kotori

Hi all,

My buddies and I are interested in getting into RC combat. Trouble is we're all extremely limited in storage space right now, so I am wondering how well micro planes like the ParkZone Ultra-Micro P-51, Mosquito, etc. would work. Are these good choices? Might there be other, similar-sized planes that would work better? Keep in mind that we are extremely limited in storage space, so size is a big concern.

Thanks!

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

You'll have the most combat time with the least amount of work and expense with planes that are slow and light.
I can't speak about the planes you listed, but planes like the Slow Stick have enough wing area and are light enough to give you the kind of action I'm talking about.

vertical grimmace

My Feedback: (1)

It is my belief that to fly combat you only need 2 things, planes capable of hauling a streamer, and pilots willing to fly combat. The latter will be the biggest obstacle over the long term. So I say go for it!

kotori

Thanks guys. I will give it a try with my brother, and hopefully some of our friends will join in once they see us up there.

Clean

Whoa, are you talking about the Parkzone fighters that run 130 bucks per setup?? You do realize that there is a LOT of touching going on in combat, touching that will inevitably end up destroying planes.

BUT you could build some electric combat planes that are designed for combat, both in streamer pulling, maneuverability, controllable flight speeds AND cheap replacement.

Things like these:
Simple Foam Delta Wing, for fun or...COMBAT!
and
WWII Combat planes
and
I'm also missing the flat ones but I think they're on this forum.

Tequesta

Clean the first link is dead

Clean

http://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1061750

Here's the one I wanted anyways. Let me look and see what happened to the first link



Edit. first link fixed. the above link however is the Fast and Furious Fan fold plane. simple, straight forward build for ribbon pulling not full contact. Cheap to build, basically 50 cents of foam for 50 bucks of gear. At least the gear usually lasts many airframes.

kotori

We've had the micro P-51's for three days now. It is readily apparent that my brother hasn't flown for a long time, but he is getting the hang of it again. I'm loving it. Not the same as sailing my square-rigged tall ships, but great fun. Since we started flying, a number of other pilots have appeared out of the woodwork and started sending their own planes skyward. There are at least four other guys here, who may get P-51's of their own once my brother and I start combat. The only thing holding us up right now is a lack of streamers. I'm looking for a local source of the lightweight paper party streamers, that I can hopefully cut down to a reasonable size. The local craft store didn't have any, so tomorrow I'll be checking the commissary and the Navy Exchange.

Clean

If you have access to either one of those blade cutters or if you lucky enough to work with access to a cutting press, take normal crepe paper streamer to the length you want and wrap that tightly around a 1 or 2 inch cardward center.  Wrap it tight.  If your cutter has a safety bar on it that the paper has to go under and you can't get rid of it, you're stuck but if it's older and you don't have that little rod lay the wrapped core on the table with your desired thickness and carefully pull down on the handle.  It will want to walk so take care.  If you aren't wrapping that long of a length you might get by with heavy duty scissors.  Don't use cardboard for your center just use a piece of 80-100 bond paper and make the core a couple inches long to make the area you're cutting thinner.

With a press cutter just wrap it tight, set the stop depth for your desired width and place it in correctly and operate the cutter per manual.  The last ones I had were cut this way using lightweight table cloth on a scrap 1 inch piece of balsa for the core.  The paper table cloth was from a dollar store.  Wrapped and cut it made a bunch of streamers.

I'm surprised that you feel confident enough with the speed and durability of the micros so good luck.  Remember though, if they don't hold up well but combat seems like fun to you (and it IS fun) try that fast n furies design, you'll like it.

combatpigg

My Feedback: (3)

Ideally, the planes should have low wing loadings and be propped for low speed and enough power to manuever at will. The lighter they are, the less damage they will sustain over a grass field and the less damage they will do to each other.
I've flown hundreds of actual RC combat hours with .049-.061 glow powered planes that were built from balsa sticks and covered with colored cellophane. They met the criteria for slow, light, manueverable, easy to avoid mid air collisions with, etc....but had the drawback of being messy, oily, fuel soaked, etc.
I always felt that electric power with a impact resistant foam wing would be the best solution if they could be built light enough to fly slowly.

Fast RC combat isn't really dog fighting as much as it is just high speed jousting and playing chicken with head on passes. Real fur ball dog fighting is best with planes that are too slow to "make a run for it". Having equally matched planes is also the most ideal for the best action and least carnage. You want to keep the speed differential as close as possible.
If the planes can't be set up to fly at a speed that allows me to follow the plane ahead of me through at least a couple attempts to shake me off, then the action is too fast and the quality of the matches will be reduced to more random mishaps instead of actual deliberate manuevering.

Little depron flying wings, or cellophane covered balsa stick frame flying wings would be my best bet for reaching all the design goals I've got for micro electric combat.