Glider Cross-country signoff & FARs

(Mark James Boyd) wrote in message news:400dc113$1@darkstar...

Okay. How about some terms? What is cross-country?
I'd say any flight where some part of the flight is beyond
final glide back to the departure airport is a cross-country.
A bit ambiguous, but hey, I'm going with it.

Mark,

That is the usual accepted definition of a cross-country. Of course,
out here in the west it can result in some unusual interpretations:
being too low a few miles away from the gliderport on a local flight
in a 2-33 would be a cross-county, while a quick 100km flight in wave
to a specific destination and back (say for a speed record) in glass
would be a local flight - always in landing range of the home field.

I use at least silver distance, specific destination(s), and out of
gliding range of the home field to decide what I log as XC.

Semantics, really.

But more to the point of this discussion: The real equipment
requirement for XC is a good trailer! If you are not willing to land
out, you will be really reluctant to push out XC, regardless of the
glider you are flying. A 1-26 with a good trailer is a lot of fun
(you can land anywhere), but a Grob 103 that is never disassembled
(and nobody knows where the trailer is) is a real disincentive to XC.

I started real XC in a 1-34, and quickly got tired of watching the
glassholes fly off into the distance - so I joined them. Sure the
1-34 is a fine XC ship, especially if all your friends are flying
similar performance ships, but so is glass. 2-33s, G-103s, ASK-21s
are not good XC ships because no-one really uses them for that so they
are not usually equipped for it (Instruments, radio, trailer, etc).
(there are exceptions, of course...).

Kirk