IMAC and Scale Aerobatics
Authored by Dan Knippen
I’ve decided to write a series of articles on the subject of Scale Aerobatics or as we know it, IMAC, for those who don’t know much about scale aerobatics and want to know more. I hope I can answer some of the questions you may have concerning IMAC, which is the miniature version of the full scale International Aerobatic Club.
The International Aerobatic Club, is a division of the FAA. It was called the “Precision Flying Division” when it first began. In 1970 the IAC was formed under the leadership of Bob Heuer. To make a long story short, the IAC was the beginning of IMAC started by a group of guys from California. They started the concept and today it is one of the biggest Special Interest Groups in the AMA, and still growing. Why? If you look at what is being sold, many of the planes coming into production are Aerobatic planes. For the people that build and fly them it gives us flying abilities that we have never experienced before. If you don’t want to spend the time building, the ARF aerobatic planes are the way to go. They are very inexpensive, fly very well and the competition between all of the manufacturers is to our advantage.
I would also like to point out a few of the people in our club that have had some sort of influence on my desire to fly aerobatics. When I first started flying and joined the club, it was Ray Tinley that was flying some sort of precision figures that had some order to it as well as a certain amount of flying discipline. His presentation of scale aerobatics at that time made it look really neat. At this time, in my younger flying career, I was just punching holes in the sky. It was Ed Bywalec that said “Anyone can punch holes in the sky!” Then there was Bob Carroll and Kenny Ward, they did everything ! Fun Flys, Pylon, Pattern, War birds and Scale Aerobatics and they did them all well! Brat Brian kid as well. After doing all the above and still searching for what I wanted to do in RC, I chose Scale Aerobatics. Now I can say that I can punch a hole in the sky with a little precision. Thanks Ed!
So, with that, in the coming months I will try to share my experiences in the Scale Aerobatic world. We will start with the Basics, how to get started in flying IMAC. First of all, you don’t need a 35% plane to compete! We will learn the sequence of maneuvers for each of the classes, web sites to learn judging the maneuvers, how to read Aresti (the graphical language of aerobatics), equipment needed, maneuvers such as spins, hammerheads, snap rolls and wind correction.
If all of this sounds too complicated, too hard for your palate and you don’t like to compete, or just want to improve your flying skills, then enjoy and do what you like and do your best and have fun. If anything, I hope you will enjoy the articles.
What is it all about? Next month I will start with the basics of IMAC and Scale Aerobatics.