Catawba Valley one day IMAC was held Saturday May 23, 2010 at Allen field in Conover, NC. The weather was not forgiving as Mother Nature delayed the start of this event. Periods of rain and overcast skies brought the contestants under the 40 foot canopy which was erected for this event. Forecast also hindered practice day Friday, most of the day was spent just hanging out. Mark McClellan (contest director) during the rain delay call contestants over to receive their unknowns which will be flown after round two known. Several times Mark had someone check the ceiling and it was not looking good. At 10:30am the Catawba Valley RC Flyers had lunch ready and served up hamburgers, hotdogs and chicken sandwiches with the fixings. Just after noon the skies opened up and Mark quickly gathered contestants and call for the safety briefing. Flight order was established and wheels up time were set. Two flight lines were utilized with a ninety degree offset. Contest under way.

Basic and Intermediate started it off. Basics Jerry Hailey showed his classmates the way for round one. Bill Harden a close second and Brent Good with his custom built Yak holding the third position. Joey Hayes throws down two killer sequences winning round one hands down. Kent Porter followed by 114 points Jon Gurley, Primo Rivera (flying barrowed plane) and Don Martin not far behind. Sportsman’s James Taylor shows Tristan Gallimore, Howard Mathis and Terry Hickey all about sequence flying winning round one hands down. Matt Balazs leads Advanced class 45 points over Alex Porter. Get this; both Unlimited pilots are flying barrowed aircraft. Jimmy Ritch wins round one and pulls ahead of Adam Ranck by over 500 points.

Lines are running smooth and round two begins with Unlimited Jimmy Ritch shows not mercy toward Adam R. and his barrowed Brent Good Yak 54. Jimmy takes round two. Intermediate’s Joey Hayes continues to show the way and Primo Rivera is getting use to the Ultimate. Bill Harden dominates round two Basic. Matt Balazs and Alex Porter swap sequences but Matt still holds the lead. Can he hold Alex off? James Taylor and Tristan Gallimore split round two sportsman but it’s not enough for Tristan to catch James.

Mark Mc. calls for the start of unknowns and we move to one flight line and Mark calls all the unknown Aresti for the judges. After completion of the unknowns we took a poll for flying a third round and it was obvious everyone was ready to return to their homes. Freestyle was organized and Adam Ranck and Alex Porter wowed the crowd with two fantastic frees! Thanks guys.

Now, for the rest of the story.

Overall, there were 16 pilots flying in the Catawba Valley IMAC 2010 contest. In no particular order they were: Alex Porter, Jimmy Ritch, Terry Hickey, Don Martin, Brent Good, James Taylor, Jerry Hailey, Tristan Gallimore, Bill Harden, Jonathan Gurley, Joey Hayes, Adam Ranck, Kent Porter, Primo Rivera, Matt Balazs and Howard Mathis. These pilots flew a grand total of 174 judged sequences.

This contest was flown according to modified rules.

Bill Harden won the Basic class. There were 3 pilots in Basic. The winning order was: (1) Bill Harden, (2) Jerry Hailey and (3) Brent Good. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds). The scores ranged from a low of 3,648.4 to a high of 4,000 (a range of 351.6 points).

James Taylor won the Sportsman class. There were 4 pilots in Sportsman. The winning order was: (1) James Taylor, (2) Tristan Gallimore, (3) Howard Mathis and (4) Terry Hickey. They flew 4 known sequences (2 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 3,138.4 to a high of 3,637 (a range of 498.6 points).

Joey Hayes won the Intermediate class. There were 5 pilots in Intermediate. The winning order was: (1) Joey Hayes, (2) Jonathan Gurley, (3) Kent Porter, (4) Primo Rivera and (5) Don Martin. They flew 4 known sequences (2 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 2,668.6 to a high of 3,750 (a range of 1,081.4 points).

Alex Porter won the Advanced class. There were 2 pilots in Advanced. The winning order was: (1) Alex Porter and (2) Matt Balazs. They flew 4 known sequences (2 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 3,560.7 to a high of 3,737.3 (a range of 176.6 points).

Jimmy Ritch won the Unlimited class. There were 2 pilots in Unlimited. The winning order was: (1) Jimmy Ritch and (2) Adam Ranck. They flew 4 known sequences (2 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 3,256.3 to a high of 3,715.1 (a range of 458.9 points).

In addition to the standard classes, there was 1 special class: Seniors.

Howard Mathis won the Seniors class. There were 2 pilots in Seniors. The winning order was: (1) Howard Mathis and (2) Don Martin. They flew 4 known sequences (2 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 0.550 to a high of 0.605 (a range of 0.055 points).

Alex Porter won the Freestyle class. There were 2 pilots in Freestyle. The winning order was: (1) Alex Porter and (2) Adam Ranck. They flew 1 freestyle round. The scores ranged from a low of 899.4 to a high of 1,000 (a range of 100.6 points).

The tightest competition was for 2nd place in the Intermediate class, with only 12.9 points difference between Jonathan Gurley and Kent Porter.