Hello Mark,

FAI is right when it tries to avoid that pilots fly back and forth between
two nearby waypoints to achieve a large distance claim, e.g. for the 1000 km
badge. Everybody will have sympathy for this position. And three turnpoints
looks o.k. to me also.
So there is a rule for that in the Code. And one can say "a rule is a rule".
However when the hidden effect of this rule is disastrous for an excellent
and very sportif distance achievement then to my humble opinion there is
something wrong with the definition of the rule. The rule now says "10 km
apart and not a second time" with the aim of avoiding "jojo-ing" between
nearby turnpoints. Looks o.k. at first glance. At second glance however
there is a severe hidden malfunction in this rule. One can hardly say that
having flown hundreds of km's and returning many hours later back to the
first waypoint has anything to do with "jojo-ing".
Is a claimed 'out and return' of 800 km with start and finishpoint a
"jojo". Of course not. Is an 'out and return' of 800 km as part of a larger
claimed distance flight a "jojo". Of course not also.
So the malfunction in the FAI rule should be corrected for is the way to go
I think. In fact a better rule looks very easy to me indeed. Considering the
"Distance using up to three turnpoints" (1.4.5.b in the Code), what do you
think of a rule like "At each visit of a turnpoint the number increases by
one".
Very simple and effective I think to avoid "jojo-ing" and not having the
disastrous hidden effect on an excellent cross country flight of over 1000
km.

Karel

"Mark James Boyd" schreef in bericht
news:40c107b5$1@darkstar...
I must say I'm soundly against using any more than 3 turnpoints for
badge performances.