Balloon Bust Rules Stearman Fly-In

Balloon Bust Rules:

In the Stearman Balloon Bust contest, the pilots make three separate attempts to break three helium balloons.

The balloons will seldom break if struck by the aircraft--instead, the pilot must maneuver the airplane so that the propeller strikes the balloon. This is tricky, because the balloons are hard to see and because they "dance" in the afternoon thermals.

The winner is the airplane that breaks the most balloons, but in the case of a tie, the pilot does a "spot landing" when he finishes breaking balloons. This means that the touchdown distance from a line across the runway is measured, and the closest to the line wins the tie-breaker contest.

The balloon bust contest is always a crowd pleaser.


28th Annual	June 12-13, 2010