Has anyone done a lolly drop before?

[rdarby]

Has anyone done a lolly drop before and wants to share some advice?

 

 

[Alan Cameron]

Hi,

 

Regarding the Lolly drop I have done many of them, you must have a dispensation from CASA before you drop anything from an aircraft, be aware lots of little faces will be looking up at you and a damaged eye from a falling Lolly could have you in court explaining things to the magistrate, be carefull

 

 

[Patrick Normoyle]

Yes, I've done several, and yes, make sure you get the dispensation to drop items from an aircraft, you'll need a CAR157 dispensation or a low level endorsement, well plan it and make sure you think it out very well, high school ovals are ideal or areas that have a clear approach and departure with few obstacles, have ground helpers to clear the drop area and approaches, have some streamers for wind strength and direction and account for this, I did a few practise runs at the strip before the day.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Guess it'd take too long to tie a little parachute to each lolly...

 

 

[ahlocks]

use marshmallows..

 

 

[metalman]

a 170kmh marshmallow will still smart pretty good, but at least you'll have something yummy for the ambo ride!!!

 

 

[ahlocks]

Dust them in opium powder beforehand so as to ease any pain....

 

 

[farri]

rdarby, You`ve been given some good advice already on what to do!

 

This is what not to do. A guy up here in the Cairns area was doing a lolly drop in his MX Quicksilver. He was throwing them out by hand, bumped the kill switch to the enging and due to his low altitude had to land in an adjoining paddock.

 

I`ve done a couple of lolly drops over the years with strict instructions that no children were to be on the field as I dropped them. To drop them, I used a piece of pvc pipe, put a flap in the bottom of it, a cord attached to the flap so I could pull the flap open and secured the pipe to the side of the front seat of the Drifter. When I droped the lollies all I had to do was pull the chord. Not difficult to make.

 

Frank.

 

 

[Marty_d]

Dust them in opium powder beforehand so as to ease any pain....

There's the solution. Just open a few kilos of coke and powder the crowd, everyone will be happy. Might cost more than a few bags of Allens Assorted though.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Be selective when buying your lollies, you can select the ' safe ' softer lollies. The ones in paper wrappings fall ok. I used to just put them into a brown paper bag and throw them overboard from the Drifter, a bag at a time. Usually back at the hangar there'd be a few caught caught on the belly pan or backseat for the pilot !......

 

We once had a local lad in the hangar to do some maintenance with us, as work experience from the local school. I told him I did a lolly drop for the kids at that school a few years back. He just gave me a funny look and said ...."I was one of those kids "......gold !..........I once hit my wife in the face with a lolly, while she was down in the crowd watching the show....she reckoned I did it on purpose !.............Maj..........

 

 

[M61A1]

I have seen it used as a distraction technique . Santa was arriving on an Iroquois, the dropped lollies where they wanted the kids to be, did a clearing turn and put down away from them.

 

 

[rankamateur]

I have seen it used as a distraction technique . Santa was arriving on an Iroquois, the dropped lollies where they wanted the kids to be, did a clearing turn and put down away from them.

Good Idea, you could use corn to clear sheep away from a landing on your water run. Or not?

 

 

[Guest GraemeM]

Be selective when buying your lollies, you can select the ' safe ' softer lollies. The ones in paper wrappings fall ok. I used to just put them into a brown paper bag and throw them overboard from the Drifter, a bag at a time. Usually back at the hangar there'd be a few caught caught on the belly pan or backseat for the pilot !......We once had a local lad in the hangar do some maintenance with us as, as work experience from the local school. I told him I did a lolly drop for the kids at that school a few years back. He just gave me a funny look and said ...."I was one of those kids "......gold !..........I once hit my wife in the face with a lolly, while she was down in the crowd watching the show....she reckoned I did it on purpose !.............Maj..........

Was that in retaliation for singing with the curlew's keeping you awake?

 

Graeme.

