Hi Chris,

You really should be over on the IMAC site for things like contest locations and such. I can tell you there will be contest in PA, most likely in Milford, Hamburg and that's about it. We have never been able to get anyplace in NJ to have a contest. There is a basic only event in Parkton MD which is just over the border in MD just south of York PA and I would highly recommend you attend that one.

I'm not trying to sound negative but you said you have been practicing the Basic sequence so I have a few questions for you. Which radii on which maneuvers must be identical and which ones are not, where do you place any roll elements when they are inside a maneuver, what exactly is a wind corrected line and when do you not have to have any wind correction in the line. When doing a hammer head (stall turn) do you have to be completely vertical (i.e. remove any wind correction) before you pivot. When are aerobatics allowed to be preformed which are not on the aresti.

The biggie question I always get is at what wind speed does the contest end. Well there never is a set speed, we've (meaning the pilots) voted to fly in 25+MPH winds and it ended up being the best flying I had ever judged. I judged two contests last year that flew in 20mph winds that were gusting to 50mph


I have spent the last several years running basic training stuff all over the NE region and the questions I just asked are the typical ones I find that most pilots do not know but are the biggest points killers. These very same pilots come to a contest believing they are prepared and then go off the deep end when they find their scores are not what they should be, never to return because they thought the judges were unfair when the judges were doing their jobs

Again, I'm not trying to scare you or make you run off, I just want you to be prepared, IMAC is tons of fun and loads of great people that are willing to help you out, you just have to pay attention and listen to the more experienced folks and they will not steer you wrong and once again, you would be way better hitting the IMAC website for IMAC information, sadly RCU does not have much of a following regarding IMAC