Re: [RCSE] LSF Comments

[Jon Stone]

Robert,   I know contests are not for everyone.  We all enjoy this wonderful sport in our own way, and that's just fine with me.  Why not just do the all the LSF tasks, and omit the contests?    Make your own check-off sheet, and work through the levels in order, just like you were in the program.   The thermal, landing, and slope tasks are enough to challenge most of us.  For the rank beginner, a 5-minute thermal task is an accomplishment.  I still remember when I got my first 5-minute flight.  Wow, what a thrill.  Likewise, for the intermediate pilot, flying for 1-hour on a single launch is a big accomplishment.  Often having to work 7 or 8 thermals to accomplish the task.   I greatly enjoyed working up the LSF ladder.  I didn't look too far ahead and get worried about those tasks "way up there".  It was a great way for me to measure my progress.  I wasn't out to impress anyone but myself.  I know it took me several months to get all of my level 2 landings.   Anyway, I encourage you to consider doing the existing program, and just forget about the contests.  It's just for you, so who cares.  I'm just saying, if you're ok with it, there's no need to wait for an "official blessed" program.  You can always start that program when/if it comes out.   Alternatively, our Canadian soaring friends have an accomplishment program.  I think they do not have a competition requirement, but I am not sure.  You could work up through that program, and know you are working on the same program others have done.   Jon ----- Original Message ----- From: Robert L. Humphries To: soaring@airage.com Sent: Sunday, September 10, 2006 10:14 AM Subject: [RCSE] LSF Comments     I would love to be a Level V member of LSF.  It is never going to happen.  I could already posses (or develop) the skills needed and still never achieve that goal, because...I will never enter contests.        For many people, the problem they have with LSF requirements is not competition but contests.  I'm very competitive but I live 200 miles from the nearest contests -- I know, I know, many are saying, "Gee, that would be nice!"  Like me, many people don't have the time or the dollars to spend a weekend, motel room, 20-25 gallons of gas, and entrantance fees just to enter a contest.  I fly in a 100 acre pasture...by myself.  I could devise a set of "goals" for myself that would assure my continued progress as a flyer, but I would love to have a set of COMMON guidelines that I could test (contest?) myself against.  As I understand it, that is the what that is being sought.   huntermax