Spotlight Landing (Night Flying):
- Objective: Land your plane within a designated area while flying in the dark with minimal light.
- How to Play: This game requires planes with LED lights or a landing light. The field is completely dark except for a single “spotlight” or a series of small lights marking the landing zone. Pilots take off and fly a circuit, then attempt to land using only the light from their plane and the ground lights. This is a thrilling and unique experience that tests a pilot’s ability to maintain a mental picture of their plane’s orientation.
- Skills: Night flying, spatial awareness, and a high degree of confidence in your plane’s handling.
Rescue Mission:
- Objective: Pick up and transport a small, lightweight object from one location to another.
- How to Play: A small, “rescue” item (like a streamer, a small foam ring, or a ping-pong ball) is placed on the ground.
- with a metal washer or magnet attached to the other end of a string.
- or a streamer suspended just above the ground for the landing gear to snag on a touch and go
- The pilot must land, either on the ground or by “scooping” the item with their landing gear, and then fly it to a second landing zone. This can be played for time or as a team relay race.
- A streamer stolen from a plane on its way to the second landing zone is allowed.
- Skills: Precision landing, ground handling, and careful low-altitude maneuvering.
Cross-Country Challenge (FPV and GPS tracking):
- Objective: Fly from a starting point to a designated distant landmark and back, simulating a cross-country flight.
- Requirement: The FAA requires teams to keep planes in sight continuously with spotters. Each pilot can be a spotter for other team members in a circular path.
- How to Play: Distribute each pilot so that together they create a continuous circle of line of sight course for all of the team members.
- Each pilot marks their aircraft distinctively to avoid confusion in the air.
- GPS with altitude recommended.
- FAA GPS tracker required (see Ruko as an example)
- Each pilot’s airplane’s starting/landing point is at their individual spotter location.
- Hand launching, and landing power-off in a field of high weeds; or something else manageable.
- The pilot takes off, flies successively over each spotter, makes a full circle, returning to their starting point to land.
- This game tests a pilot’s ability to maintain a consistent and changing heading over a longer distance.
- Skills: Long-range orientation, navigation, and throttle management.
“Follow the Leader” Formation Flying:
- Objective: One pilot flies a pattern, and the other pilots must follow and replicate the pattern as closely as possible.
- How to Play: One pilot (the “leader”) flies a series of turns, loops, or other maneuvers. The other pilots try to stay in formation and copy the movements. This is a great exercise in communication and control, and it’s a lot of fun with a group.
- Skills: Formation flying, quick reaction time, and mirroring an opponent’s movements.
“Paper Chase” (Dogfight Variation):
- Objective: “Dive down” at a ground-based target from the air. The target is a piece of tissue paper that needs to be torn by the airplane. By the propeller or pointed object on the front of gliders or pusher prop aircraft.
- suspended off the ground to allow for high speed passes
- How to Play: Secure a loosely crumpled tissue (3D target) paper suspended by a crepe paper ribbon between two tall sticks in buckets of dirt. The pilot flies a low pass, attempting to “clip” the paper with their airplane. The game can be scored based on variations of how many times you hit the target or how much of the paper you manage to “cut” in a single pass.
- Skills: Low-altitude precision, depth perception, and a steady hand on the sticks.
“Popcorn” Aerobatics:
- Objective: Perform a series of aerobatic maneuvers that involve touching the landing gear to the grass or runway at a specific point during the maneuver.
- How to Play: For example, a pilot might perform a low loop, with the goal of touching the landing gear to the ground at the very bottom of the loop. Or they could do a low-altitude touch-and-go with a roll immediately following takeoff. This is an advanced game that combines aerobatics with extreme precision.
- Skills: Advanced aerobatics, extreme low-altitude control, and a good understanding of your plane’s performance envelope.
“Capture the Flag” (Airborne):
- Objective: Pick up a flag from a designated area and carry it to your home base without being “shot down.”
