I'd love to see folk in all areas of the country suggesting good roads to their AC's so everyone can really get the most out of these brilliant cars of ours. Might try to resurrect my Road to Roam thread some time, see if we can at least use it to spur on that angle as it would definitely benefit the club...
Well I have to say we had a great day and as well as having a very enjoyable drive (despite small sections of gravel from road works) we saw some very impressive and some very hilarious rockets. There were two high powered jobs, one of which was two-stage and went to about 5,000 metres. So I think those who came for this run definitely came away with something to remember.
On the funny side there were two medium powered rockets (the kind that go to maybe a couple of thousand metres) that exploded on the way up. The first blooper was a rocket which I think the owner had named "Blue Tumbler" but as it turned out would be better named "Blew Up" - it caught fire somehow on ascent, looking like a comet, then detonated above us and disappeared in a huge flash. The second blooper which detonated on ascent left it's nose cone coming back down like a wee bomb and it stuck in the ground about 20 metres in front of our marquee, with other debris gently raining down all around.
A third medium powered "oops" involved a failed chute, but it had gone so high that none of us could see where it had got to and therefore had no idea if it was headed our way or not. The MC simply declared "No chute... it's coming back down..." The tension builds... We're searching the sky but can't spot the thing. Ooh err...
"It's ok folks it's come down behind the tyres" referring to a large mound maybe a hundred metres behind us. Whew... 
One of my own weeny rockets failed to deploy its chute too and munted itself big time in a distant paddock.
And then there was Saturn 5, a very light weight and seriously underpowered job that arose so slowly that it tipped over and headed almost directly for me... I flinched and lowered my video camera, ready to run, but it then continued downwards and speared the ground a few metres away. Rich (Instinct) got a perfect slideshow of its flight - very funny.
And finally just as we were packing to go, the MC launches his own medium powered (2 metre long) missile. Up it goes, most impressive both in roar and speed... up up up... oh dear, no chute. Down it comes full noise, demonstrating just how quickly these things hurtle back to Earth without a chute... Then BLAM it simply explodes into a massive shower of fragments about 50 metres in front of our marquee. How cool was that?
I'll throw up a few photos, then rip into processing the video I shot. Might be a few days before I can get it uploded though.
A warm thanks from me to all who came. I'm pretty sure everyone had a day to remember and I'm sure looking forward to next year's Rocket Run.
Those in attendance were:
Myself (Charlie aka mickeyduck) and my eldest son Isaac.
Steve (spinner) and Ade who founded this club way back. They came in Ade's mint condition AW11SC manual T-top "Gizmo" which is up for sale... Great to see them out on a run again - they only got to see a medium powered launch or two as they had to shoot off real early to host their open home. As they were starting the car to leave a wee rocket came down on its chute and we watched as it came our way... then gently bounced off Alex' AW (sinturion) right next to us. A parting shot eh...?
Jakke (numbers) helped out in a big way by transporting my marquee, and by bringing a very tasty dose of lamb steaks.
Paul (fourwalls) tagged along in his yellow SW with the brilliant rear window sticker (I want one).
Mark (skidmk) declared it to be an absolutely brilliant way to spend a Sunday (cheers mate).
Dan (redtop) came for a strop and a gander in his (cough cough) Honda type R. Well it has 4 seats and he's got kids...Could have bought a second MR2 of course...
Seriously though it was good to see you come out for a bit of fun Dan and I do hope you had a good time. Here's hoping you do score another MR2 for the fun of it eh...Michael (zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzw30) brought his MRS, Chris (CJ) rocked up in his well-dressed SW turbo, Alex and Jen (Sinturion) brought steaks and sausages in their AW with a virtual bullseye painted on its roof... Thanks for helping cook Jen!
Melvin (Redline) and his mate Nick each brought an SW out to play.
Greg (Bandasorus, who perhaps should be renamed velociraptor) met us en route whereas Shane (Heylin) and Rich (Instinct) met us there at the launch pad. Greg, you're a scallywag for sneaking that money into my cooler toward the BBQ gas mate. But cheers.
Frank, next year you and Julz and John ought to sort a run of it mate. Less interference from low cloud, I'd imagine, in an MR2, even when "flying"... You really do have to see these things eh.
Oh - finally I'd like to mention that a past member of our club who attended the first Rocket Run a way back in an MRS, has since sold it for lack of boot space and bought himself an MX5. I have him on every time I see him that he really ought to have scored an SW or AW, whereupon he always admits the MR2 was a nicer car to drive than the Mazda.. but hey. Upshot of his defecting is that the Mazda club were there as well, having met at Drury and taken the same route there that we did. And there were twice as many of them as there were us - so here's to next year eh folks!
It's AWesome what you can fit in an AW. Here's what I brought with me for the day:
- Chair, gear bag, hat, boots behind my seat
- Rockets behind passenger seat
- BBQ, food and cold drink in the boot
- LPG bottle, extra fuel, club banner, picnic blanket etc in the frunk
Speaking of the marquee... that was really very funny. Q: "How many MR2 guys does it take to assemble a marquee?" A: "They can't." Well, not until I remember there are instructions with a diagram. Man we got a real good laugh outta that one!
Here's a few more pics:
- Steve and Ade, founders of our Club, with Ade's immaculate AW11SC "Gizmo". I'd buy it if I had the cash, no question.
- Big Red's nose being carried out
- Big Red's tail being carried out
- Big Red being raised on its launch platform. This 2 stage beast went to about 5,000 metres in one heck of a hurry. Wicked.
- Another high powered job that went like hell
- Up close and personal
- My wee "Orange Roughy" which flew beautifully but came down a wee bit hard... The failures are always entertaining and amusing even when they're your own.
My thought is if there's no chute just look straight up. Cos if it is heading for you, you will see it and might be able to side step it (I used to play silly buggers like this with arrows as a kid). If you look straight up and cannot see it, it's going to land elsewhere. And if using binoculars, you need to watch it go up then raise the binoculars to your face without taking your eyes off it (before it gets too small to see) cos you simply cannot follow it from launch with binoculars. Having one person with binoculars acting as spotter is a good idea - Dave a.k.a. Rocketman was real good at it (get that AW sorted for the next one mate, come on).
Video to come.
OK so who else has pics / video? I know there were plenty of cameras / iPhones out...
Melvin (Redline) has a snap of the crew in attendance. Come on mate post it up...
but yeah out Rev-D Legacy GT-b just blows me away in terms of handling, safety, performance, quietness, audio system, it ticks all the boxes. + Crazy when a $700 ECU flash gets you 215kw at the engine vs what I had to go through with MR2 to get slightly more than that.
Take care Shane.