View From HQ - 2009/08

176 MODEL AVIATION
Executive Director Jim Cherry
he “View from HQ” is supposed to
be just that: the happenings in your
AMA Headquarters, here in
Muncie, Indiana. Those of you who make
it to the last page in Model Aviation on a
regular basis know that sometimes I tend
to drift from the HQ view to what is
happening in the Academy as a whole.
As I am writing this, this weekend,
May 9, 2009, the AMA hosted the IMAC
(International Miniature Aerobatic Club)
judging school. Will and Marian
Berninger from Cincinnati, Ohio, a great
husband-and-wife team, helped stage and
teach the course. I asked them to recap the
weekend for me to share what goes on
here at HQ.
“The IMAC judging school for the
North Central flying region was held at
the National Flying Site of the Academy
of Model Aeronautics in Muncie, Indiana,
May 9-10, 2009. There were 31 members
who came to the Muncie flying site for
instruction from Ohio, Indiana, Illinois,
Kentucky, Michigan, and Canada.
“Instructors Ken McGuire, Will
Berninger, and Marian Berninger
conducted a two-day seminar consisting
of a one-day classroom instruction course
using a PowerPoint program developed by
Wayne Matthews of the Southeast IMAC
region, and one day of flying,
demonstration, and hands-on judging.
“Typical IMAC events are judged by
the participants involved, otherwise called
contestant judging. Over the past five to
seven years, a lot of effort has been put
into educating our members so proper and
consistent scoring can be achieved.
Larger events here in the United States
such as the AMA Nationals, Tucson
Shootout, or the Clover Creek Invitational
normally have paid professional judges.
“The class was divided into two
separate rooms for Saturday’s class.
There was a ‘Basic’ room for new
T
members with no former training and
older members wanting a tune-up. There
was also an ‘Advanced’ room where more
experienced members could discuss rules
in deeper detail, getting more involved
with the specifics of more obscure rules
or guidelines.
“There is a national group in IMAC
that helps improve the rules by finding
gaps, errors, or areas that need better
clarification. We were lucky enough to
have three of the Rules Committee
members in the Advanced class to gather
information from the two classes and
forward input to the rest of the Rules
Committee for further work.
“The class fee was $20 for IMAC
members and included a rule book, the
class itself, and lunch on Saturday. The
fee for non IMAC members was $40
which included everything above plus a
one-year membership. Lunch provided to
the class was supplied by Marian
Berninger and IMAC.
“After class was over Saturday
afternoon around 4 p.m., we headed over
to the flying field for some tune-up and
open flying. The winds being somewhat
stiff sent most people home early, while
the rest of the group headed to Texas
Roadhouse for dinner after about six or
eight flights. Dinner was a good time and
supports one of the primary reasons so
many of us love IMAC: the friendships
developed along the way.
“Sunday at 9 a.m. we started doing
demo flights, putting the class to work
showing them mistakes that we were
likely going to be seeing at a typical
IMAC event. We built the demo flights
up from simple level flight and lines to
full sequences over a couple hours time.
“The class was paired into twos and
the small groups judged the maneuvers
flown with Ken McGuire checking the
students’ progress along the way. Ken
made sure to point out what were good
and bad about each flight and each
maneuver to build recognition of error
among the students. The students were all
checked along the way keeping track of
the scores.
“The demo flights continued until the
… thanks for making it this
far back in the magazine!
View From HQ
Jim Cherry
Executive Director
[email protected]
class was consistently catching and
assessing the proper scores. At about 1
p.m., the class broke up and tune-up
flying started. This was flying and
helping people set their planes up with
the assistance of another pair of eyes,
hands, ideas, and experienced fliers.
“All and all a great event that is
important to the growth, survival and
enjoyment of what it is that we do: fly
Precision Aerobatics with model
airplanes and with friends.”
If you missed President Dave
Mathewson’s column in the June 2008
issue of Model Aviation on page 5,
concerning the AMA and the FAA, it is
worth picking that issue up again and
reading.
Don’t forget, the AMA membership
drive is ongoing and the early results can
be found at www.modelaircraft.org/
membershipdrive/leaders.aspx. Someone
is going to win a lifetime membership
with the Academy, some club will win
$500 cash and other recognitions, and a
district will have the bragging rights for
a year!
I have just realized that I have a new
name within the membership. While
attending an event recently, I was
referred to as “That guy on the last page
of Model Aviation.” I was referred to by
this statement many more times during
the event.
All I can say is thanks for making it this
far back in the magazine! MA
In the spirit of flight.
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