Fourteen years, a wife and three kids later a five-hour attempt ended a few minutes short. Another five-hour attempt over Rockton went well but the OO had gone home and another flight went unclaimed. The following year, I declared a 300 km flight from SOSA on a perfect day. I landed 2:38 after starting for an average speed of 114 KPH but the Volkslogger had overflowed its memory and the flight recorder stopped recording 4 minutes short!

20 years of gliding and not one badge completed, it was time for a change. The chance came in Australia in January 2003. An evening with Official Observer Dave Springford reviewing the Sporting Code and a few emails to Dan Bush to clear up some ambiguities determined what was possible. Another hour with SeeYou task planning software and I was ready to right the wrongs of the past.

There was only one day when the weather was right and an airplane was available so we decided to make the most of it. The plan was to fly a route that would earn as many badge claims as possible in just one flight. Careful scrutiny of the rules indicated that, with the right flight plan and conditions, all the components of the C, Silver and Gold badges plus two of the three diamonds were possible. That is a 1 hour duration (C badge), and 5 hour flight (silver), a 1 thousand meter height gain (silver), a 3 thousand meter height gain (gold), a 50km distance (silver), 300 km distance (gold), 300km distance Goal (diamond), and a 500km distance (diamond). The only badge leg that could not be accomplished over the Australia desert was diamond height.

The flight was planned as follows: A 159 km leg northeast from Tocumwal (toward Sydney) to a turnpoint at Grong Grong, a 134 km return leg southwest back toward Tocumwal to Berrigan, a 91 km return northward to Morundah and a final 117 km run back south to Tocumwal for a 501 km total. The Duo Discus had German instrumentation, including an upside down altimeter calibrated in meters and a German language flight computer. My German is worse than my soaring so I had to rely on old fashioned maps and mental calculations, which surprisingly, worked pretty well.

Well, plans are made to be changed. Twenty six minutes after an uneventful 2,000' aerotow to the south I found myself on downwind entering a left base leg. Just as I became resigned to landing, that familiar bump at my back indicated a thermal. A quick radio call and before I knew it I was climbing through 7,600 feet with 5.4 knots indicated on the averager. The good news was that I had a clearly identified low point and if nothing else I now had my 1,000 meter silver height gain leg in the bag.

I also had a good introduction into Australian soaring. Although the day was booming it had taken me 26 minutes to find my first thermal! I had found nibbles of 4-6 knots up and big areas of 5+ knots down. Makes you think about the 500 km ahead. I was about as high above the ground as I had ever been in a glider. There were huge paddocks to land in as far as the eye could see to the north, so I headed out on course. Thirty kilometers later and 3,600 feet lower, I hit a 3 knot thermal and climbed to 7,000. Five km later I hit a 10 knot boomer that topped out at 12,000 feet. Silver distance and Gold height gain legs were now also in the bag and I was feeling literally on top of the world. The desert was 600 MSL so I had over 11,000 feet to play with. After eliminating the headwind component the Duo Discus had a gliding range of about 100 km. What could go wrong?

Turns out not much - I arrived 5 km south of Grong Grong (repeating the name indicates a bigger town) at 7,000 feet. I had bumped a few times and covered 119 km with only a handful of turns and 5,000 feet of altitude. I had flown the previous day with Ingo Renner (see separate story) and tried to apply all of his advice. The hardest was to fly straight to goal and not stray off course. Several glides were over 30 km between thermals, so I had to be patient. It was very tempting to head off course to beautiful clouds just a kilometer away. Ingo's other advice was to centre the thermal in just one turn - or keep going. This 'one chance' method was hard to implement, but I found this advice worked pretty well and I became better at centering as the day went on.

A nice climb over Grong Grong took me back up over 11,000 feet and started the 134 km run down to Berrigan. This leg went well but I was down to 5,800 AGL just north of Berrigan. Decision time. I could continue on to Tocumwal and be guaranteed 2 height claims, a silver and gold distance and diamond goal or I could risk the distance claims and go north again to attempt the diamond distance and the 5 hour silver duration. A boomer thermal to 12,000 feet a few minutes later made the decision look easy. A few top up climbs and I was at 12,000 over Berrigan turnpoint and swinging north for Morundah.

