Jim Monaco Said almost everything that I wanted to, just that he said it much nicer that I would have.
First off the highly paid staff of the LSF really earns every cent they get for putting on the NATS ( do you guys even make Cent's???) and every thank you ve can say to them. Every year I have been to the NATS I have always been taken back at how well the NATS is run, so when I hear some self serving person putting down this event just to be able to elevate them self (in there own mind that is) or some product they are trying to sell it really gets me to start to not have nice thoughts about them. As to the NATS Fun Fly driving all that way for a fun fly well COUNT ME OUT I would not waste my time. I would just stay home and fly with my friends and have more fun and allot less travel. Now the wood crafter's is another story...It is a contest... Also the chance to pick on Ray Hay's well that is priceless in my book :^) Also, at least once a year around this time there is always talk of killing this event or adding this one, or moving this to that time slot. I myself admit that there would be no tears from me if two meter went the way of the standard class, in fact just to be a real stinker I would like to see standard class come back and 2M go away...lol. What can I say living and flying at 5000 + feet does that to you. What keeps me coming back to any contest is. "Competition is the glue that binds us together, and it is a life time glue. For some strange reason it just works this way," A little POed Dr. Dan Williams Even if I still can not get a full breath yet...lol ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~ From: Jim Monaco I'm missing something here. The NATS is the national championship because we say it is. Why do we want to thow the baby out with the bathwater. If you want a national funfly - then organize one. There are 51 other weeks you can do whatever you want at the national flying site. A lot of people work VERY hard to put on an event the size of the nats and apparently a lot of people LIKE to attend the event. Your statements about declining participation are not true. Based on the statistics for the last 2 nats, participation is up in all of the events except HL. Your statement about 20-40 pilots flying any given day is ludicrous. There are 160 registered entrants and 125 pilots participated in Unlimited! While some people (including me) have opinions on how the event should be organized and what should be included, ultimately the LSF makes those decisons with our input. If YOU want a national funfly - then YOU organize one and see if they come! I don't see the need to trash a perfectly good event that, in terms of numbers of soaring pilots, is in the top 3 of all soaring events in the country. I understand that YOU don't like soaring competitions, but it is not necessary to criticize those that do. You refer to "diehard" competition pilots as if it's a bad thing. I understand your agenda is to promote scale soaring and I wish you great success, but it does not have to come at the expense of other facets of the hobby. You appear to think that those that like "Launch and Land" competitions are odd, but I'm sure that there are some that think that worrying about how my cute little pilot figure looks in my scale glider is a little odd too! Let people participate in whatever events they enjoy - it's no skin off your nose. If you provide the alternatives, perhaps you are right and competition soaring as we know it will die the ugly death you predict. Just don't expect others to implement your vision of true happiness. Jim Monaco Organizer of the US F3J Team Selections... Just another launch and land contest!!! --- John Derstine <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Then as I said originally, why pretend it is a national championship? 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
