OK, if you were at the last club meeting, you know that there was a vote to host an IMAC competition at the field. I am really excited about this and hope that is is a lot of fun for us.
The proposed date at this point is September 12th. I have been in contact with the North East RD (regional director) as well as some of the regular pilots in the NE region. If the date is approved we will let you know.
For anyone interested in IMAC or trying their hand at this contest, I have a couple of links for you. I also suggest that you think about supporting the IMAC organization by joining. It costs $20 per year. It is not REQUIRED to be a member to fly in a contest. You do get a discount on entry fees at contests as a member. There are currently only 17 members in the state. The first link is to the IMAC website. The second is to a discussion board for the North East Region that is hosted on the Hidden Hangar website (it appears)
http://www.mini-iac.com/DesktopDefault.aspx
http://www.thehiddenhangar.com/imac/index.php
You will see on the home page of the IMAC site (mini-iac) the links to the sequences that will be flown for 2009. You can download them as a PDF and start learning to fly them now. You can even use the Sim to help.
Remember, in basic class, you can fly anything you want. Even in the upper classes, it just has to be a scale model. It does not have to be a giant scale model.
Jim
Update,
There were conflicts with contests in the nearby area. We have a date that is in the middle of the season. I think this will work out well. It gives people a chance to fly the sequences and give this a try and the chance of pilots being burned out at the end of the season is lower. We will be having our contest in July. The dates for the contest are the 25th and 26th. The field will be open to our guests on Friday for them to get used to the field but they will be flying with general flight operations.
If you go to the mini-iac site in the above post, and go to the section for the NE Region, you can find information on contests and proposed dates for the region. You can find the answers to most any question you may have on that site. If you cannot find what you are looking for, give me a shout and I will be happy to help.
UPDATE- 1.18.09
Our July 25-26 event has been approved both by IMAC and AMA and is currently being processed as an IMAC and AMA Sanctioned Event.
Well, the season opener was held in Hurlock, MD last weekend. Even with the gloomy weather, all the pilots had a great time. The turnout was light but the field and hosting club was AWESOME. This was a perfectly flat, unobstructed, 1000 foot strip with lots of shade and nice facilities. Lunch was great. Due to the weather blowing in for Sunday, we moved along with flying. The classes there were able to fly three rounds of knowns (Six sequences) as well as a round of unknowns all in one day.
So our event is coming up soon. How many people in the club are interested in trying this out? I have heard there is some concern with flying with two flight lines going. I understand this. Let me just say that I have been in a couple of events and watched many others. With only two planes in the air, the use of callers/spotters, and the fact that the sequences of each pilot are different........ the planes rarely come in close proximity to each other. Your caller will be able to tell you where the other pilot is and where they are headed. You just focus on your flying. If the lines are merging the caller tells you to break. You are not penalized and you get to reenter your sequence even re-flying the figure before the break to setup. I have only ever called a break one time. It really is easier than trying to practice during normal club flying days.
That being said. I would really like any that want to give this type of fun fly a show to have at it. I am willing to work with any pilot that wants to practice. I can even arrange a "Primer" day for us. This would entail getting a couple of the local IMAC pilots to come out to the field and offer pointers and tips. They would demonstrate the sequence and then work with anyone interested as they try it. This would all happen before the contest so you are not trying the pattern out for the first time in July.
Please respond to this thread if you have interest. Just trying this type of flight is fun and challenging for many people.
One other post that I wanted to make was a call for volunteers. The days of the contest, we can use some help making things go smoothly. This event can help the club raise revenue for the year. The club will get the lions share of the entry fees from each pilot that comes to the event. There is an opportunity to raise money selling lunch, drinks and snacks during the event. Anyone willing to help out with these items during the contest would be greatly appreciated. Contact either FlyBoy or myself to coordinate.
The other thing we would like help with is the judging. Obviously if you have never competed or been to a judging school it would be difficult to sit in the chair. However, there is another duty that makes the contest run better. Scribes can be used to assist the judges. The job of a scribe is to write down the score for the judge you are helping. This allows the judge to keep their eyes on the flight so they do not miss anything. The scribe would also take the score sheets back to the operation area for entry into the computer. This is a great way to learn how these contests are judges and what a good figure looks like.
Thank you in advance!
