Author: Stan Alexander
Edition: Model Aviation - 2008/08
Page Numbers: 18,19,20,21,22,23,24,25,26,28
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2008 Top Gun Invitational

by Stan Alexander

20 years of pure RC Scale entertainment!

Has it really been 20 years? The Top Gun Invitational, held each spring, has grown and changed in the two decades since its inception — as has scale competition and modeling in general. Looking back at the first Top Gun, conceived, organized, and promoted tirelessly by Frank Tiano, you can see how competition has generated change in the models flown then versus the ones at this year’s event. Likewise, competition has improved the models flown at national and international events.

The first Top Gun Invitational was held in 1988 at the Condors R/C Flying Club field in Coral Springs, Florida. There were 39 entries. Bob Frey of the 1/8th Air Force flew an invasion-striped P-47 from Bob Holman plans. This year he flew a P-47 built from a Yellow Aircraft kit.

In 1988, Bob Violett flew a 58-inch wingspan F-86 using a ducted-fan-engine combination. This year he flew a larger turbine-powered F-86. Dave Platt flew his own-design A6M5-C Zero in 1988, while this year he flew an A6M3 Zero of his own design. Steve Sauger flew his Aeronca J-5AC Sedan 20 years ago, and this year he flew a Stinson trimotor airliner.

Wayne Siewert competed with a new Porsche-Mooney M20 both at the first Top Gun and at this year’s edition. Wayne owns Scale Composites, which produces an assortment of large-scale kits in both 1/5 and 1/4 scale.

Bob Fiorenze’s F-18, which was the state of the art in scale competition at the time, won at the first Top Gun. It was made from fiberglass with twin ducted fans powered by Rossi engines and weighed an astonishing 27 pounds. Now that model is lightweight by comparison.

Radio systems have changed and improved dramatically. Reliability has improved with new frequency technologies, and 2.4 GHz systems are starting to dominate. Servos in general have improved as well.

Jet models are now powered by kerosene-burning turbine engines, and this year there were also several true turboprop turbines in competition. Next I hope to see a Harrier do a vertical takeoff and landing — it's only a matter of time.

Electrics have made inroads in RC scale in the last 20 years. Updated battery systems and Li-Poly batteries have made this possible, as have the power and simplicity of outrunner electric motors.

History and location

After its first two years, Top Gun moved twice. It was held the first time on the east coast of Florida and then in Arizona. The event was moved back to Florida for its third year and has stayed there.

The Palm Beach Polo Club in Wellington, where Top Gun was first held, was a special place for a modeling contest for spectators. But moving it to its present location — Lakeland Linder Regional Airport in Lakeland — made more sense for the modelers and spectators.

The competition site is a taxiway on one corner of the airport. There is plenty of parking and space for RVs. The grandstands for spectators offer a great view, and those who want to can buy pit passes for the weekend.

The modelers' pit area accommodates large tents they can rent, or they can bring their own. Many participants, especially those who come from overseas, use the rented tents. Concession stands and hobby goodies are available on vendor row, which is behind the pit area.

Top Gun is an international event. Pilots at this year’s 20th annual celebration represented:

  • Great Britain
  • Norway
  • Germany
  • France
  • Austria
  • Thailand
  • Canada
  • Mexico
  • Brazil
  • Japan
  • Several other nations

Rules and scoring

As is the event itself, the rules are Frank Tiano's. There is a loose rules committee, and Frank allows input from interested parties who have competed. This lets the rules evolve for a competition that is fair to jets, propeller models, and composite and scratch-built masterpieces.

This year:

  • Jet models, regardless of power system, received a 1.5% deduction in the flight score.
  • Any tricycle-gear, propeller-driven aircraft, regardless of power plant, received no additions or deductions.
  • Any tail-dragger aircraft (except jets) that incorporated a tail wheel received a 1% addition to the flight score.
  • A tail-dragger using a tail skid received a 2% addition to the flight score.

