Greetings L.E.S. Members and Aspirants,

As we are well into the last year of the 20th century and the end of the second millennium, it is appropriate that we review our accomplishments.

There are at least 33 aspirants with Level I Flight Achievement Vouchers, and this summer we will have an increase in membership.

Those who have qualified for membership are:

Bill Jenkins (TN) demonstrated his superb flying and phenomenal dedication by being the first to complete the L.E.S. Flight Achievement Program. (Perhaps he should start over? Could he do it twice before others do it once?)

Earl and Chuck Robinson (GA) are plugging away on their higher levels.

The program is not easy; if it were, the tasks would not be as satisfying to achieve.

From just glancing at the list, it is obvious that there are a lot of GA fliers! TEN! Nothing shows the fun of sharing L.E.S. accomplishments and friendly competition like the participation of this group in the L.E.S.

And please note that Clare Schlumberger (GA) is our first lady member. We are so happy for her making the L.E.S. a coed group!

Also, note that we have a non-U.S. member, as well. Thank you, Dick Godden, Cambridge, England, for making the L.E.S. an international flight achievement program.

Charles French (MD) reported that aspirant Don Doty passed away in MD recently. Don was instrumental in getting Charles interested in the L.E.S. and though Don had not attained membership, by his encouraging Charles, he contributed to the L.E.S. in a big way.

This brings us to the last and very important announcement.

Through the hard work of Charles French, the L.E.S. has an official web site. It can be seen at -- http://home.att.net/~ElectricSoaring/index.htm.

We are confident that you will enjoy this L.E.S. feature. It is complete and not a site "in development." Charles and I have worked on it several weeks and we wanted to "release it" in the completed form -- it is fast-loading and easy to navigate.

We made it possible to download Level I vouchers if users have Adobe Acrobat, and if they don't, they can get a free Adobe Acrobat download from the same page.

We thank Ben Mathews (LA), for formatting the voucher to the Adobe format to make this possible. This was a really big help.

There are provisions for members to have a photo of themselves posted and you are encouraged to send a good photo to the L.E.S. Recorder rather than forward images to the Webmaster -- images will not be posted that way.

We would like to see what other members look like but our seeing a small image of a face wearing sunglasses and hidden in the shadows of a cap doesn't show much of the member.

We know members fly models, and fly them well, otherwise their names would not be listed, but we are interested in seeing what the flier, not necessarily his or her model, looks like.

For examples of what is wanted, look at the image of Paul Perret, Boyd O'Brien, Ernie Schlumberger, the Robinsons, or me. (I prefer this one of me because it shows where I spend so much of my time -- I am there as I do this letter -- though my little friend by the keyboard is now in my lap, having grown too large "to help me with the shift key.")

Let's see how many members' images we can get posted before the 21st century.

And remember when corresponding with the L.E.S. to please include three 1st class stamps.

Stay charged-up & keep'em flying,

Ken Cashion, Recorder

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