18 MODEL AVIATION
Mike McConville is known for a high-speed, high-alpha knifeedge
slide that bursts into a knife edge that pops up vertical.
The top seven finishers line up for a photo session. A large number of
press reporters and photographers were on hand for this.
2 0 0 2
TOC champion Chip Hyde won flying his
42% Aeroworks Ultimate biplane. It will
soon be available in ARF and ARC forms.
■ Mike Hurley
04sig1.QXD 1.24.03 9:40 am Page 18
April 2003 19
Billy Hempel hangs it on the propeller. He flew a 3W Extra 330S
designed by Roland Matt and powered by a 3W-150 engine.
Chip Hyde hoists the $50,000 check as 2002 TOC champion.
Steve Stricker was the last American to win this meet—in 1996.
Quique Somenzini’s Yak 54 was the talk of the event. He
demonstrates a low and slow knife-edge pass at show center.
Roland Matt’s own-design Extra 330S trailed color-coordinated
red smoke from the wingtips during his Freestyle routine.
BY NOW THOSE of you who follow Radio Control (RC)
precision aerobatics know that Chip Hyde was the winner of the
2002 Tournament of Champions (TOC) Scale precision aerobatics
contest, held October 9-13 in Las Vegas, Nevada. But what the rest
of the RC community may not know is how the TOC has affected
nearly every aspect of the RC aircraft hobby for the last 25 or so
years, and the significance of this contest each time it is held.
The best way for me to describe the TOC is to liken it to the
Oscars. Yes, the Oscars. Not the World Series and not the Super
Bowl. This contest is watched by pilots, enthusiasts, manufacturers,
and journalists from around the world. The following year’s trends
will be set by the actions taken at this contest. Everybody wants to
know who is flying what airplane with which engine and whose
propeller! Did a servo fail? Was one airplane lighter than another?
Who will choke and who will prevail? The gossip will flow for the
following months, and manufacturers will gear up to start
capitalizing on successes. Where did all this start? How did it get
this way?
Photos by the author Graphic Design by Carla Kunz
04sig1.QXD 1.24.03 9:41 am Page 19
20 MODEL AVIATION
Dave Von Linsowe’s new 42% Extra 260 is built with
standard balsa-and-plywood construction. It is sold
by Troy Built Models.
An average of 6,000 spectators are estimated to attend each weekend day
of TOC competition. They get to see a great show!
Left: Peter Goldsmith’s gigantic CAP 232s
were the largest aircraft in the contest.
Each weighs 43 pounds and spans 1311⁄2
inches!
A new-generation engine compartment
shows the QS-edition 3W-150 engine with
custom headers and quiet tuned pipes.
Sebastiano Silvestri’s color-coordinated flight crew in formation awaiting his next
flight. This is a professional touch!
Left: Frazer Briggs’ 42% Extra has typical setup of four standard-size servos in line for
the rudder pull-pull system.
04sig1.QXD 1.24.03 9:42 am Page 20
April 2003 21
Right: Mike McConville flies a 40% Carden Aircraft Extra 330S that
Brian Hueffmeier built using conventional construction of light
plywood, balsa, fiberglass, and foam. Mike has competed in the TOC
nine times. His engine is a Desert Aircraft 150cc two-cylinder turning
an Air Models 32.5 x 11 propeller. The model is controlled by a JR
10X radio system with two 945 receivers and 12 DS8411 digital
servos. Mike uses a total of six MatchBoxes for the control-surface
servos—one for each aileron, one for each elevator half, and two for
the rudder. Control surfaces are linked to the servos using Pro-Link
titanium pushrods. He uses ferrite choke coils as radio-frequency
noise suppression on his throttle servo and receiver batteries. The
chokes will soon be available from Hangar 9.
