As a former FULL SCALE ADVANCED competition pilot and continuing R/C pilot, I have to tell you, us full scale guys hated rolling circles when they were first introduced too. We cheat(ed) a lot of figures in full scale and we made them work. The Tail Slide is no different. It's a figure in the FAI Catalog and likely to be placed in the figure pool for both knowns and unknowns. I have not competed in IAC or IMAC for a number of years, but can still fly the figure very well in both - wheels up / wheels down, doesn't make a difference. This is by no means a FLOP figure and the airplane never departs controlled flight. While I understand Mark's disdain for the figure, I appreciate Tom's statement about maintaining the FAI catalog. Choosing to drop a figure because certain people may have a difficult time flying it goes against the reason we fly. If we all flew perfect figures and were only concerned about the order they appeared in a sequence, in my humble opinion - flying would be boring. We would only fly aerobatics because "they are cool" and not because we want to achieve and demonstrate a proficiency in flight. If you don't like tail slides - practice what you hate!

Looking at previous IMAC Unlimited sequences, maybe Family 6 could take a break, but don't disown him. He's a little Family and only twice as big as 5 - nobody hates 5 - Stall Turns - and he could just as easily be flown out of the box. Half in - downgrade, out - the same ZERO you would get on a "FLOP". Besides, full scale Unlimited pilots zero figures too. I saw five pilots zero a loop/point combination in the WAC this year. Several more rolled the wrong way on the up-line of a cross-box Humpty and either flew WAY out of the box (the smart move for a downgrade) or tried to correct the error and - you guessed it - zeroed the figure. One pilot actually tried to "get creative" and zeroed the flight. In full scale, we would take the optional BREAK, pull our heads out of our %$$, and complete the sequence.

The biggest difference between IAC and IMAC is wind corrected figures, but as see it, the goal of IMAC is to emulate full scale aerobatics. It's the difference of where the nose is pointed as opposed to the path of flight. If you can't fly a clean tail slide - practice, cheat it and take the downgrade or fly for fun.

Just my humble opinion.