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n Bob Noll
WE HAVE a new Tournament of
Champions (TOC) winner—Christophe
Paysant Le roux!
Congratulations to Christophe. He has
finished in the top four at the five TOCs he
has attended since 1994, including his
second-place finishes in 1997 and 1998.
Thanks to Bill Bennett for another great
TOC, held October 18-22, 2000.
Since 1974, Bill has held the greatest
Radio Control (RC) Aerobatics contest in
the world. Now, as chairman and owner of
the Sahara Hotel and Casino, he continues
to host the event that brings 21 of the best
RC Aerobatics pilots from around the world
to his model airport in Las Vegas NV.
Christophe finally got the big $40K prize
to add to his previous winnings of $83.5K.
Wow! Not bad for flying RC!
The rest of the top seven were Chip
Hyde with $25K; Jason Shulman with
$15K; Quique Somenzini with $10K;
Roland Matt with $8K; Sean McMurtry
with $7K; and Frazer Briggs with $6.5K.
Participation in the TOC is by
invitation only. The group of pilots
consists of 11 from the US and 10 from
the rest of the world. Invitations are
based on an individual’s performance in
F3A Aerobatics (a Fédération
Aéronautique Internationale [FAI] class)
and Scale Aerobatics.
Representing the US were:
• Mike Caglia of San Diego CA. Mike is
a dental student at the University of San
Diego. At 21, he is the youngest TOC
competitor, and he has been flying RC
for 12 years. This was Mike’s first TOC,
The new TOC champion: Christophe Paysant
Le roux of Cherbourg, France with his Extra
330S. Inset shows the Extra in action.
April 2001 29
Fourth-place finisher Quique Somenzini, a native of Argentina who lives in North Carolina, competes with his Extra 330L.
Jason Shulman’s Extra 330 in flight during the
Freestyle Program. He finished third.
Three rudder servos ganged in Sean McMurtry’s
Extra 300L. Pilots used as few as two and as many
as five servos. Details are in text and in data sheet.
and he was invited because of his third-place finish in
F3A at the 1999 Nationals (Nats).
• Kirk Gray of Florence SC. Kirk is 39, and he has been
flying RC for 26 years. He is a CNC machinist. Kirk
was seventh at the 1999 TOC and third in F3A at the
2000 Nats. He loves hunting and fishing.
• Bill Hempel of Tucson AZ. A UAV (Unmanned Aerial
Vehicles) Army flight instructor, Bill is 35 and has been
flying RC since he was five years old. He is the 1999 and
2000 International Miniature Aerobatic Club (IMAC)
Unlimited Nats champion.
• Chip Hyde of Sierra Vista AZ. Chip is a 28-year-old
UAV pilot, and he has been flying since he was four years
old. A many-time F3A World Champion and past TOC
champion, Chip loves to bowl.
• Chris Lakin of Brookline Station MO, who is a
general contractor. At 47, Chris has been flying RC
for 37 years. A seven-time TOC participant, he was
seventh in F3A at the 2000 Nats. His second passion
is golf.
• Mike McConville of Monticello IL. Mike is marketing
manager for Horizon Hobby. He was sixth at the 1999
TOC, and was the 1999 IMAC Freestyle champion.
Mike is 36 and has been flying RC for 31 years.
• Sean McMurtry of Sierra Vista AZ. Sean is a 24-yearold
UAV pilot who has been flying RC for nine years. He
placed fifth at the 1999 TOC and was second at the 2000
Veteran TOC competitor Peter Goldsmith’s (Australia) crew checks his CAP
232’s fuselage structure after he performed violent Freestyle maneuvers.
Pilots use small hand-held models to practice maneuver schedules. Competitor
Dave Von Linsowe (Mount Morris MI) follows the calls while he rehearses.
The fuel tank and smoke tank are nestled in the fuselage of Sean McMurtry’s
model. All pilots used smoke for effect during the Freestyle Program.
Diana Lakin is ready to signal the start of her husband
Chris’s Freestyle Program. He competed with an Edge 540.
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April 2001 31
The top seven TOC finishers (left to right): Briggs, Shulman, Hyde, McMurtry, Le roux, Matt, and Somenzini.
Pilot Giichi Naruke of Chiba, Japan takes off with his Giles G-202.
Runner-up Chip Hyde’s Ultimate biplane performs during the Freestyle Program.
Photos courtesy the author Graphic Design by Carla Kunz
April 2001 33
F3A team trials. Sean likes to hunt when
he’s not flying RC.
• Gerald Neel of Mooresville NC. Gerald is
a landscape contractor, and he was fifth at
the 1999 Masters World Aerobatic
Championships. Gerald is 39, and has been
flying RC since he was four. He loves golf,
hunting, and fishing.
