Just thinking out loud here.. Maybe IMAC should drop the scale requirement since most of the airplanes out there today look very little like the airplane they're claimed to be. At this point, how does it benefit IMAC to keep the requirement in place?

I like the scale rule because even though they only resemble the real plane it still keeps it interesting enough to have different looking planes. I think it would be boring for everyone to have something that looked like a giant pattern plane and they were all basically the same. And the planes as they are now perform so extremely well. I don't see any reason to change what is going on now. Except it would finally keep everyone from bickering about whether a plane was legal or not. If you kept the planes 100% scale the same guys will be winning with those planes. Change the rules to allow any design acceptable and the same guys again. It's all about the competition and at least the scale looking planes add a little bit of fun to it.

Originally Posted by flyinryans

I like the scale rule because even though they only resemble the real plane it still keeps it interesting enough to have different looking planes.../...

1- The scale rules are not applied at all: has anyone ever seen a judge with a ruler or tape measure at the flight line?
2- The "resemblance" in some cases is just not there, whether in IMAC Precision (generally with kits), or Freestyle (generally with ARFs).

In fact, if the color schemes and stickers were removed from the models, a full scale pilot could not recognize his Extra, Edge, Slick or Giles in many cases.

I personally think it is a shame, because these full scale planes are beautiful, and do not deserve to be "uglified" this way.
At PAU, we do our best to live up to our slogan: "Putting scale back into aerobatics and 3D". It is of course a bit more difficult to design better flying models while keeping scale lines.
Krill Aircraft and CARF also make an effort to keep the scale lines on their models. Not too many others do.

But the existing scale rules should either be applied (they are not!), or removed.

Where did the 10% rule come into play. There must have been some long discussion about incorporating that rule into scale aerobatics.

It came about from the very beginning of IMAC.. The TOC was brutal about enforcement of it.. Pilots had to provide documentation proving their airplane met the rules. The TOC disqualified multi-time winner Hanno Prettner, arguably one of the greatest ever, because his "Skybolt" bipe looked so little like the actual airplane, that the designer of the full-scale Skybolt had no idea what Hanno's model was supposed to be.

Maybe instead of changing IMAC, come up with your own contest and set of rules. If people come and participate then you have a new class. If they don't then IMAC wasn't torn apart.

I like the idea of IMAC and competing with scale planes. If you take away the scale requirement don't you just have big pattern planes?

Originally Posted by daddysam

I like the idea of IMAC and competing with scale planes. If you take away the scale requirement don't you just have big pattern planes?

The point is this: why keep a rule that is applied zero % of the time?

The rule was repealed several cycles ago when it was shown that applying it meant sending most contestants home. It was later brought back because some fears that iMac would be overrun with the types of airplanes doug described. And of course that never happened.

I'm not trying to tear apart anything. All I'm asking is, what is the point of a rule that is never enforced, when airplanes look very little if at all like their supposed full-scale counterpart.

Here's just one example.. This is supposedly an Extra 330SC. Except the 330SC is a low-wing airplane. The outline of the fuselage is actually fairly decent, but the wing location is nowhere near within 10% of scale no matter what measurement is used.

This is a Yak-54. There isn't a single Yak-54 except maybe the ExtremeFlight that even remotely looks like this airplane. Most of them are nothing but round cowl Extra 300Ls with some rounding of the fuse.

Originally Posted by daddysam

I like the idea of IMAC and competing with scale planes. If you take away the scale requirement don't you just have big pattern planes?

As loosely applied, or not at all applied that the scale rule is, most of the airplanes have turned into this now anyway.

Not for nothing.. but Chip actually wanted to do a TAS type event but open the airplanes up to anything under 55 pounds, with sequences designed to take our kind of power available into account.. Not sure why it never happened though. I thought it would be interesting.

I actually think it would be cool if they went the other way and eliminated the 10% nonsense and required actual scale plane. The original Carden Edge looked great!!