Ideas for Flying Contest

[ScottPA]

Our EAA chapter wants to have a year(ish) long flying contest for fun, small prizes, bragging rights, etc.

An example: There was an article a year or two ago about a flying club that had a game where you flew to different airports. The idea was to fly in alphabetical order A thru Z.

Does anyone have any ideas?

 

[Steve]

EAA chapters in Louisiana do something similar.

www.laflyins.com

There are usually door prizes at each airport and some nice prizes at the end of the year the winners pick in order of attendance or tie breaking draw. Participants register at each airport so there's an audit trail to confirm winners.

I've gotten a headset, microphone mounted light, drink cooler, and few other miscellaneous items just for showing up.

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Our club, the local FBO, and another local club had the "Wisconsin Airport Challenge" a couple years ago. It was an attempt to get people to fly more, but also a fun contest. There were some prizes (I think grand prize was a headset).

Basically, the trick was to land at as many airports in the state as possible. They made a list of the public-use airports in the state and then took a couple off the list for safety reasons (one has a 1000-foot runway, another has a runway on a hill that's extremely rough, like boulders just under the grass rough ). To prove you'd been to an airport, you had to either get someone from that airport to sign your form, or you had to take a picture of the plane at the airport. So yes, full stops were required, and it had some of the same effects as the ConUS challenge in getting people to find places they might want to return to again.

Have fun!

 

[ScottM]

We did a spot landing contest. That was fun.

 

[murphey]

I used to do lots of gimmick rallyes (cars). All sorts of possibilities. The Colorado Pilots Assoc has an annual 'race' from Denver to Jackpot, NV. 4 categories so that the 152 doesn't have to compete with the Turbo Bo. Two legs - BJC to RKS, then RKS-06U. Times & fuel for each leg as well as overall.

1. A number of stops, at each stop pick up a card. At the end of the route, best poker hand wins
2. Closest estimated overall time
3. Closest estimated fuel burn

From the NIFA college contests:

www.nifa.us/events_and_rules.htm

they have a number of activities that you might find fun.

 

[Loupark]

How about a good old fashion scavenger hunt?
An ashtray from one airport, napkins from another
business cards from a 3rd etc,etc,etc.
Lou

 

[brcase]

The ones I have seen done are:

1. Spot Landing Contest... Touch down as close to the line but not before, increases in power on final are not allowed.

2. Flour Bombing contest... Best ones I have see use 3 Styrofoam cups taped together. Assemble by filling a cup full of flour, Tape another cup upside down to the top off it to seal it. Tape a 3rd cup base to base to form a tail on the bomb. Drop from no less the 100 feet, usually over or near a runway, at a target. Label the bomb so you can see who gets the closest.

3. Balloon Pop ... have up to about 5 airplanes fly around the pattern. As they fly over the approach end of the runway have some one release a helium ballon about 3000-4000 feet down the runway. The idea is to pop the balloon usually with the propeller.

Of couse usually the prizes are a $2.00 coffee cup or some other inexpensive trinket, be sure to remind every one that these are supposed to be fun and are not worth bending any aluminum or worse. You also have to evalute if these activity can be done safely and legal.

Brian

 

[poadeleted20]

Spot landings, flour bombing, and the like are good for single-day events, but don't translate well for the sort of long-term contest about which Scott was asking. That said, one or two points...

2. Flour Bombing contest... Best ones I have see use 3 Styrofoam cups taped together. Assemble by filling a cup full of flour, Tape another cup upside down to the top off it to seal it. Tape a 3rd cup base to base to form a tail on the bomb. Drop from no less the 100 feet, usually over or near a runway, at a target. Label the bomb so you can see who gets the closest.

We used paper sandwich bags and a flour/lime mix -- more biodegradable if one gets lost, and easier to make. Also, I recommend a 200 AGL minimum altitude and about 80 knots minimum speed to keep it from getting scary. Another important safety rule is to require a 2-person crew -- one to fly and one to drop. Only problem is that it's hard to drop from PA-28's and the like -- opening the door to drop is a bad idea, and dropping out the storm window is an invitation to a tail strike.

3. Balloon Pop ... have up to about 5 airplanes fly around the pattern. As they fly over the approach end of the runway have some one release a helium ballon about 3000-4000 feet down the runway. The idea is to pop the balloon usually with the propeller.