• Jason Shulman of Tucson AZ, who is 26
and is a test pilot for Desert Aircraft. He
has been flying RC since he was three.
Jason was ninth at the 1999 TOC and third
at the 2000 F3A team trials.
• Don Szczur of Chantilly VA. Don is a 33-
year-old manufacturing engineer who has
been flying RC for 21 years. He was sixth at
the 2000 F3A team trials and sixth at the 1999
Masters World Aerobatic Championships.
• Dave Von Linsowe of Mount Morris MI.
Dave is a model-maker for the automotive
industry, and he is 44 years old. He has been
flying RC for 36 years, and he was seventh
at the 1997 TOC. When Dave’s not flying
RC, he’s flying his Pitts S-2A.
International competitors were:
• Frazer Briggs of Hamilton, New Zealand.
Frazer is 25 years old, and is a software
developer. He has been flying RC since he
was five, and he finished fourth at the 1999
TOC. Golf and rugby are his other pastimes.
• Stephan Fink of Wackersdorf, Germany.
Stephan works in computer science. He is 39,
and has been flying RC for 26 years. He was
11th at the 1999 F3A World Championships,
and he likes to ski and play soccer.
• Peter Goldsmith of Sidney, Australia.
Peter recently moved to Monticello IL,
where he is art director at Horizon Hobby.
He is 37 years old, and has been flying RC
for 26 years. Peter placed 10th at the 1999
TOC, and he calls bowling and golf his
non-RC hobbies.
• Ivan Kristensen of Guelph, Ontario,
Canada. A 16-time TOC competitor,
Ivan has been flying RC for 34 years,
and he is a corporate pilot. He is 53,
making him the oldest TOC competitor.
Ivan was 10th at the 1999 F3A World
2000 TOC TECHNICAL DATA SHEET
In Ivan’s Extra 330S: left receiver—two
servos to Channel 7, one servo to Channel
1; right receiver—two servos to Channel 1,
one servo to Channel 7.
In Chip’s Ultimate: left receiver—top left
servos to Channel 1, top right servos to
Channel 6; right receiver—bottom left servos
to Channel 1, bottom right servos to Channel 6.
The only pilot who used as few as two
servos on the rudder was Giichi Naruke, who
used digital servos. The majority used three or
four servos, and Jason Shulman used five.
It is clear that the pilots recognized the
tremendous loads being placed on their
models’ rudders, and they realized the need
to ensure that the rudders held position
during the very demanding rolling turns.
The Competition:All pilots fly in the
qualifying rounds the first three days. The top 14
pilots enter the Semi-Finals on Day Four, and
the top seven advance to the Finals on Day Five.
Each day each pilot flies an Unknown
Program and a Known Program, which they
are given the previous evening. No practiceflying
is allowed. Computer simulations are
not allowed, and only hand-held models may
be used to practice the programs. A Four-
Minute Freestyle is also flown each day.
At past TOCs there was only one Known
Program, which was sent to the pilots early
in the year. In 2000, a list of 21 maneuvers
was distributed to the pilots in advance,
from which three Known Programs were
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developed. So you might say these programs
were unknown Knowns!
Weather was delightful the first four
days, with temperatures in the 80s and very
little wind. The flying was superb, as you
would expect from this field, in spite of the
fact that the pilots were not able to fly the
programs prior to the competition.
Before the official flights each day,
warmup pilot Warren Thomas flew the
Unknown and Known Programs for the judges.
The judges did not receive the programs
until the evening before, at the same time as
the contestants. Therefore, they had to do
some homework, reviewing the lists and
making call sheets for their callers.
Congratulations to Warren on the great
job he did. He flew each warmup flight
with precision, and never had to “bail out”
of a maneuver. This was a high-pressure
job, since the judges and all the
competitors were watching intently to see
if they could learn anything.
Warren made a “Play of the Day” early
in the week. He began experiencing a
problem while flying for the judges, and
decided he had to land after realizing he had
only throttle and aileron control.
Those watching held their breath while
Warren very coolly headed downwind for an
approach, and landed without incident. He used
the throttle to control the altitude and attitude,
and a large applause came from everywhere
when the model rolled to a stop.
Warren learned that only one aileron was
working, explaining why he suffered from
minimal roll control. A faulty crystal in one
of his receivers was the culprit.
There were three unscheduled events
during the first two days of competition.
A propeller broke on Stephan Fink’s Giles
G-202 as he entered his first maneuver. It was
a terrible sound. I didn’t realize what had
happened at first, as I watched ailerons shake
and the entire airplane quiver.
Stephan reduced the throttle
immediately and landed the airplane—
minus a good chunk of canopy that the
propeller blade had removed.
