RE: IMAA -- Still a valid organization?
An outsider's view.
My one experience with IMAA.
One beautiful early morning, I loaded up my plane and proceeded for a liesurely multi hour long trip to what promised to be a great day of flying ( cool crisp morning, little puffy clouds, flat calm) at some "IMAA Big Bird Rally". I was in the best of spirits when I arrived and began to unload/assemble. I was soon told that if I wanted to fly, I would need to join the IMAA.... Ok... I asked what the IMAA was about what should I wxpect and what was expected of me if I joined. I was told about the magazine and the many events etc. etc. I was told how they didn't permit competition and how that made things much more fun (?). As someone who is very much interested in scale competition I was very underwhelmed by this point. I decided not to join but, hung around for about an hour to observe what appeared to me to be an old boys club of some rather shoddy looking aircraft (this was prior to the ARF invasion) being flown with skills to match (with a few exceptions). I don't judge the IMAA by that one experience but, I slipped away quietly and had little difficulty ( after making a couple calls ) in locating another club nearby where I enjoyed a wonderful day of flying and making new friends as a very welcome visitor. The interesting part was that most members of this local club had aircraft that qualified for the event, knew of it and chose not to attend as they too saw little value in it.
To this day, I avoid that one event and I haven't joined the IMAA... not because I have any reason not to join but, because I see no reason to join.[sm=confused.gif]