QRS July Launch

It was a very cold morning to start the day at the July launch, which seemed to keep the flyers burrowed away early, but as the warmth of the sun started to thaw the launch site out, it had a similar effect on those gathered around with rockets to launch and soon enough the flights were coming off the rails thick and fast!

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QRS March 2011 Public Launch Day

What an amazing day at the QRS launch site!  This would have to have been our second biggest launch ever with between 1000 and 1500 people attending.

One of the main reasons we get such large turn outs and there is such interest in rocketry in our part of the world is because of the continual massive effort put in to promoting our hobby by the current QRS president Ari Piirainen.  In order to recognise Ari for all his hard work, he was officially made a life member of QRS with the presentation of a plaque at this launch just before he was set to launch his M powered rocket in to the heavens.

Ari Holding His Life Membership Plaque Aloft

There were many rockets sent skyward throughout the day, providing great entertainment for the gathered public.  Amongst them were an L1 certification flight and Leigh's L2 certification flight, both successfull.

 Leigh's L2 Certification Flight

The highlight for the crowd was the launch of two M powered rockets, Ari and Simon's flights were great to watch and the first time two M's had been launched on the same day at a QRS launch.

 Ari's Rocket on an M1297W

 Simon's Rocket on a M1780T

With all of the crowd interaction and activity it was a quiet day for me personally with just one flight of my PML Mystic on a G53-7J motor, but it was another great flight from this rocket.

 My PML Mystic on a G53-7J

 Another great QRS public launch has come and gone but what a successfull one it was!  Click here for the full set of photos and check out a brief video of some of the flights below. 

See you all at the April members launch!

- The Ausrockets Team.

Members Launch With linux.conf.au Attendees January 2011

Well it has been anything but good weather for rocketry in Queensland in the last few months.  Many have been affected by the tragedies and loss surrounding the recent events in our part of the world.  We here at Ausrockets would like to suggest to all of our readers that you support those that have suffered most in recent weeks and do as we have done and donate generously to the Queensland Premiers Flood Appeal - http://www.qld.gov.au/floods/donate.html.  

January 30th saw QRS hold its first launch of 2011 and we were joined by a large contingent of attendees from the linux.conf.au (http://lca2011.linux.org.au/) that was recently held in the Queensland state capital city of Brisbane.  It was a pleasure to meet BDale Garbee, Keith Packard and all the other conference goers that joined us for our launch and launched a bunch of rockets they had been working on during the conference to highlight the usage of the OpenRocket (http://openrocket.sourceforge.net/) software. 

 

There were a number of great launches on the day including Shirley's successful L1 and L2 certification flights and L1 Certifications for Nic and Mark.  Congratulations to all of you!

I personally launched both my PML Mystic on a G76-7G and PML Sudden rush on an I154J - the were both great flights.

Check out the video below to see a selection of the flights from the day. 

Unfortunately the Ausrockets team won't be able to make the February launch, but we will be back for the March launch and look forward to bringing you all the action from the first public launch of 2011.

- The Ausrockets Team.

Members Launch - 14th November 2010

The November members launch was another great one for QRS.  Despite changing weather that gave us a couple of strong showers later in the morning, a large number of flights were made including two Tripoli Level 1 attempts!  Congratulations to Larry who made his flight successfully and bad luck to Nic whose flight went perfectly but broke a fin on landing.

Personally I launched my Callisto on a G64 and my new PML Mystic had it's second flight, taking the power up a notch on a H220.  Both flights were successful although the Mystic sent myself and most of the Ausrockets team on an hour long search through four to six foot high corn in the infamous QRS corn field.  Luckily the rocket was eventually found despite the rain and mud!

Check out the video and photos of the launch below or see the full collection of photos from the event, including higher resolution versions by clicking here.

We look forward to seeing everyone at the final QRS launch of 2010 next month!

- The Ausrockets team.

October Skies - 17th October, 2010.

After the originally planned day for this launch turned out to be very wet - the rescheduled day REALLY turned on the weather for us.  A better piece of weather could not have been hoped for.  Unfortunately the Ausrockets official photographer could not make it to this launch, so photos are limited, but there is still some great video footage for your viewing pleasure further down!

It was certainly a day of firsts.  Starting with a live national television cross to our site for a few launches by Channel Nine's "Today Show".  If you didn't get to see it, you can see a recording of the cross below.

Channel Nine News also showed up to shoot a story for the news later in the day but unfortunately the footage did not make it to air on the nightly news. 

In amongst the media frenzy we also managed to launch 94 rockets - a high for the club.  The breakdown was as follows:

A 8
B 4
C 25
D 7
E 13
F 8
G 17
H 6
I 4
J 2

One of those G motors was the maiden launch of our new PML Mystic rocket on a G76-7G - a great flight for it's first flight and it returned perfectly ready to fly again!  Hopefully next launch we will have some photos of it in action!

Another first on the day was the first QRS launch that saw the use of a Telemetrum GPS / Altimeter combination in a great high flight - it would be great to see more of this in the future.

Unfortunately there was one other first, it seems newly installed power lines over our site have claimed their first victim with one rocket (an L1 attempt as well) getting hung up on them, but with luck it will come down and eventually be recovered.

As a special note, following on from a few incidents of lost rockets, QRS has decided to get serious about rocket tracking equipment.

Ok, so that was actually the satellite link for the live TV broadcast, but we did try to convince Channel Nine to leave it with us; unfortunately they declined.

It turned out to be a fantastic day of both weather and launches and you can see some highlights of the flights in the video below.

We look forward to next year's October Skies event with baited breath!

- The Ausrockets Team.