Club Combat tips

acemcduck

New member
Our club has spontaneously decided to jump into combat. We're waiting delivery of the Battle Bundles we purchased and I thought I'd ask for suggestions from those that have been down this road. Almost all are very seasoned rc pilots but none of us have ever chased ribbons :p. I've built several different FT designs but most haven't. Expecting a great time and making some FT converts!
Dave
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Firstly: the planes aren't spacial aligned. Hard as all get out to chew on a streamer. Mid airs are easier and more common. Streamers need to be fragile.

Winners are generally big motored and really twitchy. Twitchy to turn right now, big motor serves purposes- rapid climb and shock absorption along with being able to shred whatever gets in the way fast. More structure involved makes plane tougher. Then there's Coloplast, but i will let you experiment with it as a "Suprise!!"

Welcome to your possible new addiction. Expect some in the club to get all annoyed with this turn of direction particularly after the first couple contests.
 

Bricks

Master member
Leading edges need to be stiffened up packing tape same with fire walls etc, have more then one plane ready. Depending on your field may need plane finder beepers we have corn next to our field. Standout colors when 8 or more planes in the air it is difficult to keep track of yours. Never take your eyes off of your plane, I have flew the wrong plane a coupe of times wondering why it was not responding to my controls.

We use the Bloody Baron for our combat planes.
 

Foamforce

Elite member
A weak spot on the Bloody Baron/Wonder is the power pod. I’ve had the power pod get knocked out of my plane a few times. Sponz’s Sidewinder solves that problem by doing away with the power pod.

Streamer combat is fun. When doing everyone vs everyone, it can be pretty difficult to hit a streamer. Two things make it more fun. Use longer streamers, like 40’ long. The longer the better. More target to hit with less movement at the end of the tail. I use regular cheap party streamer from dollar tree. Secondly, instead of having everyone go after each others streamer, have a dedicated tug. Ideally something big and slow that can tow the streamer along at a leisurely pace. Fly very predictably at first to increase the odds of a hit. It helps participants improve their aim too.

It’s super fun! You reminded me to go set up another of these at my field.
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Tugs are only fun for everyone not flying the tug.
Good way for a newbie or less skilled flyer to participate, however, better if some other persons builds the plane so no attachment involved.
Couple #64 bands on the nose solves the pod ejection problems
 

Bricks

Master member
We don`t use a pod glue in doubler`s some will use 1/32 or 1/16 plywood as doublers.

If you use longer streamers it takes so much more power to fly we use about 20 feet. For each cut that plane gets a sticker added to it, those stickers stay with that plane so if you build or use a different plane the stickers do not go with it. It gets to be fun how creative some get to do repairs to keep their stickers.
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Oh yeah stickers. Forgot about that, the way I do combat. Can do 40 ft streamers if you have a 20 ft leader made from sewing thread. Anything else is a motor injestion hazard leading to esc failure and aircraft flames. 40 ft tends to make turns rather annoying and you can shoot yourself down. Flames are cool except here in the dry out west.

No pod doublers? First time ever i build a plane to the print, and i did it wrong .... shucks.
 

Foamforce

Elite member
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.
 
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acemcduck

New member
Thanks for all the replies guys. 3 of us had a go at tug towed streamer last weekend. Lot's of fun. I think we're up to 6 "battle bundles" order in the club so far. Going to be a hoot!
 

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Foamforce

Elite member
Thanks for all the replies guys. 3 of us had a go at tug towed streamer last weekend. Lot's of fun. I think we're up to 6 "battle bundles" order in the club so far. Going to be a hoot!

Awesome! Did anybody score a hit? It’s harder than it looks isn’t it?
 

HVB79

Active member
Putting the plane at the correct depth and height to cut a streamer takes some practice but in my experience people who are not totally new to RC flying can learn that quickly.

At my club we use 30 foot party streamers attached to the plane with about a 6 foot cotton string. Here is a video of streamer combat:

 
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Foamforce

Elite member
Ooh, bonus tip. If everyone flies the same airplane, it’s easier. When planes are different sizes, it’s much more difficult to judge distance when lining up for a hit.
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Depends on how far away. Slope combat they are only 10 ft away. Might want too add rules about engaging someone every so often so people don't just orbit until the batteries die.
 

HVB79

Active member
If you are keeping score a good way to ensure that everyone is engaging is to base most of the score on how many streamer cuts each person gets. The only reason to fly combat and not engage is because the scoring rules in some way makes hiding a viable way to get the best score. If your not keeping score I don't know why someone would fly and not engage.
 

Foamforce

Elite member
Depends on how far away. Slope combat they are only 10 ft away. Might want too add rules about engaging someone every so often so people don't just orbit until the batteries die.
10… feet? That’s brave! If somebody got within 10 feet of me I’d be diving behind something! 🙂
 

Piotrsko

Master member
Not brave. Didn't seem dangerous at the time. If you're doing serious combat, you ain't flying with newbies for very long. Was flying cross slope, 10 foot away on the slope I flew on was about 200 ft down on the beach. Every so often you'd get aircraft parts rained on you and if you were closer in you better be landing because the vortices were buggers and you stood a good chance of someone running your plane over with their car. Tis the reason I had to learn how to catch the plane to land.
 
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Bricks

Master member
Our combat winner is the one with the most cuts, if your worried about destroying your plane combat is not for you, it comes with the fun and territory.