Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 May 2017

Present:  Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, Charles Lewis, and Adi Kochav

Absent:  Mike Karnes

Meeting began at 9:02 p.m. EST.

International Changes – Adi Kochav

Adi sent Mike, Gil, and Doug an update referencing IMAC / F3M and the International ARDs.  The International ARDs are: Europe – Manrico, Latin America is Louis, Asia is Dan Carroll, with Henny heading up the International

judges.

Henny (FAI BOD member) and Manrico managed to convince FAI there is no need for two set of criteria for the same discipline; FAI has agreed the IMAC criteria/rules will be the governing force in F3M; F3M is now F3M IMAC.  France and Belgium, the creators of F3M are flying, judging, and scoring to the AMA Scale Aerobatic Rules.  Freestyle is a separate event.  All European countries participating in F3M IMAC will register the contest on the IMAC site, and will be requesting Unknowns from the Sequence Committee.

The European countries are requiring IMAC membership to participate in a contest, and have requested to become part of the Regional Part System.  The question came up how can Europe require IMAC membership in Europe when we do not require membership here is the USA.  The answer was the RPS, regional point system, mandates membership to receive points. 

The European Region would also like to hold a European Championship contest every two years like the USA does with the Scale Aerobatic National Championships.  With that being said, we need to look at holding the 2022 IMAC World Championship in Europe. 

Embracing the European community potentially will add upwards of 300 new members.  This leads into the argument of expending the manpower to add Europe to the IRPS, which should probably come with some commitment.  The BOD agreed 100 international members would be the magic number for the international member regions to be incorporated into the IRPS.  There is not only some programming work required to have the IMAC site show the International Region’s points, but a learning curve on the part of the Internal CDs utilizing Score.

Should we consider having a representative from the FAI as a non-voting member?  The consensus of the BOD was to leave things as is, and see what time will tell.  We need to focus on the European region.  They have very skilled pilots.  Doug has been working on this and has created a timeline for the website.

2018 Worlds – Steve Sides

Steve has posted the brochure to the BOD to review.  Steve would like to get the BOD approval for the brochure for what we will use for advertising.  The advertising levels have been corrected.  The advertising values are assigned the same dollar values as discussed in April’s BOD meeting.  The wording has been standardize and the links are all functional.  Most of the changes were on the second page.  The brochure was changed trying to get everyone’s attention, especially those who are not familiar with IMAC.  Currently, emails sent from the Worlds website to both Steve and Mike.  Steve will take on all website inquiries.  Steve will have the flyer finished and ready for BOD approval in a couple of weeks.

Along with the list of 2014 Sponsors is a list of potential sponsors never contacted in 2014.  Please pass on the Steve the contact information for any potential sponsor.  Steve will need a company name, a contact name, their position, an email and phone number with extension.  There will be a magazine in 2018, and Mike was planning to put the magazine together.  Steve is going to ask all the BOD and Marketing Committee members to divide duties to sell advertising.  IMAC should start fundraising this summer.  Most companies are already establishing their 2018 budget.  Phil will have an account setup with a link to the account from the website.  The World’s website Go Fund Me page will also need a link established.  We also are going to approach all of the AMA clubs to see if they would like to donate to the Worlds. 

The brochure is tabled for now, and Gil will call for a vote in about a week.  Also, look at the list and see whom you would also like to contact personally.  The BOD needs to look at the list to see which companies need to be removed, Aeroworks, for example.

With the advertising brochure going out, Steve mentioned we need to get the separate Worlds’ checking account opened and ready.  Doug made the motion to authorize IMAC general funds to seed the IMAC Worlds’ account; the Worlds’ account will then reimburse the general IMAC account when funds are available.  Gil seconded the motion.  Motion passed unanimously.

