A Brief History of IMAA District XII
IMAA was officially founded at the Toledo Show in 1979 and some notable Canadians were in at the start as Founding Sponsors. These Included Ron Shettler, from Vernon BC, and Dick Phillips from St. Albans, Alberta. Ron was the developer of the Quadra engine which perhaps was the major influence in getting our large models in the air. Dick Phillips was then the columnist for RCM Magazine’s “Big is Beautiful” column. Those articles got a lot of us started in the right direction and, were a major influence for promoting early Giant Scale. Dick also served IMAA as Vice President from 1984 through 1981 and was President from 1987-1988.
In the early days, from 1979 to 1982 Canadian members were represented on the IMAA Board by Canadian Representatives Dick Phillips (West) and Bob Cooper (East),
The first sanctioned IMAA event in Canada was April 17-20, 1981 at Vernon BC.
In the east there were early events at La Chennaie, Quebec hosted by Carl Larsen from 1980 – 1987.
For the period from 1982 to 1995 Canada was represented on the IMAA board under one of the directors who looked after ‘Foreign Chapters and Members”.
In 1995 Brian Wattie, then MAAC Giant Scale Chairman petitioned IMAA members across Canada for how they wanted to be represented and in January 1996 the IMAA Board incorporated Canada as District XII and appointed Brian as Director for the rest of the term. Since that Time Brian has been re-elected each term and continues to serve as Director District XII.
District XII Chapter History
| From | To | # | Name | Founder | Location |
| 1981 | 1990 | 26 | Great Northern Flyers | Bob Cooper | Georgetown ON |
| 1981 | 1996 | 69 | Scale Rally Club | Carl Larsen | Montreal PQ |
| 1983 | 1998 | 122 | Manitoba Mammoth Modelers | Dennis Sydak | Winnipeg |
| 1983 | 1990 | 154 | Grindrod Bush Pilots | Gord Volken | |
| 1983 | 1990 | 156 | Winnipeg RC Barnstormers | Chuck Lavallo | Winnipeg |
| 1987 | Current | 217 | Ottawa Valley Miniature Aircraft | Gerry Nadon | Ottawa |
| 1990 | 1997 | 326 | Scotia Giant Model Flyers Club | Claude McLachlan | Halifax, NS |
| 1992 | 1995 | 353 | Tor Wessen Luft Fahr Truppen | Mathew Stikeman | |
| 1993 | 1997 | 470 | Big Rock Flyers | Ted Bishton | Okotoka,AL |
| 1993 | 1999 | 471 | Alberta Miniature Aircraft Assoc. | Doug Hyslop | Calgary, AL |
| 1994 | 1997 | 537 | Club Centre du Quebec | Sylvain Provencher | St Sylvestre PQ |
| 1994 | 1999 | 538 | Trans Canada IMAA | Wilbert Sedgewick | Regina, SK |
| 1994 | Current | 540 | Fraser Valley Big Birds | Tom Hammond | Clearbrook, BC |
| 1995 | Current | 563 | BCTV Big Wings | Roland Worsfold | Kamloops, BC |
| 1997 | Current | 617 | Greater Toronto Area | Tom Russel | Toronto ON |
| 1999 | Current | 538 | Prarie Giants | Glen Chase | Swift Current, SK |
| 2004 | Current | 793 | Northern Ontario Big Birds | Gaston Boissonnault | Sudbury, ON |
| 2004 | 2006 | 737 | Meridian Giants | Mike Biedal | Spruce Grove, AL |
| 2005 | Current | 761 | Modelistes Rive Sud | Jean Blaquiere | Ste Jolie, PQ |