Hi, been flying about a year now. One guy i fly with was saying we should have trainer plane combat. neither of us have any combat experience. My wife picked up some 25' paper streamers from the dollar store. We are thinking this would be fun. But am a bit concerned, if we take it easy, do we still chance a collision? also wondering how to attatch streamers? could streamers get caught in prop,rudder or elevator and cause a crash? and just a tought but in a tight loop can ya cut your own off? we both love our trainers+ it's only 1 of 2 i have flyable right now. think a LT-40 can take a Eagle?

Yes, you can do it, but given what you described, I don't think you should.

Even if you take it easy, you do risk a mid-air. And those trainers won't survive much more than a very light love-tap. An experienced pilot can sometimes see a mid-air coming and get out of the way, but not always.

The best way to attach the streamers is with a long string leader. I'd use at least 10 feet, maybe as much as 15 feet. Just tie the string around the tail of the airplane and tie the streamer to the string.

Unless you route the string right around the pushrod, you shouldn't have a problem. I've seen a lot of things, but I'd be surprised if you could jam a control with the streamer.

Use a light weight string, like cheap stuff from wallmart. If you can't break it with your hands easily, it's too strong. If you use that and your streamer is some form of crepe, then you shouldn't have probelms with the prop.

You won't be able to cut your own streamer unless you do one of two things. If you flat spin, you might do it, or if you pull vertical and drop right back down on top of yourself, you might be able to do it. But in a normal loop, it won't happen.

As for what can take what, it depends on the power and wingloading and tactics. I suspect the LT-40 could turn tighter if you move the CG back and bump the elevator way up. The Eagle will probably be faster.

Thanks for the info. I had no idea about the string.was thinking of taping or tying it to the fuse. But ill have to give some second thought about trying it. I love my LT-40.maybe just some cat and mouse.

Before I actually got into competitive combat I spent a year doing exactly what you are thinking of. Me and one other guy flew against each other for one whole season with similar type planes. Trainers, foamies, etc. We never hit once that whole season. We were VERY lucky. You may midair in the first 30 seconds or maybe not at all. If your in love with your plane I would suggest not doing it. If you do it I would be careful...Its addicting!!

Basically though I would plan on destroying a plane. Me and that guy got lucky that year but you may not. Slap together a spad or something that you don't care about and go have a blast!

Brent.............you are on the right track.first off, you asked what you should do when you posted here, and you got a great answer from one of the very best....Monty is the man when it comes to combat!!!

In addition to his advise, what my club members and I did when we started flying combat..was take it slow!!! You and you friend should tie the streamers directly to your birds..........a simple loose knot around your entire tail section........use a long streamer to start.........around 25 feet or so. You will know if you have too much streamer..the birds act real funny taking off.
When you both get in the air........just follow each other around the sky.....taking turns playing sitting duck. You will be surprised how hard it is to line up on your buddies streamer.

Good luck

Just to follow up, it IS a blast, and you should throw together some basic SPADs to do it. They can take a hit and keep going (except from the prop), and even if you do cut it up, they are easy to fix and cheap and quick to build. That's the key to combat, durable, cheap, quick to build.

Starting slow is good as well. A lot of guys at their first contest fly straight in to the ground in the excitement.

If you do get in to a mid-air, keep flying until the last part stops moving. You'd be amazed at how much damage you can do and stay in the air or at least control the crash to put the plane in a safe location and minimize damage. Also be ready to pull the power off on contact. There's a world of difference between hitting the ground with the engine at idle (or off) and the engine at full power.

Personally I like the string leader just because it gets you targeting a spot well behind the plane. You can just tape the streamer to the tail, but then you have to be careful not to get too close. 30 foot streamers look long on the ground, but look itty bitty up in the sky at first. Anything you can do to move the target away from the important bits is a good thing.

When trying for a cut, don't even think about a head-on approach.

RC MANIAC119's suggestion of one guy starting on offense and the other on defense is a really good idea. It avoids the problem where you both try to turn at each other's streamer at the same time. That move often leads to a head-on impact.

(When I fly in a contest, I try NOT to chase someone who is chasing me. If I notice someone is making an effort to cut me, I'll target someone else. And my offensive moves on my target often work as pretty good defense against someone chasing me, at least it often slows them down. There's plenty of time at the end of the round for one-on-one duels. I seem to loose more aircraft in that kind of situation than I do when there's a defined chase and target (And it's best when the other guy doesn't know he's the designated target, but I digress )).

Instead, work on coming up from behind. The most common cut is when the other guy starts a turn, and you fly straight on through the curving streamer. This is usually doable, but if you mis-judge, it's easy to get in front and mid-air.

So, to help your depth perception, when you start doing this, keep the planes close in. Don't fly way up high, or way out in front or to the sides. Keeping the planes close makes dept perception easier so you can be sure you are where you think you are.

Btw, another useful thing to do even with out streamers is just fly loose formation a bit. Practice flying your plane while watching the movements of someone else's plane. You want to be able to fly around while seeing the other plane turning and know where he is at all times. Once you can fly your plane and watch another, then put on the streamers.

Brent,

Definately get into combat. It's a blast. Dave Davis answers "why should I try combat?" [link=http://www.treneffrc.com/featured%20pilot%20-%20dave%20davis.asp]here.[/link]

I would not suggest combat with trainers. The airplanes can't handle mid-airs and .46s will cut up the radio gear and worsen the situation when you do have a midair.

Get some type of dedicated combat plane. I'm sure you don't want to wreck your trainer.

When you try combat, you'll be hooked.

What you should do is get some toilet paper, cut the rolls in half and then drop the rolls from one airplane and take turns trying to cut the streamer with your wings. Do that while you are building your SPADs and then start hauling streamer with extra long leaders on the plane and just take turns going after the streamer THEN try some combat.

You could just pick up a pair of zagis, and fly some full-contact foamie combat.... It's an absolute blast, and zagis are really tough, and very hard to "kill". [>:]

If you go with the trainers.... go slow, be careful, and good luck. My money's on the Eagle.

TYVM for all the info everyone.

Good advice Montague.

I'd recommend the long string leader to maximize separation between the airframe and the streamer. Alternating pursuer/target roles also will tend to reduce collisions, especially if you stand next to each other and the target tells the pursuer when he's going to maneuver.

I would not recommend using balsa planes in combat. SPADs and other combat planes are built to survive the abuses, or be cheap (emotionally and $$$) to replace.

Being evenly matched in speed and manueverability helps cut down on midairs. The most important thing to do to reduce the chance of midairs is to limit the planes' speed and fly close enough in so that you can judge where your plane is better. Any RC combat that I've ever flown above .15 sized is just idiotic high speed jousting where the question isn't IF but WHEN is the midair gonna happen? The lighter and slower planes do less damage to each other and to themselves in either a midair or a crash. So called SSC planes still miss the mark for what true SSC combat can be like. 40 ozs of plane acts like a piledriver on those poor little engines if you go in hard. I haven't tried electic power yet, but those pusher prop planes with the spongy foam parts look like great combat machines. I like .15 PAW diesels on old 48" control line foamies that I retrofit with a pair of fins and elevons. It is a simple conversion and the performance is just barely good enough to allow these planes to attack well, without building up excessive speed. 1/2A combat with either balsa or foam planes is very easy on equipment, very cheap, and the balsa planes are easily repaired at the field with CA and clear packing tape. The 1/2A planes can be built to weigh between 14 and 18 ozs very easily. I fly over 1200 minutes of combat with planes like these every year and do very little behind the scenes work to keep them going.

Hey CP you got a pic of these 1/2A combat planes?...Rog