Combat

[octagon]

So I am sitting on the balcony of our room at the resort in Mexico, scotch in hand, so if this idea sounds crazy, cut me a bit of slack. I have always thought it would be fun to fly combat. As a kid we flew 1/2a control line planes like the Goldberg voodoo, and then latterly just made flying wings out of 1/8 sheet. It was great fun with as many as 4 planes all trying to cut the other guys streamer. What if we devised some easy to build, foam flying wing, using surplus motors and servos that most of us have laying around doing nothing. I know the morning guys do it and enjoy it, but what about the rest of the club doing it? If there is any interest, I will research and make plans available. The morning guys use a plane they say costs about $6.00 to build from foam at Home Depot.
Comments?

[Crazyflyer]

I am in!

[Frank v B]

Rob:

re: "scotch in hand"
- a glass or a bottle?

Re: R/C combat
I have tried twice in a previous life and was shocked how 4-5 RC planes can mill about for 5 minutes trying to cut each other's ribbons and absolutely no contact was made....ever.  Frustrating as hell.

Control line combat is more or less* two dimensional (flying lines are the same length) so if you superimpose one plane over another you have contact.  In RC combat you can superimpose one airplane over another and then realize one is 10' further out that the other one.  Depth is really hard to judge.

That is why I say when instructing "if you want to avoid a mid-air, aim for the other guy" .  If you aim for it you will never hit it.

Frank

* note the careful wording to keep Pat M from calling me an idiot.  I have never tried control line combat but have flown a lot of control line.

[octagon]

Frank, obviously you have much more experience than I do about RC flying . During the battle of Moscow, the Russians use a tactic called taran where they intentionally rammed the German plane, and then hopped for the best. I had thought that we would try taran, not worrying about streamers towed behind. Maybe it would be fruitless, but the morning guys seem to have a blast with it. Anyone else interested in trying?

[bweaver]

Rob, The morning crew flies combat routinely with cheap foam delta wings.  We dispensed with the crate paper streamers because it became to expensive to replace.  We fly at the planes now and have a better chance of survival than we had while chasing streamers.

I've got plans if you want to build a few.   

[bweaver]

Here is the link to the warwings we fly.  You can get a 2 by 8 sheet of blue half inch foam board from Rona. 

They are great fun to fly whether just for sport or for combat.
http://www.csms-rc.org/html/combat.html

[octagon]

Thanks Bruce. Doesn't seem like there was much interest, but I might just build one myself anyway and see how it flies.

[Candu]

Here's an old aero video from one of the morning crew's combat session last year. Frank is right, it is much harder to do an intentional mid-air! I have yet to capture one on video...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCWxE9Um-9Q

[Crazyflyer]

Bruce, do you all use the same design?
Any issues with having the propeller at the front when you try to hit someone?
Some people also use more typical flying wings with the motor at the back, would that be ok?
What motors / prop / battery combos do most use?
Thanks,

Here is the link to the warwings we fly.  You can get a 2 by 8 sheet of blue half inch foam board from Rona. 

They are great fun to fly whether just for sport or for combat.
http://www.csms-rc.org/html/combat.html

[bweaver]

The warwing we use is standard made from the plans in the link. They use a size 10 HK 1100KV motor with three cell 2100 batteries. We have also made and flown combat with smaller versions.  All of them have the propeller at the front for more precise dicing, if you know what I mean. 

If you are going to build from the plans, you can only get 2X8 sheets here of 1/2 inch foam as my mentioned from Rona.  You will have to make the wing in two parts. You will get a couple of planes out of one board.

For the actual flying combat sessions, anyone can fly anything with us in combat, sometimes we use the tissue ribbons and other times without.  It is easier to hit a plane when you are trying to hit a ribbon than hit a plane without a ribbon.  But what's the point? 

It's fun, you'll have a blast and the plane flys great even if not for combat.

[bweaver]

I had an inquiry about this subject due to the interest generated by the morning crew flying warwings one bright sunny day recently.

As mentioned in an earlier post they are great fun to fly whether just for sport or for combat.  You can obtain the plans at this link.
http://www.csms-rc.org/html/combat.html

The 1/2 inch blue foam board 2 X 8 sheets can be purchased at Lowes.

[Candu]

After a couple of years videoing the morning crew's combat sessions, I finally captured a hit yesterday morning!

Video from the ground:
The actual collision is at about 1:45 into the video. Even with full screen, you may need to use  magnification glasses to see the actual hit but you can see the two wounded war wings floating slowly into the dirt.
https://youtu.be/FnUNAeRl3fo


Video from on board my war wing:
1:06 into the video, Jim and Vic's war wings can be seen on the ground below.
https://youtu.be/sz4YsWNGYUI

[octagon]

Good videos Jim, thanks. Got the foam to build one of these planes. Can't wait to fly combat with the morning guys

[cpaine]

We fly these Funbats at our field. Had seven or more at one point in the air... it is hard to hit each other, but I find if a couple guys play possum (slow fly bys) then the other swarm... get some good contact that way. Super fly is another awesome airframe.....
have fun!!! Midairs are always fun when there isn't a lot of cost involved!
https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/thumbgallery.php?t=1385215&do=threadgallery&type=img&group=none&starter=no

[thehaze]

Soo much fun. Are you guys buying the motor mounts as well or did you come up with a home made solution?