 

 

[FlyingVizsla]

The ultralight club I was with did an annual lolly drop. Lessons we learned: have a passenger do the dropping as it is too high a work load for the pilot. Be aware of the wind and what this means for the trajectory. Choose wrapped lollies because they can end up anywhere and kids will grab them with a handful of grass, dirt and shove in pockets. No kids on oval - organisers should let little kids out first or they miss out. Have someone on the ground with radio to co-ordinate with organisers - pilot. Be very organised with lolly supply as it is very cramped in the air. For distribution I rigged up a pod & chute and fastener so it would not accidentally fall out. The best one had a circle of wire at the top to keep it open while tipping the bucket or bags of lollies in to it with a neck strap or some other way of holding it up to fill. The chute was about the length of a long sleeve, was hung over board with enough length to direct lollies below the fuse with a strap to pull it up while refilling and landing.

 

Take an experienced passenger - one year they took the publican's wife because she had never been flying (kill two birds with one stone...) she turned the bucket into the wind and it peeled the bucket apart and blew most of the lollies back in. The lolly dropping stopped when it was done by the club cowboy who didn't bother with rules or safety, wouldn't co-operate with those on the ground.

 

Today I would be questioning "lollies" - maybe we should be dropping little boxes of sultanas, packets of nuts, fruit, rice crisps, little toys.

 

Sue

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

All very good thoughts Sue.

 

I also like Farri's suggestion of the pipe despatching system similar to the 1080 baiting or firelighting method. But of course you mustn't bolt it on yourself, you must get a LAME to do it and presumably an STC for the aircraft, amended weight and balance and all that, can't be too careful ...

 

I'm sure its all banned by now but while we're on the subject if anyone ever goes so far as to organise a flour bombing competition - just a word of caution. Use strong paper bags and don't let them get damp before the comp, 90% of the swirling flour in an open cockpit or doors-off is guaranteed to end up in your eyes, makes for bad landings.

 

Also Sue, you're right onto it about the health foods instead of lollies but still a little risky I think. The nuts should be dropped from a separate plane at a separate oval or we'll end up with some kids down from traces of nuts, and all little toys ought to be of an educational nature and constructed from choke-resistant foam.

 

Actually, staying vigilant on things like this, perhaps we should instead drop cotton-wool balls dyed in different colours which the kids can collect and exchange them at the tuck-shop for health foods or foam toys of matching colours? All this SMS stuff can be quite fun once you get into the spirit of it.

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Well. . . . . . . .what with all the he bloody silly and definitely "Over the top" rules and regulations making a mockery of what would ostensibly be a "Fun" event. . . . . . it makes me glad that equivalent rules were not in force during WW2, otherwise the "Other side" could well have sued us for dropping things from flying machines which may well have accidentally hurt someone. . . . . . . . .

 

I well remember the flour bombing comps we used to have at Casey Field Berwick in the seventies, when these terrible risks were evidently not apparent. . . . .and the safest place to stand on the ground was usually around the target, usually the CFI's car. I don't remember anyone having to get "SPECIAL PERMISSION" from bullcrap castle for such an event. . . .is this what we've come to now ?? I got hit in the head with a stray rocket firework device at an organised public display last year, this was due to a strong gust of wind, It shook me up a bit, but It never crossed my mind to try and sue somebody for what was obviously a total accident and NOBODY'S damn fault ! ! !

 

I really DO worry about the way the world is going nowadays guys. . . . . . . . and as for LOLLY DROP complaints. . . . . . . . no comment.

 

Phil xx

 

 

[rdarby]

I have called CASA and was told to send an email explaining what I wanted to do, which I have now done. Now I wait and see. I hope it all works out.

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

I think each lolly needs to be wrapped in bubble plastic. Each participant on the ground needs to sign a waiver of liability and a copy of the waiver needs to be wrapped around the lolly before the bubble wrap is applied.

 

No matter the size of the lolly, the final lolly package needs to have a radius of at least 8cm so as to not compress the surface of the eye should it hit smack bang on!.

 

No lolly should have a forward velocity greater than 10kts because people will expect the lollys to hit them from above, not from the side.

 

The children need to be graded on scavenge ability and released according to ability, anyone not having an equal chance is likely to be scared for life and as a result will not achieve their true potential and as such may well sue for lack of earnings as a neurosurgeon when all that was achieved was checkout chick.

 

No lolly shall have as a constituent element any:-

 

1) preservatives, whether natural or unnatural

 

2) sugar, or artificial sweeteners

 

3) anything that has been shown at some point in time to be an allergan to a human somewhere

 

4) No Lipitor (ABC showed it was bad!!!)

