IMAC Northern Ireland

IMAC NI 2010 has come and gone and what a weekend we had, a massive success and everyone enjoyed themselves, a big thanks to all the pilots, their helpers, judges, all the people who helped me with the organisation and setting up over the weekend and all the event sponsors for their kindness and support. 

Introduction  

The IMAC NI competition was the 2^nd Round of 10 in the International Miniature Aerobatic Club UK’s Season. IMAC is a discipline of RC formed in the States were pilots fly Scale Aerobatic Models and replicate the manoeuvres that Full size aerobatic pilots perform. We fly aircraft similar to the Red Bull Air race series, using Yaks, Extra’s and Edge’s typically. IMAC is similar to F3A aerobatics in that we fly a schedule routine, but IMAC is judged under different rules which are more inline with Full size judging. In any given IMAC competition, competitors will fly a known sequence which is issued at the beginning of the season and flown for one year, an unknown sequence which is issued on the morning of the competition, in sequences you are judged on each manoeuvre with a score given from 0-10 for each and then that figure is multiplied by a K factor depending on the complexity of the manoeuvre. The final optional element in IMAC competitions is Freestyle, this is a 4 minute flight to music of your own choice, being judged on various things, such as technical merit, timing to music and creativity.  

History  

IMAC NI is a relatively new competition in the IMAC UK calendar, 2010 was it’s second year and followed on from a hugely successful 2009 event, which as the biggest IMAC UK ever up to that date. The 2010 competition was flown at the same venue as the 2009 event, this being a private Equestrian Centre in the South East of Northern Ireland near the popular Tyrella Beach, we had exclusive use of their 65 acre polo pitch, as well as a private beach and prime views of the seaside town of Newcastle and the Mountains of Mourne. The site is also home to Tyrella Model Aircraft Club (T-MAC) who very kindly hand over their facility to us for the competition. 

 Preparation 

 Preparation for the 2010 contest started towards the end of last year, the site was secured and sponsor’s sought. By February of this year, we had many major sponsor’s pledging their support and the organisation was taking shape. The logistics of the competition were also coming together well, I had help from many friends who took on board the catering, water supply on site, toilets and various other items, this help was of huge benefit and was more than one less thing for me to worry about. In the month before the competition I received the sponsor’s prizes in the post, boxes arrived daily and I was pleasantly surprised by the generosity of the sponsors in such a harsh financial time. 

 The Day’s before and Practise Day 

 The few days before the competition were busy for the organising team, again with the help of a group of friends/club mates, we erected a large tent which served as the catering tent, we placed fencing around the site, marked the pits out, erected sponsorship banners and put in place the toilets, water source, hot plates, BBQ and Water Boiler, all of which give some comfort to the travelling pilots. As is the norm for most IMAC competitors camping on site is the preferred accommodation method, the flying site had more than enough room to house large number of caravans and tents. 

 Friday was the official practise day, it was a quiet day with most pilots arriving at various stages, there was a stiff wind, coming from the sea, making it crosswind, the pilots handled it fine, was good practise for the competition that weekend. Dave Lucas had an issue with his Extra 300, meaning he had to use his Freestyle Model for the competition, a Hangar 9 Sukhoi SU 26. To make things worse Tyrella’s resistant dog Lizzy the Lurcher has free reign over the whole equestrian site and has become very used to the planes, knowing to avoid them and the runway. One thing Lizzy does have a weakness for is food, a certain Lurcher climbed into Dave’s open van and scoffed his tea cakes that afternoon, lesson learnt close the van doors. 

 Friday Night Basic Comp 

 To ease the pressure on Saturday I decided to run a double round of Basic Level on Friday night. We assembled the 3 basic pilots Adam Poots, Phelim Lundy and Stephen McMaster for a quick pilot’s brief, this went well and was a quick affair, unfortunately for one pilot not quick enough, Stephen set his Chinese down and came to the pilot’s brief, two or three minutes later returned to find it gone, Lizzy was spotted leaving the scene with curry sauce dripping from her mouth, lesson learnt don’t leave your Chinese alone!! At 7pm we got flying, the conditions were challenging for the Basic pilots a 15mph wind up and down the strip at least it wasn’t crosswind. We rattled through the 3 pilot’s quickly it took just under 20minutes for the flights. It was a great start to the competition. After the flying was complete a few of the other competitors had a few practise flights, we finished with the bigger planes around 8.30pm and a few people braved the wind with their EPP models before settling down for the evening with a few beers. 

