IMAC in Puerto Rico

[WOODisGOOD]

IMAC Explosion in Puerto Rico


In 2003, Wilson Chaparro had a vision of starting an IMAC circuit in Puerto Rico. At that time, IMAC was non-existent in the island, only 1 or 2 AMA 401-402 Aerobatics contests were flown yearly. Also, it wasn’t very disciplined. You would have people flying Cessnas, P-51s, and even trainers in these contest. It wasn’t going to be an easy task, since most people showed no interest towards a new discipline, especially because it meant they had to buy Giant Scale planes.

That same year, Wilson Chaparro established the Wild Ravens Aerobatic Team, which he still leads and manages today. Pilots like Jay Barcelo, Victor Aponte “Vic3D”, just to name a few, were selected for the team’s official roster. The main vision of our team was to: “Expose our unique skills in order to show how the implementation of hard hours of dedication and work creates a discipline that can be recognized in every human competence.”

During the end of 2003, and all of 2004, Wilson and his team held various IMAC clinics and demos to familiarize people with this discipline. The team was also dedicated to helping people acquire and assemble their new IMAC airplanes, which they were not familiar with, having flown glow models since the beginning.

Wilson and his team flew to a couple of national and international contests, like the 2004 JR Challenge, and 2004 and 2005 Tucson Aerobatic Shootout, where they learned how professionals flew and basically how IMAC worked.


In February of 2005, Wilson held the biggest scale aerobatics air show Puerto Rico had ever seen: The Wild Ravens Extreme Airshow. This event brought professional pilots from the US, like Mike McConville, Mark Leseberg, Yuri Higuchi, Jason Shulman, Jason Noll, Ivan Gutierrez, and Bill Ritchey. The air show had a big impact on Puerto Rico, and started an IMAC boom where a lot of people already had planes by that summer, and wanted to compete.

2006 was a big year for IMAC in Puerto Rico. An AMA IMAC Tour was held to have a contest in a different field every month. We had 9 contests overall, flying the Basic and Sportsman categories. Wilson was selected for the 2006 Tucson Aerobatic Shootout in the Sportsman category, becoming the first Puerto Rican pilot in the TAS pilot roster. This year (2007), the tour consists of the Basic, Sportsman, and Intermediate categories. Last year’s tour and this year’s, would not have been possible without Mr. Richard Prann: AMA Vice-President in Puerto Rico, and IMAC Tour Director.

As you can see, IMAC has grown a lot in the last 3 years, and it is just getting started!

By Wilson Chaparro

I met Wilson for the first time at the 2002 JR Challenge. Wilson is very dedicated to the promotion of IMAC in Puerto Rico as well as sharing the hobby with the future pilots of Puerto Rico.
The Association for children with Down Syndrome recently held a golf tournament to raise money and asked Wilson and fellow Imac pilots to come out and play in the tournament and show the children the model planes that they fly and compete with. The tournament was a huge sucess and the kids had a great time.I hope to make it out to Puerto Rico again this summer and do some flying with all the guys and help out with there IMAC flying.

[Vic3D]

I had the honor of meeting Wilson 3 or 4 years ago. At that time, I was flying aerobatic glow models, like F40's and .40 Extra 300s. I learned about IMAC thanks to him and Jay (RCAerobatics). Since then, I have had the pleasure of being on the WR team and of being part of this great journey throughout the years.

As you can tell from the picture, Wilson is a very humble person, and loves to share with other people; especially children. He's always looking out for newcomers, looking to see how he can help. This is why we call him "Papa Raven" and the backbone of our team.

Besides practicing and competing, Wilson likes participating in different fund-raising activities, and has served as Guest Speaker at different schools, promoting the hobby as an interesting past-time.

If it wasn't for his ongoing efforts, IMAC and the hobby itself would not be what it is today.

Vic

PS: I have attached a picture of a couple of our team members, including Wilson.

