The weather forecast leading up to Big EARS was less than impressive, it was supposed to be rain and wind and general unpleasantness. As it turned out the weathermen only got the wind part right with glorious sunshine on the Sunday leaving more than a few people with sunburn. It was quite a weird launch for me as I didn't fly anything, didn't camp over and didn't really help out at all, this left loads of time to socialise and take photos though.

I woke up on Saturday morning and it looked quite nice out of the bedroom window, although that didn't really last. By the time I got to the launch site at around midday it had clouded over quite badly and the wind was fairly blowing over the fields. As per usual everyone was taking their time and I hadn't missed any launches, which was quite cool.

I wandered into the marquee and dumped my stuff with the rest of the MARS crew and proceeded to hand around and eat loads from the MARS picnic club. This marked a departure for me, as even though I've got on well with the MARS lot at other launches, I've never been a member, so it was quite strange.

After being there for a while I dug the half finished pad cam kit out of it's plastic bag and started to set it up to show everyone the problems I was having. Not too long after that I had a soldering iron in one hand and was busily taking advice on how best to sort it all out and sort it all out we did. All I need to do now is to get better cabling and a wider angle lens and it'll be complete.

I can't really remember who flew what on Saturday, although Gary Sinclair and Steve Gibbings had a drag race with their VB King Blobbo's, which was quite cool. Hugh Gemmell turned up and showed everyone how to spack a rocket in true style when his Zipper III rocket disintegrated upon contact with the gravel track. PML nose cones are famed for their durability, you can spack them and still use them, not Hugh's though, it looked like it had been run over by a tank.

Following on with the spack theme there were a couple of guys from a University with a rocket that had pitot and static tubes on the nose cone. The first flight was a success, but the second was shovel recovery and it pretty well destroyed all the electronics onboard. It was a right shame as I've been building a nose cone with static tubes on it for ages, so it was really interesting to see someone actually fly a rocket with some on it.

That's pretty much all I can remember about Saturday, I left at around seven o'clock, shortly before everyone headed off for a curry. I ended up watching some right dodgy Chuck Norris film on the telly until the early hours, it was so pants, but I couldn't arsed to turn to another channel.

Sunday morning dawned really bright and not so early and it too ka while to get up and get the Sunday papers before heading off to the launch site once again. The weather was so much better that I had to stop off on route and dig the pinhole camera out and take some shots of a vivid yellow rape field against a clear blue sky. So I didn't make it out to the launch site until about eleven o'clock, but again I hadn't really missed much.

I spent a lot less time in the marquee on the Sunday and more time out on the range setting up the pad cam and taking photos. This meant that I was out in the burning sun for practically the whole day, so my neck got a bit sunburnt. This did mean I burned quite a bit of film though and saw most of the flight go, which was pretty cool, shame I can't remember who flew what though.

The main flight that sticks in my mind from Sunday had to be the Red Noses, which were being flown for charity. They were set up out on the far pads and my pad cam set up was placed on the ground in between them. Paul Birch and Richard Harwood had been busy for ages rigging up some smoke cans and flares to go off just before the noses. Paul had also rigged up one of his now infamous bangs that was kept secret from everyone and had the desired result.

A few red flares went off first followed a short while later by a large bunch of smoke cans. This generated a load of ground smoke and flame and then the large bang went off. Evidently most people down that the flight line thought that both motors had exploded only to see both noses take off perfectly out of the swirling smoke. Recovery was less than perfect however as both noses lost their parachutes and ended up spacking into different fields.

I can't really remember many other flights; Hugh Gemmell flew his PML Endeavour on a five grain Pro38 J300 for a good flight. The lads from Crock who'd come up for a few days were quite active and flew quite a number of rockets. Helen Green attempted to launch her Higher Whopper rocket on a Hypertek J330 but was thwarted due to the wind.

I had to be home slightly earlier on Sunday, so I had to leave before all the flying had finished. It was shame as Trevor Seabrook and Jim Macfarlane both flew Hypertek motors and I really wanted to capture one of them with the pad cam.

Monday was a bit of a contrast to Saturday and Sunday, it was much windier and the cloud started out quite thick, but then thinned out and became sunny. Due to the wind and people having to go home to spend at least one day of the bank holiday with their families it seemed quite empty and quiet. Because of this there was no real flying at all, although young Thomas Hicks lobbed a few models as did a couple of other brave souls.

The main highlight of the day was the raffle, which was held in the early afternoon. I don't normally do very well in raffles and if I win anything it's normally right at the end. In the end my five tickets won me three prizes, a PML t-shirt, a flying saucer and 46 chip cups, not quite the £50 Skyangle voucher or micro hybrid I was after but never mind. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with all these chip cups, apart from eating loads of chips that is...

After the raffle all that was left to do tidy up and then take marquee down before heading off home. It was a really good weekend, although the wind was slightly annoying. There were some good flights and some impressive spacks, which is about all you can ask for really. I ended up taking three rolls of film with the pad cam, six rolls of general lift off and people shots and three rolls with my daft Lomo Cyber Sampler. So it was all bit of a success, roll on UKRA 2003 and the massively overpowered Estes rocket competition...

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Last update: Tuesday, 30-Mar-2004 03:43:25 EST