What is the IMAC World Championship?

In July 2012, the IMAC Board of directors announced the first IMAC World Championship, to be held September 2-6 2014 in Muncie, Indiana (full IMAC announcement). Pilots will compete for individual titles as well as a team trophy, to be won by one country (details to be announced). 

How are competitors chosen?

IMAC invited each country to send a delegation. The details of the selection process were left up to each country’s scale aerobatics overseeing body (in Canada’s case, the MAAC scale aerobatics committee). IMAC, however, set in place a few guidelines:

• Each country can send up to 36 pilots (9 in each of the following classes: Sportsman, Intermediate, Advanced and Unlimited).
• Partial teams (less than 36 pilots) will be accepted.
• All pilots need to be eligible to compete in the IMAC category that they enter (i.e. we need to take into account the possibility that people may be forced to move up due to several wins the year before
• All pilots need to be IMAC members. There will be a provision in the registration fee structure that will ensure that all memberships are paid up.
• To be on a particular country’s team, you must fulfill at least one of the following conditions: (1) Be a citizen of that country and/or (2) Reside in that country. If you have any questions about specific circumstances, please contact us.

In addition, in Canada we must follow a few MAAC guidelines:

• The Scale Aerobatic committee is given the responsibility for putting forward the names of the team.
• The names must be submitted at least 8 months in advance of any World event for an official discipline of MAAC. Therefore, the selection must be done by winter 2013. 

In November 2012, the USA published the first details of the USA selection process followed by Canada (see below).  

Team Canada selection process

Since there is a possibility that we won't have more than 9 pilots in each class vying for the available spots, the first step of the Team selection process is to compile a list of candidates. In any given category, if no more than 9 pilots sign up, it will be possible for all of them to join Team Canada. On the other hand, if more than 9 pilots sign up for a specific class, a further selection process will be announced for that class, to whittle down the participants to 9. The two priorities for the selection process, if we need to implement one, would be: it should recognize pilot competency (as it's a competition!) and it should recognize the fact that Canada is a big country and we have a couple of separate 'pools' of competitors that don't necessarily compete against each other, and may not be able to meet in a central location for a fly-off. With this in mind, a Team Canada sign up sheet ("Intent to participate") is now available. The deadline to sign up is February 21^st, 2013. The sign-up sheet includes questions related to geographical location and ability to travel. Once this information is gathered, the second step to the selection process, if needed, will be designed and announced. The Scale Aerobatics committee will make every effort to design and implement a selection process that is fair to all interested pilots. 

Important links

• Sign up here, as a pilot of volunteer (Team Canada intent to participate)
• View who has filled out the sign up sheet to date 

FAQ’s 

What happens if we don’t have a full roster of 36 pilots?

Since the team trophy details are not published yet, it is now entirely clear what the impact would be if we don't have a full roster of 36 pilots. However, enough information has come out to safely say that even if Canada doesn’t have 36 pilots, we'd still be in the running for the "Team trophy" and individual awards). So A full team is a good goal to set but if we don't get a full team, it's fine too.

How will Team Canada prepare for the World championship?

The possibility of seminars / get togethers  to start preparing for the World Championship has been discussed and more details will be posted here as they become available. These seminars could be part of the regular judging/flying seminars or separate, it has not been decided yet. If you are interested in helping out with something like this in your area, please let us know. 

How will information be distributed?

The information for the sign up sheet and the coordinates of this page will be distributed by as many means as possible (including: RcCanada, IMAC webpage, ScaleAerobaticsCanada.com (webpage and user list), SA committee members, MAAC magazine, etc). Once the sign up process is completed, the main communications channels will be this page and an email list compiled from the sign-up sheet. You can request to be added to that list at any time. Major announcements will also be published by as many means as possible but the surest way to be kept abreast is to keep checking this page, to fill out the sign up sheet, or to request to be added to the mailing list. 

It's very difficult for pilots to know what class they may be in (and if they feel competitive in that class) when it's 2 years away, how can we address that?

That is true and we have to keep in mind two things: we need to submit a team list after next year's competition season and we need to take into account the 'move-up rule'. When you submit your intent to participate, try to figure out which class you'll be in, as best you can. That will give us a general idea of what we are looking at, and then we can revise it by the end of next year. 

What fundraising efforts will be undertaken?

Funding will be requested from governing bodies and possible corporate sponsors. If you know of any other source of funding, please let us know. However, for a large team (36 people!)we can start by operating under the assumption that we will have to mostly fund ourselves, and then if we find some sources of support we can decide how to best handle it (for example if we get a small sum of money, it may not makes sense to divide it up by 36 but we could think about paying for a couple trailers from various regions (this is just an example).  

If you have a question to add to this FAQ, need additional information, or for any comments, suggestions, etc, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  , chair of the MAAC Scale Aerobatics Committee. Check back often for updates!

Draft schedule 

May 11, Judging seminar, Orleans library near Ottawa REGISTRATION 

June 1-2, Chatham, Ontario

June 8-9 Club Mars, Quebec (tentative)

June 8-9 2nd Annual Medicine Hat IMAC Competition, Medicine Hat, Alberta 

June 29-30, Québec, Québec (Club Aéromodéliste)

July 6-7 Stoney Creek, Ontario

August 3-4 Sudbury, Ontario

August 3-4 Calgary Aerobatic Stampede, CRAMS Field, Calgary, Alberta 

August 10-11 Amidair, Quebec

August 23,24,25 Canadian Scale Aerobatics Nationals, Stetson Flyers, Ottawa, Ontario

September 7-8, Alberta IMAC Finals, SCRCMC Field, Calgary, Alberta 

September, date TBD: Quebec Finals, St-Liguori, QC

2014 World Championship announced by IMAC

• Official "Team Canada" information, kept up to date as per  the MAAC Scale Aerobatics committee
• Fill out the "intent to participate form" (please fill out by February 21st, 2013 if you wish to be considered as a Team Canada pilot, or as a volunteer) 
• View who has already filled out the form 

2013 National Championship will be hosted by the Stetson Flyers, just east of Ottawa

(dates: 23-25 august pending ratification by MAAC)  

2012 Great Hobbies intro challenge winner announced!

Benn Lann, a Sportsman class pilot from Nova Scotia won a choice of a 1000$ gift card or 100cc plane, donated by Great Hobbies! Congratulations Benn! The draw was witnessed by members of the MAAC Scale Aerobatics committee, organizers of the intro challenges, and Team Great Hobbies. We had 146 entries in total (pilots who participated in Basic, Sportsman or a Great Hobbies intro challenge. Download the challenge kit here  

2013 Sequences:

Basic , Sportsman , Intermediate , Advanced , Unlimited  

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2012 results

At the Ottawa IMAC contest in May, we met a great father & son team, Allen and Kevin Denton. We learned that at 77 years old, this was Allen Denton’s first IMAC contest, and we interviewed his son Kevin, also a first-time competitor in the Basic class, to find out more about their family’s history in RC. Here is what Kevin had to say about his dad Allen.

There are different ways to assign the throttle, rudder, aileron and elevator controls to the transmitter sticks – which one is most suitable for precision and scale aerobatics pilots? In the following article, Ivan Kristensen shares his insight on the subject.

"I have been told that 4 out of the top 5 at the recent Pattern (F3A) World Championship in Argentina used Mode I stick configuration on their transmitters. This gives me reason to promote my Mode III stick set-up which I have been using for many years. Futaba makes this Mode available in most of their transmitters but they call it "Mode IIII".