On Feb 13, 12:19*am, Bruce wrote:
Not true - no-one said you can't use the $100 GPS for all the most useful
functions. (Navigation and flight analysis.) There are just restrictions on
using them for FAI awards where there is a higher standard of proof demanded.
Regrettably this is so because there have been documented cases of fraud in
badge and record claims. Proof that there is scum in every pond I suppose.

Now whether the design of IGC logger security is efective at preventing that is
another question.

Bruce



Jim Beckman wrote:
What a nonsense, Ian. In the ancient times, people

wanting to get a badge needed to buy a barograph and

a camera, and if I recall correctly, they weren't
cheap -
typically more expensive than a logger today.
So, what changed is the technology, not the price
tag.

But the comparison ought to be between the cost of
a logger that's approved, and one that isn't. *To produce
a flight log, it isn't necessary to spend more than
a hundred dollars. *The technology is available, and
it's cheap, but we aren't allowed to use it.

Jim Beckman (NJ)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I thought this got posted earlier, so if this turn out to be a
duplicate, my apologies.

The oft repeated claim that a COTS solution is somehow inherently less
secure than the expensive IGC logger just doesn't hold water... IF you
agree that the OO is critical to either technology. So, do we trust
the OO?

The OO still matters in the IGC Approved logger context because there
are tasks that need to be performed outside of electronic security and
logging security. For example, I own an LS8-18. I'd like to go
after a state record in the Standard Class. Somebody has to make
sure that I didn't sneak around the course with the long wingtips -
ie. the OO. That's just one example.

In order to achieve equivalent security, COTS requires additional
manual steps which replace some of the costly technology. It's
definitely a tradeoff, but it's not a compromise.

Anyone who is interested in reading up on this, please see the
following:

http://home.netcom.com/~pappa3/files...rity_draft.pdf

Cheers,
Erik Mann
LS8-18 P3
Chair, SSA FAI Badges and Records Committee