| |
The Competitive Spirit
| History
The NOIC as it is now know, was first run in 2004 as a joint venture between the Sault Ste Marie Flying Club and the Cambrian RC Flyers. Contest directors for this annual event are Craig Knight from the Sault, and Lee Prevost from the Cambrian club.
This was the first model aerobatic competition using IMAC rules ever run in Northern Ontario, and it is now one of the "must attend" events on the IMAC circuit for not only Ontario, but the North Central IMAC zone as well.
|
 |
What is IMAC?
A little bit about IMAC and what it stands for. In the world of model aerobatics, there are several areas of interest. There is pure, or FAI style which has certain aircraft criteria, engine size, etc and there is giant scale aerobatics as well as some others. In giant scale there is a governing body called the International Miniature Aerobatics Club or IMAC. Based in the United States, this group breaks up North America into several zones, of which Ontario resides in the North Central Region, Quebec in the North East region etc. |
The Classes
There are five classes in IMAC. These are; Basic, Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced, and Unlimited. Basic class can fly any type of plane of any size as it is the entry level for people wanting to try competitive aerobatics. In the upper classes, planes must be modeled after real aerobatic planes or prototypes and there are certain criteria for scale deviation (for better flyability as a model). There are literally dozens of planes that are suitable, but the majority are monoplanes of the Extra or Edge variety and tend to be large scale (30-40%) gas powered machines with the planes becoming larger and more complex as people move up in class (although there are Basic pilots who fly 150cc 40% planes—which seems overkill to us!). |
|
 |
The Aerobatic Routines
The IMAC establishes a set of known aerobatic routines every year for all of the different classes, so that every pilot in IMAC flies the same aerobatic routine regardless of where in the world he/she flies. The routines of course get more complicated as you move up in class, and so at a contest everyone is judged as to how well they fly the known routine.
The fun part is once you start moving up from basic, there are unknown routines given to pilots that are different from contest to contest. So (usually on the night before the second day) pilots in say, sportsman are given their unknows to look over and try to learn (practice flights either with the plane or on a simulator is forbidden) and they have a single shot at flying the sequence the following day! |
The Scoring
By the end of the contest each pilot usually will have flown the knows 3-4 times (the known routine is flown twice in a row per round) and the one unknown flight. There are complexity factors (K-factor) which are assigned to each manoever and the total flight therefore has a certain K-Factor score. As one moves up in classes, of course there are more K-factors, but don’t worry…all of this is behind the scenes and the pilots never has to worry about figuring this out. Basically you wind up somewhere in the rank of your class, and if you practice hard…you might be at the top! |
|
Why fly IMAC?
Good question! Why in the world subject yourself to such stress? Well if you are getting bored just going to the field and flying aimlessly with the occasional thrill of a stall turn or holding the plane inverted for five seconds and want to better yourself, IMAC is for you!
If you want to know what all those Aresti symbols (the symbolic diagram of the model and full scale aerobatics) mean, IMAC is for you.
If you see someone who can do a loop, followed by a roll, then a hammerhead into a 2 of 4 point to inverted, and wish you could do that…yep….IMAC!
|
| Most side line pilots who see their 1 st contest will often remark that they can do that too. Its one of the main reasons that Craig and I started the NOIC, to get those people who are on the fence wanting to give IMAC a try (or any type of model competition for that matter) a contest that is low key, fun and educational. |
 |
The People
What makes this type of competition so successful in the opinion of many is that the pilots in IMAC seem so unassuming and willing to help each other, from rank beginners up to unlimited pilots who have been flying for years.
|
|
|
At our NOIC we strive to make the Basic pilots feel that we are there to help them get over their fears of competition, and we want those people to be successful. Its not easy flying a routine in front of judges, your peers and spectators. The proper training, equipment and practice however, can help alleviate these fears. So attending judging seminars (that we have held in Sudbury twice now), and going to a competition to see how things are done is a great step towards being an IMAC competitor and joining the wonderful world of model aerobatics! |
|
