<u>*edit* - think indoor rated heli's, sounds like all out door rated units will be a safety hazard.
</u>
Imagine a fast and furious game of IRcombat Laser tag... You have the enemy team pinned behind a ridgeline and can't advance to take that last flag... Call in tha AIR STRIKE!!! </p>

My vision:
Each team will be allowed to call in one helicopter strike per game by radio command to the game operator, usually myself. I will launch the copter and follow to the enemy position and proceed to assault. The team can then move forward while the heli supports them or just let the heli take all the damage until it's knocked out.</p>

Features:
-Fire on enemy players via IR LED
-LED hit indicator LED on Heli
-LED active team indicator LED</p>

-Full sound effects to include
Missile fire
Minigun fire
Heli take hit
Heli take off music
Heli explosion sound
Heli death music</p>


Concerns to address:
-safety
-crashing
-weight limit
-cost to implement
-range of IR LED w/o focusing
-aiming the copter at players
-are these flyable in wooded areas? or open areas only... (I assume too hard in wooded)
-cost, can I do this under $500 reasonably?
-is there a free signal I could tap on a the remote to get a voltage sent so I can send a fire signal? (like any copters that have a blinky light or something that hapens when you tap a button?, I could use that signal to turn it into a trigger)</p>

Range and Accuracy:
I can have one or the other. I can make a splash range of 6-10 feet, or a distance range of 100 yards that requires careful aiming. I may be able to get the LED's to focus down to a 10 yard range with a broad beam attack for general directional aiming. To put it in perspective, the copter will need to be w/in 5-15 yards of someone to attack properly.</p>


Background information:
I'm an Electrical Engineer and have developed a full fledged Laser Tag system for personal use. It closely resembles a variety of online shooter games. There are character classes, upgrades, flags, sounds, lights, realistic reloads, LCD's etc. The guns have ranges over 100 yards and spread comparable to real rifles. The game is done and supports 12 players currently. It's cold out, and I want some new features while I wait for it to warm up again outside for more play testing. I am trying to add some new features to the game and would like to consult some experts on the difficulty of implementing this game. Videos at IRcombat.com if you need to see, but I'm mostly looking for RCheli advice.</p>