Am I the only one that thinks this is a bad idea?

Strafing run opportunity.

Seriously, was what pilots did during the Berlin Air Lift a bad ideas? Maybe the kids will associate GA airplanes as good as opposed to what the media tells them.
 
flyingcheesehead said:
http://www.unionleader.com/article.aspx?headline=Ultralight+fans+want+people+to+come+%27fly-in%27&articleId=b2aaea6c-f441-401c-8897-02e69b20f54e

That sounds... Painful! :yikes:
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FAR 91.15 Dropping objects.

No pilot in command of a civil aircraft may allow any object to be dropped from that aircraft in flight that creates a hazard to persons or property. However, this section does not prohibit the dropping of any object if reasonable precautions are taken to avoid injury or damage to persons or property.


We have a similar rule here in Canada. Problem with all such rules is in the interpretation; as one inspector told me, "It's not your (my) interpretation that matters; it's mine (the inspector's). Too many pilots make things convenient for themselves by interpreting rules rather liberally.


If they keep the kids off the to side some distance, and stay at a reasonable altitude, there might be no problem. But an inspector might still have issues with the event violating regs against minimum altitudes and distances, since the aircraft is not taking off or landing. Hard to stay 500 feet away from the people on the ground, see.


We had a couple of ultralights do this years ago, with peanuts. The nuts went through the pusher props and damaged them. I could see hard candy doing fatal damage to the prop, and the flying chunks of prop or the steeply-gliding airplane could hit someone on the ground.


Dan
 
Wow....just wow.

I wish I still lived up there so I could remind people of how stupid they're being.
 
Anthony said:
]Seriously, was what pilots did during the Berlin Air Lift a bad ideas? Maybe the kids will associate GA airplanes as good as opposed to what the media tells them.
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I dunno, it sounds to me like they were planning on either dropping candy directly on the kids, or dropping candy on the runway and having the kids pick it up. Neither one of those sounds like a good idea to me, and the chances for negative press far outweigh the chances of positive press...
 
Cue the obligatory:

"With God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
 
kkoran said:
Wild ones, yes; but the big, fat domesticated ones, I'm thinking not.
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I was surprised to find that chickens could fly. I cornered one of the escapees last week on Hawaii in a fenced parking lot and it flew up into a tree on the other side of the fence. Vertical distance of 8 feet or so to get to its perch. Some storm knocked over some coops some years back and the chickens pretty much made the islands their home.
 
This reminds me of a story.

Friends of mine are Mardi Gras fanatics. They go every single year (and have, for years).

A friend of theirs who lives there HATES Mardi Gras, in no small part because when he was a wee bairn his sisters would put him in the stroller and take him out to the parade because they thought a toddler in a stroller would mean more chance of getting beads thrown their way. Many of his early memories of MG were of him holding his arms up to avoid the shower of beads.
 
Cap'n Jack said:
I was surprised to find that chickens could fly. I cornered one of the escapees last week on Hawaii in a fenced parking lot and it flew up into a tree on the other side of the fence. Vertical distance of 8 feet or so to get to its perch. Some storm knocked over some coops some years back and the chickens pretty much made the islands their home.
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Domestic turkeys and chickens get wings and beaks clipped -- to avoid departure and pecking each other's eyes out.

Chickens go from cute little yellow peeps to pretty gross looking dirty white birds in 6 weeks. Frank Purdue made a mint selling chickens that had "natural" yellow breast meat.

This was achieved by the addition of marigold petals to the feed made mostly of expired bakery products from NY/NJ area.

(Yes, we once lived on a chicken farm)
 
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SCCutler said:
Cue the obligatory:

"With God as my witness, I thought turkeys could fly."
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Now that is funny.

I saw this done one time at an UL flyin. The first pass the kids were off the field and the UL fly by and dropped a bunch of candy. The next run, for what ever reason the guys in the plane thought it would be a good idea to toss the rest of the candy on top of the crowd of kids. Needless to say there were many bumps and bruises, not only from getting hit by the candy, but kids trying to dodge other kids. It was not a pretty picture.

