combat streamers

was wondering if you guys know the specific lengths of the rope and streamer for combat...is it different for 1/2a than F2d ? and what material would you recommend making each from ? thanks, dave

I fly combat and this can be a real fuzzy question to answer. The AMA shows the specifics however they don't give a breakdown of the different events. I fly 75mph speed limit and for this event we use a leader string of roughly 8' long and the streamer is approx 2" wide. Crepe paper is no good as it gets wet in the grass or it just sheds far too easily. We use survey ribbon which can be purchased in bright colors. This is what we use for contests. For fun flying on the weekends, we use dollar store vinyl table cloth material. We slice it in a paper cutter and it works far superior to anything I ever used. There's no question about getting a cut using it. It also has less of a tendency to go into the venturi and choke the engine or wrap around the prop and kill the engine. Kite string that's lightweight is a good choice. Anything heavier will get wrapped in the engine and just won't work correctly.

For 1/2A, this is a different story as I would have to ask what type of engines your using. While the lengths wouldn't change the material would. Ball bearing high performance engines can use the material above. As for the length, I never paid much attention to the string length but I believe the streamer is approx 5' long. I would keep the streamer width about 1 1/4" wide. Ken