ZONE 2012FE

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40 AUGUST 12

Back in 2011 Stuart and Aide Smith launched the fi rst ever UK ‘Zone’ competition. Born out of the evolution of 3D fl ight

and the need for a new style format, the original Zone 2011 included many of the best features from normal tournament events and a similar judging criterion. The fi rst event proved extremely popular with amazing feedback from all those taking part. This year Zone took place at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Yeovilton, Somerset and although it wasn’t an established model show, as such, the event still drummed up huge support. The Fleet Air Arm Museum is a great location, displaying a huge aviation history with full-size aeroplanes and helicopters from many eras and it’s a great family day out. Over the last weekend in May the museum grounds played host to the Zone 2012 event, which was also supported by sponsors such as Horizon Hobby, Climb-out RC and Hobby Hangar.

The fl ight line was a magnifi cent vast and spacious area, spread over a concrete runway with a safe area for spectators and competitors alike. Just a few miles up the road there was the ‘Zone Village’, a very accommodating local hotel that not only had a wonderful bar and restaurant, but also an adjoining fi eld to be used as an evening fl ying site. A tip-top location indeed.

THE ZONE COMPETITION FORMATPilots fl y ‘one on one’ or a vs. style match consisting of three minutes to please the judges with a fl ight to music! The easiest way to describe it is a cross between the World cup and Wimbledon. Five points

In the Zone

THE ZONE FORMAT SAW ITS SECOND UK COMPETITION

HELD TOWARDS THE END OF MAY. WITH A FANTASTIC NEW VENUE AND SOME OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST PILOTS, THIS EXCITING WEEKEND OF HELI MADNESS PROVED TO BE ONE NOT TO MISS. JAMIE COLE WAS NOT ONLY ONE OF THE JUDGES AT THIS EVENT, BUT ALSO ROTORWORLD’S EYE AT THE SKY!

Team Mikado pick up the prizes. The 2012 worthy winner was Jamie Robertson

are up for grabs for each fl ight and the pilot with the most points wins that match before moving on in the competition. These points are awarded from fi ve judging categories. The competition has fi ve key stages as follows:

GROUP QUALIFICATIONS:In this stage there are eight groups from A to H. This year saw 24 contestants, meaning three pilots per group. The group qualifi ers are fl own on day one with the top two from each going through to the fi nals on day two. An important note is that the top eight of the 24 are seeded into the different groups, so by the end of the fi rst day’s competition we end up with 16 fi nalists going through to second day’s knock-out stages.

KNOCK-OUT STAGESThis is a little easier to follow and here we have the classic fi nalists just like any other knock-out competition. The fi nal 16 competitors go into 8 Vs style matches and these in turn go down to the fi nal eight pilots into four matches. The fi nal four then go into two matches. The ultimate fi nal results in a fl y-off match for 1st down to 4th. In total there was 80 competitive rounds fl own over the two days.

JUDGINGThe Zone event uses possibly the fairest, most accurate method to judge a 3D helicopter competition, in my opinion. Many current formats, used at other events, although good, are still based on the old FAI routines, where

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In the Zone

The judges tent with Peter Roper and

Ade Smith in deep discussion

The nitro machines present did very

well thanks to the new larger O.S. 105 and YS 120 engines

One of the other few nitro machines,

this time a Rave ENV ready for some

action

Jamie Robertson in action. Check

out that fantastic weather

Check out the blue sky and the

amazing site

This machine was mid fl ight and in

a very familiar position for the

weekend which was knife edge and low, be this in a tick

tock or at speed

Westland are based very near this site.

This Lynx helicopter took off to head

for peacekeeping duties. Very big and

very awesome

Essential to the Zone is the music on the fl ight line

and the pilots’ fl ights to music

This was one of the Fleet Air Arm Museum staff, and I am led to believe the guy that runs the museum. He was very taken with the R/C heli action

Group A

DuncanOsbourne

Dave Fisher

JuilioMember

Group B

Simon Von Baur

Jose LuisPardo Pla

Matt Gil

Group C

SeabastianGabbuti

AlexandreBosso

A Alcaina

Group D

DunkanBossion

Cyril Gelon

HarryDriscoll

Group E

JamieRobertson

Adam Turner

Pete Beborough

Group F

David Nolan

StephanSimmons

Pete Gray

Group G

Timo Curlis

BenjaminBosso

Jack Bishop

Group H

MattieLodge

TomasKlickanic

SebastianDuss

Day One Groups...

the score is averaged between fi ve judges. However, these fi ve judges are only looking at one or two aspects of the fl ight, based around accuracy, positioning and the overall appearance of the fl ights, therefore the judging becomes a matter of educated and reasonable personal opinion.