Oh the humanity! :yikes:
 
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We have something similar to this every year at MJD. The planes drop thousands of plastic eggs filled with candy for the kids. They drop it in the grass area and the kids aren't allowed to go fetch it until all the candy has been dropped.
 
What kind of candy are we talking about? Are we talking soft candy (snickers, Gummy Bears) or hard, dense, kinetically energized candy (i.e. Jolly Ranchers @ > 35 mph)? I can tell you the latter hurts.
 
A guy I used to teach sailing for also was a helicopter pilot who was hired to fly over a Christmas parade and throw out those root beer barrel hard candies...which ended up giving people welts and bruises....
 
Pi1otguy said:
What kind of candy are we talking about? Are we talking soft candy (snickers, Gummy Bears) or hard, dense, kinetically energized candy (i.e. Jolly Ranchers @ > 35 mph)? I can tell you the latter hurts.
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So a Gummybear at 100 kts won't leave a mark?

Given: one Gummybear weighs 3 grams and has a surface area of 0.5 sq in. The candy is dropped from a height of 100' from a plane traveling 70 KIAS ground speed.

Solve: How many joules of energy in the Gummybear? What is the approximate PSI at impact on Poor Johnny's skull?
 
They did this around here once. Candy was dropped on the tarmack and the kids were not close enough to get hit. Don't assume that everyone is an idiot, only some of us.:rofl: If the kids would have been hurt, it would have been a whole different story. And drop'n it on the runway? Do ya really think anyone is that stupid? ...AND can fly.(again, leave me outta this equation:D)

just my $.02, keep the change.
 
From ultralights! The things fly a lot slower than our aircraft. I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled the whole thing off.
 
Richard said:
So a Gummybear at 100 kts won't leave a mark?
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not a last one atleast. But safety goggles are a must. :D

Given: one Gummybear weighs 3 grams and has a surface area of 0.5 sq in. The candy is dropped from a height of 100' from a plane traveling 70 KIAS ground speed.

Solve: How many joules of energy in the Gummybear? What is the approximate PSI at impact on Poor Johnny's skull?
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Given: Gummy bears are elastic decreasing deceleration (Gummy bear's frame of reference).

Answer: It's not the joules, but the watts. No meaningful dermal penetration. Low probability of concussion? Possible subdermal hemotoma?
 
steingar said:
Show me the ultralight that can do 70kts.
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challenger_vls.jpg
http://www.ultralightnews.com/quadcitychallenger/images/challenger_vls.jpg


http://www.quadcitychallenger.com/qc-mods.html
 
steingar said:
Show me the ultralight that can do 70kts.
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If you're in the United States and it does more than 55 knots it is not an ultra light, no matter what the owner of it tries to tell you.
 
steingar said:
Sorry boss, check the rules. That thing is not an ultralight.
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The Quad City Challenger is marketed as a Light Sport or Ultralight...

Challenger Ultralight
SINGLE-SEAT ULTRALIGHT
31.5 ft wingspan
Great on floats and for soaring
265 lb. payload
Up to 1,000 fpm climb
25 mph cross-wind capability
55-80 mph cruise speed

I don't fly them -- just look up when I hear that big mosquioto noise.

My Dad wants one of these so I have listened to him describe the virtues for about 5 years.

That's where my interest and expertise ends.
 
jesse said:
If you're in the United States and it does more than 55 knots it is not an ultra light, no matter what the owner of it tries to tell you.
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It would still be an ultralight, just an illegal one.
 
Dave Krall CFII said:
It would still be an ultralight, just an illegal one.
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An illegal ultralight is not an ultralight.

Would you consider a Lear-55 an ultralight? It is just as illegal as a 80 knot ultralight would be.
 
Richard said:
So a Gummybear at 100 kts won't leave a mark?

Given: one Gummybear weighs 3 grams and has a surface area of 0.5 sq in. The candy is dropped from a height of 100' from a plane traveling 70 KIAS ground speed.

Solve: How many joules of energy in the Gummybear? What is the approximate PSI at impact on Poor Johnny's skull?
Click to expand...

Are we talking the cherry gummybear or the pineapple gummybear?
 
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