I have volunteered to run a fun fly for our field. I have only been to one in my early years of flying and crashed on the second task ,lol so i dont really know whats involved. can someone please help me try and figure out how to run one. no one else at our field is willing to run it so i accepted because i really want to get some kind of publicity for our field.

our field id just chocked full of members that dont even come up to the field to fly, and i really want to change that.

any advice would be very much appreciated. thank you

Get local (even some online) vendors to donate items, and have a raffle.  Really push the raffle, it's good revenue for your club, and some people come out just for the raffle.

have some open flying time, and some games.  Games can include spot landing, limbo, climb and glide, etc.

serve lunch for a nominal fee

make sure you have the amenities available, such as porta-potties if necessary, you don't want your guest to be uncomfortable.

put out fliers around town, and at local hobby shops.

Kudos to you for taking on a task like this. You can start by reading the rule book which will tell you how to run the competition part.

http://www.modelaircraft.org/files/e...cialevents.pdf

I'd say for a small event you'll need at least 4 helpers at the event. One to help at the flightline getting the next guy ready while one flies, one at the end of the runway to get planes off quickly and help recover crashed planes, an announcer, and a food guy if you're going to have lunch. Having run lots of events at church and schools, I can say that you should try not to have a job for yourself at the event, except maybe announcing and putting the order of pilots together if you can't get anyone to do that. If you are the CD, you need to be available to people on tasks to answer their questions and to contestants to greet them and help them. You'll also need a publicity guy, which can be you if you want, to contact other clubs and put the event on all the internet listings. If you are going to use this to get the public interested, there's also the task of putting up flyers at local businesses and contacting whatever community calendars you have in your area. You might even be able to get the local news to report on the event if it's a slow day and you meet with them far enough in advance.

One key is selecting events that do not require excessive manpower to administer.

One type of fun fly event that has become a very popular regular for our club are 'wingless trainer races'. Just two cones spaced 150 apart down the runway and four wingless trainers lined up at the startline at a time, flag goes down and the first to comple ten laps wins.

Simple and hugely successful here, has the advantage that even pilots that may have not soloed yet can participate and frankly they usually end up the winners and most of us old hot dogs end up on our backs with gear in the air just like pac man.

A great deal of laughter goes on at our events and rules should state that any airplane that can taxi without a wing is elgible but must be flyable with the simple addition of a wing and cannot have more than three wheels.

These events for us have had member you never see coming out of the woodwork.

John

Hillbilly, I have been running my Warbird Fly-In now for three years and they take some work. However, I would say the event is honestly what you want to make it. You can go to your local Hobby Shop and see if they will donate a plane for the event and get some raffle tickets and sell them 1 - $1 or 6 for $5. I can't tell you how many to buy but I would say roughly 1000. They usually run $40 or so. But you will know how many show up to the events and that can determine how many you purchase for it.

One of the biggest things is people hate to wait. So if you have events have them run quickly. Some events I have seen are See how low they can go. Streamer set up and across the runway if you go above or hit it your out. With this you can have 3 - 5 planes up in the air. I have also seen where you send up three planes and have 30 seconds to a minute to climb as high as you can then cut the throttle and see how long you can glide before you land. No throttle is to be used once the time has canceled. Also, touchdown closest to the bullseye. Just some ideas. But again they have to run quickly.

But ultimately, make your fun fly a fundraiser for your club. Again raffle tickets, door prizes, and food. You can even have members make deserts i.e, cookies brownies and sell them as well. With the event being a fun fly have a landing fee of no more than $5 or free.

When it comes to door prizes you would be surprised who will donate to your event and get a flyer out to the local clubs around you and put them in the windows of the local hobby shops. Good luck Hillbilly and I commend you on taking on this task. Also, don't get down if you don't have a ton of people at your event the first. Doing it over and over again will draw people once they know it is around.

Good luck and feel free to shoot me a message if you need anymore suggestions.

Joe

Prises don't need to come from Hobby Shops. We hit up sporting good stores too and came up with some very nice fishing rods and reels, a lot of other good stuff.