Yes accuracy, positioning and the overall appearance are an important factor, but so is the technicality of the fl ight, the variety of what is being fl own, the wow factor and, of course, how the whole 3D fl ight is put together and how it fl ows to the music. Attempting to judge all of these factors accurately across 80 fl ights or more is a formidable task. Breaking the fl ight down into certain key elements gives each judge a clear bench-mark to accurately evaluate and all of a sudden the competition results become much clearer for both the judges and the competing pilots. More importantly, pilots can look to earn points from the judges in a clear defi ned fashion. There are fi ve key areas and one dedicated judge per area:• Judge 1: Technical• Judge 2: Variety • Judge 3: Innovation• Judge 4: Excitement and Crowd Appeal

(E&C)• Judge 5: Precision

Smart pilots will look to play to their strengths. They only need three of the fi ve points to win their match and they’re through to the next round. And this is where I love this competition as it also becomes quite tactical. From previous experience I’ve found that it appears to drive the best out of every pilot.

ON THE DAYI should probably add at this point that I was one of the fi ve judges at the event, the others were Adrian Smith, Peter Roper, Trevor Roper and Trevor Waterfi eld.

On day one we travelled from the Zone Village (also known as the Half Way House), which is where most of the competitors were staying. The Yeovilton site is less than a fi ve minute drive from the Zone Village and when we got there we were presented with the most fantastic facilities at the Fleet Air Arm museum. The weather was the best I’ve seen this year to date with 25° plus temperatures although there was a strong wind blowing very across the site. The commentator for the event was Nick Johnson, a thoroughly likeable chap and a keen heli pilot who knew his stuff. Nick did a stunning job all weekend, keeping everyone informed, entertained and of course keeping the competition running smoothly.

At about 10.30am the competition got underway, with all the pilots curious to see who they had been drawn against. Clearly nobody wanted to be pitted against last year’s Zone winner, Duncan Osbourne, or even Jamie Robertson who had won the 3D Masters in 2011!

With the initial round of fl ights out of the way it was clear the standard was extremely high. Many of these chaps had obviously been practising very hard. Normally at these events you can see a clear divide on the standards: the highest of high, very high and ‘should have gone to Spec-savers’. However, I have to say that on this occasion everyone did themselves proud with plenty of stunning fl ights. It’s interesting to note that a couple of pilots had clearly got there head around the competition and even backed off a little in the qualifying rounds of one fl ight versus the next, clearly playing safe, rightly so, and playing that ever so important tactical game. It has to also be noted that 90% of the fi eld used electric machines and both the power and consistency these provided over the two days really showed why the electric

helicopters are so popular.We had a wide variety of machines in

the competition, the smallest being Adam Turner’s Blade 500, then a Gaui X5 through to the larger T-Rex 700s and Rave ENV / Ballistic machines. The Nitro machines that did fl y struggled with the day’s heat, but they still held in there and a couple of nitros did make it through to the fi nals. It would only be fair to also note that there were a couple of electric speed controller failures, due to overheating.

The breaks were made up throughout the day with some top fi xed-wing demo pilots using massive prop-hanging Extras, as well as a few very impressive jet powered fl ights.

Horizon Hobby and John Norris took the opportunity to showcase the new Blade 130, 300 and 500 models. These RTF helicopter packages were opened up on

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ZONE 2012

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Stuart Smith of Smith Brothers fame is one of the event’s founders

Matt Gill gives the event a big thumbs up

Nik Johnston our commentator for the weekend

the fl ight line, checked and then fl own very hard; proving that Horizon Hobby’s ‘out of the box’ concept works pretty darn fi ne!

I think my favourite part of the day was seeing pilots taking advantage of the super smooth runway surface. There were many sliding auto-rotations and lots of fun ‘mid-fl ight’ with machines sliding along the runway, some of them inverted!

THE VILLAGEThe evening spent back at the Zone village was simply awesome. The atmosphere was relaxed and everyone clearly enjoyed themselves: lots of food, fl ying, night fl ying and a whole head of beer later on in the evening: lovely jubbly!

The Smith boys, however, had scuttled off back to base camp to total up the scores to fi nd out who was through to the fi nal 16 fl y-offs on Sunday.

Before 9.00pm, the results were produced and to be honest I don’t think there were any signifi cant surprises. Everyone that deserved to go through got through. Those that didn’t still seemed pretty pleased as well. I didn’t hear any complaints, which again proves the concept. A great result for day one.

DAY TWO: SUNDAYA few folks looked somewhat worse for wear on Sunday morning, but none of these were in the fi nal 16. The weather was once again fantastic, but today the wind was fl at calm, which made it interesting as with less wind than on day one, pilots would almost certainly be fl ying even closer to the edge!

Those making it through had clearly turned up the heat. Duncan Osbourne was his usual super smooth self as he fl ew some amazing technical fl ights with fantastic accuracy. It was soon apparent that the marking and scores were getting tighter between pilots and some of these fi nal 16 fl ights were very hard to call, but thanks to the judging criteria it was easy to distinguish some clear winners. With the morning’s fl ying complete, the organisers scurried away again to total up the scores; leaving certain nervous pilots waiting to see if they had done enough to make through.

