mayday

I just had to run this by someone to find out if this would be a neat event, or completely irresponsible and crazy. I've gone back and forth.

I heard some guys down at the LHS talking about having a club event that went as follows. Please, nobody flame me. I've never shot at anothers aircraft before, I just thought this was a rather unique concept [&:]

-Have a "members only" day, with no kids, spectators, etc.
-At a field far from civilization
-Set up a sort of "duck blind" apperatus in between the pilot area and the runway, pointing away from the pilot area
-Two "shooters" at a time enter the shooting area. Allowed 3 shells each in a standard 12 or 20 ga shotgun
-A pilot, flying a "not-so-important" airplane takes of and fly's around in the normal flight area
-The moderator would signal "START" after the plane is airborne and under control
-The two shooters have 1 minutes, or until they expend their 3 shells each, to bring down the airplane
-If the pilot "survives" the round, they get to land and progress to the next round (like a standard elimination tournament).
-The pilot with the last surviving aircraft wins a "pilot" award.
-The shooter with the most downed aircraft wins the "Ace" award.

Of course this assumes:
1) All rules and saftey considerations would apply, just as if you were shooting skeet. i.e. no alchohol, designated safe shooting area, etc, etc.
2) The event would be strictly controlled. I.e. this isn't some crazy, drunken shoot out.

Part of me thinks this would be a fun, end of the season event for a club.
And part of me thinks it would be difficult to explain to an AMA representative if something should go awry
Then again, there's probably something in the AMA fine print about this, so you may need to find a farmer-friend with lots of land.

Thoughts?

Mayday

RTK

My Feedback: (1)

MayDay---I doubt the AMA would sanction that event But it would be a hoot!!

DENNIS C

My Feedback: (99)

We have done this with paint ball guns.....i think it would be a little safer yea think.

ICE_MAN

Haha thaty would be a hoot!

But paintball guns will be safer.. Yet with the Velocity up high enough and/or frozen paintballs it will do enough damage to bring down a plane

RTK

My Feedback: (1)

If the participants do any amount of hunting I would not be afraid of the guns, but of being hit by the PLANE. I've done a lot of Pheasant, Quail, Chuker,etc.......hunting in some real tight quarters with my friends and have not yet had any problems. (30+years)

Slyder

Reminds me of 2 older gents at my feild.
Jimmy flying his CL says "bet ya cant shoot it"
Stevey with one quick motion pulls his 44 from his belt and with one shot the plane was down.
This happened years ago before I knew them but it sure is fun getting them going on the story.

Mayday, I think that would be one heck of a sporting (plane) clay event.

isaacsgs

Believe it or not, you won't need them to be frozen, or turn up the velocity. They will go right thru balsa plane, no problem. I play paintball, and it really suprised me the power the have. We tried using plastic tarps like you buy in the outdoors dept. to make bunkers to hide behind. DIDN'T EVEN SLOW DOWN THE PAINTBALL!!

I think shotguns are too dangerous, but paintball markers would be a lot of fun. You could even just us a corplast combat airplane.

Antique

My Feedback: (4)

Something like this was done in Arizona years ago using automatic weapons, no limit on number of rounds or type of weapon...One of my friends built the planes, cheap foam deltas...Flew by and let the gunners have at it..When they killed the plane they bought him another...Even did it at night with tracers, I have seen the photos....Pretty wild...

RTK

My Feedback: (1)

Now your talking

ICE_MAN

I used to paintball... Been a while since I sold my angel.. I forget how fast they shot.[8D]

greyhound man

My Feedback: (5)

Ill bring some ammo.....maybe I'll be better at this than shooting skeet.

japan3d

We did this back in the 70's on my first trainer. .410 shotgun 100 rounds got one bb threw the wing.

Rcpilot

My Feedback: (78)

The problem with paintball--is that not many guys have them.

Most guys have a shotgun.

If you are going to use paintball guns--then the guys with the guns would have to be willing to loan them to the other shooters for the competition.

Personally, I like shotguns.[sm=punching.gif] Been hunting with a Winchester 12ga. since I was 13yrs old. Dad bought if for my birthday that year. Killed many pheasents, doves, quail with that gun. Not a scratch on it--and I'm 34 now. Clay pigeons tremble in my presence.

I think this is a great idea. Buy scratch and dent ARF trainers at Tower or other internet vendors. Make minor repairs to them so that they will fly and slap them together with old worn out engines. Everybody could get in on the action. Some guys could donate an old engine. Some guys could donate servos. They don't have to be pretty or expensive. They just have to fly.

Can I use #4 high brass turkey loads?[sm=lol.gif]

CHassan

My Feedback: (13)

That is not so true. I don't have one, and I know plenty of people who do not have any. Heck I've only shot one shotgunn and a dozen or so pistols. Fun but I'd rather spend money on flying things (besides projectiles)

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

Who will donate all the planes?

If a shotgun is involved, and the plane is flown in range, three shots will mean three downed planes...radioes...engines....

mayday

Aw, heck. All of us have at least one plane that has about exceeded the epoxy to balsa ratio for too many previous mishaps. Think of it as a way for your retired plane to go out in a blaze of glory. What tired old plane wants to spend its last years hanging on the wall of someones workshop, getting made fun of by all the other younger, faster planes. Nope, I'd rather go out in a big puff of balsa dust and monokote shards, gently scattered over the flying field that I love. (insert sound of taps playing in the background and image of club members saluting as the last wing-section slowly flutters to the ground)

Bruce Rolfe

My Feedback: (37)

Hey Mayday,
Let get Jerry Clark to donate a bunch of his stuff.LOL
Bruce

Darrinc

My Feedback: (5)

My only comment would be that I wonder how we could make them burst into flames when shot? Soak them in gas or something?

It would be far to cool!!!

Tired Old Man

My Feedback: (1)

What's scary is that I've had this situation (shotgun vs plane) occur at our local flying field when a neighbor decided she did not like R/C planes near her property line. The neighbors were lousy shots

Thunderbolt47

My Feedback: (8)

Hey The field in Goldsboro NC all ready has a neighbor that shoots at there planes. It's fun to do a snap roll as you hear the shot. Mayday Mayday!! I'm going in!! HEHE

ICE_MAN

Only Thing is... We like video's!


Whichever weapon you chose, one of the things shooting better be a video camera!

Newc

Make it a fund raiser by charging by the shot. I suggested this to our club in Michigan for an airshow we used to put on annually but the idea was 'shot down' by the members reluctant to establish the concept that shooting down planes was a good idea. I would vote for a paintball gun being used as it would be much more sporting. I agree with P-51B that three shots with a shotgun will result n three downed or seriously injured planes.

P-51B

My Feedback: (5)

Actually, the World Models Sky-raiders (I and II) are inexpensive.

This could be a whole new gun game, skeet, trap, sporting clays, sporting planes....

ZoomZoom-RCU

You guys are right. If you're anywhere near being in range, as long as the shooter can hit the broad side of a barn, your gonna lose a plane quickly. Especially with a 12gau. However, you could use a PVC pipe potato gun to make it a bit more difficult for the shooters. Would be more like AA too. Less hits, but when it hits, boy does it!! Imagine close to a full size potato, traveling at paint ball speeds. Mmmm, my mouths starting to water now.

Regards ZZ.

FredFerret

Our accounts dude at work is MD Of Charles Hellis and sons ,, (Check it on the www), and he was telling me the other day about
a corperate shoot they do involving exactlly this idea!!!!, and apparently the planes last longer than youd think!!!!!
im yet to go to one!!!!