To begin, if the AMA advertised that you get a buck or so off if you show a current AMA card - I missed it, so bring your card. IMS seems to be gone as a designation, its now the AMA show, whoopee. I couldn't find an exhibitor listing, evidently they passed them out the first day, people saw them, but nobody could lay their hands on one so I don't have a booth count. Off the top of my head, the exhibitors are divided about 40% hobby suppliers - batteries, glue, radios, balsa, composite stuff, etc. The remainder is about 30%-30% power and sailplane. The USA F3B team was there, go say hello to Joe and Daryl and buy a tee shirt. I didn't see anything that stopped me in my tracks, but the Pasadena Convention Center was pretty full and I have a limited tolerance for crowds. I did get to play with the Multiplex flight simulator flying a pattern plane. I've never flown a real pattern plane and it was fun. Crashed several times, once in a tree and the other as I was doing some wonderful manuver that just happened to be straight down! I told the kid I handed the transmitter to: "that was the ground." I thought he'd find that helpful. One of the vendors showed videos of the large power acrobatic models that I'd only seen in magazines and never saw fly in the flesh. The flight attitude hanging on the prop to touch the rudder on the ground was impressive. One hiccup from the engine and your no doubt expensive model is dead. The show is worth going to if you're in the area, but maybe after attending for the last several years I've got all the goodies I need and I'm getting jaded. Richard Shilling RCSE-List facilities provided by Model Airplane News. Send "subscribe" and "unsubscribe" requests to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
