Electric Tournament of Champions and E-X Games
by Tom Hunt
ELECTRIC-POWERED models have come of age, and nothing can demonstrate that better than almost 20 of the finest pilots in this part of the world showing off their talents and technology at an indoor aerobatic competition. Holding the event the Friday and Saturday evenings of the 51st annual Weak Signals' R/C Expo in Toledo, Ohio, is also guaranteed to draw a crowd and media attention.
The Electric Tournament of Champions (E-TOC) and the E-X Games were scheduled to be held at the Harrison R. Waite High School gymnasium, just a short drive across the river from the SeaGate Convention Center (the Toledo Show venue). TnT Landing Gear Products (www.tntlandinggear.com) organized and ran the events with sponsorship from many hobby distributors/manufacturers, including RC Universe, Fly RC magazine, Hobby Lobby International Inc., Horizon Hobby, Hobbico, and Futaba.
Officials for the events were chief judge Fred Johnson; judges Brian Hueffmeier, Dave Baron, Greg Poppel, Mark Jorgenson, Baron Johnson, Jim Malek, and Roy Barrow; pit boss Mark Hale; and announcer Bob Sadler.
Friday night 18 pilots performed Freestyle aerobatic maneuvers to music with small electric models, most of which weighed much less than a pound! Saturday night 18 pilots (14 of the same from the night before) flew a difficult obstacle course, which I will explain later.
The E-TOC:
This event pitted pilots against one another in an open two-minute-flight Freestyle aerobatic competition that involved a great deal of hovering and other 3-D-style maneuvers. Even though the gymnasium was large with a fairly high ceiling, there were a few obstacles.
Some basketball backboards could not be retracted, which influenced where the pilot started and ended the "horizontal"-flight-type maneuvers. Hitting the floor, or any other obstruction, did not affect the time in the air, assuming the model was still flyable after the incident.
A panel of eight judges awarded a maximum of 220 points. Of this number, 110 were allowed to be awarded for technical merit, which included complete use of the flight envelope, execution of individual maneuvers, and diversity of use of the different aircraft axes (pitch, roll, yaw, forward, and reverse).
Artistic impression was worth 90 points and consisted of dynamic and graceful maneuvers, choreography, and orientation/position. The last category, worth 20 points, was crowd appeal. Although this is subjective, the wows and cheers from the crowd during some of the maneuvers were certainly not faked!
The predominant model was the "lunch-tray," foam-sheet 3-D type. Few aircraft were "full figured"; if they did have some shape, most of it was in the fuselage. The flying surfaces were simple "flat-plate" types. I do not remember seeing any scratch-built designs.
Almost all of the pilots flew new or soon-to-be-released ARF or kit models from major manufacturers/distributors such as Horizon Hobby, Great Planes, and Hobby Lobby. These aircraft sport large control surfaces for the control required during the 3-D and especially the hovering maneuvers.
The choice between a monoplane, a biplane, or another multiwing configuration seemed to be purely personal; no model seemed to have a distinct advantage in horizontal flight. One airplane did have a clear advantage in producing a unique flight profile, but more about that later!
High-efficiency brushless motors and lightweight Li-Poly battery packs were obviously the propulsion system of choice. The outrunner type of brushless motor also dominated the field because of its ability to swing a large-diameter propeller without the weight and power loss of a gearbox.
All 18 pilots flew an opening round. Down-selecting by the point structure was done through a series of rounds until seven competed in the final round. Pilots had the option of changing their routines and/or music between rounds. The winners are listed elsewhere in the sidebar accompanying this article.
Format of the flying was at the discretion of the pilot. Many performed quite a bit of controlled hovering maneuvers, as is expected by the crowds. However, many typical outdoor FAI Pattern-type maneuvers were also flown. Horizontal Eights, Vertical Eights, and Rolling Circles (some extremely close to the floor) were common.
The 35-foot ceiling did limit the amount of vertical maneuvers or their duration. However, pilots took the opportunity to travel their models all the way into the rafters and negotiate through some tight spots while hovering!
Even at the slow speeds these airplanes can fly, sometimes it was sheer luck that they did not hit one of the obstacles in the gym. They were grazed or bumped a few times, but it never seemed to faze any of the fliers. They were cool, even in the face of adversity!
In the March 2005 MA I reported on the JR Indoor Electric Festival held at a Columbus, Ohio, sports dome. There I ran into Scott Foster, who was flying a small, sheet-foam model from Northeast Sailplane Products called the Blade. The unique thing about the model (and the pilot’s talents) was its ability, through the use of a variable- and reversible-pitch propeller, to hover nose down and/or back up in flight!
Scott flew a prototype of his variable-pitch propeller then, and at the E-TOC he had a production version (marketed by Hobby Lobby at www.hobby-lobby.com) on his model. Driven by a hollow-shaft AXI 2208/34 Outrunner motor and controlled by a separate servo just behind the motor, this system produced some wild, crowd-pleasing maneuvers in his hands.
During Scott’s routine the model frequently came to a stop in midair for a brief moment, and then he accelerated out into normal flight. At other times he would fly the airplane to the ceiling, point it straight down toward the floor, and stop its motion with enough reverse-pitch thrust to hover. Sometimes he would then "back it up" toward the ceiling again.
For his efforts, and with the help of the crowd’s reaction, Scott earned a well-deserved first place! Next year there will probably be more than one pilot flying an in-flight variable-pitch propeller!
The E-X Games:
The following night the organizers set up an obstacle course/racecourse. It consisted of many PVC (polyvinyl chloride)-pipe limbo areas and gates that the pilot had to negotiate the model under, through, or around. The race ended (stopping the clock) by dunking the airplane’s tail in a garbage can! Completed tasks reduced the final flight time for the course by 10 seconds, and missed tasks added 10 seconds to the time.
Each pilot was allowed to use as many models as necessary to complete the course. If the pilot damaged an airplane during any task and it was deemed unflyable, he could launch a different model and continue on the course. The contestant could also elect to repair the aircraft if a substitute was unavailable. However, if the judges ruled the repair excessive, the flight was terminated.
I knew before the first pilot flew that the night’s activities would result in many broken sheet-foam models before a winner emerged! The limbo gates (which were actually more like open windows) were difficult to pass even the smallest model through quickly and on the first try.
I was not disappointed. This course was designed to challenge the best pilots in the world! Pipes were smacked and models bounced off of floors, but some models and pilots performed most of the tasks with great deftness and speedy times. I can’t imagine practicing this sort of thing!
Several of the models these contestants flew were the same ones they competed with the night before in the E-TOC. Many fliers did have backup models, expecting to go through at least two or three before the night was over.
Again, the predominant power systems were brushless outrunner motors and Li-Poly batteries. There seemed to be no advantage to biplane or monoplane configurations. Models that had an abundance of power and were easy to hover complemented the pilots’ high skill level.
The E-TOC and E-X Games are worth attending if you would like to see some of the best pilots in the world fly small electric-powered models in some wild positions and escape nearly unharmed! The durability of these types of aircraft can make the not-so-skilled pilot less fearful of trying this type of RC flying and possibly graduate to larger outdoor models.
Come to next year’s event. Keep watch on the TnT Landing Gear Products Web site for announcements of the 2006 event schedule.
Tom Hunt 1 Dianne Ave. Centereach NY 11720
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
