I found this stuff at the 'Dollar Store' in BC Canada. It's officially called FLORAL TAPE, and It's $1 for a ribbon of 60ft (by 1/2")).
It is quite low drag, waterproof and stretches to about 70-80 feet if you pull on it. The great thing is that it's wax coated tissue paper of sorts (party ribbon stuff). Now that may sound heavy, being wax coated and all, but with technology these days, believe me its light!
It comes in dark brown (cloudy days) and white (sunny days). It is quite strong (holds up to the ground handling yet snips or breaks easily in the air), we usually twist and then tie several pieces together and go flying(no point in throwing out a snipped ribbon). At the end of the day we just roll it up and throw it into the field box for the next day....

It's called Floratape Roll by Artisanaut Craft Supplies.
WWW.ugarit.ca

Black is the best color for ANY days. White dissappears in all but the blues skys and is hard to see. Light colors in general are hard to focus on when your trying to watch your plane, your opponents plane and trying to avoid mid-airs.

that tape is also thinner in width would would be harder to see than the crape paper cut in half... and expensive!

but I guess for a rainy day, it would be an option, if you don't have anything else...

Thojo, you figure the ribbon we use is expensive? What do most people use and where do they get it?

party streamer from walmart or party city. You can find it from 99 cents a roll down to 39 cents on sale at party city. And then you cut it in half to double your value..

The streamers cut like Thojo describes cost about 15 cents. If you catch the crepe paper on sale the price goes down.

Cajun[8D]

Thanks. How do these ribbons hold up in the wet? I live in Vancouver BC (Seattle like weather) where it is always damp, and the grass at the field is usually moist.

Crepe plus damp grass = no ribbon. you get one drop on it... it will tear right there under its own weight (no airflow required.)

The waxed floral stuff is probably the right ticket for places where its almost always damp. (still biodegradeable so its not a bad thing to leave in a tree)

In the wet Portland area the environmental flagging from Forestry Suppliers, Inc in Jackson, Mississippi seems to last long, resists water and best of all degrades in time

We're planning to try some combat at our club. So far its just 2 of us using Tower Uproars to start with. We need some info on ribbons. How long, what you use to attach the ribbons to the plane, where on the plane they are attached and the kind of ribbons - soundslike crepe party streamers are often used or am I wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Spoiler

30 foot streamers seem to work pretty well. You can go a little longer if you want, it can help reduce the odds of a mid-air. In the US, the RCCA standard is a 5foot string leader. Using a longer leader can also help reduce mid-airs, so you might want to try 10-15foot leaders.

Tie the string to the streamer. It doesn't take much of a knot to hold pretty well, I usually just go with a square knot. If you're worried about the knot tearing out of the streamer, you can put a bit of tape over the knot.

To tie the streamer to the plane, I just tie a small loop at the end of the string. Then I loop the string around the tail of the plane, and pass the streamer though the small loop, basically creating a loop of string around the back of the plane. It's easy and works well enough. Some guys put holes in their tails or use some other method to attach the streamer, it's really not critical.

Thanks for that, the loop over the tail sounds the best for the airframe as do longer leaders.
[8D]

I always use a round servo control horn. Screw it to the tail and it makes a great place to hang a ribbon.

Our club uses Surveyors tape. Its thin plastic, comes in a variety of fluorescent colors(our lastest batch is pink) that shows up well in both clear sky and clouds.We've used orange in the past- that shows up well too.
We found it at Menards on sale for 85 cents for a 600 foot x one inch foot roll. In these cold temps(20*) in the midwest, however, it does shred away at higher speeds.

I've also seen it in Walmart and Tru-Value hardwares stores too.

Swede

Do you think this tape, the plastic kind, could possibly end up wrapping around the attackers prop and end up tying both airplanes together in the sky (possibly bringing both airplanes down, uncontrolled). The reason I ask is because I thought the plastic surveyors tape was quite strong? Would it be stronger in the summer/Warmer weather?

coro-

I don't think that could happeneven in SSC. At least, I've never seen it happen anyway.
The surveyorrs tape isn't that strong compared to a spinning prop at speed. It's made to break or tear easily enough for workers to break it by hand when using it for surveying purposes.
The crochet string we use is stronger than the ribbon and the props break it. Hitting a ribbon with the wing of your plane usually won't break the ribbon.
I'd think that since the ribbon in the winter becomes brittle it is less strong in the winter below 25 degrees.

Swede

You mean like this:



I also like this one:



I'm not a big fan of the flagging tape. Yes, it can stop a .15 motor. It usually doesn't, but it can. I have also seen planes pulled to the ground with the stuff. If you're using flagging tape, don't go for the deck. If someone grabs your streamer and pulls up, it can lift your tail and you flight straight in to the ground. I've seen it happen several times. (It's even possible with crepe, but you don't get as much pitch deflection with crepe as you do with flagging tape, since it breaks eventually)

I thought a tangle could happen. I think I am going to stick with the floral tape, it's 1/2" and water/fuel proof due to the wax coating. Basically it's a bit more expensive at $1.00 for 60ft but it will break when pulled on. We reuse all the pieces we can find, they tie together easily.

At one dollar a combat session, hell thats cheap entertainment by my standards!