NEWS 

  Quique Somenzini WINNER of The 1997 SAHARA Hotel and Casino's   14th International Tournament of Champions   Quique Somenzini WINS 1st Place  2nd Christoph  Paysant Laroux, 3rd Roland Matt,  4th Dave VonLinsowe, 5th Steve Stricker FINAL REPORT 97 TOC -Sunday October 26, 1997 by Albert Tejera 

The last day has come and gone. Only five pilots flew on sunday and the tension was thick. The winds were once again somewhat calm and it was a beautiful day. Steve Stricker's plane flamed out during his known sequence. This, I believe, cost him dearly. I did have a chance to talk to him later and he was more upset about his poor tail slide in that flight than the engine loss. 
 

Perhaps every one of the pilots had an error or two that day that bothered them. Even Quique had a poor tail slide that noticeably upset him. The mood was tense and serious for the five TOC competitors. During the morning, the sequence of names were playing musical chair but Quique's flights were consistent and his equipment worked flawlessly. 

I have heard it said that pattern (and IMAC style) contests are not won so much by the pilots brilliance but by the mistakes of others. The TOC is no different. In this case you had brilliance in all the pilots, it was just the few mistakes that spread them apart. 

The freestyles were a treat to the aerobatics hungry crowd. It was no doubt that Quique's flights were the most heart stopping of them all. There was no criteria in judging for this phenomena but the crowd sure enjoyed Quique's descending hovering. His plane magically drifted down to a foot or two above the ground. Bear in mind that the airplane is 37% of full scale so that we are talking about a huge airplane seemingly about to touch the ground. It was amazing to say the least. And it projected the most confidence in terms of talent and faith in equipment reliability to all. 

Christophe was a bit more conservative but not much. Dave continued to amaze the crowd with his transmitter upside down and behind his back as well as flying while looking at the crowd. Roland and Steve were the most conservative (in terms of gimmicks) but had perfect execution and timing. They all were truly amazing to watch. 

Counting backwards from fifth place when they announced the second place winner the first place winner became obvious. At that instant Quique's family burst in an emotional cry of joy. All the hard work had paid off. He graciously accepted the award and even gave miss TOC a kiss. After the event was over I overheard Christophe privately congratulate Quique for such a fine match. Quique graciously praised Christophe for his skill and wished him good luck for the next competition. This is representative of the attitude and professionalism these guys have for this sport. This is truly aerobatics competition at its finest  As I promised here is the equipment report for all the pilots in alphabetical order. Tod Blose,42% G-202,35lb,3W120,Menz 28-10,Futaba, TME-Smoke Frazer Briggs,42% Ex-260S,40lb,3W120,Bolly 28-12,JR, TME-Smoke Bill Cunningham,46% G-202,40lb,A3 8.8,Menz 28-12,Futaba Peter Goldsmith,37% Ex-300S,32lb,3W120,Bolly 28-14,JR, TME-Smoke Kirk Gray,41% G-202,38lb,3W120,Menz 30-10,Futaba, TME-Smoke Hajime Hatta,37% Ex-300S,35lb,3W120,Bolly 30-12,JR Frank Noll Jr.,41% G-202,35lb,3W120,Bolly 29-12,Futaba, TME-Smoke Ivan Kristensen,46% G-200,38lb,3W120,Menz 28-10,Futaba Chris Lakin,40% Su-26M,44lb,A3 8.8,APC 29-11,JR Wolfang Matt,38% Ex-300S,40lb,3W120,Bolly 29-12,Futaba, TME-Smoke Roland Matt,38% Ex-300S,40lb,3W120,Bolly 29-12,Futaba, TME-Smoke Mike McConville,42% G-202,39lb,3W120,Bolly 30-12,JR, TME-Smoke Sean McMurty,37% Ex-300L,35lb,3W120,Menz 30-10,JR Christophe Paysant LeRoux,37% Cap 232,32lb,Team 7.0,TOP MODEL 28-10,Futaba Benoit Paysant LeRoux,37% Cap 232,32lb,Team 7.0,TOP MODEL 28-10,Futaba Jason Shulman,37% Ex-300L,34lb,3W120,Menz 28-10,Futaba, TME-Smoke Quique Somenzini,37% Ex-300L,37lb,3W120,Bolly 32-12,Futaba, TME-Smoke Steve Stricker,44% Ex-300S,54lb,3W160,Menz 30-12,Futaba, TME-Smoke Dave VonLinsowe,44% G-202,38lb,3W120,Menz 28-10,Futaba FINAL SCORES     1997 TOC Scores 

