2015 Year in Review
Posted by Mike Karnes
Posted on 12/29/2015
NEW IMAC WEBSITE
The biggest highlight for 2015 was the launching of the new website on October 1st. This was a monumental project that took several months to construct. In the past 3 months, everything has started to operate smoothly and has become a website to be proud of in the R/C community. The new contest calendar for 2016 is shaping up in all Regions. One thing I would like everyone to be aware of is advertising. On the website it was made easy, but could use everyone’s help. If the members could just help get the word out about the online advertising page. http://old.mini-iac.org/Information/Advertising Your local hobby shop might even be interested in running a discount special in their localized viewing area.
MEMBERSHIP DRIVE RAFFLE
In just a few days our membership drive raffle will end. We will be having that drawing on January 1st to announce the winner that evening on the website. A special thanks goes out to Steve and Iyone Stanton for organizing this raffle and Wayne Matthews for helping gather up everything included to complete the airplane for the winner. Thank you to the sponsors that made this possible. Horizon Hobby and Ray and Robin’s hobby shop for donating the Hangar 9 35% extra300. Desert Aircraft for the DA 120 engine; and the exhaust was donated by Iton industries. The batteries will be supplied by Duralite. TruTurn donated the spinner and back plate and SmartFly donated a power expander. An IBEC was donated by Tech-Aero. Servos are courtesy of JR Americas, and the propeller was donated by Falcon Propellers. Servo extensions and the remaining hardware was donated by Ray and Robin’s hobby shop. Good luck to all the members that renewed or joined IMAC between 08/01/2015 and 12/31/2015 so they could be included in this raffle. Please support those sponsors that contributed to this raffle. Thank you for supporting IMAC.
SEQUENCE COMMITTEE
Several members were added this year to the Sequence Committee. I want to thank the Sequence Committee for working hard to get the 2016 sequences out to the members early this year. I can’t remember them being available this early. Also a big thank you for the ISC to suggest the intermediate alternate to help those airfields with a smaller overfly area to keep the footprint the smallest possible. The more we can make our presence invisible to the local residences, the better we can coexist together.
2018 IMAC WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP
The 2018 IMAC World Championship was also announced to be held again in the USA at the IAC in Muncie, Indiana on September 4th thru September 8th, 2018. The BOD is presently working on the qualification process for US pilots to have an opportunity to make the team. We should be announcing the qualification process early January 2016. Wayne Matthews will again be coordinating the event team so that the 2018 IMAC World Championships will be even more successful than the 2014 inaugural event. There is a lot still to do and we will need everyone to help where they can to make this event happen.
CHIEF JUDGING INSTRUCTOR
Ty Lyman has agreed to become our Chief Judging Instructor beginning in 2016. Ty has always been very knowledgeable and helpful in clarifying our Scale Aerobatic rules. He is also an excellent instructor and will be helping guide Regional Instructors as they get ready for the 2016 Regional Schools. Ty will also be in contact with them to make sure they have gathered everything needed to put on an informative and productive school. As CJI, Ty is looking to make the 2017 National Judging School structure new and innovative.
FAA REAKS HAVOCK
The FAA announced a registration process to begin on December 21st for everyone that uses the National Airspace. The AMA is still working with the FAA to try to get them to allow all AMA members to use the AMA registration process already in effect. The issue to register has become very confusing to all IMAC members as well as the rest of AMA members. AMA has asked all members to hold off registering with FAA until February 19th 2016. If you choose not to wait, and register prior to February 19th, beware that there has been some scam websites contacting members that are not part of the FAA registration site. Hopefully the AMA will be able to accomplish their goal soon, before the February 19th deadline. As far as IMAC contests are concerned, they made no other rule changes that will affect them.
BASIC CLASS GETS A FACELIFT
Something new for 2016, is a change with the Basic class. The Basic Class will fly a single known sequence that will be scored like an unknown. While the other four classes have a true unknown that they fly, where the sequence will count for 20% of their score, so will the Basic Class. This should add a little more excitement to the contest and get them more comfortable when moving up to sportsman. With this being in the 2016 Contest Standards, every contest held in 2016 must follow this scoring process to count as an IRPs contest. Since the sequence will never change, it has already been added to the score program to help the CDs and scorekeepers. Only the four remaining classes need to be entered as in the past.