There is a limit to the number of years you can participate in Top Gun with a model that has the same color scheme: it has been increased to five years. In addition, you can completely change the scheme and use the same model for another three years. This rule does not apply to models built from plans, blown-up plans, "highly modified" kits, or those that feature kit components along with scratch-built components.

Classes and entries

This year there were 111 competitors in five classes:

  1. Masters (much like Designer Scale)
  2. Expert
  3. Team Scale
  4. Pro-Am Am (for Top Gun novices)
  5. Pro-Am Pro

Several interesting models were in competition. One notable entry was a Saab J 35 Draken fighter-bomber that Frank Alvarez flew in Expert. This was its first contest. The 48-pound aircraft was 121 inches long, spanned 77 inches at the trailing edge, and featured a double-delta wing. It was built from a kit by Liebetrau, which also manufactured the landing gear. A SimJet 3600 turbine powered the large jet realistically.

David Wigley's Westland Wyvern was another fascinating entry. The full-scale post–World War II design was actually used as a torpedo bomber. Dave did a beautiful job of scratch-building his model, which included counter-rotating propellers.

The combined Pro-Am class comprised 46% of the contestants. Another significant statistic: 37 entries — 36.5% — were jets. This is the largest number of jets entered at any scale contest I'm aware of, and they were from a variety of designers.

Schedule

Competition took place April 23–27.

  • Wednesday: first two rounds of Pro-Am; Team, Expert, and Masters were static-judged in the pit area.
  • Thursday: two additional rounds of Pro-Am.
  • Sunday: final fifth round of Pro-Am and concluding flight rounds.

David Payne flew his beautiful B-17G in Pro-Am. He selected the "Nine O Nine" color scheme from an airplane that the Collins Foundation owns and flies in remembrance of World War II veterans. One of the B-17's maneuvers is a simulated engine out (smoking heavily) and one main gear stuck in the up position. Watching the big 144-inch-wingspan model lumber overhead was a chilling highlight.

In Pro-Am, most of the jets and several World War II fighters were either built from carbon fiber or fiberglass and were pre-molded.

Jason Shulman's F-16C stood out in an arctic camouflage paint scheme with Czech Republic markings. Kent Nogy flew a Bob Violett Models (BVM) F-80 with electric-ducted-fan power. BVM developed the new system and is marketing it as the Electric VioFan, designed by propulsion engineer Lee Anderson. The F-80 had good power and looked realistic in the air.

Another great development for those who love the smell of kerosene is the turboprop engine. Models of turbine-powered propeller airplanes can now be powered by true turboprops. There were several at Top Gun, including the EMBRAER EMB-312 Tucano that Thomas Singer built and flew in Pro-Am. It had an outstanding color scheme, smoke as an option for air-show work, an opening canopy, and a detailed cockpit.

Dino DiGiorgio flew a Pat McCurry design to first place in Pro-Am Pro. The Me 109G-6 is available from Meister Scale, which has an extensive line of World War II Allied and Axis fighter aircraft. The new kit, due out this August, is built to 1/4 scale — a common size for warbirds at contests such as this. Most models that size with a single engine span 100–118 inches. This 109 was powered by an 85cc engine with a custom muffler. The Desert Aircraft DA-85 had plenty of power and ran extremely smoothly for a single-cylinder power plant.

Second place in Pro-Am Pro went to Brian O'Meara's 1/4-scale Hawker Sea Fury. The full-scale version was the last piston fighter for many air forces; Brian selected a Cuban Air Force color scheme for his model. It was powered by a Moki 250cc radial engine and used Sierra retracts.

John Boyko flew his gorgeous Pitts S-1S to a win in Pro-Am Am. He built the 50%-scale model in four years and has flown it at the AMA Scale Nationals. The big aerobatic biplane is powered by a DA-150 engine and features smoke control.

Expert, Team, and Masters highlights

Friday saw the first round of flight competition for Expert, Masters, and Team. In most classes it could have been anyone's win within the first 10 places. At times, fractions of a point separated first and second.

