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Welcome to the IMAC Northwest Region. If you are new to
IMAC and seeking information, please click on Regional Contacts in the link bar
or click here and contact the Assistant Regional Director in your area.
New Stuff
- Surrey 2 Results -
The scores from Surrey have been posted,
Click Here.
Regional standings have also been updated and posted,
Click Here. Pics
to follow when they are received.
- We need Help - Really
In order to maintain the kind of contest schedule we have
had this year, we need more people to pitch in and do some work. Most critical is the need for more CD's. To CD a contest you must be AMA certified (easy
to do - see the RAMS web
site, Click Here, ) and you
simply have to know the outline of how an IMAC contest works. Beyond
that, what is involved in running a contest is laid out in great detail in the "How to" document
on this site,
Click Here. The most important trait required is the willingness and
determination to spend some time and effort before the contest in order
to do the whole job at the contest. There are a number of very popular contests at risk if
we don't get some new CD participation. They are:
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Medford |
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Zillah |
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Snohomish - either July or August |
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Richland |
You don't have to live at a location or be a member of
the local club to CD an IMAC contest at that location. That is best case
but we have been doing it remote for some time.
In addition to the above, Wenatchee is asking to
reinstate their contest and will need IMAC coverage if we do so.
If it is not your cup of tea to be a CD, you can assist
in other areas. The work of the region involves the following -
something for everyone - and if you are interested in one of these you
may possibly free up someone for CD work:
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Webmaster - build, maintain and regularly
update the regional web site |
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Regional Score Keeper - accept scores from
CD's, check them and get them into the standard form for the web
site. |
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ARD's for western Canada and western
Washington |
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Quartermaster - keeper, maintainer for the
contest pins, bins, computer, printer, etc.... and getting this
stuff to where it needs to be for contests |
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Score sheets - do the narratives for the 09
Knowns and finalize the 09 score sheets |
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Photographers - need some dependable sources
for contest pics for the web site. Would like 3-4 guys located
around the region who are
interested in photography to step up and give us the coverage
of contests in their area through the season |
Please consider pitching in. If
we spread the load no one will be over burdened and it remains
manageable. If it all falls on a couple of people, they will burn out
and eventually bag it. Contact Keith or Bruce to talk about whatever may be of
interest to you. Thanks
Since I first gave my pitch for assistance at Snohomish
in July, we have had two offers. Thank you, Mike V and Darren K. In
addition, Dan Lurvey has recently committed to get his CD license in order to
work the new Dusters contest. Keep it coming......Your help is
sincerely appreciated.
- IMAC
National Election Schedule Finalized...
The IMAC elections will take place
from November 1 through 7, via online voting on the IMAC National
Website. You must be an IMAC member in good standing, and have a current
username/password to the IMAC National website to vote. The results will
be certified and the winners announced by November 15. Check your log-in
status early and make your vote count. Click
here to get to the IMAC National Website - click on elections
in the menu bar to get to the candidate bios and wrtie ups.
- Tucson Pilot Selections -
The 2008 pilot selections for the Tucson Shootout have been
announced and the NW is well represented. Congratulations to:
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Sportsman |
Nick S |
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Intermediate |
Mike V |
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Advanced |
Darren K & Dave V |
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Unlimited |
Kyle W & John W |
In addition, Kyle will again represent the NW in Freestyle, flying with the best in the world.
Best of luck to all - have a great time!!
- Pilot's / Judges Corner -
This time the subject is the Airspace Control score that
is judged for each sequence we fly. Check it out, Click Here.
- Pilot's / Judges Corner Library-
All the Pilot/Judges Corner write-ups since 1/07 have
been collected and are published here in the Pilot Judges Corner
Library. There is an entry in the link bar that gets you to the library
or, Click Here.
EVENTS:
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The Finale -
Regionals at Richland -
On Oct 18 & 19, one week after Tucson, we will be in the
Tri Cities at Higgins field in Richland. This is the wrap up of our
season and the last contest for adding to your regional championship
total. Scores will be awarded a 50% premium so you will gain 150% of the
regional points normally awarded for your contest finishing position in
this contest.
Several of the regional championship races are very close so this
contest will be the decider - don't miss it. The contest flyer is
posted,
Click Here.
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| The planes are Cap 10B's
Correctly ID'd by Ken H from Birch Bay |
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Hot Pic
- give me your Candidate.... |
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Darren At Work |
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CD Stuff:
| NW Safety Practices: |
| Be sure to review the NW Safety
practices list before the contest and be very hard-nosed in enforcing all
items. Click Here. |
| Open Flying During Contest Weekends: |
| Above and beyond sequence flying, it
is your prerogative as the CD to decide when your field will be
open for general/fun flying during the weekend. However, in
allocating time for field use we should all observe the
following items in order to provide consistency and fairness at
our contests: 1. Once
sequence flying starts for the day, the field is closed to any
flying except sequence flying until sequence flying concludes
for that day - and this includes the lunch break, if any.
2. The field is closed to all flying on
Sunday morning before the start of Unknowns. This is the
practice in the NW and has been for years.
