Ballon bust

[Cody bishop]

When my dad was a kid they used to fly ballon bust is it still around I haven't been able to find anything about it

[Dane Martin]

The balloon bust is a great fun event added to some contests, fun flys or multi-events.  In Las Vegas, we usually have two balloon busts a year. Last year, I flew my F2D combat plane for the balloon bust. I was going faster than they could supply balloons. Lol. Joey Mathison kicked all our butts with his ringmaster.

[Dane Martin]

Should be a couple clips in this video.

[peabody]

There is/was? an official AMA Balloon Bust event. Try it with the obstacle pile per the rules....you'll not use a lot of balloons.
I made something for GSCB that was an obstacle pole of ribbon. The post itself stood 6' in from the 60' line. People still hit it, but mostly chickened out and pulled up WAY short....leaving the balloons virgins.
Hampshire got three once, and retired.

Have fun! 

[Brett Buck]

There is/was? an official AMA Balloon Bust event. Try it with the obstacle pile per the rules....you'll not use a lot of balloons.

   That has been my observation, too, AMA "barrier pole" balloon bust is very economical (for the organizers) and you only have to blow up 5 balloons. Maybe not so economical for the pilots, the carnage can be rather entertaining.

   WAM balloon bust was a very big event for a long time, one of the last WAM events to die completely. But there was no barrier, and only one balloon at a time. They had a rotating rig that held a balloon on a stick at either end. When someone hit the balloon, they flipped it around to replace it, and the other balloon rotated into place. All you had to do was fly level and hit them, the faster the better. I can't recall the details (several other posters here were highly competitive) but the experts hit the balloon on almost every try.  The airplanes were moderately sophisticated and had rear intake engines or some sort of deflector to keep the popped balloon from blocking the intake or otherwise making the engine quit. 

    Brett

[peabody]

There are challenges to even the best busters.....Hampshire broke a balloon only to have its carcass wrap around the prop center and over the intake, choking the engine. We always ruined poles (1/8" dowels)....balloons not so much
A fun event
GSCB also held trash can derbies....install the plane into a trash barrel from a wingover and WIN! Windy won quite frequently using other people's planes....go figure.

[Dave_Trible]

The Topeka group were the last to fly it around here-we may bring it back.  Their method is four balloons on sticks about 30 feet apart.  You have to get the last one first, i.e. Fly over the row and drop on the last one.  It's a blast but harder to do than it looks.  You want a really slow beater.

Dave

[Frank Imbriaco]

Way, way back ( I rather not say and date myself) , it was an event at many East Coast contests and known as "Rocketry".

[C.T. Schaefer]

Hah!  We still have all of the stuff in our 'storage unit' including the cement filled gallon cans modeled like tanks to hold the balloon sticks. Those tanks wrecked a lot of planes .   TS

[Dennis Nunes]

I remember the WAM balloon bust! In fact it was my first model airplane contest that I entered (I think it was in El Cerrito, CA in the mid to late 60's) .  I saw a couple planes bite the dust as they missed the balloon and ran smack into the metal rotating device holding the balloon. In the back of my mind I believe one of the rules was you could double you points per popped balloon by popping it inverted. You had to alternate between upright and inverted. I never say anyone do that however. Also, after a balloon was popped, you need to complete one "high" lap before going to the next balloon. Boy did they go through a lot of balloons and 1/8" dowels! One of the tricks, if memory serves me right, to prevent sucking up a balloon was to use the old Coke or beer bottle cap mounted between the prop and prop washer, with the "teeth" facing forward. Ahh what fun times!!

Dennis

[tom hampshire]

Peabody is sorta guilty of selective truth telling.  Ashamed as I am, the famous 3 for 1 was achieved only by cheating; meaning an inverted entry.  Level flight for 3 pops, full down to stagger over the barrier.  The rules du jour did not by their terms prohibit such scurrilous behavior.  But after the fact, the learned Contest Administrators (Can you say Hurl Commissioners?)  determined that my conduct, although strictly within the published language of the rules, was to result in disqualification and forced retirement from the event.  I remain unrepentant.

[peabody]

Tom's a lawyer by profession....so he wasn't cheating, he just imagined "alternate rules"....quite the rage nowadays
 

[Brett Buck]

Peabody is sorta guilty of selective truth telling.  Ashamed as I am, the famous 3 for 1 was achieved only by cheating; meaning an inverted entry.  Level flight for 3 pops, full down to stagger over the barrier.  The rules du jour did not by their terms prohibit such scurrilous behavior.  But after the fact, the learned Contest Administrators (Can you say Hurl Commissioners?)  determined that my conduct, although strictly within the published language of the rules, was to result in disqualification and forced retirement from the event.  I remain unrepentant.

     Oh, that's definitely the way to do it, in fact, you can fly past, go inverted, then hit them all as you fly back towards the pole. But, you found the problem with that plan, too.

    Brett

[Gary Dowler]

We did a balloon bust when I was a kid in the model club at my school in the 70's. We used 1/2A's and the balloons were afixed to some sort of sticks of a very soft nature that would just break off if you hit it with a wing.  Looked forward to these, they were great fun.

[Jim Carter]

    Mr. Tom, I must say, "I like it!!"  Looks like you along with Captain Kirk resolved the infamous "No Win" scenario!!  I applaud you, sir!!   

