What is the best thing to use for streamers? Me and some of my freinds what to do some combat and am trying to figure out what to use for streamers.

The best thing is the dennecrepe from Hattrick. [link]http://www.hattrickrc.com[/link].

For just goofing around, you can also use party streamer material, though you'll probibly want to cut it in half. The easiest way to cut it seems to be to cut it to length, roll it up, then cut it in half with a bandsaw.

Forestry tape is also good for messing around, though it's really hard to cut (compared to the crepe)

Thanks for advice. Also how long should streamers be?

RCCA rules specify a 30' streamer and at least 5' of string. Be sure to use a light cotton string because nylon can damage the engine if it gets wrapped around the prop.

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I cut the party stuff when it's in the whole roll before I even unroll it. Use a fine tooth blade in a band saw and watch your fingers!!! "roll" it through the blade and don't just push it.

If you're thinking of flying a contest later on, you might want to use the RCCA lengths. If you are just messing around, go with a longer string leader and maybe a slightly longer streamer. It will help reduce mid-airs (though not eliminate them, nothing can eliminate them)

I'm wondering if the forestry tape wouldn't make good CL Combat streamers. It does seem a little narrow (rules say 2 inch width, except in F2D and 1/2-A). We've used crepe, crepe reinforced with masking tape (for wet weather, also to prevent shredding), and various types of plastic/plastic-paper laminate tablecloth material. Crepe is out these days - planes go way too fast, the crepe shreds. No one wants to tape streamers any more - what a pain in the neck. I understand the plastic stuff will probably not work for RC Combat, since a great deal of cuts are of the wing drag sort. It seems to work well enough for CL, enough so that they're going to use plastic streamers for the CL World Champs in Muncie, in July. The Europeans sell streamers made out of a heavy paper, I've heard the paper is hand-dyed. The folks in Singapore use double weight crepe - I've never seen this stuff in the U.S. - problem is that it's relatively expensive and you have to glue several sheets together before you can cut strips for streamers.

One year I made streamers out of paper towel stock (the institutional stuff without the perforations). I had to dye it to get the colors. Also a pain in the neck, but they worked very well in the damp. I'm wondering if cooking entire rolls of this stuff in a pressure cooker with RIT dye, then allowing about a month to dry out, then slicing with a band saw wouldn't work... In RC, you only need one color, right? Wouldn't white streamers work?

Actually, it turns out that black streamers are the most visible in the air in all conditions. White would be nearly impossible to see against a bright blue sky.

And seeing the streamers is really important, since the judges (many of whom often seem to need new glasses ) have to see the cuts to count them. The cuts are much farther away than in CL, and can be really subtle. A prop cut up high just creates a little puff of confetti.

The only downside to black is that it disappears against a treeline when flying low.

Hmmm.. I suppose one could dye the paper towels with black ink, then. Perhaps the way to do it would be to bandsaw the roll first, then put the resulting discs with spacers into the dyeing pot with a weight on top. When I did it, I put pieces cut to length into the pot, but CL streamers are a lot shorter. A pain in the neck in any case!

You could do that, but frankly, it's just easier to just get the crepe that just about every contest is using these days. It doesn't shred much at most RC Combat speeds, is visible, and cuts about right. And it's really nice to have a consistant material from contest to contest. In CL, I'm guessing that the engines are almost always in the same plane as the streamers, so you mostly get prop cuts, right? And you probibly don't get "drapes" where a streamer visibly hits the wing or other part of the plane but for whatever reason pulls off rather than breaking (not a cut). Material that is too tough results in lots of drapes and lower scores. That's why I don't like forestry tape except when it's wet enough to be necessary, the scores go down because the stuff can be rather hard to cut.

Sure, but the problem is, what to do when it's wet? That's the main problem we've had to solve over the years (aside from the shredding problem in the faster classes). Which is why I tried the paper towels.

In CL Combat, some cuts (kills, actually) take place when the plane's leading edge snags the string and breaks it off. This started happening when people started using foam wings - the string saws into the wing and the knot snags up against the spar. In Fast Combat and 1/2-A Combat, a kill (taking the whole streamer) is an outright win, so people use foam wings and try to snag the string with the leading edge. In F2D, they put in a front spar to prevent this from happening (you take the whole streamer early in the match, and that's it for your scoring opportunities - you then have to hide for the next couple minutes). Drape cuts (and kills) can happen, but they're seen as undesirable, so the streamers are designed so that a hit by the leading edge does not cause the paper to tear or the string to break (hence the 20 pound test rule for streamer string in Fast Combat).

Damp conditions are a bit tough with crepe, but it's really not that bad if you can keep the streamer off the ground during launch. Unless it's actually foggy or lightly misting, the streamer will usually stay together. But when it won't, forestry tape is the best option.

The whole string thing is obviously a totally differnet world. For RC combat, if you can't break the string with your hands with out it being painful, the string it too strong. We want weak stuff that breaks easily. I've seen overly strong string tie two planes together resulting in them both crashing. Weaker string seems to wind up getting wrapping in to the engine bearings less often as well.

Heh heh heh.. I remember one instance where one plane ended up towing the other one due to the string getting caught in the engine.

Finding the right string can be a pain. I was ED for CL Combat at the Nats once, and I spent a week looking for the correct string (cotton, 16-20 lb. breaking strength, IIRC). Went to a yarn shop, bought several types of plain cotton yarn, took it home, and found that most of it broke under 12 lb. Some of the thickest was also the weakest. Packaging twine (I remember a contest that used this up in Chicago - the stuff would tear your plane apart if you caught it in your wing) was way too strong. I eventually found some crotchet yarn at a department store that broke just above 16 lb. Not cheap, either.

A long time later, I noticed that they sell yarn in the McMaster Carr catalog (www.mcmaster.com), including some 20 lb. test. Told the Combat-L list about it, Larry Driskill ordered some and said it was perfect!

The stuff I like the best for RC combat I get at Walmart in their sewing section. It's cheap stuff and works well.