Distance on Application

Took me more than a second but not too much more. A thousandth of a mile is about 5 feet, and that number is about 4/5 of a thousand or about 4 feet.

Smart-aleck answer out of the way I completely agree with your point. (But don't let those numbers scare you; the bark is usually worse than the bite.)

Duane: I have always reported miles because that is the number reported on the on the Measurement Data Sheet. This hasn't been commented on by 5 different certifiers. My thinking is that the certifier is checking my arithmetic, therefore the number resulting from that arithmetic should be reported. I include feet and inches, rounded to 1/8-inch, parenthetically.

Before I was a certifier and just a measurer I used to think question 14 was redundant data as all the information was already on the course measurement data sheet. As a certifier, I rarely check question 14, again because the numbers are on the measurement data sheet. In any case, if the distance between shortest and longest measurement is reported in miles it does not concern me as the calculation from miles to feet and inches is very straightforward. If reporting the number as miles instead of feet and inches is easier for the measurer that's fine with me. Maybe I'm in the minority here.

I look at Question 14 as another check for the measure to ascertain they did the math, and the measurement, correctly. Yes, they will do the calculation from clicks-to-miles, but if they only use decimals, they may miss an otherwise obvious error.

If they use decimals, it may just be numbers. But, if they put Question 14 in feet/meters, it may allow them to find an error. Maybe they were 3 feet different in their measurements, but after converting their decimal miles to feet, they get 15 feet. They know there is a problem in their math. Or, in their rides.

Either way, as a certifier, I wouldn't know that 15 feet is not the difference they observed during measurements. I would also imagine most measurers aren't as quick with the correlation between .00084 mile and the equivalent number of feet. I know I am not.

Just my thoughts on it. More cross-checking for the measurer. Cross-checking is good, in my book.