Further inspection revealed that the
vibration was so intense, the fuselage tail
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post had fractured and the model suffered
other structural failures. Stephan had to use
his backup model for the rest of the contest.
A low flat spin during Kirk Gray’s
Freestyle routine Tuesday resulted in him
parking his CAP 232 in a tree. With the
help of approximately 10 pilots and crew
members, Kirk’s airplane was retrieved
virtually unscathed.
The model was disassembled to be
brought through the brush, and a cheer rose
as the fuselage and wings were carried across
the runway. Someone even ran to the crash
site with wing bags, to keep them from
receiving additional damage.
Kirk told me the only repair needed was
to replace small portions of the leading
edges and cover with MonoKote®.
As the result of a slow and too-low
knife-edge pass during Silvestri
Sebastiano’s Freestyle Program, his
FiberClassics G-202 scuffed a wingtip.
Even at a fairly slow speed, the tail of the
fuselage couldn’t keep up with the rotation of
the nose; the fuselage broke just in front of
the tail, before the entire model broke up on
further contact with the desert floor.
Thanks to Mike McConville, who loaned
Silvestri his backup model, Silvestri was able
to continue in the competition.
A sad event was the theft of wings,
stabilizers, servos, and other equipment
from Bill Hempel’s truck while it was
sitting in the Sahara parking lot. However,
the fuselages of both of Bill’s airplanes
were not stolen. There were no clues
regarding the incident.
Thanks to Ivan Kristensen, who loaned
Bill his backup Edge 540, Bill was able to
compete with an airplane that was similar to
his primary aircraft.
The “TOC Sportsmanship Awards” must be
given to Mike McConville and Ivan Kristensen,
for their outstanding help to Silvestri and Bill.
The first seven pilots were cut from the
field Friday afternoon, and the remaining 14
headed back to their rooms to work on the
programs for the Semi-Finals.
In the Semi-Finals, the highest Known
score from the previous three days was
carried forward and each pilot flew two
different Unknown Programs and two
Freestyle Programs.
Results of the Semi-Finals, using the
best Unknown score, the best Freestyle
score, and the carried score in Known,
were as follows:
Christophe Paysant Le roux, 9,986.84;
Chip Hyde, 9,852.39; Frazer Briggs,
9,637.15; Quique Somenzini, 9,630.45;
Roland Matt, 9,553.57; Jason Shulman,
9,549.39; Sean McMurtry, 9,542.20; Kirk
Gray, 9,287.91; Mike Caglia, 9,274.01;
Mike McConville, 9,160.16; Dave Von
Linsowe, 9,138.95; Laurent Lombard,
8,930.12; Chris Lakin, 8,916.22, and
Silvestri Sebastiano, 8,506.71.
The top seven pilots went to Sunday’s
Finals. It was like a new contest, since no
previous scores were carried forward. Each
pilot flew two Known Programs from the
Knowns flown earlier in the week, two new
Unknown Programs, and two Four-Minute
Freestyle Programs.
The winner was determined by adding
each pilot’s highest score in each program.
Known is weighted 30%, Unknown is
weighted 50%, and Freestyle is weighted 20%.
Sunday’s weather was much different
from what it had been. Temperatures
dropped to the 60s and a 15-20 mph
crosswind developed. These conditions
came early in the day and stayed throughout
the competition, so everyone had to deal
with the new dreaded crosswind variable.
The first pilots to fly in these conditions
didn’t have the benefit of watching earlier
flights, to size up wind velocity and
direction. It was interesting to see the
competitors use their trim pass to determine
how much crab angle had to be set up, and
some figured it out better than others.
There was a sizable difference between
fourth and fifth places—probably the result
of crosswind management.
Jason and Christophe each won a
Known flight for 3,000 points. Chip and
Jason each won an Unknown flight for
5,000 points. Christophe won both Four-
Minute Freestyle flights for 2,000 points,
and second place in Freestyle went to
Roland Matt with 1,901.32 points.
The importance of the Four-Minute
Freestyle Program cannot be overlooked. (I
will comment more about this in the future.)
The results of the Finals were: Christophe
Paysant LeRoux, 9,929.48 points; Chip
Hyde, 9,874.12; Jason Shulman, 9,863.42;
Quique Somenzini, 9,720.29; Roland Matt,
9,152.12; Sean McMurtry, 9,134.99; and
Frazer Briggs, 9,121.21.
The 17th Tournament of Champions is in
the books. There was no announcement
regarding future TOCs, so we will have to
wait to hear from Bill Bennett.
On behalf of those of us who have been
fortunate enough to attend a TOC and
those pilots who have been fortunate
enough to be invited, thanks to Mr.
Bennett and the staff at the Sahara Hotel
and Casino for giving us a great show! MA
Bob Noll
2317 Acorn Dr.
Vestal NY 13850
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