Attendees
Steve Bakke
Mark Thurman
Kevin Garland
Dave Dupre
Dave Garceau
Jim Hicks
Tim Cooper
Alex Dreiling
Jacques Telles
Michael Hobson
Adi
Kim Quenette
Jim McCall
Oliver Soto
Welcome
Alex announced the new board members
Elections
Unlimited Known Sequence
Michael asked about the attitude pilots are experiencing flying the sequence.
Jacques made the motion to approve it
Michael seconded the motion
Dave has some concerns about the tail slide and the level of CHANCE.
Adi this manuaver is all about skill
Alex confirmed he was the one that pushed for the tail slide in the 2025 sequence. Feels the tail slide is a good for a known alt sequence since its the same K factor for the roller. Alex confirmed which sequence/change is being reviewed.
Michael likes the idea of several options to fly Unlimited Sequences at a contest
RFA from SC - "help growth by encouraging recruitment of new pilots and bringing backold pilots"
The request is to reimburse pilot entry fees. Alex suggested waiving the fee at the contest. Kim talked to the "smart" of using waived fee for new basic pilots.
Michael confirmed they do this in Australia.. ie a new pilot gets comped their 1st contest.
Mark T -clarified that the request is to comp the pilot who brought the new pilot. Kim and Jacques agreed that paying a commission to pilots to bring in new pilots isnt supportive of the intent of the mission. Michael stated paying a commission is "grimmy"
Alex suggested we put in writting the policy to waive a 1st time pilots entry fee. Kim this should be left to the RD and the club.
Decision was to leave this at the region level
Treasure’s report
General Business
Mark T - has a club level contest that is pitched to happen right before the Nats (July 29th to Aug 1st)
Motion to leve IMAC Nats fee at $100. Approved
Kim - how did the airplane giveaways for freestyle? Tim H/EF liked the program and wants to do it again. David G - there's a worry that same pilots will win repeatedly. Region is looking at points run and more tickets to help build membership. This year the plane was given to the points winner (same as last year). By mid year it was obvious who was gonna win the plane. Kim in SW every pilot got a ticket for each freestyle contest, winner got an extra ticket. Tim did that in SC region as well. A 1st time basic pilot won the plane. Adi divided the pilot into seniors and juniors to level the playing field. Kim mentioned a future opportunity of creating layers of freestylers... David the plane needs to drive participation. Michael doesnt agree in using IMAC brackets to divide Freestyle but rather make it entry level or advanced skills
Tim Cooper how do you keep track of the tickets? Kim puts the tickets in a box. Dave Duprie SC does the same.
Jacques - e-imac. Lets not let this die! Michael talked about the 2 contests in Australia. A bit of challenge to generate pilot counts. They did get new basic pilots and they got focused attention from the experienced pilots.
Dave Dupre - did you have upper bracket pilots? Did have an upper pilot fly E-IMAC... did not have alot of upper pilots.
Dave Dupre - are we running a national level judging class? David G and Primo have an online judging school in Feb for anyone. SE will have a one day in person judging school in March
David G- Aerojudge update. Was used at the 2024 TAS. The hardware is set and did one more change to the "box" design. David wants to put 4 boxes into each region by mid year 2025. Will need to work with the sequence committee.
Michael H will be creating narratives for the new sequences.
Alex highlighted our new 2025 members
President Kevin Garland. Kevin talked about some of the targets for 2025. E-IMAC is one of the focus points. Looking at online judging using flight coach. Wants to look at computer based judging (long term focus)
Steve Bakke talked about how he got into IMAC back in 2018
Mark Thurman – started IMAC back in 2015. Another IMAC pilot challenged him to fly IMAC.
Dave Dupre – started back in 1976! Looking forward to being part of the BoD
David G – started flying 21 yrs ago. His father was his inspiration. Started flying IMAC 5 yrs ago. Hosted 9 events last year. Will jump to Intermediate in 2025
Regional Updates
Tim Cooper – NW region: completed regional finals. March 15th/16th will be a judging school.
Dave Dupre – NE region. Completed regional finals in September. Was not able to attend do to COVID. Steve working on 2025 calendar of events. Steve Bakke talked about trying to get some additional clubs engaged for 2025. Looking to move regional further south.
Michael Hobson – fine tuning the 2025 calendar. Looks like 17 or 18 events. Forecasting some membership renewal challenge
Kim Quenette – SW region. Talked about having to move the regional finals during Fri practice do to signal/interference issues. Contest had to be moved t
Tim – talked about the regional finals in Odessa. It was COLD in the mornings. The freestyle plane/giveaway was a huge hit.
Jamie Hicks – did regionals about 6 weeks ago. Had 28 pilots. Working with David bringing him up to speed
Olive – Nationals planned for end of the month. Argentina is doing national finals. 2025 calendar is looking good.
Adi – All the contests in EU are done and winter is setting in. Manrico is in Saudia Arabia. He’s working on staging contest there and in the United Emirates. Using the TAS model. In Israel, Nov 29th is the IMAC Championship, 2 weeks later is the Freestyle Championship (pilot has to attend IMAC to fly freestyle)