Move Down Waiver – Age/Failing Skills – Brad Davy

This topic came up at a NE contest.  The rules are currently structured so a competitor may not move down without permission of the regional director.  Brad’s concern is someone claiming a valid reason to move down only to sandbag in a lower class to qualify  for the Worlds.  Brad is thing we should allow a competitor to move down with reasons that are agreeable to the regional director.  There should be some disincentive for a pilot to move down.  Some BOD members asked if there should be a penalty for moving down a class.  Some feel that they cannot move down, so they move out of IMAC.  Several have left IMAC thinking they could not move down.

We could have an accelerated move up rule.  We do not want this to be taken advantage of, but we do not want to lose pilots at the same time.  Charles had 4 pilots contact him about moving down, some said they moved up too fast or they have no one to compete with.  There is a wide range of opinions and what the consequences should be for moving down.  This is something the BOD needs to think about; the subject was tabled until a later date.  There will need to be a policy where there is consistency across all regions.

Regional Boundaries – Gil & Clark

Clark asked the question on how the regional boundaries were created in IMAC.  Gil has spoken with some of the original IMAC members, and it was geography.  Such as South Dakota, there is only one contest and only 5 members.  Clark wondered if North Dakota, South Dakota, and Nebraska would be better suited in the North Central region just because they are so far east in the North West region.  Kentucky was changed in 2007 to North Central from the South East.  We might want to consider this.  Clark sent emails to these five members.  Clark will try and get one of these members to become an ARD; none of them have been to a judging school.

Brad and Phil have been having this discussion with Virginia.  Members in Northern Virginia more than likely attend North East contests.  Some of this is due to the weather difference and contest availability.  Gil would like for Steve and Clark to discuss this at the next BOD meeting.

NATs – Doug Pilcher

Doug Pilcher will be the 2017 AMA Scale Aerobatic National Championship Contest Director.  Mike, Phil, and Samantha have been bringing Doug up to speed with lessons learned from the precious NATs.  Doug is talking to several of last year’s team for inclusion on this year’s NATs team.  Alan Batts and Skip Kixmiller have agreed to work as Line Bosses.  Samantha, Rhonda, and Terri will be back for the scoring.  Doug’s wife, Rosie, will also be helping with scoring and picking up Doug’s slack as needed.  Steve Sides will be Chief Judge.  Phil Vance has the banquet setup and the NATs team shirts ordered.  One minor change is after the first pilot draw at the pilots’ meeting, the staff will use an automated drawing system each morning, so Steve may work the following day’s judging matrix and have it posted hopefully by 6:00 p.m. each evening.

Treasurer’s Report – Phil Vance

Current balance as of May 22, 2017 is as following:

Checking:     $29,057.42

PayPal:        $10,706.38

Total:           $39,763.80

As of May 22, the income for the month is $1,141.10, with expenses of $330.99.

Regional Issues – RDs

North East completed an online judging school.  Brad had 11 participants attending all the sessions.  There was good feedback about the online course.  The course was over five weeks, with each week having an hour and a half session.  This is something well worth considering for future judging schools.  Steve would definitely consider if for the Florida school.  Brad had great success over the last 2 years.  Brad won’t be doing anymore this year.  Brad mentioned doing it on a quarterly basis, and have a different judging instructor take one class for each seminar.

South East is good.

North Central just had their first contest.  This was Mike’s contest.  Kurt Koelling ran this contest as CD.  The weather was not great, but we got the contest in.

South Central is doing well.

The North West just had their third contest.  The number of pilots has doubled from last year. 

South West is good, except for the crazy weather.

A question was asked if someone wants to be on the Sequence Committee, who would order the software.  The committee member would need Visio and software applications to add to Visio.  Microsoft offers Visio to veterans at a significant discount.  You have to also buy the Aresti libraries from Aresti.  Gil will get with Curtis and work it out.  To get on the Sequence Committee, a potential member must go through Curtis Cozier.

Meeting adjourned 10:58 p.m. EST.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 30 April 2017

Present: Mike Karnes, Samantha McKinney, Phil Vance, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, and Adi Kochav

Absent: Gil Major and Charles Lewis

Meeting began at 9:02 p.m. EST.