Bottom left: Some say Chip Hyde pulled off an improbable feat by
winning the TOC flying an ARC built in a Chinese ARF factory with
an unproven prototype engine of which even the designers were
unsure. Chip’s father Merle Hyde is the original designer of this 42%
Ultimate biplane, and with his permission, Aeroworks was able to
reverse-engineer the 9-year-old airplane so that Chip would have a
new one to fly in this contest. Aeroworks will soon have this model
available for sale as an ARC and an ARF exactly as Chip flew it in the
TOC. The model spans 99.5 inches and weighs approximately 41
pounds. There are two Futaba 9151 servos in each aileron (four
ailerons) and two for each elevator half. The rudder uses two Futaba
5050 servos. The engines were the only two Desert Aircraft built as a
special project for Chip’s model. They are 200cc four-cylinder
engines with three-piece handmade crankshafts. The engine was
mounted using Merle’s unique soft-mount system. With no front
support and an extremely tight fit to the spinner and the baffles, the
engine shows no sign of movement resulting from being soft
mounted. Chip has flown in the TOC seven times. This is his third
win.
Bottom right: Quique Somenzini surprised everyone by flying his
strikingly covered, two-of-a-kind, Wayne Ulery-designed and -built
37.5% Yak 54. Quique has attended the TOC nine times and has won
four times. His new Yak features conventional construction of balsa,
foam, and carbon, and it weighs just 41 pounds with a wingspan of
120 inches. He uses a 3W-150QS (Quique Somenzini)-edition engine,
a JR 10X radio, and 17 DS8411 servos (four for each wing, four for
the rudder, four for the elevators, and one for the throttle) coupled to
five MatchBoxes, and Hangar 9 titanium rods. Rumor has it that the
Yak will be available as a kit.
04sig1.QXD 1.24.03 9:43 am Page 21
Name Prize Aircraft Wingspan Weight Engine Propeller
Chip Hyde (US) $50,000 Aeroworks ARC 42.5% Ultimate biplane 99.5 inches 41.5 pounds DA-200 32 x 10
Christophe Paysant-
Le Roux (France) $30,000 ZNLine 40% Extra 330 119.0 inches 35.0 pounds DA-150 30 x 12
Quique Somenzini (Argentina) $20,000 Wayne Ulrey-designed and -built 37.5% Yak 54 120.0 inches 41.0 pounds 3W-150 31.5 x 12
Roland Matt (Liechtenstein) $10,000 3W 40% Extra 330S 118.0 inches 38.0 pounds 3W-150 32 x 12
Jason Shulman (US) $8,000 FiberClassics 40% Extra 330 119.0 inches 34.5 pounds DA-150 32 x 10
Mike McConville (US) $7,000 40% Carden Extra 330 118.0 inches 40.0 pounds DA-150 31.5 x 12
Sean McMurtry (US) $6,500 Aeroworks 37% Extra 300L 117.0 inches 36.0 pounds 3W-150 32 x 10
Fraser Briggs (New Zealand) $6,000 PBG Composites 41.5% Extra 260 122.5 inches 37.5 pounds DA-150 32 x 10 Menz
Fabio Trento (Brazil) $5,500 Aeroworks 37% Extra 300L 117.0 inches 39.1 pounds DA-15 32 x 10
Bernd Beschomer (Germany) $5,000 Delro Modelltechniks 39% Raven 114.2 inches 35.2 pounds 3W-150 Delro 30 x 12.5
Mike Caglia (US) $4,500 TBM 41.5% Extra 260 122.5 inches 33.5 pounds DA-150 32 x 10 Menz
Bill Hempel (US) $4,000 3W 40% Extra 330 118.0 inches 38.0 pounds 3W-150 31.5 x 14.8
Sebastiano Silvestri (Italy) $4,000 Exclusive Modellbau 39.8% Katana 122.0 inches 39.1 pounds 3W-150 32 x 12
Kirk Gray (US) $4,000 Carden 40% Extra 330S 118.0 inches 41.0 pounds DA-150 30 x 12
Peter Goldsmith (Australia) $4,000 Goldsmith-designed and -built 46% CAP 232 131.5 inches 43.0 pounds DA-150 32 x 10 Mejzlik
Ryan Taylor (US) $2,500 RadioCraft 41.5% Extra 330L 123.0 inches 38.0 pounds DA-150 32 x 12
Dave Von Linsowe (US) $2,500 TBM Dave Von Linsowe 42% Extra 260 122.8 inches 32.0 pounds DA 150 28 x 12
Marco Benincasa (Italy) $2,500 FiberClassics 40% Extra 330 118.0 inches 35.2 pounds DA-150 30 x 10
Don Szczur (US) $2,500 FiberClassics 40% Extra 330 119.0 inches 34.0 pounds DA-150 32 x 10
Chris Lakin (US $2,500 Carden 40% Edge 540 118.0 inches 40.0 pounds DA-150 Bolly 32 x 12
Arnaud Poyet (France) $2,500 ZNLine 40% Extra 330 119.0 inches 38.5 pounds DA-150 30 x 15 Bolly
24 MODEL AVIATION
History: The TOC was founded in 1974 by
William G. Bennett, who, at that time,
owned Circus Circus Hotel and Casino and
Circus Circus Hobbies in Las Vegas. Walt
Schroeder of Model Airplane News came up
with the idea of a premier contest with a
major prize purse for the world’s top F3A
pilots, and he knew that Mr. Bennett was the
man who could make that happen.