3. If a pilot has an electrical or
mechanical problem during the weekend and needs to test fly during a
period when the field is restricted to sequence,
he should request permission from you to do so. Note that
electrical or mechanical problems must be real "does it work
or not"
kind of problems
and not mix adjustments, trim changes or fine tuning of the
motor. Once the request is made,
you decide when it is reasonable for the guy to fly and tell him
when to do so. His test flight is to be brief (~ 5 min) and should
only consist of turn around maneuvers, i.e., no snaps,
point rolls, hammers, extended inverted flight, etc, etc.... |
| Contest Forms / Documents: |
| All the info, forms and contacts you
will need to run your contest are included in the
"Useful
Stuff" page on this
site. For registration, in addition to the AMA Event
participation and Safety Declaration forms, use the "IMAC Contest Sign In" form.
It has columns for frequency, pilot/panel, senior and "paid".
This is all info you must capture at registration,
Click Here. |
| Obtaining Unknowns for Your Contest: |
| The Unknown Sequence request link to
IMAC National is included in "Useful
Stuff" - follow the links you find there. You must make this request to National at least 10
days before the contest. You log onto the National site (have to
be a member) in order for it to display the request page.
Make sure you click on the "Submit" button before leaving
the request page. It is down at the left bottom and it is
not obvious. The Unknowns are emailed by National on the Monday
before your contest to whomever you specify as recipient in your
request for Unknown |
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Aerobatic Limbo...... |
Miscellaneous
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- 08 Pre-Registration - |
| We are getting better at this but it is still a little
like pulling teeth. Not sure why. No one has said anything to me and I
would appreciate some input. If there is something we can do to
facilitate this, I am happy to give it a try. Please let me know.
Click here to
get to the pre-reg site. The first time you go there you will have to register
which amounts to giving it a username & password.
Thanks
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- Contest Pictures: |
| I can accept pics at any time you come up with them and post them to
this site for your contest. Just email me whatever you find and I can
add it to the photo gallery. I try to post something between 15 -25 pics
per contest and identify what/who is in the pic. So if I am unlikely to
know the people or things in the picture, please send me some ID info...
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Pilots / Judges Corner -
- Airspace Control Score (ASC)-
The air space control score (ASC) was instituted
with the 07 rules to replace the “box” that we fly our maneuvers in. Why
the ASC? Well, we have gone through several variations of the box over
the years and all of these basically fell victim to the difficulties of
enforcement. With the advent of the ASC there is no box and this leaves
no defined limit other than the deadline. Therefore, technically, the
pilot has all the area on the “other “ side of the deadline in which to
fly - subject to any local limits imposed by the CD. While this approach
eliminates the enforcement issues associated with the box, it introduces
issues of the possibility of huge sequence footprints, increases judging
difficulty and may exacerbate overflight/sound problems with field
neighbors. Given the continued loss of flying fields around the country,
the IMAC BOD instituted the ASC in an effort to constrain pilots from
flying huge sequences. They want to promote tight, controlled flying of
sequences and the ASC is the penalty for flying BIG.
There are no specific objective criteria for
scoring the ASC and this can make it difficult to judge. However, it is
meant to be subjective. If you, as a judge, think the pilot is flying
much bigger than he should for the plane that he has and, in particular,
that he is so far away that you are having difficulty seeing the details
of the maneuver that he is flying, you should ding him on ASC. The
things you should be looking for in scoring the ASC are:
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Is the plane so far away as to be hard to judge |
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Is the pilot in complete control of the plane or is he
visibly having a hard time moving smoothly from maneuver to
maneuver and keeping the plane in close |
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Is he presenting maneuvers in a consistent, controlled
manner that facilitates judging |
If he is too far away, not keeping the plane in
close and having a hard time keeping up with the plane, then you should
penalize him with a low ASC score.
The ASC approach to our sequence footprint problem
is simple and hopefully will work. However, it is a work in progress. As
a judge, some things you might consider relative to the ASC are:
- Don’t blow it off. Try to think about it. Get in
the habit of noting where and how the guy is presenting you with
maneuvers so you can score a representative ASC.
- It currently does get short shrift because the K
factor is very low. I think that was a mistake and I expect the ASC K
factor to increase in the future. So think about ASC because in the
future ignoring it will be more costly.
- What happens if a guy has 20/10 eyesight and
purposely flies the plane so far away that you, the judge, can’t see the
detail of the maneuver he is flying - and so can’t ding it. I haven’t
seen this in the two years that we have had the ASC. Could happen but
should it ever occur, I believe that it would be quickly noticed and
dealt with on an individual basis. Once noticed the CD or Regional
Director would have a talk with the pilot and hopefully fix the problem.
- Score it as you wish within the 10 to zero range
available to you. You may score it to the resolution of one point or
just go 0/5/10 as we do for sound. It is up to you.
So ASC is a symptom that we have a problem
nationwide with fewer and fewer fields available to us that are suitable
for the large planes that we fly. This problem is only going to get
worse and therefore you can expect the IMAC Board to bring increased
emphasis to the issue of reducing the sequence footprint. This will involve the ASC in some form and, almost certainly,
with more severe penalties. Think about it and, as pilots, try to keep
the plane in close and present compact sequences to the judges.
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