How do we inspire pilots to truly take up cross country soaring ?

As a newbie I was encouraged to fly in the TSA (Texas Soaring
Association) Labor Day lap races in Sports Class. On the practice day,
I was a couple of miles outbound when a woman who'd started with me was
finishing! After I landed, I asked her how she flew so fast. She told
me not to circle so much.

The first race day was a small triangle with a 50+ KM leg so I declared
a Silver Distance and was careful to take pictures for both the turn
points and for the badge leg. The quadrants were different! I achieved
the badge leg and, in fact, took first place in Sports. One more tug on
the line which set the hook even deeper.

On 8/19/2015 5:10 AM, Martin Gregorie wrote:
On Tue, 18 Aug 2015 17:17:46 -0700, unclhank wrote:

Unless there has been a change that I am not aware of, one can declare a
remote start point, fly to a remote finish. and return to the home base.

Yes, of course. A Silver distance can be done as you describe *provided
that* it has a 50km leg, which is all that counts for Silver.

I thought the post I replied to could be read as if flying a closed task
totalling 50km would count as Silver Distance but it would not.

Altitude loss is calculated from release height to height at finish
point. The task some of our folks have done for this turns out to
require about a 130k flight which seems about right if one is flying
modern glass.

Too true. The prospective Silver Badge holder should read the rulebook
before planning any of the three elements, but always remebering that the
Silver C can be and has been completed in one flight!



--
Dan Marotta