At my last IMAC competition I tried to present my maneuvers somewhat close, tried to be precise, and tried to increase the visibility of my plane. The judges told me to fly further away, because it can slow down the routine. People were flying the back side of the roller at the limits of vision, and this is with 35% - 40% planes! Some of these planes could fly away from the transmitter, and still be within vision limits. So much for positioning and "presentation". It is exceedingly difficult to recognize the difference between a vertical line and 15 degrees off...The deviation point deductions are mere speculation. Forget about trying to determine the number of wingspan deviations during a hammerhead.
<br><br>Most people, myself included, want to learn all the fun freestyle tricks with the big planes. Most spectators don't care about how well an IMAC plane can slow roll, or maintain track during unweighted snaps, or perform precision aerobatics, they want to see it blast out of a hover, Panic, Blender, Rolling Harrier, Roller Coaster, Waterfall, and in general act like a foamie.
<br><br>It has become the Olympic Snowboard Half Pipe event of the model airplane world, including the requisite adjectives, "Extreme", "Alternative" (if 'alternative' is in the mainstream, can it still be considered 'alternative'?), "Radical", "Hucking", etc.
<br><br>There, I feel better now. Back to precision. Of course, I do enjoy the turnaround setup...<br><br>Brett<br><br><br><div><span class="gmail_quote">On 3/2/06, <b class="gmail_sendername">Ed Alt</b> <<a href="mailto:ed_alt@hotmail.com">
ed_alt@hotmail.com</a>> wrote:</span><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"><div style="direction: ltr;">
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">For all practical purposes, Scale Aerobatics has no
box anymore. It exists as an abstract concept on a piece of paper in that
it has a defined height, width and depth, but since they eliminated the 75
degree markers, there is nothing left to measure it against. Additionally,
they eliminated the concept of zones, so you are free to place things where it
seems good to place them, i.e., a figure that would appear to be meant for the
center of the box doesn't have to be flown directly in front of you. Your
choice of placement has some kind of connection to the so-called Presentation
Score as it was originally 'defined'. There are no deductions for
centering inaccuracy. Once you enter the box, you still need to get
figures in the correct order and direction, though cross box figures leave
direction (in or out) to the discretion of the pilot. Currently, there may
or may not be enforcement of a pure impressionist extra figure known as the
Presentation Score. It passed as a rule, then everyone was instructed by
the IMAC BOD not to follow the AMA rule they pushed through. I heard
rumblings that maybe they are going to allow or encourage CDs to follow that
rule again. Not sure, I don't really track what they do very closely
anymore.</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2">Ed</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial" size="2"></font> </div>
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