The objective was to create a program
that was quite a bit harder than the
sequences being flown at that time. They
decided to structure the contest as an
invitational, and exclusive to the best pilots
in the world. Initially the contest was held in
a traditional F3A Pattern style, but in 1977
the organizers decided to closer emulate
full-scale precision aerobatics and came up
with a formula that was nearer to that flown
by the International Aerobatics Club (IAC).
In addition to requiring the aircraft to
have a scale outline, the evolving TOC rules
began to require increasingly larger aircraft.
Mr. Bennett and his organizers believed that
larger aircraft were the wave of the future.
Bigger airplanes flew better and were easier
to see, not only for the pilots and the judges,
but also for the spectators. Making this
contest a spectator event has always been an
important consideration as it has evolved.
Freestyle programs carry a significant
weight in the overall score. Each year the
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sequences have gotten progressively more
difficult, the aircraft sizes have increased,
and vertical performance has been more
important. Unlike many flying events,
excitement is the name of the game at the
TOC.
As these new and demanding
requirements evolved, aircraft, equipment,
and support had to grow with them to keep
the aircraft competitive. It is said by some
that the TOC has the largest purse of prize
money in any aerobatic flying contest
worldwide, including full-scale, manned
aircraft, and RC. With prize money totaling
$183,500 and only the best pilots in the
world invited to compete in the TOC, it is
rightly the most publicized and
photographed event in RC aviation.
Journalists from Japan, Germany, France,
Italy, Australia, Brazil, Argentina,
Liechtenstein, and the United States crowd
the flightline vying for the best photographs,
as with other major sporting events. This
year the TOC even made CNN world news
coverage!
TOC Spawns Innovation: Manufacturers
clamor to have their products involved in
some way with this contest and its
competitors. They continually develop
products to help their company be the TOC
pilot’s choice. Nearly every aspect of RC
today has been influenced in some way by
this contest. Obvious developments such as
large, reliable gas engines designed from the
ground up to compete in the TOC and highpowered
digital servos are well known to
have been spawned from the contest’s
demands.
But offshoots from the sheer popularity
of the contest and its competitors have
blossomed into specific items or whole new
categories that one would never have
dreamed had anything to do with the TOC.
The popularity of the Almost Ready to Fly
(ARF) has exploded from an initial demand
for quick, easy-to-build, entry-level Scale
Aerobatics airplanes. Developments for
better, lighter, more reliable radio equipment
have given birth to innovations that have led
to sophisticated computer radio systems.
And simple, lightweight solutions in
construction and equipment have further
developed into other areas of RC, from
racing to Scale, and even the park-flyer
revolution.
To put it bluntly, in all likelihood the
equipment that you use today in any
category of RC might not be as reliable,
capable, precise, or might not even exist
without the enormous influence and
importance of the TOC contest.
The TOC has even influenced how we fly
our aircraft. Maneuvers created by talented
Freestyle competitors quickly find their way
to local fields across the country. Entirely new
ways to fly have emerged. Ten years ago
aviation experts thought high-alpha (or high
angle of attack) 3-D flight was impossible.
