Tournament of Champions Project

Tournament of Champions

Andrea and I were able to combine an overseas holiday with a trip to the Tournament of Champions in Las Vegas recently. I would like to share with you some of my observations of this event, which is arguably the pinnacle of aeromodelling competitions.

This was the 18^th Tournament of Champions to have been held since 1974. With names such as Hanno Prettner, Chip Hyde, Quique Somenzini and Christophe Paysant-Le Roux having graced the top step of the podium, you are assured of the pedigree of the event.

It’s called the “Tournament of Champions” for a reason – every flyer had to have won or placed highly in the USA nationals or an international competition before being invited to compete. Even with the hand picked field of 21 competitors though, there was a marked difference in the quality of the flying between the top four (Chip Hyde, Christophe Paysant-Le Roux, Quique Somenzini and Roland Matt) and the rest of the field. By the finals day, we had become a little blasé about what we were watching, scoffing at a pilot missing a snap exit by 10°. But these small errors were the differences between the top money and the minor places. And there was some serious money at stake. $50,000 dollars (US) for the winner made the competition intense.

The models used in the TOC are giant scale aerobatics aircraft. The models must be a scale replica (certain variations and tolerances are allowed) of a full size aerobatics aircraft. The most popular aircraft modeled was the Extra 330. And the models are BIG – around 3m wingspan with at least a 150cc twin-cylinder engine. The winner, Chip Hyde, used a prototype 200cc four-cylinder engine. To get an impression of size, think of putting a 2m-pattern model next to a trainer – that’s what a 2m-pattern model would look like next to a TOC model.

On most models, the quality of the covering and paint was superb. Think of the cost of fitting out the models with servos – three or four JR 8411’s ($210 a pop) ganged together for the rudder, two or three on each aileron, two for each elevator. Of course you need a backup model in case you have a problem with the primary model…

The competition consists of three disciplines – known and unknown patterns, and a freestyle program. The known patterns were built using 21 manoeuvres that were published before the event – the manoeuvres were known but how they were put together to form a pattern wasn’t known. The unknown patterns were built using any manoeuvre from the FAI aerobatics catalogue (100’s to choose from). The known and unknown patterns are distributed to the competitors at the end of the previous day of competition, and no practice is allowed. The pilots and callers familiarise themselves with the patterns by “dry-flying” them with stick planes.

Andrea and I arrived in Las Vegas on Thursday 10 October around noon. The competition had started on Wednesday. Our hotel room wasn’t ready yet, so we (well, me really) thought it would be a good idea to go to the field. After a bit of a transport nightmare (long and boring story) we arrived at the field in time to see the final flight of one of the known rounds, and a complete round of freestyle. Perfect timing.

Thanks to Peter and Caroline Goldsmith (Peter is a multi-time Australian champion pattern pilot who was competing at the TOC) we were able to sit in the restricted pits area on the infield grass just off the runway for the whole freestyle session. Wow! The high-alpha low-level flying was just superb. Watching the most talented r/c pilots in the world flying these monstrous models right on the edge of falling out of the sky was

breathtaking. The highlight was Christophe Paysant-Le Roux’s flight. He flew the schedule he used to win the TOC in 2000, but with a few extra twists. Try a 3D-rolling loop from the top starting no more than 15m off the deck with a 3m-wingspan model and the wingtips coming within 1m of the ground at the bottom. I saw it, but it didn’t look possible. At the end of the flight, the crowd erupted in cheers and applause, but then went silent, as if they were dumbstruck by what had just happened. This probably sounds melodramatic, but I can’t stress how powerful these displays of flying talent were to the hardened r/c aerobatics nuts that were watching.

I thought the freestyles would be exciting and the patterns a bit boring – how wrong I was. Sunday’s pattern rounds were compelling, watching the event unfold and seeing who handled the pressure best. The freestyles are the crowd pleasers, but the scores are made in the known and unknowns. You knew the importance of every manoeuvre, and the crowd let out a collective “ooh” whenever someone made a small error that was going to cost points. The quality of flying by Chip Hyde and Quique Somenzini was inspiring. Quique’s first flight on Sunday was mesmerising in its perfection (it was the first flight of the day too, so he didn’t have the benefit of watching the other pilots fly the schedule). How they can fly such a complex schedule with such perfection and no practice (apart from stick planes) is beyond me.

When the scores were tabulated, Chip Hyde came out a deserving winner. His patterns were beautiful, and his freestyles ballsy (if a touch repetitive). Christophe Paysant-Le Roux finished in second place. I was really looking forward to see a 2-time F3A world champion and TOC winner fly, expecting to see absolute precision. Christophe’s flying was certainly superb, but I took great heart in seeing him make a number of fundamental errors, just like any of us. Still, that Thursday freestyle is burned into my memory as display of absolute control and confidence. Quique Somenzini finished in third place, and will no doubt be a bit disappointed with this. After Quique’s perfect first flight on Sunday, a number of errors crept into his flights, to the point were he zeroed a large portion of a flight by reversing his flight direction mid sequence.

There were a number of tricks used by various competitors in the freestyles to get attention and add some pizzazz to their routines. Pretty much everyone used smoke, but Roland Matt went one better, using red flares on the wing tips of his model. During the flight, he would ignite the flares. As he rolled and looped, the red smoke would form spirals around the white smoke – really cool. Christophe Paysant-Le Roux used a variety of tricks. Ribbons would unfurl from the wing tips, firecrackers of glitter and streamers would be shot out of the model during a torque roll, all getting huge applause. Bill Hempel released a “USA” banner from the rear of his model during the tune “Proud to be an American”. It was corny (to a non-American), but the crowd loved it. Part of freestyle scoring is originality, and these tricks would no doubt get some extra points.

This will probably sound obvious, but it really hit me that the basics are the foundation that everything else is built on in pattern flying. Horizontal and vertical lines must be dead true. Loops must be circular. Keep a consistent baseline height and depth. Get these things slightly wrong and your schedule is a mess. The difference between the 21 flyers was obvious watching the patterns. The top guys positioned all their maneuvers correctly, flew a consistent baseline height and depth, and flew true horizontal and vertical lines. At the other end of the score sheet, the baseline varied, the start and finish point of loops were different, snaps weren’t clean. You get spoilt watching such talent though – the errors were small even at 21^st place. The achievement of just getting an invitation would have to be the highlight of anyone’s modeling career.

If anyone has the chance to visit the TOC in the future, I would say DO IT! The Sahara Hotel supports the event heavily with discounted room rates and a free shuttle bus service running all day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. You can get close to the action and there is always something happening, whether competition or demonstration flights. The only problem for me was that I realised just how well a model aircraft can be flown, a very humbling experience.

Paul Marlan

*** 10 January, 2010 10:26 PM +1000 ***

Last updated 10 January, 2010