It is amazing how sink suddenly appears just as one leaves gliding distance from home. About 40 km north of Berrigan I was down to 5,300 AGL in 9.8 knots of sink and beginning to realize that I had not seen a house or any sign of life in the last 35 kilometers. What was that briefing about Australia having the worlds most deadly snakes and spiders? I had risked the silver and gold distance and the diamond goal to go for a diamond distance and I was about to pay for it. Even at this wonderful height, at this descent rate, I would be on the ground in 5 minutes. That is when I realized that the radio was pretty quiet too. Suddenly I felt a little lonely and a long way from the familiar surroundings of SOSA. I thought about turning around and heading for Tocumwal to save the day or at least get closer to civilization and then I saw a dust devil forming just 10 km ahead. A few minutes later I was down to 4,600 AGL, still in sink and wondering if this was a good idea. It was. The dust devil produced ten knots straight up to 7,000 feet and a cu was forming right over the turnpoint at Morundah, 20 km north. I made Morundah at 5,000' AGL. I stayed there circling over the town in bits of weak lift until I was back up to 7,500 feet before turning south for the 117 km run home.

Ten km south of Morundah the altimeter showed 11,000 feet and my map indicated 107 km to the finish line. A few bumps and a bit of luck and I would be home before the bar opened. 30 km later, 10 knots of sink changed my perspective, but at least I was heading home. In Australia strong sink means strong lift is nearby and 5 km later my 'get home' thermal appeared 72 km out from Tocumwal. This boomer indicated 9.8 knots on the averager and carried the Duo to 12,000 feet and well above final glide home. What could possibly go wrong?

I slowly let my speed build up and before long familiar landmarks were moving by at 140 knots groundspeed. In about 30 minutes Tocumwal airport was in sight. I used the radio to let them know I was on my way home and to check the active runway. The wind had shifted west 90 degrees, so landing would be on runway 27 into the sun. I burned off altitude north of the field and after shaking myself to get into landing mode, dropped the gear and flew the circuit to a picture perfect landing on runway 27. What a relief. Ingo appeared to see how the flight went and asked why I had not flown over the field to the south to finish my task?

I suddenly felt the worst sink of the day. Unfortunately I had forgotten about crossing into the FAI finish sector on the finish turnpoint. I had burned off 3,000 feet of altitude just a mile north of the field and the finish sector was to the south. Had I just blown an otherwise spectacular set of badge flights?

Fortunately, the detailed flight record showed that I had just crossed over the sector before landing and the flight was just meters within limits. The distance was 501.1 kilometers and with an average speed of 97 kph and an average thermal climb of 5.8 knots. Flight time was about 5:50 hours and time on course was 5:11. SeeYou software provided lots of statistics including turn stats indicating that I climbed 20% better turning right than left. Must be an Australian thing - because I climb better to the left in the Northern Hemisphere. The actual distance flown was 514 km so I had paid attention to Ingo's 'go straight' rule and had managed to centre thermals on the first turn about 68% of the time - so some of Ingo's tips sunk in.

The crew at Tocumwal took my flight recorder, had it calibrated, assisted with the paperwork and filed it with the Australian Gliding Federation. Initially everyone in Australia protested that I could not claim 7 badge legs on one flight, but after reviewing the sporting code with them we could not find any reason why not. After some delays in international processing and lots of help from Walter Weir and the staff at Sportavia, I now have my C, Silver and Gold badges plus two diamonds. Only the diamond height and, of course, the 1,000 km diploma to go!

Many thanks to Dave Springford, Spencer Robinson and Tracie Wark for helping set the goals and Walter Weir for getting the results processed. The crew at Tocumwal (Ingo, Ritz and Peter), were very helpful and went to bat for me with the AGF to get everything approved. The actual flight cost $635 including tow ($50), glider rental ($550) and claim processing ($35), but like the MasterCard ads - the smile - Priceless.

Ian Sutcliffe - SOSA Gliding Club