This is about process, not thresholds. We deliberately quote no distances, heights or durations here. Those live in the FAI Sporting Code and your national association's annex to it, they get revised, and a stale number on a third-party website is exactly how somebody flies the wrong task. Every requirement should be read from the current official source, linked at the bottom.
The single biggest cause: missing evidence
Official Observers and national badge officers say the same thing consistently — most rejected claims are rejected for missing or inadequate evidence rather than for an inadequate flight.
That is oddly good news, because evidence is entirely within your control and none of it depends on the weather. It is also the part that gets squeezed, because assembling it properly takes attention on exactly the day you have none to spare.
Do the paperwork in the off-season. Read the code, work out what your claim needs, get your Official Observer lined up, and check your logger's approval status in February. On the day of a good flight you will be tired, elated, possibly in a field, and in no state to discover that your declaration was never valid.
The declaration, and the mistake almost everyone makes once
A declaration is a statement, made before the flight, of what you intend to do: the pilot, the glider, and the task with its turnpoints. For badge claims other than pure duration, you generally need one, made in the flight recorder before launch.
Here is the classic failure, and it catches good pilots:
Fly a long, satisfying cross-country with nothing declared. Upload to OLC. OLC scores a leg that happens to exceed a badge distance. Claim the badge. Rejected — because you did not declare it, and an after-the-fact scoring of a random leg is not the same thing as flying a declared task.
OLC and FAI badges are two entirely separate systems that happen to consume the same file. OLC is an online contest that scores what you did. A badge is a claim, made through your national association, verified by an Official Observer, against the Sporting Code. Conflating them is the most common process error in the sport.
The practical habit that fixes it: declare something before every cross-country flight, even when you do not expect to make it. It costs two minutes on the ground and it means a good day is never wasted.
The logger, and its approval level
Silver and Gold claims must be recorded on a flight recorder approved by the FAI, and approvals come in levels — the level required depends on what you are claiming. A logger perfectly adequate for one claim may not be accepted for another, and the approval list changes as manufacturers come and go.
Things worth checking before the season, not after the flight:
- Is your specific unit on the current approved list, at the level your claim needs?
- Is its firmware current, and does the security record still validate with the approved tool?
- Does its internal clock and date look right? A wrong date invalidates the trace.
- Do you know how to get the raw IGC file off it, without editing it in any way?
On the last point: never open, convert or "clean up" the IGC file. The G-record is a cryptographic security record over the file's exact contents. Any modification breaks validation, and a file that fails validation is not evidence whatever the flight was.
The Official Observer
An OO is a volunteer appointed by your national association to verify claims. In the US they must be an SSA member holding at least a B badge, with a working knowledge of the Sporting Code as it applies to gliders.
Practical points that trip people up:
- Find them before the flight, not after. Some parts of a claim need someone to witness or certify something at the time.
- They are not a rubber stamp. The role carries real responsibility, and a conscientious OO will reject a claim they cannot substantiate — which is exactly what makes the badge worth having.
- They are volunteers. Make it easy: bring the file, the declaration, and a clear statement of what you are claiming.
A pre-season checklist
- Read the current Sporting Code section for gliding, plus your national association's annex. The annex takes precedence where the two differ, and newcomers routinely miss that it exists.
- Confirm which badge steps you are actually going for this season.
- Check your logger's approval level against those claims.
- Identify an Official Observer and talk to them before you need them.
- Practise making a declaration on your logger until it is muscle memory.
- Practise downloading a raw IGC file and validating it with the approved tool.
- Know how your association wants claims submitted, and what the deadline is.
On the day
- Declare before launch. Every time.
- Check the logger is actually recording before you go, not after you land.
- Do not switch the logger off in a field until you are sure the flight is closed and saved.
- Download the raw file that evening, back it up somewhere else, and do not edit it.
- Tell your OO promptly. Deadlines are real and shorter than people expect.
Where to read the actual rules
Every threshold, every deadline and every equipment requirement lives in these, and they supersede anything written here:
- FAI Gliding Commission (IGC) — the Sporting Code Section 3 and its annexes, including the Official Observer and pilot guide.
- SSA badges and records — the US annex, forms and the OO list.
- British Gliding Association — UK badges, including the national A/B/C and Bronze which are not FAI badges and are frequently confused with them.
- Gliding Australia — the GFA annex.