By: Kent Porter SE ARD NC
Piedmont Aeromodelers Seventh Annual IMAC 2011 recorded despite the 45 mph wind gust / sand storm Saturday afternoon as forecasted which halted all competition flying shortly before lunch on Saturday. James pressed hard to resume flying late Saturday afternoon but had to call the day after Brent Good lost
a Counter Balance while taxiing after his sequence. A few pilots braved the wind and got in some rather interesting wind correction practice while others participated in some great fellowship. Our IMAC family reunites once again and brings together their grills and food to share with everyone. Alex and I left for
home at 8 O’clock. Back to the field by 8 AM James arrives shortly after to complete his first IMAC competition. Let’s get this thing going. The pilots join for a briefing and to draw for Unk flight order. Sequence flying began shortly after 9 AM (we must be courteous to our neighbors). Even with all the hurdles, James Taylor aka Doc. Directs his first IMAC Contest without a hitch! Great contest Doc! Oh! Yeah! Delicious Pizza!
About one dozen IMAC Enthusiast rolled in Friday afternoon for some “before contest” practice. Being the first northern based contest everyone was anxious to get the season underway.
The Piedmont IMAC was the perfect location for our four first time Basic pilots with our 100’ X 850’ grass runway and 200 plus acres overfly without trees! Steve Sides from Greensboro, NC showed his skills and leads the way for round one. Justin Sebastian from Mt, Holly, NC tightened the rope and pulled ahead for the remaining rounds. Check out the results and individual scores to see how these first Timers improved over the weekend. What an inspiration!
Sportsman’s Jerry Hailey from Lexington, NC dominates nearly the whole contest with his 2.7 Meter JTec Radiowave Extra! The closet race in sportsman was between the Harden brothers, Herb and Bill. Howard Mathis snatches the clean sweep from Jerry by winning the last known sequence of round three. After all
is said and done brother Bill puts the smack down on brother Herb! Nice flying Bill! Bill Harden wins his first ever Unknown!
Intermediate’s Primo Rivera from Fort Mill, SC jumps off to a great start by leading after the first round. Jeff Whitaker from Spotsylvania, VA readjusts his angle of attack and strikes back pulling ahead to lead after round two. Can Jeff and his fire breathing 126” Pro Carden Extra / DA 200 hold the lead? Remember, the Unknown was flown Sunday morning before round three and only Phyllis knows who took the Unknown! Well, Primo shows his Intermediate experience and wins round three and after his drops completes the known’s with a perfect score, Out of a dark alleyway fly’s Tony Gorgone from Hampton, VA. And wins the Unknown Will this be enough to overtake Thomasville, NC resident Tristan Gallimore? Tony plunges ahead of Tristan by only 2.2 normalized points.
Advanced class Matt Balazs from Colfax, NC takes the win without any fight! Matt fly’s OPP!
From Forest, VA., Unlimited pilot Pete Castine shows the way for round one. Even afte r Kevin Dixon from Lugoff, SC wins the second sequence of round two Pete is still dominating with a perfect score. After round three known is complete Pete has recorded a perfect 4000! Remember that the Unknown was flown Sunday morning before the third known round and Phyllis is the only one that really knows who is winning! Craig Baker from Appling, GA. Utilizes his teaching skills and take these boys to school in the Unknown!
Herb Harden clinches his first senior’s class win. Congratulations Herb!
Great flying by all! (less one counter balance) Special thanks goes out to Smart-Fly for donating some nice pilot prizes!
Phyllis and Charles Youngblood, You are the best! Thank you for doing what you do! Making a CD’s job effortless! Doc can now attest to that!
It was truly great to see all my IMAC friends this weekend. Mark McClellan brought our good friend Mike Chandley down for the day. Mike, great to see you again. Mark Mc. came all the way from Claremont to help in the judging pool. Way to step up Mark.
Alex my son, what a great sportsman you are for coming to help out this weekend and spending time in the judges chair to help Doc with his matrix. Alex’s 3.2 Meter JTec Radiowave Extra 300 Competition plane is not quite ready for the season as of yet.
Now, “For the Rest of the Story!”
Overall, there were 20 pilots flying in the Piedmont Aeromodelers IMAC contest. In no particular order they were: Kevin Dixon, Jerry Hailey, Bill Harden, Craig Baker, Matt Balazs, William Conklin, Tristan Gallimore, Charles Youngblood, Joe Henle, Justin Sebastian, Steve Sides, Chris Reid, Jerry Holt, Jeff Whitaker, Anthony Gorgone, Primo Rivera, Herb Harden, Brent Good, Howard Mathis and Pete Castine. These pilots flew a grand total of 280 judged sequences.
This contest was flown according to modified rules.
Justin Sebastian won the Basic class. There were 4 pilots in Basic. The winning order was: (1) Justin
Sebastian, (2) Steve Sides, (3) Chris Reid and (4) Joe Henle. They flew 7 known sequences (4 rounds).
The scores ranged from a low of 3,360.4 to a high of 5,000 (a range of 1,639.6 points).
Jerry Hailey won the Sportsman class. There were 6 pilots in Sportsman. The winning order was: (1)
Jerry Hailey, (2) Bill Harden, (3) Herb Harden, (4) Howard Mathis, (5) William Conklin and (6) Brent Good.
They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of 4,034.5
to a high of 4,958.7 (a range of 924.2 points).
Primo Rivera won the Intermediate class. There were 6 pilots in Intermediate. The winning order was: (1)
Primo Rivera, (2) Jeff Whitaker, (3) Anthony Gorgone, (4) Tristan Gallimore, (5) Charles Youngblood and
(6) Jerry Holt. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a
low of 3,238.1 to a high of 4,989.4 (a range of 1,751.3 points).
Matt Balazs won the Advanced class. There was 1 pilot in Advanced. The winning order was: (1) Matt
Balazs. He flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round.
Craig Baker won the Unlimited class. There were 3 pilots in Unlimited. The winning order was: (1) Craig
Baker, (2) Pete Castine and (3) Kevin Dixon. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown
round. The scores ranged from a low of 4,292 to a high of 4,843.3 (a range of 551.3 points).
In addition to the standard classes, there was 1 special class: Seniors.
Herb Harden won the Seniors class. There were 6 pilots in Seniors. The winning order was: (1) Herb
Harden, (2) Bill Harden, (3) Howard Mathis, (4) William Conklin, (5) Charles Youngblood and (6) Jerry
Holt. They flew 6 known sequences (3 rounds) and 1 unknown round. The scores ranged from a low of
0.452 to a high of 0.656 (a range of 0.205 points).
The tightest competition was for 3rd place in the Intermediate class, with only 10.517 points difference
between Anthony Gorgone and Tristan Gallimore.