Today 3-D flight has revitalized excitement
in RC and has generated renewed youth
interest in our hobby.
04sig1.QXD 1.24.03 9:44 am Page 24
Cross flow between full-scale aerobatics
and RC has even changed in recent years. In
the past, RC pilots struggled to emulate fullscale
figures. Today the top full-scale pilots
are modifying their aircraft and learning
new ways to fly their airplanes. Those same
high-alpha maneuvers thought impossible
have been proven by skilled RC pilots,
namely pilots pushed to come up with
innovations by the demands of the TOC.
Some of these maneuvers are now finding
their way to full-scale demos and air shows.
Manned aircraft are becoming lighter
and more powerful than ever before with
more control authority. Air shows have
pilots with entirely new repertoires. Much
of this is a result of creative new techniques
developed by TOC pilots! The full-scale
airplanes cannot completely perform all of
the high-alpha maneuvers yet, but modelers
have proven it possible and they are getting
closer every year.
Heroes Back Home: Being invited to the
TOC is the highest honor an RC Aerobatics
pilot can achieve. Event organizers along
with the Contest Director still choose who
will be invited to fly in the TOC. As a
guideline, the international pilots are
considered from the F3A World
Championships. For the US pilots, it’s a
combination of the national F3A
championship, the US Team Trials, and, to
a lesser degree, the IMAC (International
Miniature Aerobatic Club) National
Championships. However, winning one of
these events does not guarantee an
invitation. Generally there are 10
international competitors and 11 US pilots.
Winning the TOC is even more
prestigious. A win here elevates the pilot
and his equipment choices to world-class
status, marking the very pinnacle for human
and mechanical performance. In America,
RC enthusiasts are looked at by the general
population as a bunch of guys playing with
toy airplanes who don’t want to grow up. In
other parts of the world RC flying is seen as
a serious avocation. RC air shows in Europe
and Japan draw large crowds of spectators,
each paying a sizable entry fee.
Hanno Prettner (Austria) dominated the
TOC in the early years. He was adored in
his home country as a national hero, with
ads across Europe featuring him and
sponsorships including Adidas. Likewise,
Wolfgang (Roland’s father) and Roland
Matt (Liechtenstein) are household names
in their home country, much like a top
football or baseball player might be here.
And the fame these foreign fliers garner has
much to do with the US TOC contest.
2002 TOC: Being in the pit area of the
TOC generates a feeling of the enormity of
the event that is hard to describe. You can
see it on the faces of the newer pilots who
walk around with a blank and dazed
expression in disbelief of the level of
competition. You can also see it in the faces
of some of the seasoned veterans who are
more focused and determined than at any
other time in their flying careers. Chip Hyde
(US) was especially nervous and uptight
before each flight toward the end of the
contest, but he walked away from the
flightline with a smile and a swagger after
each performance.
As with each time the TOC has been
held, this year marks a significant increase
in overall pilot skill and sequence
complexity. The bar has indeed been raised.
It seemed that the overall skill of every pilot
had increased, and the job of judging at this
level has got to be one of splitting hairs. In
past years it was apparent that only
approximately six or eight pilots could
really compete on a top level, especially in
the Freestyle. This year’s TOC proved how
skill levels across the board are improving.
Every one of the pilots was able to
perform the exciting low-level maneuvers
that have become the trademark of the TOC
Freestyle, and all pilots flew choreographed
routines that harmonized with their music
instead of just flying to the music.
Similarly, in the precision portion of the
contest, every pilot commanded due respect.
But as in previous years, it quickly
became clear that the top five or six pilots
would be no surprise. What separates the
top few from the rest of the pack is the
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04sig1.QXD 1.24.03 9:44 am Page 26
30 MODEL AVIATION
ability to consistently fly every maneuver
with impossible precision. Any pilot might
post the best score with a given maneuver,
but those who never made a mistake would
make their way to the top.
