Being the new CD for our club, I am begining to plan a spring funfly. It will be called, "SPRING FLING FLY WHAT YOU BRING". My question is, do you have any unusual or different events, that are SIMPLE, EASY, and FUN? I know there is a vast amount of information out there so anyone who has had a fun event, lets hear about it! <BR>
Thanks in advance to all the help I am sure to receive.

Hi Bob,
We just held our fall fun fly. I decided just to list several events then before the fun fly the fliers voted on what events that they wanted in the fun fly. Here's a list. They voted for #1, 5, 6 and 10. Jon

Vote for which events you want, 1 vote per person.

#1. All up, last down. Everyone takes off gains altitude for 45 seconds. When the time is up, everyone turns off their engines... the longest to stay in the air wins.


#2. Most loops. See how many loops you can do in 1 minute?


#3. Timed flight. The person that comes closest to 1 minute without going over, from takeoff to landing.


#4. Loop, roll and stall turn. The fastest person to do all 3 in any order, takeoff to landing.


#5. Spot landing. Land closest to the center of the circle on the runway measured from the spot that you first touched.


#6. Bomb Drop. Take a syrofoam cup, a stick and a rubber band. Strap the cup to your plane. Take a golf ball (we have a couple of local golfers that 'donate' plenty of balls to our cause) and put it into the cup. The closest to the center of the circle wins.


#7. Sky Bowling. Tie a ‘bowling ball’ to your plane and go bowling. Take Several empty fuel jugs and set them up to the side of the runway. Take 20' or so of kite string and tie a 'bowling ball' (we used a plastic 5"? bowling ball from a kids play set) and see how many pins you can knock down in 2 passes.


#8. Touch and go’s. How many touch and go’s can you do in 1 minute?


#9. Aileron rolls. How many aileron rolls can you do in 30 seconds?


#10. Dead stick landing. Fly for 30 seconds, cut throttle and see who comes closest to the center of the circle.

The most popular event at our season ending picnic/fun fly went like this:

1. Take off, do 3 loops, land.
2. While a helper tends your airplane (holds it, keeps it running, re-starts it if necessary) run to the frequency board, put on a very large pair of ladie's panties, a bra, a housecoat, and a wig.
3. Take off, do 3 loops, land.
4. Present yourself to the panel of judges made up of all the wives.

The silliness of it all brings everybody together, and you also get to find out who is just a little TOO familiar with putting on women's clothes!

I guess if you had any female flyers in your club they might have an unfair advantage....

Thanks strat2003, I have seen that event discribed somewhere else. Sounds like a riot!
Bob
[link="http://www.angelfire.com/fl5/gatewayrc"]Gatewayrc[/link]

1. Crap shoot. Roll 2 dice. Result determines the number of DIFFERENT maneuvers you must complete after takeoff. Land and roll dice until you roll two of a kind. Timed event starts at takeoff ends when the dice come up doubles.

2. Time fly. CD picks a number between 1 and 3. This is the time from takeoff to landing in minutes. Pilots do not know the number until after the event. Time to the second. Pilots do not know the number until after the event.

Something we've done that seems to help participation is to start timing events like loops and rolls after the contestant gets to a comfortable altitude. They decide when to begin and time starts when the first maneuver starts. It frees the less experienced guys from the need to do things down low as they would need to if we timed from takeoff.
Also, we've learned not to include engine starting in timed events. The rush makes it just a little dangerous. If you let everybody get started and adjusted it cuts down on taking off too lean or with the Ni-Starter still attached.

Pages 190-192 of the AMA Competition Regulations contain the rules for Competition FUN-FLY, AMA rule-book event 705.

There are many many ideas. There are timed tasks, Limbo tasks, Mission tasks and with a little imagination, mix & match, and stirring the pot, one can devise a FUN-FLY of choice from easy stuff to serious hard-core competition, just whatever one might want.

While there is nothing there mandatory, there are numerous ideas and guidelines.
Throw in your own seasoning and have a blast.

Now some advice for a new CD; I know you did NOT ask that however here is a way to start a good day.
1. Before the day, have all your paperwork filled out as much as possible and someone to handle registration. Be sure to have plenty score sheets clipboards, pencil-pens, etc.
Be certain you have adequate judges that will SHOW!
2. Frequency control/transmitter impound is a near must. Don't be shy with the slow-to-impound which there are always a few.
3. Have a serious Pilot Briefing to include all your safety rules. At my meets, 3 strikes are for baseball only so it is TWO strikes and its outsville. (I have not had to dismiss a pilot in over 10 years of doing 3 to 5 events per year. I have had to call Strike One at many events. We all forget now and then) Simply be firm and fair and the guys will always help you out. Give those prima donnas an inch and they want a mile. Don't give that inch and they do fine. DO NOT be intimidated by anyone.
4. I never change an advertised rule UNLESS 100% want that change during the Pilot Briefing. Changing an advertised rule because someone else did it differently before unfairly discriminates against those that came to play by the advertised rules. Any change later would only happen if there was some serious safety hazard which prior planning precludes such an item.
At AMA Sanctioned events the CD is the Captain of the Ship. OTOH, as ship's captain you CAN delegate authority, but you cannot delegate responsibility.
Just be prepared and a new CD will have more fun than the visitors, and be MUCH MORE tired at day's end.

Here are some ideas, found this site a while ago.
[link=http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/articles/fun_fly_ideas.htm]http://www.geistware.com/rcmodeling/articles/fun_fly_ideas.htm[/link]

Balloon pops are very anoying, I wouldn't do those.

So, add an element that has nothing to do with flying and will increase times...One I saw was take-off, loop, roll, loop, land, eat 3 crackers. When you can whistle (after the crackers have been thoroughly chewed), time stops. No water allowed between take-off and whistle...

One of the things you can do to keep excitement up during the fun-fly involves scoring. Our club wanted everyone to have as much fun as possible, and not too much concern for the awards.

A forinstance: we did dead stick loops. One guy did 12 and the next did 6, then two with 5 and on down. Instead of scoring as a percentage and letting the one get a huge lead for the next event, we awarded 1 point for first, 2 for second, 3 for third, etc. Even though the first guy won by 50 percent, he only lead by 1 point.

This normally leaves the field closely grouped, right down to the last event.

JR

A lot of clubs will make a limbo event the last one of the day. It normally causes several crashes. We decided to keep the height at 10 ft and give each pilot 5 attempts , so there were 5 possible "scores" to be made by each pilot. Amazingly, there was only one crash. It takes the fun out of the fun-fly to go home with balsa dust.

On the other hand, Hitech ran an event for electrics last year in San Diego and used razorwire instead of a ribbon. Word was there was a huge pile of foam at the end.

Depends on your defintion of fun, I guess.


We also let our newbies that were still on buddy boxes participate. When the "instructor" took control, timing, or counting stopped. They weren't competitive, but they had a ball.

JR

Thanks again, with all the help you guys have given, I am sure I will be able to come up with something fun. If you are ever in the Jacksonville Fla area, let me know and I will show you our field. 450 foot paved runway and great facilities.

One our club likes a lot is a taxi race around a course laid out with balloons. The only twist is that you stand with your back to the model and a buddy directs you verbally! No accidental takes off yet but a lot of fun! Takes a little while though.
GY