The next event was the open-routine segment: the Free Performance.
In this round, the entire audience would act as judges. Each spectator’s vote was worth a portion of 100 points, calculated as 100 divided by the total number of spectators. For instance, if there were 200 people, each individual's vote would be worth 0.5 points.
Since scoring with such small decimals would be cumbersome, the spectators would actually rate each pilot on a scale of one to ten. During the final tally, the sum of these scores would be divided by the number of spectators multiplied by ten.
"Everyone in the audience, please look at the operation panels at your seats. Once you enter your scores, the magi-brain Testa will decompile and aggregate them for us."
Jin felt that Marikka was making rather unreasonable demands of the magi-brain, though he quickly followed that thought with another:
(No, knowing Testa, it probably volunteered for the job with gusto.)
This was, in fact, almost exactly what had happened.
And so, the Free Performance began. Each pilot was allotted three minutes, though a few seconds of leeway would be overlooked. This was a necessary concession, as the optimal flight speeds varied significantly between aircraft types.
"Bib #1, Natalia, in the triplane Halcyon!"
"I wonder what kind of performance she'll show us."
"I’m looking forward to it."
With the introductions complete, the Halcyon took flight. After a smooth takeoff, Natalia began a turn to the right. One lap, two laps... she ascended gently, tracing a spiral in the sky.
After five laps, she reached an altitude of about thirty meters and transitioned to horizontal flight. From there, she suddenly pitched into a ninety-degree vertical dive. Picking up speed rapidly, she pulled up just five meters from the ground and returned to a level path.
"Ohh!"
Cheers erupted from the audience.
Just when it seemed the Halcyon would continue its horizontal course, it began a vertical climb.
"Is that..." Sion realized her intent. "A square loop, isn't it?"
"O-Oh, I see! Just as Sion-sama says, Natalia is performing a square loop!"
Having returned to its original altitude, the Halcyon turned to the left. Natalia began descending while drawing another gentle spiral. After five laps, she dropped to an altitude of about five meters and leveled out before entering a loop. At the peak of the climb, she transitioned into an outside loop.
"This is..." Jin let out a soft exclamation.
"It’s a vertical eight."
Indeed, Natalia was performing a vertical eight.
"Splendid!"
After completing the outside loop, she performed another 180 degrees of an inside loop to finish the figure. Loud applause and cheers broke out from the stands.
She transitioned back to horizontal flight, performing a right turn followed by a left turn. It initially looked like a horizontal eight, but...
"Oh? This is..."
"Is she overlapping eights?"
"No. That’s... a Four-leaf Clover!"
The Four-leaf Clover was a flight pattern more commonly performed by Control Line aircraft—planes controlled by physical wires—than by radio-controlled ones. Of course, since those were wired, the aircraft’s orientation in such a maneuver was entirely different.
"It’s beautiful."
"Haha... I see. Natalia is alternating between stillness and movement! She’s put a lot of thought into this!!"
Sion had seen through the intention behind Natalia’s sequence. Having finished the Four-leaf Clover, the Halcyon came in for a slow, graceful landing. The audience once again gave her a generous round of applause.
By the way, this kind of scoring is highly susceptible to the "first-impression bias." Initial performances tend to be memorable, but even if a later performance is judged to be superior, spectators cannot score it higher than the maximum of ten points.
To account for this, the organizers decided that after everyone had finished their routines, recordings of all the performances would be played back on the monitors. Fairness would be ensured by having the final scoring take place only after the audience had seen every participant.
"Bib #2, Shu Nidou, in the swept-wing aircraft Denkou, Start!"
"That’s a completely different type of plane from the triplane. I'm excited to see the routine."
A triplane and a swept-wing aircraft have vastly different optimal flight speeds and maneuverability. After takeoff, Shu’s Denkou climbed steeply at a seventy-degree angle. It was moving roughly twice as fast as Natalia’s Halcyon.
He went into a large loop, then another immediately after, and then one more. With each repetition, Shu tightened the radius of the loop.
"From the side, it looks like a whirlpool," Sion murmured as she watched the monitor showing the aerial view.
Having performed the fifth loop with a radius of only about five meters, Shu sent the Denkou into a seventy-degree dive. He pulled up five meters from the ground and immediately went into another steep seventy-degree climb. At an altitude of thirty meters, he plunged back down again. He was performing a high-speed zig-zag flight.
"I can tell it’s impressive, but... it’s a bit hard to appreciate," Sion noted.
Just as she said, since the scoring relied on the audience's subjective impressions, visual appeal and clarity had a major impact. In that sense, Natalia’s structured routine seemed to leave a more favorable impression than Shu’s technical display.
"Bib #3, Eugene Foul! He has... taken off!"