Toledo – Mike Karnes

The Toledo Show was last weekend.  Overall, there was a better show then what it has been the last few years.  This year was mainly RC groups.  Symposium was on Friday and Saturday.  Several interested individuals showed up.  There were two new members who joined IMAC.  Several old members renewed their membership.  Some of them are coming to Muncie for the judging school.  Mike believes that it was worth going this year.  He has talked with Andrew Jesky and he is starting to promote IMAC to the people who are buying, due to some of his sponsored pilots and several pilots buying his plane.

Also, there was a SIG meeting with AMA.  Mike had brought up the Survey Monkey that the Marketing Committee had mentioned.  They did not want to mail them out, but they didn’t refuse to do so.  If the committee comes up with something in way of survey, we can approach them again.  They actually wanted to do it themselves, but don’t know at what cost.

Marketing Committee – Clark Hymas

Their last meeting was held three weeks ago.  There are several ideas being floated around, and possibly need some refocusing of a few ideas.  There has been a lot more interaction on all the different IMAC pages.  There are several new followers on the IMAC Facebook page.  The committee is still working very well together.  One of their ideas being discussed is to have more experienced IMAC pilots being paired up with first-time or second-time pilots at the contest.

Mike has spoken with Matt Komar at Toledo about Freestyle and 3D.  If IMAC wants to generate something in Freestyle, an ideas was mentioned that we put together a traveling Freestyle series across the regions.  This would involve putting together a Freestyle contest that would go along with IMAC through the different regions.  This would also include assigning Regional Points.  These contests would have to fly Scale Aerobatic Freestyle Rules.  Jase Dussia thought the idea was awesome.  Jase would like to promote Freestyle more in IMAC.  Currently, the Freestyle pilots have the Shootout and Clover Creek; and these contests are invitation only.  These pilots would be required to be IMAC members to receive Regional Points.  Steve also mentioned that several have mentioned to him that we need RPS for Freestyle.  We could possibly have Freestyle and incorporate IMAC in it.  A Freestyle contest would be held, with a few IMAC rounds in it.

International Regions – Adi Kochav

Adi has been thinking of some things to help promote IMAC International.  Currently, Adi has 3 IMAC members from his country and is hoping to have everyone by the end of the year.  Then a year from now, it will be a requirement.  Adi has talked to Doug about there being a commitment between flying IMAC and being an IMAC member.  Adi mentioned that maybe the U.S. needs to say that to fly IMAC that you must be an IMAC member.  There needs to be a definition of being an IMAC member and how does the BOD want to approach it internationally.

The European countries want to join IMAC.  The key countries are France and Germany.  In 2022, there will be another IMAC Worlds.  Manrico Mincuzzi in Italy would like to host the next IMAC Worlds in Europe.  The key countries have very strong foundation behind the RC communities.  This would pretty much convince them to join IMAC.  They have huge facilities and airfields, some from WWII.  The BOD needs to consider this before announcing in 2019.  This would give the countries a long time to approach and make arrangements for the IMAC Worlds.  Mike would like to announce it by the 2018 Worlds.  Phil mentioned that we could have a ceremony and pass it on to the next country.

In the last Worlds, their entry fee included a one-year membership, which very few renewed.  IMAC members are supposed to get a discounted IMAC fee, around $20, at local contests.  Adi agrees that we should make it to where there is a certain amount of international IMAC pilots at a contest to receive the Unknowns, which was discussed in last month’s meeting.

Adi discussed ARDs for the International Region.  Europe has several countries and each one is trying to pull to his direction.  He wants to make ARDs for the European continent.  If we put a member there that knows the region and knows the members, it would make them commit to IMAC.  Adi wants to make Manrico Mincuzzi an ARD.  The BOD agrees with Adi that he needs ARDs to help him.  The protocol is to make sure that they are a member and are on the same page for growing IMAC.