From left to right: Jay (RCAerobatics), Wilson (SkinnyPacino), Luis Seda (Luiyo), Myself (Vic3D, and my dad.

[SkinnyPacino]

I want to thank everyone that has been a part of this journey. I also want to thank my teammates, Luiyo,Juan Lopez, Vic3D, Carlitos, Jay,Bobby Taylor, Manolo, and Mark Leseberg for playing key roles in this project. Special thanks to Vic3D, who helped me with writing the article, and is always there when I need something written in english.

Tony, thank you for your friendship, hospitality, and for posting this article. We look forward to having you here in the island very soon.


Wilson Chaparro

[Stainless Skills]

That is an awesome story in every aspect. Probably the most intriguing, to me, of any story on the giants.

[hillmanr2]

My hats off to you. I am glad you are seeing your passion and perseverance pay off. The saying up here is: "If you build it they will come"

Russ Hillman

[RCAerobatics]

Very Happy to read the article, thank you Tony!.

I first meet Wilson in a local Fly-in in 2003 (he was a rookie but very eager learner!), at that time I was flying the H9 CAP and Wilson holding the plane to start the DA-100, he accidentally broke one of the Counter Balances of the CAP with the foot, He was scared, I told him: "Don't worry about the stab, I can fix that, it will fly again very soon".....Since that day, we were like brothers quickly, a couple of weeks later we started working on promoting seriously IMAC in Puerto Rico. It was not easy but right now, all the efforts have pay off. We have now over 20-30 active pilots in IMAC from Basic to Intermediate and in the coming years we will see more active categories.

Thanks to Wilson "Papa Raven" Chaparro (SkinnyPacino) and the rest of the WR Team, Vic, Luiyo, Junito, Mark, Tony to make this a reality.

Attached some photos from 2003, 2004, 2005.
Chapy starting in the hobby, Local IMAC Clinics, JR Challenge 2004, Shootout 2004, Practicing etc...

[mph_4ever]

Wilson is one in a million, and he have done a lot for IMAC on the island. I live 2 1/2 hours from the field this guy flyies and when he invites me I dont think it twice. I had the oportunity of being in the TAS 06' with him and other WR members, great experiece! Just wanna say thanks for all the help you have given to me, and you know that you can count on me for whaever freaking idea you have man! Your friends will be with you always! dont forget!

[madmax]

I love skinny pacino in a very hetrosexual way, and of course all my PR buddies! Nice article and story guys! This is a big, cool hobby, gotta love it.

[Imac Kiwi]

Well done Wilson

I had the pleasure of meeting Wilson and his team at the 2006 Tucson Aerobatic Shootout. He hung out with the Kiwi team and we shared a great time together. Look forward to catching up again next time.

Alan

[Luiyo]

Tnank's Tony for this article. I got to tell you that when I met Wilson I was flying an U Can Do .46. He told me about one and a half year ago that he will gonna help me in my IMAC skills. He helped me to win the IMAC Tour in Basic last year. Today, we are flying as a Team in Sportsman and Intermediate and I'm very proud to be part of our WR Team.

Thank you Wilson and the rest of the Team.

[Dangerous Dan]

Puerto Rico Was a fun place to visit. I was there in 1994(US NAVY).

How the heck did you get your planes to the Shootout being you live on an Island?

What IMAC Region are you considered to be in?

[Hector]

	Quote: Originally Posted by Dangerous Dan
	Puerto Rico Was a fun place to visit. I was there in 1994(US NAVY). How the heck did you get your planes to the Shootout being you live on an Island? What IMAC Region are you considered to be in?

The people that went there (Including me, as a suck up specialist) pay a lot of $$ to have the airplane shipped to Arizona, two weeks in advance.

Like everything here, it get shipped by boat or airplne. And yes we have almost every mayor brand of transport of the states here (Fed-ex, UPS, Bax-Global, Emory-Menlo, etc, etc etc) hehehehe Thats why everuthing here is more expensive!!!