RADIO CONTROL SCALE AEROBATICS
Mike Hurley
11542 Decatur Ct., Westminster, CO 80234 E-mail: [email protected]
If you're interested in Scale Aerobatics you most likely read my coverage of the 2002 Tournament of Champions (TOC) in the April Model Aviation. Hopefully you also read Bob Hunt's editorial in that same issue, and you know that the founder and sole benefactor of the TOC—William G. Bennett—passed away this past December.
Not only will Mr. Bennett's passing be felt dearly by those who knew him, but the impact will be felt for years to come by precision and Scale Aerobatics enthusiasts as well as aviation modelers worldwide. Some time for grieving and a realization of the full impact of our loss needed to pass before we started to wonder about the obvious. For many of you, the question of the TOC's future is burning.
For insight I went to TOC Contest Director Steve Rojecki. He has been involved with the TOC since roughly 1978. He first started doing the demo flights for the judges in 1978, 1979, and 1980. After that, the contest was held every other year. Steve then competed in 1984 and won that year. The contest skipped 1986, and Steve competed in 1988 and 1990 with a fifth and a second respectively.
In 1990 Mr. Bennett, owner of the Las Vegas Sahara Hotel in Nevada, was looking for somebody new to run the tournament and put a new spin on it. Steve volunteered, and since 1990 he's been the person closest to William Bennett involved in the contest. He has run the event from start to finish.
In my conversation with Mr. Rojecki we discussed the TOC's history and future. The TOC was the vision and passion of one man who surrounded himself with the best talent to make that vision a reality. The tournament was not created to be financially stable. It existed as part of William Bennett's desire to contribute personally to model aviation.
It cost more than $400,000 to run the TOC each time it was held, and that financial contribution was Mr. Bennett's personal gift to us, the modeling public. With William Bennett's passing, so goes the TOC. There were no trust funds or provisions left to secure the future of the event, and no instructions regarding the TOC were left in the event of his passing. The Sahara Hotel feels that it cannot support the Tournament without Mr. Bennett.
Does that mean it's over? As far as the Sahara Hotel being the driving force and financial backer, it does. In its original form the TOC is gone forever. But the leadership that ran the contest is willing and able to continue. I was not privy to any details, but Steve did make it clear that he has been in contact with potential supporters who are interested in continuing the tournament. At the time of this writing nothing has been finalized, and any future contest may be several years out. Steve did state that if a sponsor or group of sponsors made it possible to continue, and if the new supporters wanted him, he would be interested in running future contests.
This column is, by its very nature, one of opinion, and I'm going to give you mine in regards to the future of the TOC. There may be attempts to re-create, start, hold, or simply copy the TOC. I'm sure that most of those will be earnest efforts to continue the tradition of the TOC, but some will try to capitalize on its huge following and success. If the TOC is going to continue and retain its value and credibility, it must adhere to its original form as much as possible.
First and foremost, that means it needs to be governed in the same way, with the same goals and philosophy and by the same people. The TOC has always been an invitation-only event. As such, it bestowed a level of honor and respect on everyone who was invited to be involved. To be a judge meant that you were the best, and to be chosen to compete put you among the top 21 pilots in the world. Likewise, every person involved in the TOC's operation had the same elevated status.
Public committees and open forums have no place in ruling what has had a long established set of guidelines. Mr. Bennett was the sole leader in how the TOC was run, and to invite open opinion and change would destroy the essence of this contest. For the TOC to remain as close to its original idea and to keep its credibility and status, it needs to be run with the same leadership, ideals, selection criteria, and judging staff.
I also believe that the tournament should remain in Las Vegas. To move it away from that unique atmosphere would change the contest at its core. It's obvious that to finance the tournament some things are going to have to change. Possible changes include:
- Sponsors may be brought in.
- Admission may be charged.
- Vendors may be allowed to participate.
These are all things that Mr. Bennett would never have allowed, but they may be needed in his absence.
The TOC has been a boon to the manufacturers that have been involved. Many companies' sales lived and died by their products' performances in each tournament. It's clear that there is a continued need for a high-profile event that showcases the elite of model aircraft performance and flying skill.
It is my hope that the TOC lives beyond the years of the visionary man who made it all happen. It's going to be a rough transition, but when the smoke clears let's hope that we don't lose the character and the grandeur that William G. Bennett created in the TOC.
MA
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
