Wow! What a terrific event. Almost a full weeks flying programme. For the NSRG members that went, this must rate as the best rocket event ever. We weren't up to full strength, but we made a good showing. Mike, Darren and Shaun arrived Tuesday evening, with Pete and Angela shwong up Wednesday morning. Mike left on the following Monday, but Pete, Angela, Darren and Shaun extended the trip by staying until Tuesday.
IRW 2000 was organised and run by a comittee, consisting of John Bonsor, Bobby Wark, Andy Norries senior and junior and Mark Turner (sorry if I left anyone out!). The event lasted the full week, and as usual was based at the Kelburn Country Centre between Largs and Fairlie, with HPR flights taking place at Birtlebog Farm, nearby.
The flying programme consisted of open model flying at the start of the week (in practice this meant Wednesday), with HPR on Thursday afternoon, and all day Friday and Saturday, followed by competions on Sunday and open model flying Monday. Due to bad weather on Saturday, there was no HPR, but some model flying took place in the afternoon and evening. The Glider and Helicopter duration competition flying was completed on the Sunday, but the payload, lander and sweetie rocket competions had to be held over to the Monday. This was mainly due to some people flying non-competion vehicles on the Sunday.
There was a well attended barbecue on the Sunday evening, which proved to be excellent value for money. The results of the Glider and Helicopter duration competitions was announced after the barbecue. There was also an emotional speech by Ziggi, who, like a lot of us is continually delighted by the cameraderie and general good will found at gatherings of the UK rocketry community.
NSRG start to arrive, Darren and Shaun are first and bag a bay in the pavilion. Mike arrives a little later. There's not much flying, and it's limited to a few stomp rockets.
Pete & Angela arrive for the first flying day, and Pete Davy is formally assimilated into the North Star Rocketry Group.
First HPR day at Birtlebog farm, Mike certifies UKRA Level 2 and grabs the UKRA 'G' altitude record, Shaun certifies UKRA Level 1.
See the article from the Glasgow Herald here. A slight error crept in here, Shaun was in fact 14 years old. Shaun is still the youngest UKRA Level 1 certified flier.
More HPR. Darren test flies Accusatory Finger of Suspicion, but spends too long stressing out to be able to certify UKRA level 2. Still lots of flying though.
By Friday night, there were rockets weherever you looked. Here's a quick tour of the pavilion.
A wet rainy day, but some flying in the evening.
Competition day. Only the glider and helicoper competitions are completed, with Mike taking first place in the helicopter duration. The glider duration contest was won by
Competition flying completed, followed by more open model flying. Pete and Angela won the Largs open wallet altitude record in Pete's shop!
Is it Tuesday again all ready? Time to head home...
Here and there I've taken a few photos from alt.binaries.models.rockets, and websites that were advertised on uk.tech.rocketry and rec.models.rockets. In truth I don't remember where they all came from, so can't give proper credit. However, there are almost certainly pics that were taken by Adrian Hurt, Andy Moore, Mike Crewe & Ben Jarvis. If you see a pic that belongs to you, and object to it being used here, tell me, and I'll remove it. I've no objection if you take and use any of my pics and I hope you see it the same way.
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