2018 Worlds – Steve Sides

Adi has asked Steve for a high resolution logo for marketing.  Adi is looking over the image and has posted it on the forum for the BOD members to approve.  Currently, there is a lot of stuff that has gone out that we can’t change.  We are getting to the point where we need to approach advertisers and sponsors.  The BOD needs to be in the agreement on materials that are posted on the forum.  JTEC is a big sponsor and the MX-2 is on the cover, which cannot be changed.  We have mentioned a Go-Fund-Me page and Adi needs approval to proceed.  We need to have an account established for the money to go into a separate account.  We currently have no funds or expenses for the Worlds.  The BOD requested a change for the VIP pricing for the advertisers to: Platinum level – $5,000; Gold level – $2,000; Silver level – $1,000; and Bronze level – $500.  These changes will be made to the advertising flyer and posted to the BOD form for approval.

We have a couple of judges that need to be looked over, the Spanish and Australian judges.  If everyone approves, we will get them on the judges’ list.  We are starting to get photos in for the judges.  We have not got any response from France and Germany, and Manrico Mincuzzi is working on them.  Austria is sending a delegation.  We have mentioned having some sort of a medallion for each participant.  Steve has been looking around at the options available.  Adi will send Steve information on the companies that he knows of that do medallions.  Adi mentioned that IMAC World logo and a slogan on the back.

Adi has volunteered to come up with a document that would have instructions on how to ship everything to the United States and be successful.  Steve doesn’t think we can address each individual’s country’s needs.  We can only specify how the United States handles these situations.  The problems are the connecting flights.  The crate was too big and the plane was too small.  There has to be a connecting flight to get to Muncie.  Everything had gone to Chicago at the 2014 Worlds.

Website Changes – Doug Pilcher

The Education page is in place.  The Archives tab has disappeared and been moved to the “Information” tab and that is where the Education page is currently residing though not visible to the membership as of yet.  Ty and Doug are getting some articles posted, such as the RedBook reviews.  Doug has been trying to recreate the Arresti training videos and Judging Techniques.  They are hoping to go live in the next couple of days.

Restructuring Education Committee – Doug Pilcher

Currently, the new Education Committee is Ty and he will be carrying the brunt of the load.  Ty would like for the new Education Committee members to represent each of the 7 regions of the Education Committee.  Doug asked the RDs to post out on their regional forums to see if there is any interest to be on the committee.

Treasurer Report – Phil Vance

At the end of March, the current balance in the accounts is:

Checking:     $31,251.69

PayPal:         $  7,689.08

                      $38,940.77

Total income for March was $3,315.92 and total expenses were $2,546.39.

Current balance in the accounts as of April 17 is:

Checking:     $30,165.33

PayPal:        $  8,639.33

                      $38,804.66

Income for the month of April as of the 17th was $1,335.24 and expenses were $1,471.35.

The regional fund reports have been sent to the RDs individually.

Regional Issues – All RDs

Many BOD members have mentioned that the season contests that have started have had bigger attendance than usual.  Phil’s contest offered free entry fee for first-time basic pilots.  The North West had their first contest.  There were 3 new IMAC members at their contest.  The next contest is in about 10 days.  The North Central has a judging school this weekend in Muncie.  The season kicks off on May 6th in Seymore, Indiana.  The North East is ready to start the last weekend in April.  The online judging school has been going very well.  There will be a one-day judging school in Baltimore.  There are also some basic-only contests.  The South East had to drop a contest in Virginia.  Virginia contests are very lightly attended.  All the judging schools have finished.  The South Central opened a few weeks ago with a very well attended contest in Arkansas.  The judging schools were poorly attended, which one had to be cancelled.

Samantha mentioned that there are some emails coming in for RPS points not posted.  She has been forwarding the emails to the RDs.  There are some pilots that still do not have their profile completed.  The BOD believes that we should have required fields added to the IMAC registration.  It was also discussed about having a membership card available to print out for each member.  Samantha has been creating and sending IMAC members some cards off a template that Mike had created.  Adi has designed an IMAC card and posted in the BOD forum.  Phil will speak with the webmaster about adding required fields for the profile and to see if we can make a membership card available.

