Again all I can comment on is what happened last season here in the SW. Our region includes CA, NV, AZ, NM, CO and UT with the rigionals centurally located in Las Vegs. Your best 5 contests count in the points standings leading up to the regionals. IMO anyone who is serious enough to compete in the points challenge will put in the travel time to attend 5 contests. Going into the regionals myself and Dean Bird were first and second respectivly for the Advanced class. The end result was him beating me at the regionals and thus winning the total season points. He as the better pilot and this is what should have happened.

Bottom line is that if a guy wants to compete and be competitive he will do so.


Shawn

Very interesting reading. This will be my first year in IMAC. I have only been flying RC for about 9 months now. I have spent the last few months practicing at least 3 days a week. Great fun learning to fly straight. There are a group of guys here in San Diego who are serious IMAC veterans who have generously been coaching me. They are divided on where I should start for many of the reasons discussed in this thread. While I have mostly been practicing Basic, lately I have also been doing the Sportsman sequences at least one flight per practice session. I can do both equaly badly. In the end it will come down to my comfort level. I want my first contest to be fun and I wont even get my 100cc plane in the air for a couple of more weeks. Therefore I am leaning toward doing at least my first contest (Cactus Clasic) in Basic. When I feel comfortable, I will move up to Sportsman early in the year because I really do want to fly unknowns so I get the full experience. Just my thoughts, I look forward to your inputs.

-STEVE-

don't be fooled, these guys spent years flying pattern, and spent years study and mastering wind correction , perspective and attitudes of their planes.

Not to mention that these guys are very talented and not what I would refer to as the norm in skill progression. I'm not sure myself as far as Mark is concerned but I do know that Bill And Mike did have pattern experience. Its kind of odd, I was on the phone just a couple of days ago with Bill and we were talking about the fact that we did meet in person when the IMAC regionals were here in Morgan Hill. I was shocked when he had told me it was his first year in IMAC and he won the Unlimited Championships. However he was flying R/C well before he could drive.


For as many times I have seen people start at intermediate and above and be successful I have seen twice as many move into a class when they were not ready, struggle and then quit.

Shawn

no doubt, they are a "natural" and have had great success because of it. Now me ,I'm working on it

What he said. Although I think it is 4 times as many. In the end, what's the rush?? I have always felt that unless you are consistently in the top 25% of your class you still have something to learn. And trust me, it is less than no fun for the Judges to have to sit there and watch someone struggle through a sequence when their skills would place them in the lower third of the class below them.

yep, both billy and mike have pattern backgrounds, but mark did not. but billy showed up at morgan hill in 1997 with a plane full of gyros which he was told by the pattern turned IMAC CD that he had to remove in order to fly. billy's choice late friday afternoon was to drive back to az or compete with a newly trimmed airplane without gyros and see what happened. and he won, and not to take anything away from him, but I think there were three or four in Unl and if memory serves me right, Cronkhite was flying something goofy and then a borrowed airplane. and so why is that these guys with the pattern backgrounds come into imac into the higher classes and suddenly start winning against pilots that have come up through the ranks. i watched mike and bill do it, jeff szueber did it...and with the exception of mark l, the top SA pilots have pattern backgrounds and got into SA because of the TOC, not because they had an interest in IMAC.

[quote]ORIGINAL: crhammond





Maybe I'd be better off to build a pattern plane and do that at the local contests for a few years. The problem is making a 10lb gasser ... I am very allergic to glow oil now and I don't want to invest thousands of $$$ in short life span LiPo's. I'm not sponsored for batteries... and 5 or 6 10c packs is huge $$$.




There life span is better than you may think. The cost is (for me) the same as running a glow flight..
But nothing compare to the price of a gasser.

There are options for the gas pattern ships now though. You just have to search for them.

On the subject, I agree, start low, but only if you feel comfortable flying it. Fly it for a contest or two, and decide if you'd like to move up.
I have been trying to figure the same out for myself. I fly pattern in Masters, soon to be Fai and have wondered what class I will start off in when I finally compete in Imac this year.
I want to fly Advanced to start, but I think I will start a little lower just to get the hang of how Imac differs from pattern.

I can't wait, just need two more servo's and a power expander!! Oh, and the b-lls to hand start the zdz80...

