Here is a quick update from Norway.

I ran a IMAC judging school last week in Trondheim ( about an hours flight north of Oslo) using the PowerPoint presentations you sent me and the sequence presentations listed in the training library in addition to my own material. It was a great success and your presentations were very helpful and very well received by the attendees! 17 of them to be exact, which is a great turnout by our standards.

We will have the practice judging 9-10 May at our official training and recruiting weekend. Here they will receive a review and then practice on everything from the ”first time” basic pilots up to and including all our National team members in the other classes . At this training camp all the pilots and judges will get all the critique and help they want, so they are up to speed for the season start.

My season started the weekend before Easter, flying my 40% TT/SD Yak-54 of a frozen lake. From what I read you wouldn’t like that too much!!?? ( see the pic’s) My 3m C-ARF Yak- 55SP (Technoavia SP-55M actually) was finished today so I hope to fly it this weekend. It has a 3W-170cs/ts, Futaba 14mz, and PowerBox Royale setup. I got the plywood standoffs from Mark McClellan that you wrote about. Great guy! I have also managed to get the the thrust bearings you mention in your FG build thread. I got 300 of them so the guys around here can have them as well. It’s a ”blue butterfly” scheme, not my favorite but the only one I could get at the time. I will get a 2,6 m in about a week, which I have ordered in a custom scale scheme (see the pic’s they sent me of my model at the factory prior to shipment). If I like the way it presents itself (I think I will!) I’ll order a 3m version in the same scheme later this year.

I have read closely ”everything” about the ”Canadian” proposal on ACS/ back to the old box. My congratulations to the IMAC BOD’s great handling of this! Here in our neck of the woods we have used ACS with great results so far. We have had a very strong focus on the intention of ACS as a means to reduce our noise footprint and it has definitely been a success . Last year we had no noise complaints when flying IMAC at our field. This is the first time ever there hasn't been complaints. We use canister/ tuned pipes, 3 blade props, .6 mach or less tip speed etc to keep noise down, but ACS has reduced our footprint because we are very strict when judging it!

Using a higher K- factor (maybe as high as 10% of the total k-factor for the whole sequence or an equal k-factor to the highest maneuver k-factor in the given sequence) could be a longer term solution. For the short term education of the judges and the pilots with a very high focus on the subject / intention of ACS may work. It certainly has done so here!

In fact, the F3A community here are now receiving more complaints due to the fact that they are forced to fly far away and big maneuvers in the different zones. They may not be as loud when doing sound test in the pit as some IMAC models, but the fact that they make their noise when flying where the neighbors live, makes the difference. What counts is the perceived noise by the neighbors!

With all the best wishes for a great competition season,

Rolf Meum

IMAC Pres. Norway