Conference vmszoo::rc

    Here's one I saw at  a fun fly one time, Climb as high as you
    can in thirty seconds, shut off your engine and see how long you
    can glide. 

    Eric,
    
    	What we have found is that the fun fly is the event that most
    times is the first competition that the new flyers enter. So with
    that we try and cater our events to a diverse set of skills. This
    is accomplished by limiting the amount of skill that is needed and
    by adding a little chance into each event. It's funny that most
    times the skilled pilot stills wins the overall event but the newcommer
    does have a fighting chance.
    
    
    Dice Race.
    		Roll one die and then takeoff and perform the number
    of loops indicated by the roll, then land and roll the number a
    second time. Timed event from point of takeoff to point where the
    number is rolled a second time.
    
    Timed Flight
    		Take off and fly for 90 seconds. Subtract the amount
    of time your over or under 90 seconds from a max score of 90.
    
    
    
    
    
    One other item to mention is that all scores are normalized. By
    this I mean that if there are 20 competitors you get 20 pionts for
    winning an event. The second place person gets 19 and so on. This
    keeps everyone in the hunt and makes all of the events equal in
    value.
    
    
    
    Tom

Well, it looks like I will be "CD"ing the clubs summer fun fly....

I went looking back through here and DECRCM and couldn't find many
descriptions of fun fly events..  So, let me start with a few basic ones..
If you have more, please add them here!  In particular, I remember one
called the triple thrash that used to be done at CMRCM, but I don't
remember what it consisted of..  Was it 3 inside loops, 3 rolls and 3
outside loops??

Other possible events..

	Taxi skills - pylon course on ground
	Dice Roll - perform the number of loops thrown
	Touch & Gos 
	Climb and Glide
	Limbo
	Spot Landings
	Transmitter mix-up (buddy box with wrong settings..  Has anyone
		tried this event at a fun fly??  Obviously an event for 
		the advanced group...)

If I run it, I will run it as at least 2 and perhaps 3 classes; Open,
Sportsman and Novice (instructor assisted).  There are hardly any real
"fun fly" ships in the club, so they will not be allowed in either of the
2 lower classes and I would like to discourage their use in Open.  Let's 
face it, if someone decent is flying a florio flyer, there is little chance
for the rest of the pilots.

I would like to see more flying at the fun fly, so I am considering a 
few little changes..  For instance, the touch and gos in the "Novice" class
are the number you can do in a tankful of gas.  This puts less rush on the
pilot and actually lets there be 2-3 planes up at a time.  And I don't 
believe that contestents in the Novice class do more than a couple before
they take a prop strike.  Certainly in the advanced class, more than 1
plane can be flying the limbo at a time..  And perhaps the event itself
will be short.

This will be the first fun fly that I have hosted, so all you other fun fly
CDs, please pass your wisdom on!

cheers,
jeff

An 8oz tank on a trainer can run 25 minutes... I don't think you want it to be
an all day event...

K.I.S.S.

Add in chance events... Balloon popping in the taxi event is a crowd pleaser.
Guess your flight time...

Jim

But I don't believe that anyone in the more beginner classes can do more
than 3-4 touch and gos without stopping the plane..   I also would rather
promote good patterns and safe flying than adding the pressure of time.

I just really don't like the "1 plane in the air at a time" either.
Glider contests are much more fun with the windows.   Hmmm, perhaps that 
has some merit..  Define 3 tasks and give each person 1 hour to perform
it...

Or maybe then I'll need Al to give the pilots briefing :-(

If Al gives the pilot's briefing, you'll have to hold the contest after lunch 8^)

    Good one......:-) :-) :-)

    "Tank of gas" isn't a good idea. A set time for touch and goes, say 3
    minutes in novice class, I think would be better. If you have several
    planes doing touch and goes in advanced, it could get very tight,
    especially with the stick-type planes. They can do it all in half the
    width of the runway.
    