Chris

Come flip my 150 with a 29X12 3 blade prop and that 80 won't bother you so much. Actually I feel so much safer starting a big gasser that I do just about any glow 4 cycle.


Shawn

Basic could be flown at the Nats if they restricted the possible applicants to the top five point getters from each region. An offer to fly at the Nats could be rendered to those who qualify. Not all would be able to attend, but at least the class could be represented at the National Meet. Chic

Shawn, can't agree with you more on the prop thing. I wouldn't hesitate to spin a large wood prop barehanded, but put two fingers on an glow powered APC? Call me a sissy......

My dad got his hand in a prop, broke his thumb and his index and middle finger were barley attached. It took almost a year, 3 surgeries including a skin draft and continual phisical therepy to fet full use back. this was done with a Saito .72 and an APC 13X6
I think that people just get too comfortabe starting a glow model. When we fire up the gassers we almost always have a helper but the attention is more concentrated.


Shawn

These are the reasons we use starters.. They're also part of the reason I fly electric pattern..
Sorry to hear bout your pops. That sucks.
I totally agree that you guys do concentrate more while starting.

I've been flying for quite some time and never hand started anything. Always use a starter. Up to moki 2.1 ..
That's why the zdz worries me I guess.
I'm actually thinking about selling it and going electric in my H-9 33%.

Chris

A starter was used in this case. Usually when something like this happes it is more than one mistake that leads to disaster. What had happened is after he started the engine he got up from a kneeling position and his knee hit the throttle stick. The airplane went to approx 3/4 power and lunged for his groin area. As any of us would have done, he sheiled this area with his hand. When I look back at that day this is what I determine.

1. he started the engine with no help

2. The airplane was not secured

3. The TX was in too close to the pilot

4. And the cause of the 3 mentioned above........He got too comfortable starting this " Little " engine.

I din't know about you guys but everything mentioned here, I am guilty of doing myself, at least until that day when I learned first hand what can happen.
Shawn

Pardon me if I missed it, but did anyone mention Judging- meaning having enough experience to participate as a flyer and a judge?

I started IMAC a couple years ago, went to judging school in Muncie, and had a couple contests under my belt. It is not until your 3r or 4th contest til you get the swing of things and learn enough to be dangerous. You really need to spend alot of time with "good" judges to learn the subtlties, and not fall into the "I think I am a good judge" category.

Why the emphasis on this?

Because the more you learn about proper judging, the more you learn about proper flying and presentation.

Being a good stick sport flying is cool, but contest flying is not as simple as it seems. I wanted to forgo Basic but was advised not to, and the amount I learned flying Basicl for even 3 contests blew me away.

I had to sit out a season and a half with medical problems, but I hope this season to get back into it again.

You will meet some great people, see some great planes, and see some great flying, and have a lot of fun in the process.

Take it slow and have fun, that is what it is all about. Least for me,

chip

Very good point. Also if you are going to just jump in at sportsman.......at least attend a judging school.

Hey Chip.

Good to hear you'll be back this year.
The eyes doing ok?

Hey Wayne!

3 Surgeries and the eyes are doing fine for now. Thank god!

Anyhow, yea, I should be back at some Imac contests this year.
I need to get a new plane, so I called EF and got on the list for the 88 Yak. I sold my old one, and I can only imagine the new one.

Hope all is well with ya!

Chip

Glad to hear it all went well.
See ya for sure in Columbus.

HI Chip - what sort of eye surgery did you undergo? I was "lazored" in both eyes in '79 due to diabetic retinopathy. It was pretty traumatic but I kept chugging along. I hope you didn't have that.

Bobby

Worse than that unfortunatly.

I have Eales disease which is the same as diabetic retinopathy, but im not diabetic.

The left eye, hemmorages led to vitrectomy, surgery 1. Then had detached retina, surgery 2. That one is all good now. 1.6 years ago.
The right eye, hemmorages and detached retina, led to vitrectomy and gas bubble for 6 weeks. Lost part of my peripheral vision but not in a critical area, just an annoyance.

When its bright out, I fly using mainly my left eye ( sailplanes at distance ) and for closer in stuff I can use both. Better than it could be so I am thankful.