but NO she had modern digital and highly accurate satellite NAV equipment
....And she still got lost! By her own admission, flying into restricted airspace in Uganda! I would be very embarrassed to be caught blundering into restricted airspace, so I sure would not be talking it up, as well as low flying, flying with a wingtip off a rock wall, and something about buzzing flamingos, if I recall. I think that a "feat" should not be considered as achieved, if it was peppered with errors, violations, and a couple of accidents! I think that the LAA puts
itself into a position of disrepute, if its award is going to a pilot who has been found to have committed these errors, let alone boasted about some of them, and worse, threatened
anything when the award was reconsidered!!
The LAA, like any organization, has a leadership. It's time for these chosen leaders to lead the LAA members into a place of pride on this issue. Sure, the members should vote on it, it's a democracy. But the leaders should assure that all of the facts of the situation are well understood by the members, so their voting is informed, and represents the interests of the association! If an LAA leader is suppressing information, or influencing members to an uninformed decision, that leader should be replaced.