 The Saturday & Sunday Competition 

 The competition continued on Saturday morning after a beautiful breakfast prepared by Harry Reid and Phelim Lundy, there wasn’t an empty stomach on the field. Unfortunately the weather on Saturday morning was traditional Northern Ireland weather, wet and windy. The rain was really heavy, still flyable, in the interests of getting the competition flown I decided to go for it, we started with Sportsman and a double known, all pilots handled this well, Shaun had a mishap with his Canopy/Hatch flying off, young Lee also had a wheel come off, luckily both planes got down in one piece and Lee’s one wheel landing was nothing short of superb. The intermediate class was next again with a double known, this passed off with no drama the three pilots coping with the difficult conditions well. With the cloud base being low in places, we decided to re-gig things a little and got more of the Basic/Sportsman/Intermediate flights completed hoping the cloud would lift to give the larger models in the unlimited class the best chance of not disappearing, a big thank you to the pilots in the lower classes for reacting quickly with the change in running order. With the conditions fairing very slightly we steamed into the large unlimited class, a few planes disappeared at the top of the larger manoeuvres, but I think worked out ok in the end, most pilots got through ok, a few had to call cloud break and re-fly that manoeuvre, we allowed the judges/pilots to use common sense, pilots weren’t downgraded for lowering their baseline to fit a manoeuvre in and the pilots flew their schedules wisely to avoid the cloud base. Due to the weather conditions we weren’t able to run a freestyle on Saturday, I was glad just to get everyone 4 rounds in (3 known and 1 unknown), this is something that few IMAC comps achieve recently due to the numbers, but with 22 pilots getting four flights each with a single flight line is something I’m proud of, keeping it moving is the key! Amongst all the flying we had a good lunch, prepared by my mum with help with Liam Nolan, the soup and stew went down well. 

 On Saturday night my good fiend Phelim had organised a band, this was greatly received with everyone enjoying the entertainment at an IMAC comp, the band was very good and a local member Ivan joined them for a song or two, Ivan was belting the numbers out and everyone got into the spirit of the night thanks to Dennis and his special local drink, say no more! Thanks to Phelim for his efforts here, I think he enjoyed his turn on the drums and we even had a visit from the law, well it wasn’t but if you were there you’ll know how funny it was, I’ll leave the story to the memory of those there that night, that way little bits will get added on here and there to add to it, thanks to Robert and Gordon for coming up with the idea, it was a cracker! 

 Sunday was a much better day, a little windier than Saturday, but no low cloud and no rain! Infact we all got a tan! Due to the site being so big we turned then flight line slightly to reduce the crosswind effect, again the flying standard was very good, with only one mishap to report, Shaun unfortunately had an engine cut and he had to make a low turn downwind, the aeroplane stalled and he hit hard ending Shaun’s IMAC NI experience. With the need to fit a double round of freestyle in, we decided to run a single known and a single unknown on Sunday, ending the day with a double freestyle round, the decision was also compounded by the fact that a good crowd had turned out on Sunday to spectate and the freestyle is the crowd pleaser. The freestyles’ were very good and everyone enjoyed them as you can hear in the videos. 

 Sponsor’s and Raffle 

 This comp wouldn’t have been anywhere near as successful without the help of all the sponsors, they were: 

 -Horizon Hobby UK 

-Desert Aircraft 

-Emcotec 

-Carden Aircraft 

-Higher Plane Productions 

-Powerbox Systems 

-Jersey Modeler 

-Truturn 

-Engel Modelbau 

-MTW Exhausts 

-Model Fixings 

-Axi Electric Wingman 

-Global RC 

-Mid Ulster Models 

-Expressfly 

-Dave’s RC Models 

-Icarus Models 

-Motors and Rotors 

-Handley Heating Services 

 In total we had over £5000 worth of prizes and I’d like to thank each sponsor for their kindness in this difficult climate, it really is appreciated. The scots had a great weekend in the raffles, Malcolm won the DA100 in the pilots raffle and Chris won the DA85 in the main Sunday raffle, in fact Chris actually picked out both those tickets!! Dennis and Jeanette need special thanks for taking charge of the public raffles on Saturday and Sunday, thank you.

Thanks

I have a few people to thank, the pilots and helpers firstly, thanks for the commitment to travelling over, the judges and helpers for thier tireless efforts (Dennis, Paul, David and Phil thanks men!), Win and Penny for the scorekeeping a thankless task, Kyle and Charlie for running and helping out with anything that needed done. My local friends, Phelim, Harry, Alistair, Iain, Kees, Ivan, Brendan, Liam and all the Tyrella Club, you all know what you did and it is hugely appreciated by my dad and I. Also I’d like to thank the land owner David and lastly my Dad for all his efforts behind the scenes and during the weekend. If I’ve forgotten anyone I’m sorry I haven’t done it on purpose.

Results & Pics

Results Click Here 

IMAC NI 2010 Group

Just some of the planes in the pits

Basic Top Three

Basic Top Three: 

1) Adam Poots 

2) Stephen McMaster 

3) Phelim Lundy 

Sportsman Top Three

Sportsman Top Three: 

1) Robert Graham 

2) David McClean 

3) Harry Reid 

Intermediate Top Three

Intermediate Top Three: 

1) Sean Scullion 

2) David Drummond 

3) Andy Wood 

Unlimited Top Three

Unlimited Top Three: 

1) Matthew Poots 

2) Angus Balfour 

3) Chris Currie 

Freestyle Top Three

Freestyle Top Three: 

1) Matthew Poots 

2) Chris Currie 

3) Simon McNeill 

IMAC NI 2010 Overall Top Three

Overall Top Three: 

1) Matthew Poots 

2) Angus Balfour 

3) Chris Currie 

Freestyle Video’s (with thanks to Andy for doing the filming)  

Matthew Poots 

Chris Currie 

Simon McNeill 

Chris Bull 

Tony Robinson