On Wednesday, April 29, 2015 at 12:08:33 PM UTC-7, Jonathan St. Cloud wrote:
With all these new devices including the phone apps with glass cockpit, I wonder if the rules committee should just suspend anyone from SSA events for several years if they are cloud flying, instead of making contestants disable the AHRS in their butterfly or LX? Just a thought. I frankly think having a back up in case is a great idea, and I think it is exceptional stupid to intentionally illegally cloud fly in the USA without an IFR clearance. Any accident could seriously undermine all the other glider pilots. Years ago when I regularly flew out of Minden I heard many pilots talking about getting 24,000 feet or so in a thermal. I tried to speak with these pilots and explain the consequences of such mindlessness. All to no avail. I tried to get Larry Sanders to address this issue again to no avail.

It's been discussed within the RC and with a number of CDs. I've personally looked a flight log files and weather data for "suspicious flights". We are talking about a relatively fine line in terms of being able to line up glider altitudes, locations and time off of a flight log versus some sort of estimate of of the cloud base - at the same time and precise location. The cloud data is neither granular enough in terms of height and location nor cut finely enough in terms of time (clouds form and dissipate) to make any definitive determination as to whether a glider was IMC or in violation of FARs for cloud clearance or whatever metric you want to use. The exception might be egregious departures deep into significant clouds that are well established. This is the main scenario for gaining material competitive advantage versus running in and out of the wisps at cloudbase. In any event, if you fly in cloud and you get caught expect furious vengeance and application of penalties from the CD.

I will let the sleeping dog of cockpit video cameras lie.

9B