'97 TOC -Saturday October 25, 1997 by Albert Tejera 

Despite stiff winds the show went on today. All pilots showing strong in winds that would intimidate the best of us. As a side note I must say that I have had the opportunity to meet most of these guys, and they all are people you would be proud to have as friends. They are as professional as a pro football, golf or basketball players when they are in the limelight, yet they are sincere, warm, and friendly good natured guys you would want to hang out with. If you are lucky enough to have any one of these guys in your home field you already know what I mean. They are all super nice people. 

Today they flew their unknown sequence followed by two free style rounds. The freestyle event as usual held the crowd spellbound to say the least. This year was even more amazing than last. The following are my thoughts on the most memorable freestyle performances. (Sorry if I've left your favorite pilot out.) They all were awesome and they all had the crowd holding their breath. 

Bill Cunningham wins my music choice award with a jazzy version of Steve Millers "Time Keeps on Slipping" coupled with well choreographed moves to the music. Unfortunately Bills plane went into fail safe on his second freestyle and was destroyed. he had experienced the lock out on take off so when he came in for a landing he came in from the other direction but he still got hit. I overheard that he had lost two airplanes before the event as well. Very sad that such a fine pilot and all around nice guy has had such bad luck. 

Chris Laken played to, among other tunes, a "rock 'n roll" tune with the catchy lyrics "Free stylin' at the TOC". Mike McConville flew to "Spirit in the Sky" with his transmitter behind his back. Steve Stricker amazed the crowds doing rolling "everything's" synchronized to the music. Quique Somenzini merely defied gravity as usual with some heart stopping, close-to-the-ground 3D weird stuff. Absolutely amazing! The LaRoux brothers from France were almost as amazing as Quique again seemingly defying the laws of physics. Interestingly their music was not as contemporary as the other pilots. 

Perhaps the most talked about gimmick at the TOC freestyle was performed by Dave VonLinsowe. In his first freestyle he turned around and faced the crowd while his caller Fred Weaver gave him directions. He didn't just fly straight an level either, he did point rolls and loops and point rolls on uplines and down. (Pssss rumor has it the secret was mirrored glasses on his caller! However, this is speculation by the other TOC pilots). Even still, mirrors or not, it was pretty amazing. Dave later performed another trick at his final freestyle. He turned his transmitter upside down (antenna down) and proceeded to loop and roll and do all kinds of stunts with his hands effectively on the wrong sticks and upside down! (what mode is that?) 

Who was the best? I personally have no idea. Man, it's gotta be tough being a judge. 

The turbine engine demo featuring Bob Violett's new "Bandit" came to a horrific fiery demise when, very abled pilot, David Shulman lost radio contact with the plane on his base turn. The plane got stuck in its own roll shortly after deploying flaps. It went straight into the ground. The plane ignited a bush on fire and was put out by a "Porta John" truck that happened to be nearby (with clean water thankfully) Later security and firemen showed up. David was pretty upset although it was obviously not his fault. 
 

FULL SCALE NOON AIR SHOW REPORT: Wayne Handley was awesome. 

(Anybody try that ratchet roll yet? ) 

The scores will not be presented until the banquet tonight where they will award the pilots 6 through 19th place tonight. The top 5 players will be announced tonight as they will be the only ones flying tomorrow. 

Send us  your comments: 
 
 

Keep checking back tonight for the latest scores! 
 

'97 TOC - Friday October 24, 1997 by Albert Tejera 

Today the weather was a different picture. The winds were steady during the first round today and all pilots completed their unknown sequence. (they received yesterday) There were no significant problems today however Bill Cunningham experienced a temporary lockout over the bushes past the end of the field. 