Five Days of Flying: The contest starts
with 21 pilots flying for three days:
Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Each
day they fly an Unknown, a Known, and a
Freestyle. The Unknown sequence entails a
series of maneuvers strung together in a
way that the pilots don’t see until the night
before it is flown. No actual flying practice
is allowed.
The Knowns are a little different in the
TOC. The pilots are told in advance what
maneuvers will be flown but not in what
order or where. This is done to increase the
difficulty; otherwise, judging these toplevel
pilots would be next to impossible. So
in reality, the Knowns are also flown like
an Unknown with no real practice allowed.
The Freestyle is a four-minute timed
event, and the routine is up to the pilots
themselves. It is not judged solely on the
precision of the figures, but in originality,
versatility, harmony and rhythm, and
execution. The intent is to make this
portion of the event the most exciting
spectator portion of RC, bar none!
Early on, Chip Hyde, Quique
Somenzini (Argentina), defending
champion Christophe Paysant-Le Roux
(France), and Jason Shulman (US) looked
strong. The four seemed to swap positions
after each round. Mike McConville (US)
was at what looked to me like his personal
best. He put in solid flights in the Knowns
and Unknowns and wowed the crowd with
an energized and exciting Freestyle. Mike’s
Freestyle is known for innovative highstress
maneuvers close to show center.
On Friday, Peter Goldsmith (Australia)
caught a piece of bad luck that put him out
of the running for Saturday. During a
much-needed round for Peter, one of his
well-seasoned propellers split and
exploded on the airplane. The imbalance
violently shook the airframe of his owndesign
46% CAP 232 and ended with a
broken hub on the front of his engine. The
resulting zeros put him back in 15th place,
just short of the top 14 going into the
finals on Saturday.
I talked with Peter one night during
dinner and asked him about the pressures
involved in this contest. He felt as though
the highest amount of stress was to not let
the spectators down. They traveled from far
and wide to see the best, and Peter felt that
it was his obligation to fly well for them.
Roughly 6,000 spectators are estimated to
attend from all over the world.
When asked about the hardest part of
the contest, Peter responded without
hesitation, “creating a Freestyle!” The
spectators love the Freestyle, but the work
that goes into creating the programs is
overwhelming. Flying the FAI (Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale) figures is a
“no-brainer,” said Peter, but to create,
practice, and perfect a Freestyle program
takes most of the off-season.
Saturday’s program dropped the bottom
seven pilots and added a second Freestyle
round to the schedule. Some of the pilots
pumped it up a notch, flying new and more
exciting routines. Since Saturday
comprised two Freestyle rounds and one
each Known and Unknown, the Freestyle
had even more effect on the outcome of the
day.
Fabio Trento was one of the most
exciting and crowd-pleasing pilots. He is
the Brazilian National Freestyle champion
and was flying in the TOC for his first
time. Fabio is a master at low-level, highalpha
flight in all attitudes. His control of
inverted harrier flight is astounding.
I first met Fabio while competing in the
Tucson Aerobatic Shootout in October
2001. During that contest I asked him
about his flying, and he was quick to tell
me that his ultimate dream was to be
invited and to fly in the TOC. It must have
been such an incredible experience for him
to live that dream just one year later. At
just 18 years old he was the youngest
competitor at this year’s contest. Fabio
placed a respectable ninth in his first year!
Four-time TOC champion Quique
Somenzini is generally credited with
bringing extreme Freestyles and many 3-D
maneuvers to the TOC. It looked to me as
04sig1.QXD 1.24.03 9:46 am Page 30
April 2003 33
though Quique had made a decision this year
to create a more precise and elegant Freestyle
routine. For the most part his precision flights
had few mistakes, and he put in some solid
scores. There was no doubt if one looked
closely at his Free performances that he had
one of the most exacting routines in the
contest. The choreography was flawless, as
was his execution, timing, and placement.
His routine was so good that he made some
extremely difficult maneuvers look too easy.
I’m speculating that Quique had decided
that the crowd knew he could hover inches
off the ground and that scare tactics were no
longer the name of the game. Why shouldn’t
he move on? He introduced the world to
most of those figures years ago. This year
Quique deleted those strategies from his
repertoire and became more artistic, more
precise, and more polished. The result was a
beautiful and moving performance.
