Candy Drop

[WLIU]

This falls under (FAR) 14 CFR 91.15. Historically, dropping candy has been officially viewed as not presenting a hazard.

If you tape a small bit of crepe paper to each piece of candy, they will be more visible and fall more slowly.

For safety you might consider having two people in the aircraft, one to fly and one to call course changes and drop candy. Don't fly too low, too slow, and think about wind drift during the decent of the candy.

I have seen this done over a high school sports stadium.

Be safe,

Wes

[Zack Baughman]

Somewhat humorous story regarding a candy drop. In 2004 while at SNF, some Timeless Voices volunteers and I had the opportunity to interview Paul Tibbets (pilot of the B-29 "Enola Gay"). I always ask people what their first aviation memory is, and Paul's first aviation memory was being picked out of a crowd of boys by Doug Davis (later to become famous as the winner of the 1929 National Air Races flying the Travel Air Mystery Ship) to serve as his "bombardier" while dropping Baby Ruth candy bars with handkerchief parachutes over Hialeah Racetrack and Miami Beach in 1927. The humorous part came later in the week, when we were able to interview a P-47 veteran, Frank Fong. Frank's first aviation memory was standing in the crowd at Hialeah Racetrack watching Doug Davis drop Baby Ruth candy bars out of his airplane! Frank could hardly believe it when we told him that the kid in the airplane with Davis was none other than Paul Tibbets. It truly is a small world...

Zack

[Cary]

This wouldn't be a lot different from flour bombing, often done at small fly-ins around the country. As is often said, the safest place to be is on the target itself, as it's not easy to hit it. A couple years ago at a private strip fly-in, all the young kids stayed on the target during the bombing. But as the bombardiers got closer and closer, one of the kids decided it was getting too close for his comfort, so he decided to move away from the target. You guessed it--he took a direct hit on the next run! It's amazing how much coverage half a cup of flour provides. No damage--but he was covered.

Cary

[cub builder]

FWIW, EAA risk management refuses to cover any chapter activity that involves dropping things from an aircraft. Especially flour bombing and likely a candy drop.

-CubBuilder