- How to Play: This is an ambitious team game. Two teams set up two “bases” on opposite sides of the field. A “flag” (a lightweight item like a streamer) is placed in the center. A plane must land, pick up the flag, and fly it back to their home base. If a plane carrying the flag is “shot down” (e.g., in a streamer combat-style dogfight), the flag is dropped and must be retrieved. That pilot losing the flag is out for the remainder of that play.
- Skills: Teamwork, landing and takeoff under pressure, and dogfighting.
“Bombing” Relay Race:
- Objective: As a team, drop a set number of “bombs” onto a target.
- How to Play: Two teams line up with a set number of “bombs” (small, lightweight objects). Use a basketball or soccer ball as the target. The first pilot on a team takes off, flies over the target, drops their bomb, and then lands. The next pilot on the team then takes off. Distance to target are measured for each color of ping-pong balls. The team with the lowest score wins.
- Example: A colored ping-pong ball is held captive between the landing gear by 2 rubber-bands stretched between the struts. The G-force from pulling up from a dive releases the ping-pong ball.
- Experiment with the length and thickness of the rubber bands needed; different for each model of airplane. Injecting a tiny amount of water can help the ping-pong ball release in some cases.
- Contestants should practice and fine tune their ping-pong ball release setup before the competition.
- Contestants should mark their ping pong ball since it won’t be set up correctly for a different airplane.
- Skills: Dive Bombing accuracy, potentially timed takeoffs and landings, and team coordination in preparing their teams aircrafts and techniques.
Formation Flying:
- Objective: Fly in a tight formation with one or more other planes.
- How to Play: Two or more pilots attempt to fly their planes in a synchronized formation (e.g., side-by-side, one behind the other). This requires immense concentration and communication.
- Skills: Teamwork, consistent speed and altitude, and smooth control inputs.
Obstacle Course:
- Objective: Navigate a complex course of obstacles.
- How to Play: Set up a course with a variety of obstacles like gates to fly through, helium balloon pylons to circle, and crepe paper limbo bars. Pilots time themselves as they attempt to fly the course without touching any of the obstacles.
- Skills: Precision flying, orientation, and memorizing a complex flight path.
These games are best played with two or more pilots, and they often require good communication and sportsmanship.
- Pylon Racing:
- Objective: Race against other planes around a set course.
- How to Play: A classic RC game. Set up a course with three or four pylons. Each pilot flies their plane around the course, and the first to complete a set number of laps wins. This game is often done with specific classes of fast, agile planes, but it can be adapted for any aircraft.
- Skills: High-speed flying, turning accuracy, and strategic line selection.
- Glider Combat (Streamer Combat):
- Objective: Cut the streamer attached to an opponent’s plane.
- How to Play: Each pilot attaches a long paper or fabric streamer to the tail of their plane. The goal is to maneuver your plane to cut the opponent’s streamer with your propeller. The pilot who cuts the most streamers (or is the last one with a streamer) wins. This is a very popular and exciting game.
- Skills: Aerobatics, close-quarters flying, and spatial awareness.
- “Two on One” Dogfight:
- Objective: Simulating an aerial battle to “shoot down” opponents.
- How to Play: A more open-ended version of streamer combat. Pilots fly together, trying to get into a position to snag or cut the streamer from the streamer plane. The streamer plane scores 1 point if they get away. Both pursuit pilots score 2 points if they cut the streamer. Team members rotate into the Streamer role.
- Potentially laser tag devices can be fitted to aircraft to record hits. Lasers 10-degree lasers (must be close to be detected, and protects ground crews from laser shots), firing shots every 500 mSec automatically.
- Skills: Evasive maneuvers, pursuit, and strategic positioning.
- Balloon Bust:
- Objective: Pop balloons that are either on the ground or attached to planes.
- How to Play:
- Ground Version: Place balloons on the ground and fly low to try and pop them with your propeller. This is a great game for precision flying.
- Air Version: Attach balloons to the landing gear or tail of each participating plane. The objective is to fly and pop the opponents’ balloons.
- Skills: Low-altitude control, propeller discipline, and careful maneuvering.