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Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 December 2015

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 1^st. 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.

So as we end 2015, I want to thank the IMAC membership and the IMAC Board of Directors for making this year an enjoyable one. We wish everyone a prosperous New Year and look forward to the 2016 season.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 December 2015

Attendance:  Mike Karnes, Charles Youngblood, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Ron Graham, Doug Pilcher, Michael Verzywelt, and Rusty Fried

Meeting began: 8:03 p.m. CST

Treasurer’s Report - Phil Vance

The balance at the end of November is:  Checking – $6,319.72 and PayPal – $34, 402.25, for a total of $40,721.97.  Each RD should have received their regional report by email.  

Phil has a concern over regional funds.  Some of the regions hasn’t used any money in their funds that were allocated in January.  If this happen for a few years, the regions will have more money than what IMAC has in the account. It was mentioned to possibly have a separate account for each regions. 

Currently, we have some members that are renewing their membership and choosing the $30 membership, when they reside in the United States.  Phil has called about 9-10 members to ask them about paying the other $10, and only a few has sent the rest of the dues.  According to Roy, this cannot be changed.  One option is they do not become a member until they have paid their dues in full.  The system automatically renews the membership, if existing member.  Phil can change the membership date.  Another option was to revoke the renewal application and refund the member’s dues until the member pays the correct dues.  The Board agreed that if a national member only submits the $30 membership fee, their membership will expire on the original date unless the rest of the membership due is submitted.  Phil will send the members’ emails when this happens.  Mike will talk with Roy to see if this can be changed, additional wording added, or if this needs to be moved to the international page.

2016 IMAC Forms -  Brad Davy     

With the contest standards form, the only things that needed to be changed.  On Section B, we just needed to add where the new website.  On Section B.5., Brad wondered if this should be left as AMA or the Board to approve any deviations.   Technically, AMA is the only one to approve the deviations.  Brad recommends that we changed this from the IMAC Board to the Regional Director.  BOD agreed to make this change. With Section C.1, it is recommended to remove the IRPS of the NATS and to change the new unknown request process due to the new website.  BOD agreed to make these changes.  On Section C.7, it is being recommended that we change the designation of receiving the unknowns to someone who will not be flying an unknown sequence.  BOD agrees that this is a good change to make more Basic pilots feel involved.  On Section C.10, the next change is the Basic class flying a single sequence during the unknown round and this sequence cannot be dropped.  We believe that the Basic pilots will accept this change.   The scorekeepers will have to clone the basic known sequence and change the cloned sequence to an unknown sequence.  The RDs will have to enforce this change cause this will affect the regional points.  Brad didn’t see no changes made to the safety policy or the IMAC Code of Conduct.   Rusty asked the BOD if we should have a policy in place for the older pilots to be able to change classes with the permission of the RD.  Reasons including asking to go backwards in the classes.  This is actually in the AMA Scale Aerobatic Rules.  Rusty is asking for anyone who is 70 years old or older.  We currently have time to get this in as an RCP.  Motion was made to accept the contest standards form as Brad as written.  Motion carried.

The regional points series didn’t have a lot of changes that needed made.  One change was eliminating the year discussion.  The three days of the NATS was moved to this form.  One question was raised on the tiebreaker.  What if the pilots who are in a tie aren’t at the regional championships, how is the tie broken?  Most of the time, it is broken by the total number of pilots at each event.  It was recommended to be added that if the tie still couldn’t be broken, the raw scores from the top 5 contests would be used.

Motion was made to accept the changes to the contest standard and regional points series.  Motion carried. 

With the senior point series, no changes were recommended to be made.  One change that was recommended was the age limit.  It is currently 55 years of age.  The BOD agreed that the age limit should be left at 55 years of age. 

2018 IMAC World Championships - Mike Karnes

Mike is submitting the site request to AMA.  The dates requested is September 4-8th, 2018.  Currently, AMA doesn’t foresee any problems and are more than happy to host it again.   We must begin the qualification process and will be different from the 2014 qualification process.  The NATS will be involved in the qualification process.  The BOD is excited and are ready to help in any way possible.

2016 NATS - Mike Karnes

Mike will be publishing rules by the first of the year. 

2017 Judging Schools - Mike Karnes

Mike has been talking with Ty Lyman.  He is wanting to come back on board as the Chief Judging Instructor.