    I went to a fun fly a couple weeks ago run by Jack Hall. The good news
    is he kept it simple, the bad news is he kept it TOO simple. The two
    events were 1 minute timed flight, and dead stick landing closest to
    the mark. Three rounds of that. Kinda dull, and my total stick time for
    the day was about 5 minutes. I would have preferred 6 different events
    testing more skills. I liked the CMRCM fun fly that had limbo, touch
    and goes, balloon pop, etc. Lots of emphasis on "fun" rather than
    competition.
    
    Just my opinion.
    
    Dave
    

    Jeff, a thought just occurred when you said more than one plane in the
    air at one time, and Dave (I think) talked about completing tasks.
    
    How about this: Assign a set of tasks to be done, such as dice roll,
    take off & do that number of loops, land, roll dice, take off again and
    drop something in a designated spot, do two T&Gs, land, roll dice.  Or
    pick any routine you want. 
    Let four pilots at a time fly this with each having his own timing judge.
    With an approach like this, there's lots of flying going on.  One 
    downside I see is a bit of confusion on landings with the possibility
    of collisions.
    
    -Joe
    

    I've done funflies run like that and it can work if the events are
    designed for it.  You can't have multiple planes doing things that
    require timed landings without having a safety problem though.  You can
    even mix both ways and run the timed events one up and do the others
    free for all.  
    
    Charlie
    

    3 or 4 years ago, Eric ran a funfly at the Charles River club. The
    concept was rather unique and worked well.
    
    Basically, he handed out sheets with 10 tasks listed. You could pick
    any 5 and had something like 3 hours to complete them. The tasks were
    similar enough so that you couldn't pick 5 easy ones. The contest ran
    itself. Just keep track of the scores as people turn in the sheets.

    Eric, do you still have a list of events??
    
    I agree, any event that requires timing from take-off to landing and
    people running out onto the field is only safe with 1 plane at a time.
    
    thanks!
    jeff
    

    I think it might have been any 8 out of 10. The score sheet list got
    whiped when they took away my Interleaf system.
    
    
    E.

    Does anyone remember the events??  Or at least vague descriptions of
    them??
    
    And does anyone care to remind me what the triple thrash event is??
    
    Thanks..
    jeff
    

    I believe the Triple Thrash is 3 loops, 3 rolls, and 3 touch and
    goes as fast as you can do them. You can vary the degree of difficulty
     by mixing them up. Like one loop/left roll, one loop/right roll etc.
    
    The events were standard funfly type events. Guess your time in the
    air. Spot landing. Most loops in a minute. Most rolls in a minute.
    Stuff like that.

    The 30 second climb-&-glide might work with four planes in the air
    since most of the landings would not occur at the same time.
    
    Team competition is another approach.  Team up a novice with a more
    experienced pilot for a tag-team event.
    
    Dropping a ping pong ball from a cup onto a target area sounds like fun.
    
    We've never done a limbo at any of our fun-flys.  Maybe its time, and
    this could be done with several planes flying at once.
    
    -Joe

    
     An alternative to a ping pong ball are eggs. They add a little more
    excitement ( especially when the wind blows the egg over the pits! :)
    Ping pong balls will really drift if there is ANY wind.
    
     I would NOT try the limbo with multiple planes in the air. This event
    requires intense concentration, and other planes in the air could be a
    distraction, or "rush" the pilot through the event with 
    disasterous results! It is also NOT an event for novices.

    I agree - Limbo is hard on airplanes.  I've seen many hit the poles. 
    If there's any wind, the limbo ribbon blows all over the place and
    breaks.  I found that the best way to run a funfly is to decide on the
    events after seeing the conditions and the number of pilots.  Some
    events just don't work in wind.  If you drop things, they have to be
    heavy enough to stay on the plane until intended release.  Expect to
    lose most of what you drop because many will miss the field.  Our most
    successful drops were with pieces of cardboard tubes slid over a pin
    mounted on the planes.  I had each pilot drop two - with his number on
    them.  We did not score them until all were dropped.  We allowed
    multiple planes to go up and drop them until everyone dropped two. 
    Then we went and measured.  We only counted the closest of each pilot's
    two "bombs".
    
    Charlie