Washington County rancher wins TOAL competition

Big names showed up at the first annual TOAL (Take Off And Landing) Challenge held at the Weiser Municipal Airport Aug. 27-28, but it was a local rancher and farmer who took home first place.
 Lance Hoch retired from the Idaho Air National Guard in 1998 and now raises cattle about 15 miles east of Weiser and owns a farm in Payette.
 While in the military, Hoch worked on electrical systems in several versions of the storied F4 Phantom fighter jet and other aircraft at Gowen Field in Boise, but now he has three planes of his own, including a Kitfox he used for last weekend’s competition.
 He beat out current national STOL (Short Take Off/Landing) leader and 2016 World STOL Champion, Steve Henry, who placed second, and the 2019 World STOL Champion, Toby Ashley, to take home the trophy in his very first competition.
 “Everyone just figured it would be those two in the final, but some guy who owns a ranch beat them both,” Hoch chuckled. “But I know them very well and it was fun.”
 Hoch’s aircraft, which was manufactured by Kitfox Aircraft in Homedale, produces 105 horsepower for a plane that weighs roughly 600 pounds.
 In comparison, Henry’s plane, a Just Aircraft Highlander, is churning out over 300 horsepower for an approximately 700-pound plane, according to Hoch who said Henry, with the help of a-- strong headwind, once lifted his plane off the ground at Nampa’s airport in three feet.
 Henry owns Wild West Aircraft in Nampa, an authorized dealer for Highlander and Superstol plane kits by Just Aircraft. His specialty is backcountry-flying plane kits, according to his website at www.wildwestaircraft.com.  
 He has won some of the biggest STOL competitions in the nation, including the Sun ‘n Fun Aerospace Expo in Lakeland, Fla. and the Oshkosh Airshow in Oshkosh, Wis., the largest annual airshow in the world.
 Toby Ashley owns Ashley Heating, Air and Water Systems in Boise.
 “He got put out of the round just before I met up with Steve in the final,” Hoch said of Ashley. “These guys have pit crews and people working for them, and they build these planes up. It’s no different than any serious motorsport.”
 Justin Harrison, the general manager of Idaho Water Sports in Nampa and a member of Nampa’s Top Fun Flyers flying club, was the brainchild for Weiser’s first TOAL competition.
 He went before the Weiser City Council in June, seeking approval for the event, which he received.

“It went really well, everyone was happy, the FAA was on the ground and they didn’t have any issues, so that was wonderful,” said Harrison, who hatched the idea for local TOAL events while driving back from an event in Florida.
 “I thought, ‘we have the best flying in Idaho, in the lower 48 states. Why are we driving 48 hours to get to this competition?’ We didn’t have an event and I wanted to get something going here,” he said.
 But Harrison’s vision included the average Joe flyer, so to speak, people who would be given the opportunity to compete with the big boys, like Henry and Ashley, on an even playing field. That’s where his unique TOAL event began to take shape.
 “I started dreaming up this thing, thinking about how we could get everyone involved, how we could even the playing field. I thought, ‘How can we get guys like me, who have $10k in their plane, go up against guys that have $300,000 in their plane,” he explained.
 “I used the analogy of top fuel dragsters. What runs those tracks? Well, you have bracket racers: they are the everyday Joe’s, just foot-breaking it, going against whoever, and if they get a good light and they run their dial time, they win. It doesn’t matter; you could be running a 20-second car versus an eight-second dragster, but you can still win. And that’s where I was thinking we’ve got to be able to do that.”
 Harrison said last weekend’s TOAL event was everything he had hoped for.
 “It was exactly what I wanted: The most consistent, the most practiced people with the best power management win,” he said. “It’s not the people with the most money or the biggest engines, or the slowest flying, or the fastest flying, just everyday Joe’s, the common man, that’s what I was after, just common-man flying. And it worked. The guy who won here in Weiser had a kit plane, a 100-horsepower plane on a Kitfox that’s built in Homedale. It was awesome!”
 Harrison said, after a discussion with Weiser Airport Manager Jim Metzger, that things are looking good for next year and that the event should grow. Weiser city council members in June expressed optimism for the event and welcomed the opportunity for visitors to come explore the city.
 “Everything went well,” Metzger said. “We probably had 150 to 200 people out here during the event. There were about six or seven motorhomes and some people camped out. There were no problems, no issues, no complaints.”
 For more information on Harrison’s TOAL Challenge, visit www.greateridahostol.com.
 

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18 E. Idaho St.
Weiser, ID 83672
PH: (208) 549-1717
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