adamle

Hi, I'm looking for some input from you. Last year I organized and lead our club's Fun Fly Event. We don't have a large club (30 members) and 13 pilots came out for the event. We had pizza and beverages before the contest as well as a silent auction with some nice prizes. My question for the RCUcommunity is, "What events have you had at your clubs' Fun Flys that worked well and the pilots had some fun in?"

We do a ground handling competition, a few flying, and a landing competition. Most of our pilots fit into the 'Sport Pilot' category. We don't have many 3Dpilots.Our pilots fly a variety of planes from UCan Dos, Sig SomethinExtras, Sig Meyhems, 4 stars, LT 40s, andafew fun-fly style planes.

Any help wouldbe great. Our event is in the summer, but I'm notbuilding a new plane thisyear soI have timeto sit around and think about this kind of stuff.

Adam

KitBuilder

Poker.. where you layout a poker hand (large) among other cards along the runway and pilots try to hit the cards for royal flush, etc..
You strap a cup to the top of your model with something inside to drop and roll to release over a target.
Limbo (of course) with paper mache' type spanner but fly through inverted.
Maybe 5 planes all flying the same direction away from runway at same height... yell go and first one down on the runway.. ont its wheels, in one piece wins.

Hossfly

My suggestions to you is to go to the AMA Web sites and read up on the RC Special Events Rule 705.
http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/2...cialEvents.pdf

Here you will find a great amount of ideas for Fun Fly competitive events from super easy to very much difficult.

Depending on how you wish to go you can adapt to your desires. The rules even include a statement - paraphrased: Contest Directors are urged to include their own events and rules. This is good because you can have your Event sanctioned as Class A Competition. If you're not a Contest Director, you can easily obtain that . Look it up on the website or call AMA.

Here is a rather simple Fun Fly that I CD each year (16 so far) in the cool weather. I change the events each year. I run 4 rounds, each round has two (2) tasks. Keeps it interesting.
Round ONE: BTW use aircraft movement as a start time. If you try gear off the ground, you leave room for differences. Task 1: Pilot has 30 seconds to fly as he wants. Engine back to IDLE. (Using stop can preclude a safe landing) pilot then glides to a Spot landing. Usually some circles or squares for points. 30 second glide a total time of 60 seconds - is top score. Loose points if touchdown either early or late. Make points of the touchdown (TASK 2) spot to be close to the score of C & G.

Round TWO: Task ONE: Using cups with a dowel piece through the bottom and rubber bands to hold it on. Ribbons (the stuff red in color used for laying out buildings roads etc at any hardware or blding store has it, is excellent.) I use washers with a ribbon tie to it. Using that spot landing on the runway, you can have a Bomb Drop. Take off with cup loaded. NOTE any pushing nose down will release the bomb from cup. Tell fliers to NOT watch the bomb or airplane will follow it down BTDT!
Have a LIMBO. Make it wide and high. I use 60 feet and 6-7 feet high. Crochette String takes wind and will break if any model hits it. Tie some ribbons every 7-10 feet for ease of seeing it. Give flier a time like 2-3 minutes to make as many limbo passes as he can during the time. It is fun for all and many new fliers do well with a high limbo.

LUNCH BREAK and preare field for Rnd 3

Round THREE: Task 1: Out and back RACE: I use 4 at a time. All get started and horn blows. Must be off at 100 ft marker. Fly straight out with not higher than 25 ft, (judge's call) for 15 seconds. Horn blows and models come racing back. Have long pole way out and that is the time-point for a 1-2-3-4 placing with points.

BEFORE this round starts set up and prepare for a Balloon Burst (Task 2). I set up 5 balloons helium with a 6-8 ft dowel stuck into some tubes in the ground. You will need a fair number of spares.
Immediately following the O&B race. Modells go into a HOLD until Horn blows. I use 3 minutes for time to bust balloons. Models fly a predetermined race track about 70-90 feet away from ther flight line. I set scores for busting, score for knocking balloon off and some others that you will think of, just don't get complicated. When a balloon is loose the pilots can go after it until the flight-line boss calls it out of play. have different points for different items. I make up score sheets and judges enter points of the tasks.
This event is the favorite of the pilots and the watchers also hoop and hollow it up. Kids love it.

Round "FOUR" Different each year. I dream up something quick and easy like a LeMan's start and followed by a Musical Chair landing.

This year Round Two as described will be deleted and th R-3 above will be R-2. The last 2 Rounds, maybe just one Rnd will be really different. I am setting up a PAINT BALL EVENT for 1 or 2 rounds.

Look up the AMA RC Special Events 705. There are many ideas for a very much Fun Fly event. Take your choices or invent your own.

Final scoring: I use 1st place of a round to be top points in that round. He gets points for each guy he beat. Say there are 10 pilots. Round Winner gets 9 points because he bested 9 others. Last placer gets nothing. SAD!! Do same for each competitor all rounds. Top man may not have won any round or may have them all. A guy that does well in 3 events but really drops a round still has a chance to be up high. Takes some time. Have some good buddies working this out. It takes time.

Each Round Winner gets a prize. Then the top 4 overall get a prize. It works very well.

This year our prizes will be smaller as Jetero RC Club, Inc. (www.jetero.com) will donate all we can to the Dayton TX Volunteer Fire Department. We expect to do well since I personally finance this event. Not rich but OK and being a Life Member of AMA, and a Life Member of Jetero, I get to give something back.

Best of LUCK there. Let me hear from your jump into helping your Club and its members.
Please excuse typing and spelling. I'm very slow with this stuff.

mscic-RCU

My Feedback: (6)

Egg drop is always entertaining, especially when pilots watch the egg and not their plane.

adamle

Thank you. Those are some great ideas. One event that everyone enjoys is the Aerial Golf. We attach a cup to the plane and you then drop it as close to the target as possible. Last years winner was 47 feet. Seems like a long way but we had a lot of balls dropped further that our 100 foot tape measure.

Im concerned about having more that one plane in the air at a time. Midair collisions are rare at our field and I could see a few people getting a bit grumpy about risking their plane. Have you had a problem with that?

Thanks again keep the ideas coming.

MajorTomski

Get a syringe and give them ONE ounce of fuel. Now ask them to tell you how long their plane will stay in the air at full throttle on that one ounce of fuel. They can't land till the engine quits. Winner is the guess that's closest to their own time.

JohnBuckner

My Feedback: (1)

Convert your cumbersome ground handling event to a Wingless Trainer race. Far less tedious and very exciting as well as very quick to set up.

Two cones around a 100 or 150 feet apart lined up on the runway centerline. Line up four trainers at a time at the startline and when the flag drops the first to complete five or ten laps wins no wings allowed.

This is been a very successful event in past for us and coming up agine this year even as a stand alone event.

John

Gray Beard

My Feedback: (-1)

Sort of a take on Johns race but no one in the events I have ever flown had a trainer and most fun fly planes can't remove the wing but we set up a bunch of cones or milk jugs in a course then you had to negotiate around the cones, a timed event. Trike geared planes have the advantage in this event. If your field is grass then ground events may not be good for you?
I have seen the races with trainer fuses as John mentioned and you can't help but to laugh!!