On Tuesday, March 24, 2020 at 12:28:09 PM UTC-7, wrote:
Read the article regarding the diminishment of guys pursuing badges and a commonly held misconception that it takes greater than 30/1 to do xc, another thought came to mind. Namely, is there a stigma attached to landing out within the modern soaring community? Could this be a reason why guys are not overly enthusiastic about xc flight unless they own or have access to a high performance machine?

I think most of you regulars on here know my thoughts on the matter but I am interested in what you guys think.
Dan

Not embarrassed to land out. But I AM embarrassed to break my glider. And the two are statistically highly correlated. If you are flying a 1-26 over Kansas wheat fields maybe not so much, a 21M in the Great Basin is a different story.