At this point we were treated to further great demo fl ights from Horizon Hobby, the fi xed wings guys such as Thomas David and a pilot of a Thunder Tiger G4 who seemed to be doing a speed test along the concrete runway. I am led to believe this resulted in one of the most spectacular spankings of all time, ending up with battery packs speeding down the

1. Duncan Osbourn vs Tomas Klickanic2. Simon Von Baur vs Benjamin Bosso3. Seabastian Gabbuti vs Stephan Simmons4. Dunkan Bossion vs Adam Turner5. Jamie Robertson vs Cyril Gelon6. David Nolan vs Benjamin Bosso7. Timo Curlis vs Jose Luis Pardo Pla8. Mattie Lodge vs Dave Fisher

Final 16

runway as fast as the model did.When the fi nal eight pilots were

eventually announced, the tension really began to mount.

The fi nal eight rounds resulted in some of the closest fl ights in the competition, with the likes of Simon Von Baur banging in plenty of amazing moves to try to unsettle the ever-calm Duncan Osbourne. This included one of the most spectacular autos I have seen with a full on Blade stop which spooled back up into a roll and another fl ip at the bottom. Amazing stuff and truly pushing the limits.

At this point judging became very diffi cult, as every pilot was so good in every aspect of the criteria. However, the fi nal four were announced as:

All the guys were amazing and very hard to choose between, but Duncan Osbourne just lost out to Dunkan Bossion. Both pulled out very different styles and both scored very highly but Bossoin, who had the advantage of going second after winning the coin toss, clearly turned up the heat massively when he saw Duncan’s fl ight and was able to do all that was needed.

The next biggest surprise for me was Timo Curlis and Jamie Robertson’s fl ights. Timo pulled all kinds of crazy new stuff and was so super accurate, scoring high with the crowd pleasing element and, from what I remember, a full on ‘head-height’ roll at the end of an auto. This left the fi nal to play for with Jamie Robertson announced as the fi nalist along with Dunkan Boisson.

Dunkan won the coin toss resulting in Jamie up fi rst. This clearly puts the pressure on as the fi rst guy needs to turn up the heat, however, too much heat, push it too far over the line and it’s all over. Jamie Robertson pulled out the music he used in an earlier routine and nailed an awesome fl ight.

However Dunkan Boisson had made it to the fi nal for a reason, whilst not as accurately in time to the music as Jamie, his last fl ight was simply stunning: lower, bolder, harder and sometimes more

1. Duncan Osbourne vs Simon Von Baur2. Seabastian Gabbuti vs Dunkan Bossion3. Jamie Robertson vs David Nolan4. Timo Curlis vs Dave Fisher

Final 8

1. Duncan Osbourne vs Dunkan Bossion2. Jamie Robertson vs Timo Curlis

Final 4

Danny Lock, Adam Turner and Harry Driscoll, three of

the Horizon UK heli fl ight team

The new Blade 130’s fi rst UK outing

– we will have one soon but it looks

perfect

Sebastian Deuce had a tough week-

end putting the machine in on more

than one occasion just trying to push

for that excitement and wow factor

points, just a little too far

The TSA Infusion was one of the few

nitro machines in action, but it made

it to the fi nal 4

Duncan’s T-Rex 700 ready for action. It is surprisingly very standard with the all new DFC head but my god does

this thing rock

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ZONE 2012

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One of the fi xed line displays, a nice break and some great fl ying

The fi rst UK fl ight of the Blade 500X, out of the box and in public in the hands of Adam Turner

The victory fl ight pilots and the Zone number 1 and 2 for 2012

The UK’s Duncan Osbourn was on fi re as usual

The Blade 500X spinning up ready for action

The Blade 500X vertical in a dive

Team Gaui brought some X7s and X5s

This is just one of 50 stunning shots of the victory fl ight shared by Jamie Robertson and Duncan Boisson

Jamie Robertson after just fi nishing his victory fl ight

Opti-Power was a major sponsor

Jamie Robertson and a Logo, a popular choice in the 2012 season and the

ultimate 2012 winner

technical and, to be honest, before he took it he was well in with a chance of winning. I have to say that Jamie looked a little concerned that he hadn’t done enough and I suspect he had a lot more up his sleeve.

So Dunkan took off and jeez did he mean business, he was on it. However, about 30 seconds to a minute into the fl ight he pushed just a little further than he should and spanked it! Jamie Robertson punched the air as he realised he was the clear winner!

The best was yet to come though as they both fl ew a victory fl ight in tandem with some amazing results.

CONCLUSIONSI loved this event for the following reasons:• A UK venue pulling international

competitors• A fantastic competition site, with toilets,

running water, a restaurant and a roof if needed

• Somewhere to take the family for a day out

• A massive wide open space to fl y• The weather was just superb• The knockout style is exciting• The judging style is spot on• It works• It feels professional• Some amazing fl ights from the world’s

best – check them out on YouTube• Blade stop autos• Hardcore crashes• Sun burnt judges• Pete Gray looks like a bang tidy lady

from behind!• Some Drunken Norwegians causing

havoc• The night fl ying at the Zone Village

All the Smith crew did an amazing job at this event. It’s not just Stuart and Adrian but also Graham (the little known but very tall older brother) Jane and Richard (Mum and Dad) and many others. Great job guys. Bring on 2013! To fi nd out more about the Zone competition visit www.zoneformat.com

Jamie Cole

1st Jamie Robertson2nd Dunkan Bossion3rd Duncan Osbourn4th Timo Curlis

Final Results

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