If biplanes and triplanes were considered low-speed aircraft, then swept-wing and delta-wing aircraft were high-speed. Elliptical-wing and tapered-wing aircraft fell into the medium-speed category.
After takeoff, Eugene ascended at a thirty-degree angle and transitioned to horizontal flight at ten meters. Then, he performed a series of continuous rolls. Following that, he executed an Immelmann turn to reach thirty meters before transitioning from horizontal flight into three consecutive downward outside loops.
"That’s a graceful performance," Sion remarked.
Because the speed was moderate, the aircraft's movements were easy to follow. Eugene transitioned back to horizontal flight at the lowest point of the outside loop, which meant he was flying inverted.
"He's very stable. That’s impressive piloting technique."
Flying inverted in an aircraft with a dihedral angle—a design meant to stabilize the plane while upright—made it naturally unstable while upside down. Eugene’s ability to keep the plane steady was a testament to his skill. Finally, he performed half an outside loop to return to level flight, followed by a Split S to fly low to the ground before landing.
"Bib #4, Greena Kuzuma. The elliptical-wing aircraft Tempest is taking off!!"
Greena’s medium-speed aircraft took off smoothly. After a brief period of horizontal flight, she performed a sharp ninety-degree loop to climb vertically. At thirty meters, she performed another sharp ninety-degree turn to level out, followed by yet another to dive vertically.
"A square loop."
"That is also quite impressive."
But she wasn't done. At an altitude of around ten meters, she performed a sharp outside loop. After a moment of inverted flight, she performed a ninety-degree outside loop to climb vertically. At thirty meters, she did it again. By this point, it was clear that Greena was drawing the pattern known as a Square Eight.
"That was innovative."
Having nailed the Square Eight, Greena moved into her next maneuver. She performed rolls while climbing vertically, making the Tempest look exactly like a drill. Upon reaching fifty meters, she entered a large outside loop.
"A vertical eight this time."
"This is also splendid."
Having finished the eight and returned to fifty meters, Greena began a vertical descent, rolling all the way down. However, as she attempted to pull up at five meters...
"Ah! She’s not going to make it!!"
Whether she had gained too much speed or her reaction was a fraction too slow, Greena lost too much altitude. The Tempest made contact with the crash protection barrier, ending her performance immediately. Fortunately, this only meant the routine was over; it was not a disqualification, so the audience could still rate what they had seen.
"That was a close call, but the crash protection barrier proved effective."
"Indeed....Now then, next is Bib #5, Sireen Eschenbach in her biplane!"
Low-speed aircraft seemed to have a natural advantage in these "show" routines. While Sireen’s biplane didn't introduce any radically new patterns, her performance was both technically sound and captivating. She finished to a deafening round of applause.
"Bib #6, Sidney Marek! The rectangular-wing aircraft with folding wings is taking off!!"
"The wings are extended. Aerobatics require lift, after all."
Sidney put on a performance characteristic of a low-speed aircraft. However, in his effort to make every maneuver visible to the audience, he slowed down too much. He ran out of time, and the buzzer sounded with his routine only about two-thirds complete.
"Bib #7, Werner Randol! The tapered-wing aircraft with telescoping wings is taking off!"
Werner also flew with his wings fully extended. It was a safe, conventional performance, combining loops, inverted flight, and eights.
"Hmm, it was solid, but I wish there had been a bit more creativity," was Sion's assessment.
"Bib #8, Florence Fahlheit’s swept-wing aircraft Blue Sky, takeoff!"
This was the second swept-wing aircraft of the day. Like Shu, Florence flew at high speeds.
"Oh, she’s really using that speed to her advantage!"
She performed five consecutive loops followed by five consecutive outside loops, thrilling the audience. Then, she transitioned from a rolling horizontal flight into an Immelmann turn and a Split S. From the lower altitude, she went into a vertical climb, a vertical dive, another climb, and another dive. It was a routine that closely resembled the Figure M pattern.
"This is quite innovative."
"It’s interesting."
It was a performance that successfully turned high speed into a spectacle.
"Bib #9, Elvis Alcott! The biplane Double Wing has taken off!"
This was the third multi-wing aircraft. Elvis aimed for a low-speed, elegant routine and managed to wrap everything up in a professional, albeit safe, manner.
"Bib #10, Rubina Garrett! The delta-wing aircraft Nile, taking off now!"
The Nile was the most speed-oriented machine in the competition. Rubina played to those strengths perfectly. She opened with five consecutive loops, followed by five outside loops, and then two consecutive vertical eights.
"Oh, this is amazing."
Because of the extreme speed, the Nile’s trajectory left visual afterimages, making the geometry of her maneuvers vividly clear. She even performed square loops while incorporating rolls.
"Th-This is incredible."
"It’s very energetic, just like Rubina."
The addition of the rolls made it a truly spectacular sight. Finally, it was Jin’s turn.