I've seen these, and they scare me. Folks get a little too crazy trying to win and do things they shouldn't that close to the ground, like getting slow and maneuvering too hard.

Of couse usually the prizes are a $2.00 coffee cup or some other inexpensive trinket, be sure to remind every one that these are supposed to be fun and are not worth bending any aluminum or worse. You also have to evalute if these activity can be done safely and legal.

Brian

 

[ScottM]

I've seen these, and they scare me. Folks get a little too crazy trying to win and do things they shouldn't that close to the ground, like getting slow and maneuvering too hard.

The whole idea of using my prop to smash something just does not pass the common sense to me. I know it is just thin amount of rubber that you would striking, but I still would not want that rubber sucked on the cylinders and melted or wrapped around the spinner. The only thing that should be touching my prop when it is turning are air molecules.

 

[stingray]

Our club, the local FBO, and another local club had the "Wisconsin Airport Challenge" a couple years ago. It was an attempt to get people to fly more, but also a fun contest. There were some prizes (I think grand prize was a headset).

Basically, the trick was to land at as many airports in the state as possible. They made a list of the public-use airports in the state and then took a couple off the list for safety reasons (one has a 1000-foot runway, another has a runway on a hill that's extremely rough, like boulders just under the grass rough ). To prove you'd been to an airport, you had to either get someone from that airport to sign your form, or you had to take a picture of the plane at the airport. So yes, full stops were required, and it had some of the same effects as the ConUS challenge in getting people to find places they might want to return to again.

Have fun!

Rather than remove them you should get extra credit.

I like the State idea, it could be expanded to all states as in most landings in a particular state. That way anyone could participate no matter what state they live in.

Dan

 

[Beachy]

Rather than remove them you should get extra credit.

I like the State idea, it could be expanded to all states as in most landings in a particular state. That way anyone could participate no matter what state they live in.

Dan

I, too, like that approach, and would be interested in participating in Maryland and/or Delaware this year. I have a low-n-slow bird and can't wander too far from home.

On a personal note...I do plan to land at all of the airports in my area with an on-field eatery, take some pix and do a write-up. I will begin "close to home" and then widen my radius of food-finding. The results will all be posted on my flying blog.

 

[stingray]

I, too, like that approach, and would be interested in participating in Maryland and/or Delaware this year. I have a low-n-slow bird and can't wander too far from home.

On a personal note...I do plan to land at all of the airports in my area with an on-field eatery, take some pix and do a write-up. I will begin "close to home" and then widen my radius of food-finding. The results will all be posted on my flying blog.

Well there's another one "Find the best hamburger" or "Best Meal". On airport of course.

Dan

 

[flyingcheesehead]

Rather than remove them you should get extra credit.

Heh... Well, we were trying to promote safety.

I claimed both of them for ConUS. The short one was Rio (94C) which is actually 1092 x 65 turf. No problem at all, alone in the 182. I'm pretty sure this runway used to be around 2000', and there's certainly more runway-like area available to the west that looks identical to what is actually marked as runway, but there are trees at the far west end. I'm not sure if they shortened the official runway to discourage non-based people from flying in there, or if they were simply trying to keep people out of the trees.

The other one was Valhalla, 84C. (Maybe I should stop going to airports with "4C" in the identifier!) Down near Milwaukee. Take a look, but go around. Comments for the runway are WIDTH VARIES FM 80 FT TO 108 FT and CAUTION: RWY EXTRMLY ROUGH & ELEV VARIES 30'; ACFT WITH NOSE WHEELS AVOID EAST 1100' OF RWY. And holy crap, they ain't kiddin'. I thought that runway was gonna turn the Archer I was flying into an Arrow on the takeoff roll! I'm not sure why they even bother having an airport, it was highly unpleasant.

Oh, and that 30' variation takes up about 1/4 of the runway. I'd guess there's 800' on the top, then the 30' drop across about 600' (Hmm, 5% grade!), and then that 1100' at the bottom that they tell you to avoid in a nosewheel airplane. Again, no clue why you'd bother with an airport like that.

 

[ScottPA]

Thanks for all the ideas guys, keep them coming.