I’m surprised how little power it takes to pull the streamer. Even a nutball with a power pack A can pull a 20’ streamer. Make sure you’re using light streamer.
You can cut your own streamer if you make it long enough, but it‘s funny when it happens. The biggest issue with any combat is that nobody hits each other. If you double your streamer, you more than double your odds of a hit, making it more fun.
We’ve never had a motor burn out from it. In nearly all cases the streamer is immediately shredded. In a couple cases it has wound around a prop, but as soon as you lose power cut the throttle and glide in, although I could see how a beginner could forget. Regardless, having more streamer increases your odds of a hit, but it doesn’t increase the odds that an individual hit will wind around your prop.
You can give better flyers a handicap by having them fly a longer streamer and have newer flyers use a short streamer.