Unfortunately Quique may be slightly ahead
of his time. The crowd was waiting to be
punched out of their seats, to be frightened
and amazed. The audience wanted monster
trucks, and Quique gave them Swan Lake.
If anyone can deliver a monster-truck
performance, it’s Bill Hempel. Bill is the
king of high-impact, fast-paced, take-yourbreath-
away Freestyle routines, and this year
was no exception. From his tire-screeching
takeoff to the moment he dropped a USA
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banner at the end of his routine, Billy had the
attention of every spectator in the place.
The close of Saturday saw seven more
competitors dropped from the ranks, and
Sunday was crunch time. An unusual thing
about this type of contest is the crowd
participation. With an estimated 6,000 people
watching every flight, it’s amazing to hear
applause after even the Known and Unknown
flights. The crowd knows when a good flight
04sig2.QXD 1.23.03 1:15 pm Page 33
has been logged and when there is a mistake
or two. This is the only precision aerobatics
contest I’ve ever attended where the audience
is attentive to every maneuver of every flight
throughout the entire contest. With a truly
international flair, the crowd blew air horns
and spun rattle noisemakers during and after
each Freestyle flight. The feeling was as if it
were a Formula One Grand Prix or a
European soccer match.
Sunday I got the chance to more closely
observe the precision performance of the top
seven pilots. Sunday became a whole new
contest, where the seven who made it there
started out on an even playing field—any of
the seven could pull it out. There would be
two flights of each Known, Unknown, and
Freestyle.
Mike McConville, who had been flying
strong all week, put in four great flights but
had a few bobbles in his Known and
Unknown sequences—enough to open the
door for the other guys. Jason Shulman’s
Unknown was outstanding. It was so silky
smooth and precise that I don’t know how the
judges could find a way to score it.
Quique Somenzini won the first Unknown,
but both of his Known sequences were
flawed—not his usual performance. Then
during his second Unknown, he executed an
early maneuver with a roll in the wrong
direction and unknowingly completed the rest
of the sequence in the wrong direction,
resulting in zeros from that point on. Yes, he
was able to drop that flight.
Jason had introduced a new Freestyle that
included a Blender at the far left end of the
field. With the door open and a strong flight
under his belt, it was crunch time. Jason
admittedly forgot to switch to high rates
during the Blender, and the big FiberClassics
wobbled and struggled before nosing into a
clearing near a large pile of stones. The impact
was so great that the airplane burst into flames
and quickly burned to nothing. There was
little left of the aircraft by the time they made
it to the site.
Christophe Paysant-Le Roux won the first
Freestyle and the second Known round, and
he took second place to various pilots in every
other round but one. On any other day but this
he would have walked away with the win. His
performance and every maneuver was rock
solid throughout the contest. I would
categorize Christophe’s flights as consistently
at the top. As usual, his Freestyle is
formidable! It was beautifully choreographed
with smoke at just the right moments and a
dazzling burst of confetti to accent a precise,
but fast and exciting, routine. Streamers from
the wingtips were cut with a tumble on cue in
each performance.
The real story at the culmination of this
world-level contest was Chip Hyde’s
unwavering performance. You could see the
desire and determination on Chip’s face. He is
the rare individual who could take that stress
and turn it into perfection. With each new
figure of Chip’s final day of Freestyle, the
spectators went wild. Chip pulled out a few
maneuvers that would make your heart go
from a full-on race to a dead stop, such as a
high-alpha Knife Edge Elevator from 400 feet
to within inches of the ground blasting into a
tumble to a torque roll! Chip then briskly
walked around his airplane as it remained
rolling in one spot just a foot off the ground!
Chip dominated this last day at the TOC.
His flights were, one after another, the
yardstick by which all others were measured.
I’ve never seen anyone want something so
badly and so skillfully act upon that desire.