[Eric Viglione]

Our little club had a WWII profile warbird (Fox35 only) event we called the WWII Quadrathon. Originally, it included Stunt, Speed, Race & Combat.

We did combat last for obvious reasons.

Somewhere along the way, we decided that people didn't like the potential of tearing up planes in combat, since it was hard enough to get people to build a plane that got flown once a year.

So, we came up with the idea to substitute Balloon Bust (with high barrier) in place of Combat to save planes getting torn up.

It didn't... the carnage was way worse. 

We finally switched the last event to proto speed with a spot landing, which was kinda fun too. Then the event kinda faded away when we moved the club field and had to run mufflers, etc. etc.

EricV

[john e. holliday]

Yes TOPClass(Topeka Control line Assc.) holds a balloon burst event almost every year.   I have flown in all the different types of balloon bursts in the KC area.  The best one was using the F2C circle using the pit boxes for the balloon stations.  One was left vacant.   Take off and fly level for 7 laps on measured 60 foot lines center of plane to center of handle.   Then break balloons starting with last balloon in line from the approach.   Yes we had one guy that flew backwards.   Speed times number of balloons broken was the score.   Another year was two classes,  regular and expert.  Expert you had to attack balloons inverted.  That is when I learned I had to practice more than 6 laps inverted.   Had to go upright to get over dizzies.  Its a great crowd pleaser.

Another event that was usually the last meet of the year was demolition derby.   It was combat with out streamers.  You had to disable your opponent to win the round.  Quite a challenge to knock off your opponents elevator.

By the way does Dave Trible remember his first contest flying balloon bust.  He was a chubby little kid way back then.    

[Brett Buck]

My club. the Northern Alabama Controline Association (NACA) is having a balloon bust in conjunction with the Ringmaster flyathon. It is an AMA event under CL rules listed as Dive Bombing & Strafing, event 333.  Listed under Control Line Special Events. We have the system made up, by one of our members who is a carpenter.  High barrier, then low barrier and 5 balloons lined up 10 feet apart on 48" balsa sticks placed in 10" x 10" plywood plates.  We have 144 balloons standing by, yet to be inflated. 

    Based on what I saw at the Northwest Regionals in the early 2000's, I predict you will have at least 140 balloons left at the end of the event!  It is a real crowd-pleaser as an event, with great spectator appeal.

  Brett

[peabody]

As I remember Hampshire's Mustang, it seems to me that there were razors and nails in the outboard wing, too....
It was lethal.

[Dan McEntee]

   That has been my observation, too, AMA "barrier pole" balloon bust is very economical (for the organizers) and you only have to blow up 5 balloons. Maybe not so economical for the pilots, the carnage can be rather entertaining.

   WAM balloon bust was a very big event for a long time, one of the last WAM events to die completely. But there was no barrier, and only one balloon at a time. They had a rotating rig that held a balloon on a stick at either end. When someone hit the balloon, they flipped it around to replace it, and the other balloon rotated into place. All you had to do was fly level and hit them, the faster the better. I can't recall the details (several other posters here were highly competitive) but the experts hit the balloon on almost every try.  The airplanes were moderately sophisticated and had rear intake engines or some sort of deflector to keep the popped balloon from blocking the intake or otherwise making the engine quit. 

    Brett

   Hi Brett;
   After Jason Pearson's untimely death, his dad has donated that balloon bust equipment to our club. We had used it a few times when Jason and his dad came over for contests. it is some amazingly well thought out and engineered equipment! The device that has a pump for blowing up the balloons is cool! It pushes air each way on the stroke of the handle! Wish Jason was still with us to operate it for us!

  Type at you later,
   Dan McEntee

[Brett Buck]

   After Jason Pearson's untimely death, his dad has donated that balloon bust equipment to our club. We had used it a few times when Jason and his dad came over for contests. it is some amazingly well thought out and engineered equipment! The device that has a pump for blowing up the balloons is cool! It pushes air each way on the stroke of the handle! Wish Jason was still with us to operate it for us!

    Yes, it is sad that Jason is gone.

    Balloon Bust was a big WAM event for years, I think Joe and Jason were both pretty competitive. Don Chandler also flew it a lot, as I recall.

     Brett

[Steve Thompson]

New event?

Balloon Bust Hurl...

The pilot tries to bust balloons while spectators hurl slag engines at plane?

[Fred Cronenwett]

The Lafayette Esquadrille has an event called the Turkey Shoot which is 4 different events with the same airplane. One of the four events is the balloon bust, we have a compact rig that allows you to hold the balloon and allows you to rotate in new preloaded one quickly. We use club rules for the Turkey Shoot... which by the way is scheduled this year on Nov 19. It will be nice and warm (just kidding) so we typically end up wearing gloves, hats and anything else to keep warm!

Photos from 2014:

https://lafayetteesquadrillecl.wordpress.com/lafayette-esquadrille-cl/photographs/photographs-2014/turkey-shoot-nov-23-2014/


2017 Event info:

https://lafayetteesquadrillecl.wordpress.com/lafayette-esquadrille-cl/control-line-contest-st-louis/turkey-shoot-one-model-3-events/

Fred