Meeting adjourned at 11:00 p.m. EST

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 31 March 2017

Present: Mike Karnes, Gil Major, Samantha McKinney, Brad Davy, Steve Sides, Jeff Marsuchek, Doug Pilcher, Clark Hymas, Adi Kochav

Absent: Phil Vance and Charles Lewis

Meeting began at 9:01 p.m. EST.

Committees – Gil Major

Most of the committees are formed. Mike is going to inform Tom Wheeler on where we stand on the Sequence Committee. Gil has a correspondence going with Jerry Hailey on the Rules Committee. The focus is currently on forming the Rules Committee.

Curtis Cozier is working on the Sequence Committee. There are currently some issues with committee members not checking sequences that are ready for publication. They must be checked before they are released for contests. More alternate sequences are now being requested, which is where we are running short.

Membership and Marketing Committee – Clark Hymas

There has been two meetings and several correspondences back and forth. Clark has posted the results of the survey in the BOD forum. This committee is in agreement that we need to start with the marketing of IMAC first. IMAC isn’t broke, it just hasn’t been promoted very well over the years. The main way to start promoting is to get the Regional Directors to host Basic Only events and have higher class members participate. This would be a one day contest. Regions could also host Basic boot camps as well.

The committee liked where if a member referred 3 new members, that referring member would receive a one year free membership. Joe Nall is also coming up. One big push is to set up an IMAC Facebook page, which would link to the Regional Facebook pages also. Each region should have a Facebook page and would be managed by the RD’s. Doug mentioned having someone on the Membership and Marketing Committee managing the nationwide IMAC Facebook page. It was also mentioned setting up an Instagram account for members can make posts to it. This would be promoting IMAC through social media.

They would like to see the Redbooks posted up on Flying Giants, if possible. RDs, ARDs, and CDs posting articles on the Flying Giants site, and through a link in the article to draw them back to the IMAC site. Currently, CDs can submit a write-up on their contest when results are posted. There was a discussion of changing the size of the Basic aircraft, a possible handicap in the scores. There was much discussion held on this particular topic. A few are totally against, with most of them in favor.

They also wanted to get approval from the BOD to get a Survey Monkey account setup to send a survey to past and current members. Mike mentioned that AMA would do this for us and the webmaster has an email list of around 5,000 to send surveys to. Survey Monkey is $300 per year. AMA has a marketing company that we would be able to use this to come up with a survey and send it out. Gil has checked into this and the company just said that they would run an ad in the magazine. Gil has received no further correspondence. There is a group meeting with all the SIGS at Toledo with AMA, and Mike might mention this during the meeting. Steve believes that we should approve the setup the Survey Monkey Account for the Membership and Marketing Committee to proceed. Doug believes that the committee should bring the questions to the BOD to see if we have any additional questions or any corrections needed. Clark said they would like to setup a tiered-type survey. Jeff says that there could be a concern with AMA on getting the emails to mass-mail the survey. Clark says that we could give AMA a link to that would tie into the survey. Gil made the motion to give the Membership and Marketing Committee the go ahead with the survey and to fund an account with Survey Monkey and Steve seconds. With one abstained vote, the motion passed.

International Regions – Adi Kochav

Adi received a call from Luiz, with Paraguay. Adi said that he would take to the BOD to see if they would make a Latin American region, which would increase by 120 members. The Latin America region would include the countries of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, etc. It would give individuals more, and provide and introduce IMAC into South America. The most important thing that they want is the RPS from the contests. For this region, he would make it to where they must commit to becoming IMAC members. Doug suggested that if Luiz could bring us 60 or so members, then we could discuss adding this as a region at that time.

Currently, International RPS is not posted on the IMAC website. We can add their contests if someone would turn in the score files to be posted. They can only see their contests. Jeff mentioned that we need to tell the International countries that we would like to post their contest scores immediately. Mike volunteered to post their score files and get their standings posted on their region page. Doug makes a motion to give the International region their RPS standings on the IMAC site and Gil seconds. Motion passes unanimously.

