IMAC

Well sh$t, what are ya’ll doin’?

Well, as you may see I have been watching a lot of YouTube videos lately! Some from that funny little comedian from “The Cool Kids”. But also, I have been watching all sorts of RC and CL based videos. What a fun little time killer…. I just want to go outside….

So, now fast forward to last weekend (June 6th and 7th), we had the first South Central IMAC Contest of the year in Broken Arrow, OK. What a great experience. Just being outside in the 95F heat and being fried by the sun for 3 days straight (Friday – Sunday). Man, what a great thing! I have definitely missed it!

We are now slowly moving back to a more normal schedule. Hopefully more people are going back to work and moving about a little more, giving them the freedom of enjoying their hobbies again.

So, now that we are starting to have some contests again, we have to get our head back into the game. I found this past weekend that to keep my focus during the sequences was exhausting! I am way out of mental shape. We do not have to just be practiced on the figures in the sequence, but we have to be practiced at concentrating and keeping our focus in a stressful environment. That is not an easy muscle to flex! I can tell you from experience it involves the shakes, eye focusing (plane orientation issues), memory lapses on the next figure and other annoying symptoms.

Is a contest the only way to flex that muscle? No, there are other ways you can simulate the contest situation. I’ve had some suggestions that having a bee land on me or stepping into an ant pile while flying and still focusing on the airplane is a good exercise…. but I think I will pass on those! I like to have a flying partner call and critique while I am flying the sequence if someone is available. But usually there is someone at the field, but they are not hip to what we are trying to achieve. So, I will ask them to hold my call sheet and listen to me. I will call out the maneuver as I fly them and make commentary on mistakes that I notice.

This does a couple of things. One it shows another pilot some insight on our flying. (I say our flying as “Aerobatics” being IMAC or Pattern). It also gives my mind some exercise in multi-tasking. Remember the pattern, say the pattern, explain the maneuver and recognize and voice mistakes. I have always one that flies better when I think the words of the pattern in my head when flying. For one, if your caller makes a mistake, you are more apt to catch it. But also, it helps you prepare for the next maneuver. This is harder for me with Unknowns. I memorized via stick plane and not verbiage. So, I depend more on my caller in that situation and my head has me running a conversation on rudder corrections and positioning during the Unknown Sequence.

Obviously, nothing is quite like flying in front of the judges and striving (read: struggling) to fly that perfect sequence. Wondering if that judge noticed all the little things that you did during the flight. But it doesn’t have to just like that situation, we just need to flex our mental muscles to deal with some stress and multi-taking. Make ourselves think of just more that what the next maneuver is.

Ok, enough about that and YouTube videos. I had a great time at the IMAC contest and look forward to the next contest (it will be a Pattern Contest in Sulphur, LA). I miss my flying buddies around the South and all over the world. Contests bring us together and allow us to enjoy a little fellowship that is largely missing in society right now. It’s sad, but I am eternally grateful for my flying friends and the special time I get to spend with them. You all mean the world to me and I can’t wait to see you at the field!

Rich Whitlow IMAC SC Regional Director.