Tom, I shortened your note below to focus on this question of whether anyone cares about you. I did not make the comment you cite, "just do the tasks", but I might have said something like that if you and I were chatting. It would have been a positive encouragement.
By that I would mean that I see the goal of these challenges it to give you a benchmark against which you can measure yourself and focus on ways to improve your flying. If that is your goal, then "just do the challenges" and you will accomplish that. If you want to document the accomplishments, then keep a log of your flying. If you can't compete because there are not competitions near you, or you prefer not to, that should not hold you back from improving your skills. If, on the other hand, your goal is to get a certificate, that's different and a self development plan will not help you achieve that goal. If you don't see the LSF as achievable in order to receive the certifications, then find or establish some other measurement. If the burden to meet the LSF requirements is too great, don't worry about it. Why does it matter? It is not a question of whether anyone cares about you, but about what you care about. If you fly alone, always, then who will know or care if you have an LSF certificate. If you want to challenge yourself, then just do it! I belong to a soaring club and LSF is not even discussed among the members. If anyone has achieved an LSF level, I am not aware of it. Other than one time when I wanted to know what the LSF was, I have not reviewed or studied the LSF requirements. From what I understand, it sounds like a good program, but the certificates are not important to me at this time. And, BTW, I have plenty of access to competitions, and I do compete and plan to compete more. But I compete because it is fun, not to meet an LSF level Bringing home a prize or an award is great, but it is not the reason I go to the competitions. Did you ever see the movie, "The Karate Kid"? Daniel asks his teacher what belt he has. He responds, "JC Penny!" He did not need some award in order to achieve of excellence at his craft, and neither do you. Best Regards, Ed Anderson Date: Wed, 13 Sep 2006 08:22:41 +0000 From: "TG Bean" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: soaring@airage.com Subject: Jim's Flame suit, and other curiosities... Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> (message edited by Ed Anderson) One last thing. I have heard quite a few people say (paraphrasing) just do the flight tasks and not the competition and be happy with that. In effect we you are saying is "we don't care about you if you are not competing so just run off and stop bothering us. We have our awards, you non competetition guys don't need any." So here is the blunt question is that what you are saying? I don't recall everyone that said that but if you did, please answer honestly. Is it simply to much bother to make sure the other half of the soaring community is taken care of as well? I truly am not trying to stir the $*^T pot, I just think it would make the soaring community healthier in both the short term and the long run. Thanks for taking the time to look this over. Tom Bean ------------------------------ End of Soaring V1 #8261 *********************** RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Please note that subscribe and unsubscribe messages must be sent in text only format with MIME turned off. Email sent from web based email such as Hotmail and AOL are generally NOT in text format
