Jamie Denton wrote:
Your silver, as it stands at the moment, says to an
insurance company that, with an amount of certainty,
that you have a certain level of competence neccesary
for the silver badge, introducing COTS loggers for
the silvers cannot help but reduce that level of certainty,
as cannot be avoided that it is easier to hack these
devices (due to there being easier ways to manipulate
files these devices, I'm not saying current loggers
are immune to hacking, but COTS systems certainly lower
the bar).

The security system surrounding badges isn't only the log file but the
entire set of circumstances surrounding the flight. That's why the OO
is still an integral part of the system despite all the IGC's efforts to
dehumanise it. It's unrealistic to try to build a system based solely
on "impregnable" technology as the IGC seems to have set out to do.

Here's how silly it is. The level of security around the logbooks and
licence required to get a pilot's job at an airline is orders of
magnitude less than for the documentation required to claim a Silver
Badge! The basis for the logbook and licence security (and it's not
perfect, it's adequate) is the web of checkable human contacts defined
in those documents. No sealed loggers are involved.

The OO is the link with a similar human web for the badge system and,
used properly, would provide adequate surety that the flight is genuine
while allowing significantly less secure - and much cheaper - technology
to be used.

Perfection in human affairs is unattainable. Adequate security is all
you can usefully aim for. Excessive security is very wasteful and
expensive as the soaring community now knows. Reducing excessive to
adequate would be a win for the entire gliding community.

Hypothetically, taken to it's extreme, if silver paperwork
became a self declaration job, involving you to simply
self declare you completed the task, with no OO or
logger evidence, we would not expect an insurance company
to take it seriously as a measure of competance, as
there is no worthwhile evidence.

Nobody suggested that. Adequate security doesn't mean no security.

If we allow COTS units, we lower the standard of proof
neccesary for badges, we devalue the Silver badge etc
in the eyes of the insurance companies...

I'd be careful before lowering the bar... few people
may cheat, but insurance companies don't always act
rationally....

Yes they do. They're going to set their premiums where they can make a
profit based on claims experience. Just like they do now.

Graeme Cant