England had questions about dropping some classes in an IMAC contest, for reasons of not having pilots in that class. There would be Basic, Sportsman, and Advanced. Our rules specify that all classes have to be offered, that doesn’t mean that there has to be a pilot in each class.

Adi has been thinking of ways to make IMAC bigger. It would be approachable after the 2018 IMAC Worlds. He believes we should look at the different sport affiliations. Currently, we only have 3-4 members in each country that register as IMAC members. Such as IMAC Israel, they need to affiliate to IMAC United States. There should not be just a few members that are registered members to receive unknowns, etc. This would help fund IMAC United States to be able to push internationally. Mike mentioned that this has been thought about before, but the question is how to implement it. Brad wanted the BOD to think about making a change to the contest standards that for a contest to receive the unknowns, a percentage of pilots must be registered members of IMAC. Doug believes if we have more International members, it would justify allocating funds to the International region to promote IMAC.

2018 Worlds – Steve Sides

Steve received an email from Mexico and he is currently in contact with the person in charge of Mexican IMAC. He was named as the IMAC Mexican representative and we will send an invitation to him. Sweden sent an email for change of address to the Swedish Model Flying Association. No luck from Argentina, but is getting help from the Chilean IMAC. We haven’t got a response back from Australia on the invitation. Gil will reach out to Bones on the Australian team. The only country that has said no is Jamaica.

We currently have 3 judges waiting for BOD approval: Bill Teeter from Canada; Peter Brynard from Australia; and Amelio Mansato from Spain. His bio is posted in the BOD thread for everyone to look at. Bill Teeter teaches the NC judging School with Mike. He has also been the Chief Judge for the NATS the last 2 years. Steve will create a separate thread for the bios of the International Judges.

Steve wants to start posting flags of countries that have said yes on the website. He is going to send emails out to confirmed judges for headshot pictures to post to the Worlds website. Mike wanted copied on the emails because he is working on the Worlds magazine.

Steve has asked Adi to come up with a document on shipping airplanes to the United States. Steve will post it on the website as a bulletin. In 2014, the British team showed up without airplanes cause the airline refused to take them.

IMAC Video – Doug Pilcher

Doug wants to know if the BOD thinks we should plan on moving forward with as a whole. This could be a big way to promote IMAC. He has come up with some new story boards. The BOD believes that this is an excellent idea. Brad mentioned putting this out to the members wanting their video or pictures. Jeff said he is on board helping with this project. Steve will send something out to the World attendees on getting videos/pictures on getting ready for the Worlds. This is for all seven regions. Mike said that this would be great to use at Toledo.

Website – Doug Pilcher

Ty has been working on the Redbook reviews. We currently only have a heading under “Downloads” for “Training Info”. Ty can only post these reviews in the forums. Links to these reviews are on Facebook and other places with a link to a forum on the IMAC website. He has asked the webmaster to add an “Education” tab at the home level, instead of a subtab under “Downloads.” The webmaster wanted BOD approval before creating. Ty would also like to use Live Writer to add more content to it. Doug believes this would add “clicks” to our website that would help get advertisers interested again with added traffic it can create. The education information is buried too deep for members/non-members to find. Doug motions for the webmaster to create a separate tab for “Education” with the Title Bar and include a Live Writer string for education and Gil seconds. Motion passes unanimously.

Other Regional Issues – All RDs

The Southeast just had a judging school at Clover Creek, with an attendance of 13, which tied with Jacksonville for the biggest judging school. They have had 34 people within four schools held. Brad is having Go-To-Meetings for Judging on Wednesday nights from 7:00-8:30 p.m., for 6 weeks from April 5^th to May 10^th. The sessions are an hour and half long. He is limiting the class size to 20. Gil mentioned to adding it to the schedules in each region to make members aware. Jeff has signed up to participate. Doug said he will link to all regions event schedules. Charles had a one day in South Carolina and it was 6 hours of classroom and 3 hours of practical.