-Our club has done a "Pot Luck" dinner to make it easier with the food end. Club buys the hambugers/hot dogs and everyone brings
a dish to share......if everyone brings bake beans....then we eat lots of bake beans !!!! Its a "pot Luck!" To encourage people to come
and bring a dish, we gave out entry tickets for a plane that was donated by Horizon Hobby:
If you show up for the event= 1 ticket
If you bring a dish to share = 5 tickets
Every time you fly= 1 ticket
Every flying contest you enter= 2 tickets
And then you can also sell tickets too. Had some smaller prizes too.

We tried to keep the contest simple so that any skill level member could be in.

Family member team games can be made up; Wife/girfriend needs to start the plane with no help from the pilot....pilot then needs to
do three loops and land.....best time wins

One event is a real hoot: All planes go up in the air........music is playing.......when the music stops, last plane landing is out! Music plays again and everyone left in the game goes back up. When you have ten planes up in the air at one tme and the music stops....it fu to see them all scramble and head for the runway. (use your beater plane !!!)

If you can get a club member to be the annoucer and he/she can keep it interesting and lively with the comments!

Good luck.....some work but well worth it if you plan.

This question frequently comes up on all forums. First as others have stated, Congratulations for taking up the flag. You are a needed addition to the hobby-sport.

As jester_s1 pointed out, the AMA Rulebook reference Special Events supplies a world of information. Now event 705, is the main Fun Fly guide. BTW: Please do NOT confuse the term "Fun-Fly" with the often stated, "Fly-In". "Fun Fly" denotes some form of COMPETITION. OTOH "Fly-In" denotes just a gathering of models/modelers for fun and games not into competition.

Now on to "RADIO CONTROL COMPETITION FUN FLY For event 705"

There are two important rules in that section of MANY suggestions.

One is: 2. General: These rules provide flight tasks suitable for unlimited time events as well as traditional mission-oriented, fun-fly tasks. They provide a variety of tasks from which a Contest Director can choose to define a challenging contest tailored for a given location, expected weather conditions and expected skill level of attendees.
The builder-of-the-model rule will not apply.

Two is: 8.2: Tasks may be announced prior to the contest or drawn at the contest. It is encouraged that a contest format has a variety of tasks. If the tasks are drawn at the contest, similar tasks (such as all looping tasks) should be placed together and drawn from once so that one type of task does not dominate the contest.
The CD may develop new tasks based on variations or combinations of the tasks below or using entirely new ideas for tasks. Unlimited tasks should be timed events, whereas Fun-Fly tasks are typically mission-oriented. Participant, official, and spectator safety should be considered when developing new tasks.

It all means that you can look over the presented ideas, and come up with your own. You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want. I like simple. I ran one for 12 consecutive years during the month of Feb. It has been dropped for the past two years however I am asking the club to let's start again next Feb. Sometimes it's cold and rainy sometimes clear, 70* and no appreciable wind.

Speaking of awards: My Fun-Fly had 4 rounds. Each round had 2 tasks to be performed on one flight. For example first round: Takeoff and allowed 30 seconds then idle or dead stick as pilot preferred. Task 1: glide to land at 30 seconds of glide. Deduct 2 points for each second over/under total 60 seconds flight time. Score landing at touchdown. Task 2: Touchdown in an area of concentric circles/squares for points such as 60-50-40-30-20-0

Most enjoyable event is 5 plane Out & Back Race. Flag drops with all engines running. Straight out for 15 sec. from flag drop. Time is back over a straight finish line. Points by finish place. The fast racer will not usually finish well.
#2 task is then all planes circle around, flag drops for a 3 minute balloon burst. have about 4 balloons attached to 8' of dowel sticks in different places. Models have a course to fly like a pylon race.
Spot landing, bomb drop, Limbo and several other items work well with this Fun-Fly.

Overall winners determined by numbering round winners with 1 point for each person they best in that round. The overall winner may well have flunked a round but had a barn-burning round so lots of points.

Awards then were percentages of the entry fees usually $10. Get 25 fliers and that is $250.00. 1st usually got 30% and such would be $75. Good day for a FUN-Fly. Club usually gets 15% but furnishes burgers, Hot dogs and such for the pilots and workers.
Even if the club treasury loses a few bucks, it is usually considered well worth the expense for hosting such a FUN-Fly competition event.