Anybody ever seen or heard of a real plane do a torque roll or other 3d stuff. Till I see a real one do it, watching models do it time after time at the fly-ins looks rediculous. Maybe I'm just too old!

Kirby Chambliss does this pretty well. Not all day long like we can with RC models but he can do it for a few rotations or so. Also does a good knife edge spin, harrier (cobra).

BTW, there was a long thread on this recently, you might be interested.

At an airshow last summer I saw a Yak-54 doa couple rotations before he started tailsliding. Tailsliding with full smoke. Looked wicked.

I'm sure watching gets boring after awhile, doing it however ain't easy and it's very gratifying once you can do it. I understand why others enjoy it because when you finally get the hang of it you are not thinking and just doing it, a very zen experiance. Other manuevers take a lot of concentration for me but if I start concentrating during a torque roll it works against me.

There is a french guy called Xavier De Laparent who flies a Sukhoi 26 in breitling academy colours, I've seen him do about 5 or 6 torque rolls whilst holding altitude.

I think the only reason he stopped was because it was getting boring for spectators, oh and his engine was probably close to expiring!!! lol.

Apparently, during his 3D display, and i do mean all 3D, he runs the engine absolutely flat out and it can't cope with it. It needs a rebuild every 3 or 4 shows, so I've been told anyway.

If anyone can find any videos, post them here, the only footage I have of him is on VHS.

He does, harriers, inverted harriers, rolling harriers, torque rolls, prophanging, flat spins. He actually does a sort of harrier landing, but he pushes out of it at about 50 feet to land, still impressive to watch though.

Will curtis does all the 3d with his uprated sukhoi. 12 g walls, harriers, elevators, prophanging, and can sustain torque rolls. he also did a perfect rolling loop.

Think he will be at the southern model show again this year.................

If you've ever seen a full size airplane do a torque roll with smoke on you wouldn't call it boring

Full size planes have been doing them for years, usually during a tail slide.

Perhaps boring was a strong word. I just mean that he keeps his display varied.

Too somebody who appreciates it, you could watch a full size torque roll all day, i could meself, but to the general public, you gotta give them variety.

I saw Will Curtis doing TR's, walls, harriers etc at the weekend, it was pretty much the only thing I found interesting in the whole show (apart from the RAF Falcons hercules doing a really low pass just after they had landed!) He was even talking to the audience at the time![X(]