by Rolf Meum ---
Another IMAC season is over and as I promised when we [Daniel Rathbum, IMAC President] spoke on the phone almost a year ago, here is a report on what is going on in our neck of the woods.
First I would like to thank you and the others who have served as IMAC officers this period for a job well done! I know how much work and effort it takes to run such an organization.
We benefit a lot from the numerous information and downloads available, such as rules, flying and judging guide, scoring program, sound task force, and not least the tremendous job that Wayne Matthews and his committee does with sequences.
Thank you very, very much!
I would also congratulate all of those who have been elected for the next period, and I hope that we can continue the great cooperation that we have benefited so much from over the past years, and that we can achieve the common goal of making IMAC a world event.
To start with the beginning;
Back in 2003 I wanted to start scale aerobatics in Norway. I researched all the different options here in Europe such as; F3A-x in Germany (2 different levels of difficulty), a Belgian and Dutch series, the French (FAI) F3A-L, the Swedish Aresti-cup etc.etc.
None of them had a structure witch satisfied what I was looking for. Having flown a lot of full size competition aerobatics with IAC, IMAC caught my attention. The whole set up was what I was looking for. In contrast to all the others, IMAC has the same set up as IAC. “Grass roots aerobatics” as IAC referred to back in the 70’s. This is what’s needed to recruit new competitors, a level that suits each and every pilot.
A few of us got together and had our first unofficial competition in the autumn of 2003. I spoke to Tom Wheeler who was IMAC president at the time to ask if it was ok to use the IMAC material. He said that it certainly was! I then made a motion to the Norwegian Aero Club (now Air Sports Federation) aero-modeling section (equivalent to AMA in USA) in 2004 to have IMAC approved as a national competition class. This was unanimously approved on the bi-annual meeting of our federation.
I made contact with our Swedish friends, who were flying Aresti-cup. This series was flying a sportsman to intermediate level sequence, but 50% of the total score was decided by using F4C scale rules for a static score. After some talks they made the switch to IMAC a little later and the numbers of competitors has risen at lot!
In 2006 I made yet another motion to the Norwegian Air Sports Federation bi-annual board meeting to have a motion to the Nordic Aero-modeling Council to have IMAC approved as a Nordic class. This was approved by the Nordic Aero-modeling Council on March 29 2008!
This means that IMAC is now an official competition class in the following countries; Iceland, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
As a result of this we have used this competition season to select national teams for next years first official Nordic Championship in IMAC. Norway has had 4 competitions with 35 pilots competing and Sweden has had 6 competitions with the same amount of competitors. Both countries are experiencing good recruitment to IMAC
Invitations have been sent by our federation (see attachment)
Both Sweden and Norway will have full teams of 9-10 competitors each and we just have to wait and see what the other countries will come up with. So far we fly basic, sportsman, intermediate and freestyle. A few are contemplating to go to advanced next season.
We try to have IMAC seminars every other year to recruit new pilots. These seminars typically cover Aresti symbols and how you “build” figures, the sequences for the coming season, safety and technical issues, rules and rule changes, F&J guide, Mr. Goldsmiths guide to set up models, Q&A etc. We have had specialists making presentations in composite materials, electric propulsion, engineering for giant scale models, noise prevention etc.
Each year we have a season opener training camp. Here everyone can have a second pair of eyes to look over their model with safety in mind. Help with the set up of the model etc. We judge the flights of those who want, when they fly the sequences and debrief after the flight, we have a judges school/ refresher and standardization section as well. We also have excellent co-operation with our local IAC chapter, and help each other out.
Equipment wise most is flying 33-35% machines but there are a few who are flying 40-42%.
I am building a C-ARF Yak-55SP 3m with 3W 170 cs ts and Futaba 14-MZ. I have managed to get the nylon bearings for the tail feathers that Wayne Matthews mentioned on the FG forum
It’s pretty much the same products that you use in the US (SD, 3W, C-ARF, Krill, Carden, H9 and Aeroworks, models and 3W and DA engines, Futaba and JR radio equipment)
Our websites:
www.mini-iac.no or www.imacnorge.no (same site)
www.glamdalrck.net (my club, Galleriet is where you can find pictures, the rest is a little difficult to understand unless you are a good friend of the Swedish chef in the “Muppet show”
www.mini-iac.se the Swedish IMAC site.
It would be great to contact other European IMAC groups like Mr. Lucas who is IMAC in England, Germans (this years German Acromasters was flown according to IMAC rules!), and others and try to get IMAC approved as a competition class in all of Europe. This would have to be a long term effort with a carefully planned campaign involving all parties and a lot of lobbying! That would be another great step towards having IMAC as a world event!
I hope that this gives you an update of what we are doing and if you have any thoughts, ideas, questions etc. please don’t hesitate to contact me or any of the others.
I would also like to wish all of you a Merry Christmas and Happy new year.
Best regards,
Rolf Meum
IMAC President Norway
President Glamdal RCK