July 10th, 2010

Propbuster IMAC Event

For the past few years, the only flying we could do at our neighboring pond would be mud flying and we’d have to fight the weeds for even that little bit of water. Our long, cold, wet winter has changed all that in a big way. If we get any more water we will have to start measuring our floats in cubits.

Our inaugural IMAC sanctioned event took place on Saturday, July 10th. By all accounts our very first try at this was a great success -- especially for 1st place, Zac Roller, 2nd Place, Gene Jobgen and 3rd Place, Clancy Kingsbury. By our research, this is the first sanctioned IMAC competition anywhere in our area and by the consensus of those attending, it will not be the last.

Our event began about 8:30 Saturday morning with pilot registrations and a short pilot’s meeting. We had nine registered competitors. Most had pre-registered on the IMAC web site. After drawing #1 in the pilot lottery for flying postions, Clancy Kingbury opened the first round of flying about 9:00. I nervously, followed Clancy in the number two position with my grandson Zac Culberson as my caller. My first IMAC judged flight will not be a memorable one -- including doing the wrong shark’s tooth in both sequence 1 and sequence 2. Bob Olson, Rod Renz, Clint Outka, Zac Roller, Gene Jobjen, Doc McGuigan and Wade Outka followed me in doing their round 1 sequences.

When not flying, the pilots took turns in the judges chairs. Each pilot received three judges scores in each of the two sequences he flew in round one. Since this was the first event for all of us, we all chose the IMAC Basic sequence.

About 10:30 we started Round 2. The first round was perfect flying with only a whisper of wind (yes, I know that’s hard to believe here in the Outback). By the time second round started, we had a good 5-10 mph wind blowing the planes in at us. As new competitors, many of us (I’m speaking for myself here) had trouble keeping a straight line through their manuevers.

Round 2 ended about noon. We had a short pilot meeting at that time and discussed the disposition of round 3. Our concern was twofold, first the winds had picked up considerably and second, a black rain cloud and a few lightning strikes appeared over our shoulder coming our way. With the first few rain drops, it was decided to forgo the 3rd round and call an end to our the event using just the two rounds of scores.

At that point the scores were tallied in the IMAC Score program and the trophies awarded. I also took this opportunity to pass the Propbuster Traveling Trophy to Gene Jobgen, one of the prime movers in getting the IMAC ‘movement’ off the ground in our area. All in good fun, Clint Outka was ignomiously passed the Farkle award for ‘dropping his pants’ at the IMAC. He lost said equipment from his airplane --- not his person --- during one of his sequences.

The event turned out to be more of a learning experience than anything else. The biggest lesson we learned is ‘We can do this’. We can fly the sequences, we can put on the event and we can certainly have a great time doing it. At the noon pilot meeting, it was resolved to have another IMAC competition before the year was out and to schedule this event again for next year.

Many thanks to all the Propbusters for making the event a success -- both as competitors and as workers. Thanks also to all of you who came to compete and to watch. Hopefully you went home with the bug to compete in the next one. Special thanks go to Zac Roller and Gene Jobgen for doing most of the organizational work. Special thanks go to Ken Corrin for taking all the great photos, John Kellogg for helping with the scoring, and to Gerry Thompson for the donation of the fantastic trophies. Also a very special thanks to Robert Ritchey of Quest Engineering for his generous donation of SmartFly products. Clancy Kingsbury, Zac Roller and Bob Olson, the lucky winners of these goodies, were very appreciative of those gifts.

A big thanks to all of you comes from the Wild Fastpitch ASA Girls Softball teams. Your donations at the food stand will help the Wild pay for uniforms and travel.

For more information, the official results and all the pictures, you can go to the IMAC website or to the Propbusters website.