Suddenly the winds picked up after only a few pilots had completed their second round of the day. (the known sequence.) Within the span of an hour this wind had become cold and wicked. 

Noon approached and Wayne Handley performed an amazing full scale demonstration. He even did his famous ratchet roll (two points of four to the left and one point to the right; repeat) 

The Bob Violet Jet demonstration was canceled and the pilots had a meeting at one o'clock. Much to the disappointment of the crowd, they voted to suspend flying for the day. 

Steve Rojeki, the CD, instructed that there would be a change of plan for tomorrow because of the loss of today's known sequence and free style. Tomorrow only one unknown and two freestyle events will be flown. It was felt that since the unknown weighs so heavily and really separates those pilots that have more skill than just a good ability to rehearse a sequence. 

Steve's radio worked without a glitch today. His final approach to solving the problem was to change to the ham band and projecting his antenna straight up inside a blue plastic tube. This effectively doubled his range on the ground. Jason's engine worked flawlessly confirming his fix. 

All in all it was a short uneventful day with placement changing once again. 

'97 TOC - Thursday October 23, 1997 by Albert Tejera 

The day was absolutely perfect for flying today. Light to no winds,  a sunny blue sky and extremely comfortable temperatures. Today three rounds were flown;  only one round of the unknown and two rounds of the known.  Tomorrow will have a new unknown, one round of the known, and a free style round for all the contestants. 

As for the days events the current total scores do not show the tension and juggling for first place that went on today. During the first round of the day Steve Stricker edged out the lead over Quique Somenzini both scoring over  20,000 points performing the unknown pattern. Quique, as always, flew very consistently and his equipment worked flawlessly all day. Little did Steve know that he would be plagued with problems the next two rounds. 

In the first known flight, Steve experienced two PCM lock outs during his flight. Worried about his situation he changed frequency modules and finally transmitters only to find that a new problem cropped up just before his last flight of the day. At that time Steve discovered a stripped elevator servo and had to disqualify himself from flying. The rules gave him a zero for the round. Eventually this zero will be dropped so for now this set him back to 16th place. 

After Steve replaced the servo and today's rounds were over he was permitted to test fly his plane, so long as he did not perform any of the known sequences. His new servo worked fine but when he came in for a landing his radio locked out  shattering the nerves of his whole crew. He aborted his landing, flew around and settled it in nicely the second time. After about an hour of trying to duplicate things on the ground, with no success, they moved the antenna wire around and flew again. I believe they were not able to reproduce the problem again but the uncertainty is still there. 

Steve is probably one of the best prepared pilots there, having taken off one entire month from work and logging hundreds of flights. Many of the other TOC contestants have been doing nothing but practicing the last few weeks with the same intensity. Let's not forget that they are all Champions and that is why they were invited. This year the stakes are very high, $40,000 to the first place winner, $25,000 to 2nd, $15,000 to 3rd, 12,500 to 4th 10,000 to 5th and so on. Eleventh through Twentieth place receive $4,500. Words cannot adequately describe what these guys go through. 

Steve was not alone in having problems. Jason Shulman had two flame outs today, both during idle, causing him to fly incomplete rounds. Jason, confident that his favorite "best running" engine could not be responsible for failing, looked at the latest addition to his plane; a new soft mount. He theorized that the idle was changing because as his engine heated up, so did the soft mount. The hot soft mount in turn  became more pliable and made the idle erratic. Adamant that he did not want to compromise his delicate touch on the idle during the tail slides by simply settling for a higher  idle, some wooden dowels were constructed to turn  the soft mount into a hard mount. He too was allowed to test fly his plane at the end of the day where he did numerous  tail slides with no problems after his changes. His "mount mod" did the trick. 

Sean McMurtry also  had a flameout in the second round of the day. An engine adjustment seems to have solved his problem by the last round. The only other mishap happened  while still in Japan to Hajime Hatta. He apparently had a structural failure where a previous repair had been performed. The airplane disintegrated over a lake and was never recovered. He did not make it to Las Vegas. Everyone else merely had to battle their own nerves and count their blessings they had no problems. 

PHOTO: First day at the '97 TOC 
 
 

PHOTO: First Place (so far) Quique Somenzini