already some who do cheat (most often inadvertently), but
I for one think that the sport is so small that the overemphasis
on security discourages participation to a much greater degree
than any cheating under a COTS gps approval for badges would
detract or discourage.

No one wants to cheat with them, it's just the way things going on
some (maybe most) places.

I've seen similar things. Given this, the obvious solution would be to
award badges using the honor system. If this is not acceptable, then
some level of procedural and/or technical security measures must be in
the rules (even if some do not follow them). How much security is enough?
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Mark Boyd
Avenal, California, USA