The North Central is thinking about subsidizing the CDs for the first contest for the Basic pilots. North Central has a lot of pilots that don’t plan on leaving the Basic contests. Gil has been offering free Basic entry for a while and he doesn’t know of any that has specifically come for that. The Southeast also puts a Basic pilot with an Unlimited Pilot to answer questions or to help setup plane, etc. One of the South Central Region judging schools has been cancelled due to low attendance. The Northwest Region had their judging school with great attendance.

Meeting adjourned 11:27 p.m. EST.

Details

Written by: Doug Pilcher

Category: Club Business

Published: 05 March 2017

2018 World Championship

USA Team Selection

1. The qualification process for the 2018 USA IMAC World Championship Team is as described below. The United States, and all other participating countries, may field a team of up to 36 pilots, 9 pilots maximum in each class, (Sportsman – Unlimited) in the 2018 World Championship. Those attempting to qualify for the USA Team must be a current AMA and IMAC member (Rule 1).

2. The 2017 Scale Aerobatics (SA) National Championship, being the premier events of IMAC, will be used as one (1) of two (2) opportunities for the USA pilots to gain a spot on the USA IMAC World Team.

          a) In order for a pilot to qualify for the Worlds Team at the 2017 Scale Aerobatics (SA) National    Championship, they must have competed in at least three (3) contests as an IMAC member between April 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017. The top three (3) in each class (Sportsman – Unlimited) will qualify for the USA World team.

3. The second qualifying process is; each of the 6 IMAC North American Regions separately will be able to send one (1) USA pilot per class (Sportsman – Unlimited). Provided that pilots have fulfilled qualifying Rule 1 above.

          a) The Competition Season will begin on January 1, 2017 and ends when each Regional Finals Contest is held or on December 31, 2017 whichever comes first. The Regional Finals contest date will be determined by the Regional Director and any contest after the regional finals contest will not count towards regional points.

          b) The top 5 contestants in each class (Sportsman – Unlimited) in the IRPS, having competed in three (3) 2017 regional qualifying contests, going into the Regional Finals for 2017 will be competing against each other for a spot on the World Team. Those 5 contestants’ results will be separately scored to determine placement on the Worlds Team. The highest placing person among those 5 contestants during the 2017 Regional Finals will be selected to the 2018 Worlds team. If that person is not available to attend the 2018 Worlds, the Regional Director will work down through the remaining 5. If none of those 5 is available, the Vacancy Rule will be used to fill the open spots.

Vacancy: Should a pilot make the US World Team from the 2017 National Championships, then also place highest in their class at the Regional level in 2017, the Scale Aerobatics (SA) National Championship will take precedence over 2017 Regional Points and the next in line at the Regional level will be qualified. If none of the top 5 regional pilots under 3.b are available to compete in the 2018 IMAC World Championship, the pilots from the 2017 SA National Championships will be used to fill all vacancies not sent from the Regional Points process, provided they are still in compliance with all qualification rules. No USA team spots will be issued after May 30, 2018.

Notes: Per AMA Scale Aerobatic Rules, pilots winning 5 or more contests with a minimum class size of 5 pilots during the 2017 season will be forced to move to the next higher class. For the singular event, the World Championship, USA Team pilots qualifying in 2017 and later forced into a higher class by current rule will be permitted to compete in their original 2017 qualifying class using the Regional Director's option stipulated in Rule 9.1.

Notifications: All qualifying pilots will be contacted by email by the designated 2018 USA Worlds Team Manager starting January 1, 2018. If a qualifying pilot does not confirm to attend the 2018 IMAC World Championship within 60 days of being given notice, the next pilot in line from the class having the vacancy will be given the notice of opportunity to enter to compete provided they are still in compliance with all qualification rules.

For a copy of the pdf click on the link below

2018-Worlds-USA-Team-Final-Qualifying-Rules