I normally don't get caught up in these kinds of debates, because I think that pattern and IMAC have a tremendous amount in common. However, I do think that Ed's account of IMAC has been tainted by his experiences.

I would have to take exception to many of the comments in the above message, but most certainly in the statement that pattern is the "true spirit of precision aerobatics" because centered figures are required.

Actually, IMAC attempts to emulate full scale aerobatic competitions with some necessary deviations for models. Centered figures no longer exist in full scale aerobatics (so I guess these full scale airplanes do not fly in the true spirit of aerobatics), so they don't exist in IMAC either. You can get on your soapbox about why you don't fly IMAC anymore, but please don't try to prevent someone else from giving it a go.

Ken