Regional Issues - RDs

Michael is currently working on a date for a judging school in Alberta, Canada in the North West Region.  The South West Region has the Basic/Sportsman Primer next weekend.  Rusty currently has 2 judging schools, one in Arizona and one in California.  The North Central region’s schedule for 2016 is coming together.  Ron has asked the ARDs to write an article for the region’s page each month.  Ron is prospecting for contests in different areas.  Doug is working on posting contests for South Central Region.  Steve is working on the year-end wrap up for the South East region.  He currently has 5 judging schools on the schedule, Tennessee, Florida, and Georgia.    Brad has a draft schedule out for 2016 contests.  Brad recommended that we review the access policy to the forums.  Mike recommended that all RDs send Roy an email to have him make sure that no one has access that shouldn’t have.

Motion was made to accept the last 2 BOD meeting minutes as posted.  Motion carried.

Meeting adjourned at 10:25 p.m. CST.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 07 December 2015

IMAC Board of Directors Announces Changes to Contest Standards, IRPS

Posted by Mike Karnes

Posted on 12/7/2015

The IMAC Board of Directors approved a couple key changes to the IMAC Contest Standards for 2016. While these changes are certain to be discussed during judging schools, by Regional Directors with Contest Directors, and in the forums, it is important for ALL members to be aware of them.

The first, and most important change, is that we listened the membership and have adopted a recommendation for the Basic class. In the past, most contests flew a single sequence round of the known sequence for Basic during the unknown round. In order to help Basic pilots get used to the extra pressure associated with an unknown, the single known sequence for Basic will be scored as an unknown. In other words, the sequence cannot be dropped, and it will count for 20 percent of the score.

Note to ALL CD’s: The contest must be scored in this format to count as a legal IRPS contest.

The process for doing this is easy when using the Score program. Make sure you download a 2016 copy of Score 4.13 from the IMAC website. When you open the program you will notice that the Basic Unknown has already been added to the list of sequence choices.

A second change involves the handling of the unknowns. In the past, the Contest Standards required the Unknown Manager to  be a “non-competitor.” In many cases, CDs have been using a Basic pilot as the Unknown Manager because that individual was not flying one of the unknown sequences. The Board believed it was appropriate to change the contest standards to permit this practice. For 2016, the Unknown Manager must be a person that is not flying the unknown sequences.

Finally, we revised the Contest Standards to reflect the new contest scheduling function. The unknown request is now integrated with the contest schedule function, so CDs do not need to request unknowns separately. The CD must designate an unknown manager when requesting the contest, or enter “pending”. If the CD does not identify the unknown manager, they must tell their Regional Director who the unknown manager will be at least 10 days prior to the contest. Regional Directors will be monitoring this closely. The Regional Director will edit the contest once the Unknown Manager is identified.

The IMAC Regional Points Series (IRPS) has been modified slightly to add a third level of tie-breakers. Previously, the tie breakers were the number of pilots competed against in the season, and then placement in the Regional Finals contest. There have been cases where these were not sufficient to settle the tie. The new level of tie breaker, if the first two cannot resolve the tie, will be a total of the raw scores in the top 5 IRPS contests, with the highest raw point total winning the tie.

If you have questions regarding these changes, please ask them in the forums. You’re probably not the only one with the question.

Happy Flying!

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 06 December 2015

Posted by Mike Karnes

Posted on 12/6/2015

After considerable discussion that lasted several months, The IMAC Board of Directors has selected the host site for the 2018 IMAC World Championships.  They were unanimous on the decision as to where to hold and support the 2nd World Championship. It will again be on US soil in 2018. The AMA headquarters were very accommodating when asked if they would allow IMAC to host the 2018 event at the IAC in Muncie, Indiana on September 4th thru September 8th, 2018.

A Little More . . .                     

Wayne Matthews, the visionary award winner and founder of the first World Championship has agreed to help coordinate this major event for a second time. An International event like this is a huge undertaking.  It takes numerous volunteers and staff to make an event of this magnitude successful. Please  volunteer when asked to become involved with these magnificent festivities.  IMAC is looking to make the 2018 event even larger than the first.  Once the rules and qualification process have been written by the event committee and approved by the BOD, they will be made available on the website They may also be found on the IMAC Worlds website.