Bisley Wind Flags

[Doug Beach]

I’m hoping someone can provide information on the wind flags used at Bisley. What I’m most interested in is the specific material used, type & weight. Dimensions are secondary, but also interesting. Thank you.

 

[Bob Sebold]

I think they are made of the heaviest denim made. They then soak in concrete dust, wet and let dry, apply some kind of lightweight fiberglass before running them up a pole. The best poles are very old telephone poles that are full of slivers to catch the flag and keep it pinned to the pole. Alternatively, you could reed the grass or trees, even grass on a putting green would tell you more about the wind. You could also guess and use nothing, that might be more accurate. If you want to try them, Connaught in Canada has these flags. Of course, this is only my opinion.

 

[rardoin]

That’s hysterical Bob

 

[Warren Dean]

I think they are made of the heaviest denim made. They then soak in concrete dust, wet and let dry, apply some kind of lightweight fiberglass before running them up a pole. The best poles are very old telephone poles that are full of slivers to catch the flag and keep it pinned to the pole.....

That just about sums it up.

 

[Warren Dean]

I’m hoping someone can provide information on the wind flags used at Bisley. What I’m most interested in is the specific material used, type & weight. Dimensions are secondary, but also interesting. Thank you.

I am pretty sure they are made of a cotton duck material. Their values are about twice what our NRA flags show. Evil......

 

[clowdis]

The wind flags used in New Zealand (which is part of the Commonwealth so I assume they use the same flags) seemed to use the same fabric as the ones we use here, but were larger which made them heavier and therefore less susceptible to minor wind changes. If you wanted some to practice with you could take the US flags and add about 10% to the overall size and probably be good to go. Otherwise you could check the ICFRA rule book for a more definitive answer.

OK, I did it to satisify my own curosity:
Flag layout and specification for all-distance new-build ranges F1. Wind Flags should be not less than 12 foot 6 inches1 in length and should be made of woven polyester bunting with weight close to 165 grams per square metre. Note that some other synthetic materials which are not woven may be less permeable to the wind and hence fly higher for a given wind speed. The all-range specification for ranges which do not have pre-existing flags is:- A truncated pennant fabricated from 'Admiralty woven (or spun) polyester bunting' of a nominal weight of 165 g per sq m (do NOT allow a lighter substitute!!). The dimensions should be: Length 12' 6', depth at the hoist 5 ft, depth at the fly 12" and the flags should be coloured blue over yellow2 . They should be flown from a standard flag rope and hoist and not be anchored to the flagpole. F2. Flagpoles must be provided on both flanks of the range and may be provided on the centre line of the range providing there is sufficient clearance afforded by a gap in the line of targets displayed. The clearance between the centre line of the edge targets and the nearest flag line must not be less than 7 metres. Flagpoles should be mounted in two (or more) files at the following distances up range from the line of the targets:- 35, 200, 365, 530, 695 and 860 yards (or metres on metric ranges). Flagpoles should be 7.5 m tall or such a height as will allow the flag to be flown 7m above the muzzle to targetcentre line. All flagpoles must be visible from all firing points. It is permissible to tailor flagpole heights so that flags are flown at the height of the trajectory of a round fired from 1000 yards at the point in question.

 

[Ray Gross]

The flag in the foreground is an official DCRA wind flag. The others are the lighter US flags. The DCRA flags are noticeably heavier.

As you can see in the video, when they are dry, there's not much difference between the heavier and lighter flags. When they are wet however, there is a big difference.