Black Jack IMAC in Alaska. An excellent event was held recently in “the land of the midnight sun”. Weather was a little overcast and a little cool but, these high latitude aviators had a ball traversing the northern skies.

And speaking of having a ball, they create their own unique style of fun….

These hardy souls have a “twist” to selecting their pilot flight orders! Rather than drawing flight pins out of a bucket or randomly putting the pins on the flight sticks, they gather all the pilots together and play a round of black jack!

If you 'bust', you have the honor of top spot in the flight order of your class. If you had the highest hand in your class, you flew last. And the big bonus that impressed me… Any pilots that drew an actual black jack (ace & face) won a club t-shirt and a rib-eye steak. Holy mackerel, I’m getting hungry just thinking about it !!

What a great and fun way to start a contest….. Kudos to you guys!

Peter Butschek,
IMAC NW IReporter

Contest Results;

06122010 BLACK JACK IMAC, Overall, there were 11 pilots flying in the BLACK JACK IMAC contest. In no particular order they were: Ed Cunningham, Armand Marshall, Steve McLaughlin, Dean McMillian, Tom Risdal, Mike Allman, Mike Davis, Mark Ritz, Mike Mosesian, Pat Martin and Reeves Lippincott. These pilots flew a grand total of 44 judged sequences.

This contest was flown according to standard IMAC rules.

Ed Cunningham won the Sportsman class. There were 3 pilots in Sportsman. The winning order was: (1) Ed Cunningham, (2) Mark Ritz and (3) Mike Mosesian. They flew 2 known sequences (1 round). The scores ranged from a low of 1,457.6 to a high of 2,000 (a range of 542.4 points).

Mike Davis won the Intermediate class. There were 4 pilots in Intermediate. The winning order was: (1) Mike Davis, (2) Reeves Lippincott, (3) Tom Risdal and (4) Pat Martin. They flew 2 known sequences (1 round). The scores ranged from a low of 1,159.7 to a high of 1,908.6 (a range of 748.9 points).

Dean McMillian won the Unlimited class. There were 4 pilots in Unlimited. The winning order was: (1) Dean McMillian, (2) Armand Marshall, (3) Steve McLaughlin and (4) Mike Allman. They flew 2 known sequences (1 round). The scores ranged from a low of 1,671 to a high of 1,989.3 (a range of 318.3 points).

The tightest competition was for 1st place in the Unlimited class, with only 57.7 points difference between Dean McMillian and Armand Marshall.