I just read the IMAA is discontinuing their High Flight mag, so with no magazine what do they have to offer? NADA! I'm not a fan of seeing RC related stuff going under but IMAA? I'm not going to miss HAVING to pay 25.00 so I can fly in events. Sorry, you've have a good run, made a ton of money and just about did nothing for it. I did like the early mags without all the advertisements. I now just gained another 25.00 to put in my gas tank traveling to events.

Yep...it's History!

After IMAA closed its doors shorting me for the dues we paid
ahead of time that was not returned to us, I was out of the loop for a while.

I just checked on the High Flight "Kick Start" operations attempt
to come back to life while becoming a web magazine only. They had
a fund drive that needed 2,000 supporters to donate $30 each
($60,000 up front) to get this electronic version of High Flight going?

Low and behold they could only get around 300 people interested
and they wrote - "Sorry…. High Flight will not be coming back…
Thanks for your support!"

300 out of the 10,000+ that were previous members. 300 ...

They should have realized that when the organization initially closed
their doors, the IMAA stiffed long time members, including me, who had
prepaid for memberships. Especially those who trusted them enough
to pay for 2 - 3 year subscriptions that we signed up for at the
trade shows..

Years left on our subscriptions that IMAA did NOT refund.
Thousands of paid up subscribers with zero refunds when they closed?
The exact same stunt RCM magazine pulled.

They actually had the brass to expect us to now prepay/committ
up front for a possible internet magazine after we got stiffed before?
And this time there is no organization behind it?

No thanks. Fool us once shame on you, fool us twice .... Not again.

Bye, bye .....

The last thing I would want to see is anything affiliated with IMAA come back. Paying 25.00 every year for nothing and the moronic clubs that actually enforced you from not flying at their event. I am glad it went under, I supported them for years, since 1985, in the very beginning it wasn't bad, but then came all the advertising you had to wade through to get to the events, it did nothing to promote the hobby, sorry about the sour grapes but IMAA brought it on

Yep I joined the first year at Ida Grove IA and got number PS04.
I too lost about three years of paid up dues but, I did enjoy the magazine.
Back in the early eighties when I joined a Q-35 was a big motor and a airplane with 80" was huge.
Not so special anymore.
It had it's time and place.
Jim

IMMA was a builders club. I enjoyed many years going to their meets with my RV and camping out. Some of the places in the Pacific Northwest were spectacular camp sites. I particularly enjoyed the one on the North Cascades highway.But the last time I went there I was the only one that showed up beside the organizer. A lot of the guys were older and had died or lost interest.
The big deal now is IMAC but the participants seem to be in a contest to see how much money they can spend
BTW anytime an organization goes bankrupt, by definition there usually is no money to return to the investors.There is a fine line between a business and a ponzi scheme.

We have re-read the Editors last issue "The End of an Era" article
and the IMAA's last posts on their website .... nowhere did it say
that the organization filed for Bankruptcy.

They declared that producing the magazine was causing them
"a serious financial challenge."

Not a word about filed bankruptcy proceedings anywhere that we have
seen.

You dont have to file to be bankrupt. I think if they had any money left they would have distributed it. In fact I think they were far into their own pockets

Sadly, we just had a District II AMA event that was Giant Scale (Binghamton AEROs at the Chenango Bridge Airfield) that we had always considered an IMAA event. One year after IMAA went boots up the difference was . . . none at all. We have a beautiful event with the usual suspects (around 80 pilots over the two days) and a great time was had by all. The sponsors still sponsored, the pilots still piloted and the event was a success.

The best the IMAA ever was was just a splinter interest of AMA. Since AMA has elected to jump the dues 29% in one year I see the "savings" from IMAA as an offset. Though I do miss High Flight and I like the group that formerly was IMAA and hope we continue on as before. We're still a giant scale focus club whether IMAA is extant or not. And we still almost all fly smaller models as well.

The IMAA spirit lives on. We (Las Vegas area) are going to have a scale event, "Warbirds and Classics over Las Vegas" the 1st weekend of November, using IMAA criteria. So there!

Old Dawg

We need to get the old QSAA going again out at the dry lake bed. (Sigh...) the times are a changin'. Good luck, and a gentle breeze down the runway for your event.

Charlie,

Not sure I agree with you. Went to Castle again this year and saw a few things I'm attributing to the death of IMAA. Carnage at Castle this year was WELL above normal, Never been a midair at Castle in the 18 years of having the event until this year (still miss my L-4). On one flight, 4 of the 5 airplanes in the air crashed, never seen that before at Castle, ever! In my opinion, an infusion of flyers who're not "dedicated" to Giant Scale like the old IMAA Members were brought in a few flyers to the Castle event who had more of a "cowboy" attitude with less attention to detail for both building and flying. The minor commitment of having to make a personal decision to support Giant Scale and write a check ensured a higher level of "commitment" to building and flying GS airplanes.

Maybe so. Our club still insists that we are a "Giant Scale Focus" club (applicants have to affirm this in writing) and our event was promoted as only giant scale aircraft allowed. Whether a $25 annual dues makes the pilot of a $1,400 aircraft any more committed I cannot say. Of our 32 members I can only think of two that I have not seen fly smaller models when just making holes in the sky at the airfield.

I appreciate your point on "dedication" but also feel we have to encourage folks to "start somewhere". Perhaps the IMAA just got old and petrified itself? I noted the "intro" giant-scale Carbon Z Cubs (there were six & I have a seventh) were not flown by beginners as might be expected but by the seasoned old farts who just wanted something that was fun to fly without the burden of risking the next three month's pension checks on a mishap. That and they are excellent flying models! ;-)

This year we had 80 pilots and only one scary situation where a J-3 Cub pilot dead sticked and turned back into the pattern to land. Happily the club keeps two line monitors behind the six stations so there was good verbal warning, and aside from some colorful nautical terminology and ear scarring no harm was done. Still, it was a poor decision as just nosing down would have allowed him to settle on the outer 500 ft of the 2,000 ft grass airstrip we fly out of. Some folks get all rubbery kneed when dead sticks occur.

I would not be at all surprised that a similar organization rises phoenix-like out of the IMAA ashes.

Also on a sadder note - on July 29th Don Godfrey, one of the founders and first presidents of the IMAA and a local musician, passed away.

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/pre...?pid=175401226

Finally was able to catch up to and talk to our IMAA "District Director" who was in office when IMAA closed its doors and stiffed the members.

He said that IMAA was NOT bankrupt at all but were losing too many members to continue printing that expensive magazine. Don't know why they didn't go to less issues, less pages, etc, but it was supposedly breaking their back.

He couldn't explain why they did not offer refunds to long time members who were owed years of future club dues & magazines. Two years left for us.

Nice guys.

WT