I have been contacted by a local IMAC pilot and he has generously offered to come out and spend a day at the field to do some show and tell with anyone interested. He has also offered to coach and give tips to anyone that is interested in learning more about precision flight. He would do this on a weekend in June. You could come out and give it a try, no judges, during a regular flying day. Great way to see what it is all about. Let me, Mike or Toby know if you are interested in this.
This event is shaping up nicely. We have about 15 pre-registered on the IMAC site and that is a great sign. With good weather we should have a nice turnout.
We will be heading over to "The Stadium" (I think that is the name) for dinner with the pilots on Saturday night between 7 and 9pm. I have not been there but understand the food is good and reasonable in price. No, we are not buying dinner for everyone, just planning a central location for a little socializing and fun. After that, there are some club members that have shown an interest in a night fly on Saturday. I have posted about this on the threads about the contest. Any club member that wants to come out and join some fellow modelers for a meal come on out. The more the better!
I am going to post a thread about the night fly as well. There will be pilots there to practice on Friday but that is an OPEN day of flying. They will be joining normal flight operations so there is no need to "clear the field" or anything like that. Saturday and Sunday morning will be the actual contest flights with a closed flight line. I plan to have everything wrapped up by early afternoon on Sunday and the field will again return to open flying. That way the members not competing will have as much use of the field as we can fit in even with a contest going on.
I just want to say how much the IMAC pilots appreciate being able to use the different field around the region for contests. There is always a big thank you to the club from the pilots.
If anyone is interested in helping out with some of the operations during the contest we would appreciate the help. One thing that not many contest have is people to scribe. What this is about is a person for each judge that actually writes down the score for the judge. That way, the judge can keep thier eyes on the plane at all times and not have to look down to write a score. It is a great way to start learning about judging and it helps the judges be more accurate. If you are interested, please let Mike, Tobey or Me know.
See you at the field!
As the North East Regional Director, I try to make it a point that if a club has a forum I join and then mention a few things.
First off I would certainly like to thank the members/officers of Pegasus for allowing us to "invade" your field for a contest. I can assure you that we are a good bunch and will certainly treat your field and any club members that may be there with great respect. We always leave the field in the exact same condition as we found it in if not better.
IMAC, like most clubs, is just one big family. In the NE region, we certainly are just that. Sometimes there is a certain mystique that goes along with flying IMAC, some believe that we are not very approachable because of what we do or believe it or not, the size and type of the planes we fly. I can assure you that is not the case. If anyone has any questions or just wants to chat, feel free to approach any one of us.
I also heard that the Primer that Brian and Dave did was lots of fun and that there might be a night flight demo by some club members after dinner. I for one would love to see this. Both Brian and Dave said they had a blast and are looking forward to the contest. The beauty for me is Pegasus is roughly 90 miles for me and though that may sound like a lot of miles, typical in our region the contest is either very close or very far since our region goes to Newfoundland down to the very lowest part of Maryland. The beauty of the Pegasus field is that it will draw pilots from the SouthEast region as well so this contest has all the makings of becoming a 30+ pilot contest in the future. At last count I see 20 pre-registered and that's pretty good for a first time contest at a first time location. There could always be more as some pilots never pre-register and just show up
Something else I have been noticing at the contests this year is club members that just come to watch have been asking for the Aresti's (maneuver/sequence diagrams) so that they can follow the planes as they do each maneuver. So what I have been doing is carrying extra Aresti's just for that purpose, beyond what the CD has with them. If anyone wants one of these at the contest, just find the location where the scoring is happening or myself and ask for the Aresti's and we'll get you one of each
I know I speak for every pilot in the region when I say thanks for having us
I'll be in a white Dodge Carvan and flying the "Ghost" plane (Says Casper on it)
If you see Bill and get a chance to talk to him, ask him about the design of his graphics on "Casper". It is a cool story.
See you there, Bill!
Looking forward to meeting you Bill. Should be a fun weekend and lots to watch and learn for those of us that have not participated in an event like this. And yes we are trying to gather a group of night flyers for Saturday night after dinner.
Mike
Can some one post at the field about the night fly some people did not know about the night event if it has not been done lately
I see some regular's ready to come
RU4JESUS2 FALCONGTS Wrote:Can some one post at the field about the night fly some people did not know about the night event if it has not been done lately
I see some regular's ready to come
I do not know if I will be able to get by there early enough to have an impact this week. I started this conversation at the field about a month ago and put up a dedicated post in the same area as the last night fly. If anyone in town can put up a note on the bulletin board that would be great.