Competition continued on Saturday, with Pro-Am joining the action Sunday, and a total of five flightlines running simultaneously.

Expert was one of the classes in which fractions of a point separated the contestants. Greg Hahn, AMA’s technical director, entered a Beechcraft D-18 from a design by Nick Ziroli Plans. The model of the large civil transport that the military used spanned 114 inches and was powered by two Fuji 34 gas engines, with Robart retracts and a flap system that Greg designed. He likes the reliability of gas engines in big models; rarely do you have an engine out on a twin, and reliability is more important than brute power in any scale model.

Greg went on to win Expert by 0.082 points over Dennis Crooks with his P-38 Lightning. Dennis also employed gas engines: 3.3 cu. in. counter-rotating Husky Challengers. The Ziroli Plans P-38 featured Robart retracts and full-drop Fowler flaps. Dennis has won at both the AMA Scale Nationals and the US Scale Masters Championships with that model.

Third place went to Jack Diaz with his BVM F-86F. That is the larger F-86 kit BVM sells, and it spans 80 inches. He powered his model with a JetCat Titan turbine. Jack always has great documentation for his models; his package featured several photos of the full-scale aircraft.

Of the top 10 models in Expert, six were powered by turbines and one of those was a turboprop. Of the top 10 finishers, nine had static scores of 94.000 or higher. There was no room for error.

Team Scale had more entries this year. Graeme Mears built a beautiful F-16C with a wingspan of 108 inches that weighed just 49 pounds. The big U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds Falcon was powered by an AMT Olympus turbine. The Penninx F-16 kit featured scale retract gear and a beautiful cockpit. David Shulman flew the jet to a first-place finish.

Graeme added beautiful details to the Falcon, along with onboard computers to monitor various systems. He took the two front panels off to show where the members of the Thunderbirds air-show team had signed their names — the pilots signed one panel and the ground crew signed the other.

Second place in Team went to an equally impressive turbine-powered jet: the A-10 Warthog that Mike Selby built and Raymond Johns, a U.S. Air Force general, flew. It was upstaged by the full-scale A-10 just after the flag-raising ceremony Saturday morning. The model Warthog spanned 120 inches, was 112 inches long, weighed 54 pounds, and was powered by two PST 130R turbines. The retract gear was from PST Jets. There was a great story about this team entry in Popular Mechanics — excellent public-awareness coverage.

Third place went to the team of builder Wayne Siewert and pilot Scott Russell with the beautiful Porsche-Mooney. Wayne competed with the same color scheme 20 years ago. The cockpit details were something to behold.

In Masters class you not only have to build and finish the model you compete with, but you must have designed it from scale drawings such as three-views or factory drawings. Using someone else’s plans is unacceptable, as in AMA Designer Scale.

This year’s Masters competition was extraordinarily close. Three modelers could have taken the first-place trophy: David Ribbe with his MiG-15, David Johnson with his 1/3-scale Albatros D.Va, or David Hayes with his Rockwell Thrush crop duster.

After the last engine was shut down and the math was done, David Hayes was declared the winner by 0.010 point with his scratch-built Thrush. His scores were good enough to win not only Masters class but also Mr. Top Gun.

If you’ve ever seen crops dusted, you will know why David squeaked out the win. He flew the model exceptionally low on the crop-dusting passes, making a steep wingover at the end of each pass over the fields. The maneuver is technically complex and requires great skill as a pilot.

The Thrush spanned 108 inches, weighed only 24 pounds, and was powered by a Saito 180 engine. The high-tech stuff was inside, where David designed a pressurized system to deliver the spray for each flight.

Closing

Top Gun is fierce competition and a display of competitors giving each other help when it’s needed. It’s old friends from around the world getting together and catching up at dinner or the banquets. It’s scale competition at its best.

Hope to see you there next year. Well done, Frank!

Stan Alexander [email protected]

Sources

Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.