By Toby Silhavy
The 2023 IMAC Nats was a complete success on many fronts. First, this was the largest IMAC Nats we have seen in years. Forty-four pilots competed for the top spots. The IMAC Nats saw competitors come from nearly every US and Canadian region. This hasn’t happened in quite some time. This year, we also introduced Electronic Scoring using Aero-Judge.
Over 1,200 sequences were flown by the pilots. As with any IMAC Nats, we had a few rain delays, but competitors were always up to the challenge and ready to fly when the rain drops quit falling. We started each day at 7 a.m. with a pilots’ meeting, and we started flying at 8 a.m. Most days finished around 5 p.m., depending on the weather. Every pilot was in great spirits and wanted to fly as much as possible.
On Sunday evening, we had our traditional banquet. This year’s Nats was dedicated to Ben Batts, who passed away earlier this year. Ben was a great Unlimited class pilot and Freestyle competitor. Ben was always a positive spirit to the IMAC community and mentored several younger pilots on IMAC and Freestyle competition flying.
During the banquet, we had a delicious pulled barbeque pork dinner, and everyone enjoyed the fellowship of the event. IMAC President Alex Dreilling presented the President’s Award to Dan Carroll from Australia. Dan has been inspirational to the development of IMAC’s new website and the co-development of Aero-Judge. Very well deserved indeed! A special thank-you to the great ladies of IMAC who helped prepare the banquet that we were able to enjoy so much: Nikki Pierce, Katie Harrington, Cheryl Jorgenson, and Jeannette Silhavy.
On Monday, the final rounds of Freestyle, unknowns, and knowns were flown. IMAC had the honor to crown several new champions across the classes. One notable thing happened at the Nats: IMAC crowned the Bennett Cup and the Schroeder Cup to the same individual. The young Mr. Kody Donath was the recipient of both Cups! Congratulations and safe journeys to all competitors.
Below are the final scores:
Sportsman
First: Kody Donath—7,500.0
Second: Johnny Gago—7,268.0
Third: Chuck Priese—7,010.1
Intermediate
First: David Hargrove—7,450.1
Second: Ric Musselman—7,302.4
Third: Kris Akers—7,183.5
Advanced
First: Jim Mccall—7,500.0
Second: Michael Marcellin—6,953.9
Third: Daniel Reichert—6,508.9
Unlimited
First: David Moser—7,484.8
Second: Santiago Perez Sequeira—7,432.3
Third: Kurt Koelling—7,391.0
Freestyle
First: Santiago Perez Sequeira—4,000.0
Second: Kevin Garland—3,529.4
Third: Thomas Burroughs—3,341.1
For a complete list of 2023 IMAC scores, visit https://mini-iac.org/eventresults?view=results&id=2011.