I think most the regular pilots Know
The German pilot Im not sure ,and nextgen mark ? if they are comming
If I get out again I can put something up
Guys,
Jut an FYI, I've been talking to some of the pilots that are planning on attending and have mentioned the night flight and all of them want to see this <hint> <hint>
Currently I know of at least one pilot that is not pre-registered but may try to make it. I know that some of the SE region pilots that are coming are trying to get more to come along. Unfortunately there might be one pilot that is pre-registered that may not come and I just heard a few minutes ago all the IMAC pilots from the Lums Pond club in DE are coming.
One thing that I see was mentioned was about 2 planes in the air at the same time. As was already stated we do fly with a caller and spotter and it helps but there are times where it can get close. I was almost involved in a mid-air twice in the same day with the same pilot this year and that was the very first time in the 4 years that has happened since I came back to flying IMAC after a long break. There will be times that there may be up to 4 planes in the air. We typically try to get the next pilot in the order to be started by the 9th maneuver in the second sequence and in the air just before the pilot doing his sequence lands or just after so if both flight lines are in the same position there will be more than two in the air but again, all planes/pilots have a spotter and a really good spotter knows the sequence of the other class that is flying and knows where he/she os going to be at any one time
One thing I'd like to mention for those that may be interested in IMAC or just want to see what the judging is all about. That is to scribe for the judges which entails you to just right down the score the judge gave. Most judges, especially me will give a very brief reason for the score he/she gave though there are times in the upper classes where it's just not possible to explain things. Another thing is it's not uncommon for a pilot to ask the judges some questions. Almost all judges are happy to share information with the pilots but this all depends on if there is time available. If you have a pilot that has taken off and awaiting to start the sequence then it's not appropriate to have the judge explain his scores and stuff to the pilot that just flew.
I and everyone I've talked s really looking forward to being there this weekend. I will be posting updates to the IMAC site Saturday once I get back to the hotel
Thanks for the heads up Bill.
Drakien Wrote:Thanks for the heads up Bill.
Your welcome,
you need me to bring a lot of extra Aersti's (flimsy's) or are you going to have enough to spread around should guests want them as well?
I will have my camera, laptop and thumbdrive handy if needed though if Stan decides to come then I will not need my camera
BTW, for those that want to see some excellent RC pictures head here. Also check out the rest of his sight, especially the video section and the video "Our Club is Broke"
http://stansphotos.com/Model%20Aviation.htm
OMG that video is too funny!!! Bill we're trying to gather some night fliers for Saturday night but doesn't look too promising. We'll see. I hope no one is expecting a show like what was put by Euri at Joe Nall a few years ago. We have nothing like that.
Just a bunch of gentle smaller planes with LEDs on them. So we'll see.
flyboy Wrote:OMG that video is too funny!!! Bill we're trying to gather some night fliers for Saturday night but doesn't look too promising. We'll see. I hope no one is expecting a show like what was put by Euri at Joe Nall a few years ago. We have nothing like that.
Just a bunch of gentle smaller planes with LEDs on them. So we'll see.
Actually, no one is expecting anything, I've been saying there is a possibility of it but you know how some people can be at times
In any case, you guys can expect some of us to be "blowing" off steam after flying on Saturday. It's not uncommon for someone to break out into 3D and with some of the people I know are coming if they did not break out in 3D I would be surprised
Looking forward to it.... *L*
Well folks, we pulled it off! Thanks to everyone for the help! I have a bunch of photos and I know of others that are sending photos. I think there will be some video as well because we had our own Henry out there shooting on Saturday. Thanks Henry!
Here are a couple of links for some photos already up! Man these guys are quick!
http://www.mini-iac.com/Regions/Northeas...fault.aspx there are three photo packs at that link listed as Pegasus. There are also shots from some of the other contests this year.
Here is a link to the thread on the IMAC site forums with the pilots giving feedback.
http://www.mini-iac.com/TheForums/tabid/....aspx#8809
Thanks to Nexgen, Hobby Hangar, SmartFly and the Best Western for the Sponsorships and deals for those that attended.
Special thanks to Ken Brown of KGB CNC Services for his support as a sponsor.