[MT-ALES] LSF meeting @ NATS

[Montana ALES reflector]

Following F5J today there was a barbecue and short LSF informational meeting.  Of course I stayed for the free food!  It was excellent too.  ;^ ))

A couple things I learned at the meeting that may be of interest to us are:

Since the League of Silent Flight (LSF) is in good shape financially, and a 501c3 so they are only allowed to build up limited cash to maintain tax free status,  all LSF fees for the 2020 NATS will be waived.  The AMA administrative fee of $50.00 will still apply.  This waiver would result in a significant savings if you were to enter several soaring events.
Most of LSFs income and expense is related to running the soaring portion of the NATS.
LSF is working with FAA independently of AMA to secure an altitude waiver for all soaring activities.  LSF will be the future community based organization (CBO) for soaring, and not AMA.  In my opinion this will be good for soaring.  AMA has followed the money with the boom in FPV, and drones in general, with traditional aeromodeling receiving less of their attention.  
At some point it may become necessary to pass a simple test about flight rules for use of the air space to receive an altitude waiver.
There are currently about 10,000 members of LSF.  The League needs our membership and support to protect our long term ability to enjoy our soaring activities as we have done traditionally.
There is some consideration to drop ALES from the NATS schedule for next year, this despite there being 44 contestants this year.  I think this is push back coming from the traditional string launch folks due to this years’ schedule.  ALES was flown this past weekend (prime time!) with F3K, followed Monday and Tuesday by F5J.  This caused Unlimited (TD) to be moved to mid-week, (not optimal time) followed by F3J on Friday and Saturday, which conflicts with 2 meter, RES and NOS.  Traditionally, these events were scheduled on separate days, so they could all be flown without conflict or forced choices.  If you want to see ALES continue as a viable activity on the national soaring scene, it would be helpful to send LSF President Wally Adazick an email to this effect.
LSF is working with AMA to move the soaring NATS back into July.  The prime reason is so school aged kids can participate.  School starts in many eastern states this week now.

That’s the scoop!  I can go over some of this with anyone interested when I get back to Gods’ Country.

CT

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