RC Scale Aerobatics
Mike Hurley, <REDACTED>; E-mail: <REDACTED>
THE INTERNATIONAL MINIATURE Aerobatic Club (IMAC) is the governing body of the competition portion of Scale Aerobatics (SA).
It's been several months since the IMAC members elected a nearly entirely new board of directors. The new group, including a new president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer, has big plans for the future of IMAC. And with popularity and growth in our category, the new board is serious about standardizing IMAC, clarifying rules and procedures, and ensuring a consistent IMAC contest in every region across the country.
I caught up with one of the board members and discussed some of the new directions this board is working in. Each AMA SIG has an AMA-appointed committee to act as a representative of that group to vote on rules, regulations, and procedures that affect it. Until this year, all of the RC Aerobatics contest guidelines—SA and precision Aerobatics (Pattern)—have fallen under the guidance of a single committee.
In the old group, none of those representing RC Aerobatics was an IMAC member or even flew in IMAC contests. It was clear that the group had no connection to IMAC, and some even felt that the differing agendas and divergence of ideologies could be conflicting with the positive growth and evolution of SA. A petition was sent to the AMA Executive Council (EC), and a separate SA Contest Board was approved after several months.
The EC appointed IMAC members representing all regions across the country to sit on the new board. SA and IMAC now have an AMA committee to oversee and vote on the direction that our discipline will take. This change has huge ramifications for future growth and a positive direction for IMAC.
Another giant leap forward is the formation of a new IMAC Sequence Committee. It will develop sequences, review member-submitted sequences, and submit likely candidate sequences for each class to the IMAC board for final selection. The committee will help drive sequence designs toward a more standardized way of thinking. It has a previously developed in-house sequence matrix to use as a guideline for sequence design.
A new underlying agenda will be to slow or even eliminate what is referred to as sequence "creep," which is the tendency toward increasing difficulty within each class on a year-to-year basis. I am told that the Sequence Committee represents a wide cross-section of thoughts and opinions of skilled sequence designers within the IMAC community. There's a push toward designing sequences in a more formalized and standardized fashion than in the past.
The Sequence Committee will also develop and make available Unknown sequences to CDs across the country. A CD can opt to send his/her own Unknowns to the committee to be cross-checked, to ensure that they are correct and fall within the guidelines for Unknowns.
One of the most exciting new developments is the concept of a weekly set of Unknown sequences. It could be distributed across the country so that contestants of all regions will be flying the same Unknowns on any given weekend. This concept means that we, as competitors, could measure our performances on a nationwide scale. It would be voluntary, but why would any CD not want contestants in his or her region to stay up to date with the flying done in the rest of the country?
The third standing group is the Rules and Standards Committee. It will work with rules submissions, helping to define and write new proposals for clear and concise submission to the board. An article on the IMAC Web site (www.mini-iac.com) under the secretary's report clearly shows the rules submission process.
To further legitimize local contest proceedings, the Rules and Standards Committee is currently working on a document that defines what an IMAC contest is and what is expected when a contestant enters an IMAC contest. Events that fall outside definition laid out in this document will not be defined as an IMAC competition, will not be listed in the online IMAC contest roster, and will not be counted in regional points standings.
All of this fits into the goal of standardizing the IMAC contest experience across the country; if you go to a contest in California, it should be relatively the same as a contest in Maine or anywhere else. This moves IMAC toward defining the way and opening doors to developing an international structured organization.
What is truly great about this formalization of our competition experience is the amount of work and dedication the individuals involved in IMAC have put forth on behalf of us, the competitive pilots. It's an amazing commitment. The next time you see the people involved in IMAC or serving on one of the committees, let them know how much you appreciate all of their efforts. I know I do. Thank you, guys!
In addition to the state of IMAC, I bring you a few cool little gadgets I've found that may make life a little easier in the RC SA world.
Mark Hale has developed a unique tail-wheel spring assembly that comes in a complete package with cable and crimps. The spring compresses rather than stretches, so you never stretch it out of shape. Mark says it's the last tail-wheel spring you'll ever need. Order these sets from him at <REDACTED>, <REDACTED>, or www.aerobaticconcepts.com.
Do you ever find dirt in your gas tank but swear you filter all the gas that goes into it? It may be getting in through the vent. RC Aircraft Solutions has designed an in-line vent filter for gasoline-powered aircraft. You install it in the end of your model's vent line. The filter is made from aircraft aluminum and has a removable and washable filter element so you never have to buy a replacement. Contact RC Aircraft Solutions at <REDACTED> or E-mail <REDACTED>.
You may remember the AMA Project Extra 35% building series from 2003. In one of those segments we showed a trick little set of machined-aluminum washers designed to fit 4-40 or 6-32 cap screws. Those washers were about as hard to find as hen's teeth, but now they are available from Atlas Precision Machining.
I like to use the washers combined with a flat rubber washer to hold things such as the stabilizers or the aircraft's hatch, but there are dozens of uses in any application where you need to spread the load and create a clean, finished look. Order these washers directly from Atlas with or without the rubber seal at <REDACTED>, E-mail <REDACTED>, or log on to www.apmachining.com.
It's nice to see a scale cockpit, but those of us who fly SA are more worried about weight than aesthetics. Gregg Wright of Virtual Cockpits has come up with the answer: a photo-realistic cockpit that weighs only a few ounces! Gregg is a graphic artist by trade, and he designed the cockpit to look as though you're looking into a full-scale aircraft.
These Virtual Cockpit photo-graphics are a result of many hours of extensive digital-photo retouching and illustration. Individual images are masked, cloned, distorted, airbrushed, and handcrafted into a 3-D illustration of a cockpit. Each aircraft (make, model, and size) starts with an accurate template showing the exact instrument panel, floor, and rear turtledeck shape and size. Final digital illustrations are printed on a commercial-grade, high-quality color laser printer, and the prints are laminated. You simply cut them out, glue them into your aircraft, and they look right. The lamination helps prevent the prints from bubbling up in the heat of a summer day.
Gregg has kits available for many aircraft, including Carden's, Extreme Flight Yaks, and Composite-ARFs. E-mail him at <REDACTED> or call <REDACTED>. MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
