For my grandson's birthday, my daughter wanted to know if I could fly over and drop candy (it's an airplane themed party). I thought of putting little tissue parachutes on light little bundles of candy and tossing them out. Is there any hope of getting them into the drop zone (ie yard)?
Larry Snyder
Mountain View, Arkansas
N99340
If this was at an airpark and one could keep all little ones off the runway as candy was dropped onto said runway. Then after the candy falls to the ground and after the airplane has flown away the kids run out and pick up the candy. All this happens within a few seconds once the candy is thrown.
But to fly over ones house in ones neighborhood and drop candy on anyone who it might hit, I would not do this. Not even with little pieces of tissue tided to them. For one thing its against a few FAA regs. Flying under 500' over property or people, and dropping things from an airplane onto people. When this is done for kids those kids are held back. Nothing is dropped on top of anyone.
Tony
It takes consistent packaging, exact knowledge of the wind, and practice, practice, practice. It'd be almost impossible to consistently hit a residential yard from 1,000 feet (or even 500 feet, assuming you can justify that you aren't over a "congested area").Originally Posted by lesnyd
I flour-bombed once, and the only reason I got some good hits is that we were doing it over the runway and most of us were coming in very low. Even so, there was a pretty broad CEP. Story's at: http://www.bowersflybaby.com/stories/ELMA.HTM
What you might consider is a big slingshot using a bit of bungee cord. Put the kids in the backyard and fire it over the house....
Ron Wanttaja
Be very careful you don't end up like my friend did.
Pilot Narrowly Misses Preschoolers
July 05, 1994
A single-engine airplane crashed on an elementary school tennis court Monday, killing the pilot and barely missing 100 preschoolers gathered for a 4th of July celebration in Seeley Lake, Mont. The Piper J-3 bounced within 15 feet of the children, then spun into the net. The pilot, Bud Lindemer, was alone in the plane. The children were waiting for the plane to drop Ping-Pong balls as part of a contest sponsored by local businesses. Some balls could be turned in for prizes. Minutes before the crash, the plane had dropped balls to a crowd of older children and adults on an adjacent baseball field. Witnesses said the plane skimmed trees, struck a 10-foot-high fence, then slammed into the court. "He knew he was in trouble," said Cindy Carlson. "I looked at his face the whole time. He aimed that plane so he wouldn't hurt anybody else
It's looking to me like the kids need to be somewhere open, or at the airport, and the stuff is dropped without parachutes on a certain drop zone where they can go get the candy after it has landed. Still thinking! I figure there's no way you could drop parachutes at 500 agl and have them land anywhere near where you want them to...
Larry Snyder
Mountain View, Arkansas
N99340
I did this once with an RC plane. The instant the kids saw the candy, they went nuts! No one fell and got hurt, but I was surprised 3, 4 didn't get trampled. It was way beyond anything we'd imagined. Just a consideration for you.
Last edited by Low Pass; 08-10-2015 at 07:54 PM.
Bryan
Houston
Larry, one of my friends was pretty good with "candy bombing"
He would put candy pieces inside a plastic egg, the easter kind. Load ~1000 of these stuffed plastic eggs into the hopper of his ag plane. Fly to the "target zone" which would be at least 3-4 acres of clear area. Then he would fly over, pull the dump handle and whoosh! Mission accomplished. Precautions were always taken, like those Tony suggested; kids were kept at a safe distance while the drop was in progress, all regs were complied with, etc.
I have never had much success dropping light items out of a plane. The 100+mph slipstream is violent and the slightest breeze can carry something much further downwind than you could possibly imagine.
This is done at the little fly-in we have here in central il. every year. Well we did have this fly-in. But that is another story. But they did this every year. The kids are held behind a rope line. Before the airplane even comes into sight they are told what they are to do. Not once have we ever had one child run early onto the field.
Tony
Well, consider: The Norden bombsight of WWII had a claimed CEP (circular error probable) of 75 feet. That mean *half* the bombs dropped would be within 75 feet of the aiming point. Of course, the *actual* accuracy was on the order of a thousand feet. If the Piccadilly Lilly couldn't have done it, don't feel so bad on passing up the opportunity. :-)
Ron Wanttaja
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly!"
- WKRP in Cincinnati
Ron Wanttaja
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