As Jim observed, its always important to remember "original intent" when you are trying to figure out what to do next. It's also important to remember that things change over time. Things have certainly changed over the last 30 years in our sport. I can't speak for competition activity in the east and midwest, but the number of contests and size of contests I have seen in the various places I have lived has declined. The age of participants in our sport has increased almost as fast as the years have gone by -- the AMA has confirmed this in various demographic studies. The last time the AMA published information on model aviation as a whole I was shocked at the percentage of members who are my age or older -- and I have been an AMA member off and on for 49 years. Surely, it can be argued that the current LSF requirements continue to meet _our_ needs. It's important, however, to look at _whose_ needs are being met. Ours is a sport where the "who's" who are leaving outnumber the "who's" who are coming in. If current trends continue pretty soon most of the "who's" whose needs are being met will be taking dirt naps. It would be small consolation if the current LSF continued to meet the needs of everyone in our sport right up to the point that that last arthritic thumb finally chucks it all.
As I said in my previous note, the current LSF meets my needs as far as my willingness to pursue the elusive Level V -- a goal which, under the most optimistic circumstances, will see me travelling 40 or 50,000 miles over a 7 or 8 year period in what most likely is a futile pursuit of an objective which I will not complete before I take my dirt nap. Again, I'm not complaining. What I would dearly like to see, however, is an _additional_ program which will challenge me closer to home on the 300 some odd days when I am _not_ travelling. For all intents and purposes, the only parts of the current program which I can complete without travelling hundreds of miles are the Thermal Duration and Goal and Return Tasks -- neither of which I consider to be as difficult as meeting the contest requirements -- both of which I am confident I can fairly easily complete *after* I complete the competition elements. I concur with Jim's observation that increasing local "fun format" contests might increase participation. But in addition to "fun" many of us would like to have our skills challenged to the highest _possible_ level. Finally, there seems to be an awful lot of thinking that our choices in these matters are all "either/or" choices. Its *either* traditional LSF *or* some new alternative. Its _either_ a program which relies heavily on competition to demonstrate skills _or_ a program which has _no_ competition requirements whatsoever. Who cast those rules in stone? A complementary alternative does not have to be a threat to the traditional LSF. Maybe things where people speaking against an alternative path to traditional LSF program haven't changed. Perhaps the traditional LSF is continuing to fully meet their needs. Things _have_ changed where I live and travel and the traditional LSF format is not fully meeting the needs of everyone that it could reach. Don Harban -- dharban ------------------------------------------------------------------------ dharban's Profile: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/member.php?u=31927 View this thread: http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=566533 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
