2004 LSMAA TOC report by Gavin Walton

The 2004 TOC was once again held at RMAC over the weekend of the 13th. &14th. November 2004.The format was very similar to that of the Vegas TOC in that only one class was flown. The first day was the day for flying 3 back-to-back rounds of the 'known' schedule, which contributed 50% toward the overall score.
The second day was for flying 2 back-to-back rounds of the 'unknown' schedule, contributing 40%, and a single 4 minute free-style round adding the final 10% to the score.
The free-style was also run as a separate competition for which there was a separate trophy. Some pilots opted not to fly the free-style.
Our Judges for the event were Ivan Olivier, Rob Hearn and Hermann Schreuder.
Saturday morning saw all pilots at RMAC very early with some putting in a quick flight before the pilot's briefing which started at 7:45.
Flying started 'on time' at 8:00 with a sighter flight for the judges and everything went perfectly according to the timing plan thereafter.
To keep things fair each round had a new starter, with 9 entries and 6rounds to fly meant that everyone had a turn to be either first or second up and also to end a round.
After the first round scores were very close and after the all the known rounds were flown, in rather strong blustery weather, 5% covered the top 5scores.
Unfortunately Ruan Lourens had a throttle linkage problem in the first round which put him out for the rest of the competition, apart from that there were no other incidents. The unseen schedule, which was handed out at the pilot's briefing, came into play with many pilots scratching their heads trying to work out what was required.
Sunday morning got off to a prompt start with much better weather conditions. The unseen schedule was fairly challenging with some pilots scoring better than in the known rounds.
Following the unknowns was the 4 minute free-style event which produced some very interesting and well put together flying, what with torque rolls, hovers, waterfalls , high alpha flight and many other manoeuvres, and some to music, which do not form part of the disciplined category was most entertaining and a pleasant end to a great weekend's competitive flying.

The results were as follows :

PILOT KNOWN UNKNOWN FREE-STYLE OVERALL
Andre' Stockwell 71.94 64.98 63.3 68.23
Neville Wright 71.45 63.4 67.6 67.83
Brett Black 67.37 66.72 62.5 66.62
Gavin Walton 65.74 62.95 50.8 63.13
Morne' Brooks 64.55 62.66 0 57.34
Ian Edwards 53.3 53.66 50 53.12
Peter Labuschagne 44.38 50.35 44.2 46.75
Mike Hearn 39.2 51.4 0 40.12

The Free-Style was won by Neville Wright.

This was a very successful event and we look forward to a bigger and better event this year.
Thanks to RMAC for the use of their excellent facility, to the judges who gave up their time so we could have fun, to Richard Newton who designed the schedules, to the LSMAA committee for their input and finally to the competitors for making the event worth having.

Gavin Walton.
LSMAA 2004/5