ORIGINAL: NJRCFLYER2
Personally I have found pattern to be a little easier to get involved with.
I started with IMAC and eventually ended up in Pattern. I agree, it's definitely less expensive to field a competitive Pattern airplane, but like anything else, you could go out and spend about as much on a 2M Pattern ship as a 40% IMAC plane if you really want to. It's just that you don't need to. But it's a hobby and if you like the result for the extra $$$, go for it. I"m not one to buy junk to save money either. You can use great equipment and still keep the costs reasonable.
I agree.
If I live in a place where IMAC and Pattern are more equal in the numbers of attendance than I'll fly both. But for me the cost was too much to fly Pattern in terms of contest fees/travel/lodging vs. flying IMAC with the amount of competition. When the numbers were more equal I had a blast doing both, though it made practice hard to do.