Tales Of The Bloody Triangle

On Friday, February 5, 2021 at 3:20:30 PM UTC-5, John Good wrote:
Should east coast triangles that use the ridge be discounted ... ?

I recall a long-ago comment from Wally Scott (probably the all-time master of the downwind dash). He felt that the value of the 1000-km Diplome was being watered down by flights that used ridge and wave. He suggested that maybe these should be recognized in a different category from flights done only in thermal lift.

Tom Knauff gave a cogent reply, along these lines: "It will be time to listen to Wally on this subject when he starts flying his long straight-out flights upwind, instead of downwind."

Wally did much more than downwind dashes, Wally was absolutely correct when it came to assessing the value of the ridge flight vs thermal and straight out flights. I met Wally back in the 80's, a true gentleman and avid glider pilot.