 

5) product that can be shown to have contributed to global warming and release of carbon dioxide

 

6) NBN...cause that simply costs too much and besides a wireless lolly will do just as well

 

Phew....silliness over for the most parts for another post!

 

Andy

 

 

[Phil Perry]

Do they sell "Jelly Babies" lollies in OZ ? I can't remember. . . . these are soft and pliable BUT I imagine that if one hit me in the eye at terminal velocity, it would probably hurt as much as a boiled sweet ! ! ! ! ! Has anyone though of dropping bags of lollies attached to a balloon filled with insufficient helium to maintain buoyancy with the lollypayload ? ? ? ? ? surely this would result in gentle altitude degradation and thereby result in very few litigous Lolly / Eye interface incidents ? ? ? ? ?

 

Just a thought. . . .

 

 

[Guest Andys@coffs]

Do they sell "Jelly Babies" lollies in OZ ? I can't remember. . . . these are soft and pliable BUT I imagine that if one hit me in the eye at terminal velocity, it would probably hurt as much as a boiled sweet ! ! ! ! ! Has anyone though of dropping bags of lollies attached to a balloon filled with insufficient helium to maintain buoyancy with the lollypayload ? ? ? ? ? surely this would result in gentle altitude degradation and thereby result in very few litigous Lolly / Eye interface incidents ? ? ? ? ?Just a thought. . . .

If its a windy day it may constitute as an export!

 

Have you signed a customs declaration and ensured that no ITAR obligations have been missed!

 

 

[ahlocks]

Phew....silliness over for the most parts for another post!

And have you tried a 'smackmallow' before summarily dismissing the idea as silly hatshatter...?

 

 

[Phil Perry]

I think each lolly needs to be wrapped in bubble plastic.Andy

Geez Andy,. . . . . did you know that a lot of "Bubble Wrap" plastic is made in England in a desperately poor place called "MANCHESTER" ? ? ? meaning that the local air is contained safely within those bubbles ! this means that if a child inadvertantly damages the bubble plastic whilst scrambling to open the lollyload. . . . . ., they could well be exposed to AIR from Manchester too ! ! ! ! ! ! !

 

This should be avoided at all costs. Please add this to your warning list. Otherwise your kids could start saying things like. . . "eeeh bah goom tha nows . . . ."

 

( Apologies to any bubble plastic manufacturers located in Australia of course. . . . )

 

Phil

 

 

[Phil Perry]

If its a windy day it may constitute as an export!Have you signed a customs declaration and ensured that no ITAR obligations have been missed!

Curses. . . . . .foiled again. . . I forgot to mention it had to be a dead still day. . . . . otherwise the Japanese might think we were trying to get our own back for the balloon bombs in ww2. . . . . .

 

 

[metalman]

we do a flour bombing comp at our club pretty regularly, it's surprisingly difficult from 500 feet to it a target,,,,,but incredibly easy to nearly hit a cessna,,,,go figure !

 

As for lollies ,perhaps they could be placed on the ground the day before and then have the kiddies look skyward as the plane flies over at 1000agl ,informing then ( at a time sufficient for said lollies to land ) that the little sweeties( the lollies not the kids) are out there for the taking,,,,,,,,actually to save fuel ( and the planet ) you could hold the event in the flight line of an airport ,,,the kids wont know , and think of the PR ,,,,QANTAS do lolly drops from a dash 8,,,, how cool

 

matty

 

 

[kgwilson]

Only about 10 years ago we had bombing comps with wooden bomb shaped bombs with fins on. Really looked the part. We used the club C152s & cruised down the strip at 300 feet in front of the Tower, opened the window, stuck our left arm out & let it go when we thought best. It was bloody hard to get close to the target even after sitting on the deck in front of the clubhouse & criticising everyone else for poor bombmanship beforehand. We had the judges standing around the target which was a guarantee no-one would get near it. I won it one year at the annual competitions & missed by a huge margin. I still have the certificate presented to me at the annual club dinner.

 

The other thing we did was play aerial golf. We'd set up a hole with a pin, fly over & drop a numbered golf ball. Then we had to land & putt the ball in. Half of us couldn't even find the ball we dropped let alone putt it in. In some cases a No 1 driver would have been a better way of getting the ball from its landing spot to the pin.

 

We never did do lolly drops but I am sure if we'd dropped stubbies under little parachutes, being ground crew would have been a lot more popular