The Aircraft: The final standings and
information about each pilot’s aircraft and
equipment can be seen in the accompanying
chart. Prior to covering this event I took an
impromptu poll of some of you to find out
what type of information you wanted to see
from this coverage. Collectively you wanted
to know about the equipment that the pilots
fly. I’ve tried to give an overall glimpse of an
average TOC aircraft.
In years past, one might see a huge
variation in the equipment and
implementation of hardware from pilot to
pilot. Guys were mostly on their own to come
up with ways to make the big beasts hold
together. No off-the-shelf parts were available,
servos were not up to the task, and not enough
research had been done to know just what was
enough and what was overkill. Today,
however, you’ll find more and more TOClevel
aircraft at your local flying clubs. The
demand for equipment to tame these monsters
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has driven manufacturers to offer equipment
suitable to not only fly these larger airplanes,
but to make them safe to fly and easy to build.
I’ll start by dispelling a few myths. Gyros
are not allowed in the TOC—not for Freestyle
and not for precision—so none of these
airplanes are so equipped. Coupled flaps or
ailerons to the elevators and split ailerons are
not allowed. These models are set up like
Scale airplanes. You’ll see that the engines
used are from Desert Aircraft or 3W. These
are not special engines to which only TOC
pilots have access. They are the same engines
you can buy directly off the shelf. There is no
special tuning or performance enhancements.
You can build an aircraft just like these
without any special equipment or knowledge.
Most of the models are 40%-scale
monoplanes of approximately 118- to 120-
inch wingspan. The average weight is roughly
36-40 pounds. Construction varies quite a bit,
with composite, Nomex, and wood
construction represented, and many have
foam wings. All of the models (except Chip’s
airplane) use a 150cc two-cylinder, twostroke
engine made by Desert Aircraft or 3W.
Some are starting to use quiet canister
systems for the mufflers at a penalty of
approximately 2 pounds, but with a most
pleasing and quiet tone.
Most airplanes use four standard-size
servos for the rudder in a cabled pull-pull
configuration, two for each elevator half and
three for each wing, utilizing direct solid
linkages. The servos have a torque of roughly
120 inch/ounce to roughly 200 inch/ounce
each with a fairly fast speed. JR digital servo
users used JR MatchBoxes to control servo
adjustments. Power distribution to all of these
servos is usually via two receivers, but some
of the airplanes use one receiver and a powerdistribution
system. I think you’ll see more of
these in use in the near future.
Switches varied, but most were standard
items available from the respective
manufacturers (JR or Futaba). Linkages are
off-the-shelf items from Nelson, Hangar 9, or
SWB. Many of the pilots are using titanium
turnbuckles for the actual control rods
available in various sizes from Hangar 9.
Most of the airplanes had removable smoke
systems that only went into the models during
the Freestyle. Fuel tanks are standard, off-theshelf
items that typically hold 50 ounces.
There were no dominant battery systems this
year, but many pilots are experimenting with
regulated Li-Ion systems.
Many of the airplanes used in the TOC are
ready-made ARFs or ARCs (Almost Ready to
Covers), including Ryan Taylor’s RadioCraft
Extra, the FiberClassics Extras flown by many
of the pilots this year, and Chip’s new biplane.
You can buy any of these airplanes and all the
parts to put them together just like you see
them at the TOC!
Reading this report on the latest chapter in
the world’s most prestigious RC contest, I
hope you get a hint of the excitement,
inspiration, and just plain fun this level of
competition brings to model aviation. Sure,
you can buy a video of the contest from two
or three production companies that were there
filming. Although reading about it or
watching a video is fun, it can’t possibly
express how exciting the experience is.
The TOC is scheduled again for October
2004. If you want to be a part of the action,
the only way to really appreciate it is to be
there. Las Vegas is waiting, baby! And while
you’re at it, support the Sahara Hotel. It gives
outstanding rates for TOC visitors. Plan your
vacation now, and experience for yourself the
world’s most exciting RC competition. MA
Mike Hurley
11542 Decatur Ct.
Westminster CO 80234
[email protected]
36 MODEL AVIATION
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04sig2.QXD 1.23.03 1:15 pm Page 36
