Rate your show! Thread

[RUUUUUN]

My crew had a very nice little show put together, 20-30 500g cakes, 60-70 random fountains, 200+ aerial shells(~206 commercial, ~45 homemade flash/star/lampare shells), 25-30 flash ground salutes, 6 cremora pots, and 10 Hotel Echo charges for the finale. Very nice little show, we spent all day fusing it all together so that we could only use about 40 e-matches and light the whole shebang.

 

The day started off doomed when our E-match pyrogen decided to Kaput so we spent 2 frantic hours trying to figure out what to do(0800-0945ish) and then digging through some old stuf we found 50 E-mtches that were ~4 years old, but they all worked like charm so, with nothing lost but some time and some wear on the old adrenal glands, we started forward with gungho! The entire rest of the morning and most of the afternoon went W/o incident, exept for a few showers and what not, no big deal. At about 1600 I noticed that I was standing in the shop and sweating like a pig, I thought, "no big deal, there are 12-13 people in this building at any given time, its bound to get a little muggy and sticky". Well I stepped outside and it got WORSE, it must have been trying to set a new record for humidity cause it was like 162%, it was NASTY, we had NC coated water resistant visco for the most part, so we weren't to worried. About 1945 or so we started dabling about how we were goin to arrange the field and started setting stuff up, it all setup and staked down quickly, so we started mingling and BSing, at ~2030 it started to sprinkle sommat fierce so we grabbed garbage bags and covered everything real quick, and it stayed dry for the most part, coupla cakes got a wee bit damp, no sweat.

 

2200, Zulu minus Zero until firing, start of slow W/ a 21 gun Salute of rapid fire flash shells, supposed to take 20 seconds, we flipped the switch, watched the spark, and waited five seconds while the black match fuse crawled and heaved its way ~1 inch into the first tube, and I realized that it had just hit the fan, anyhow, that 20 seconds extended out to about 55 seconds, with only 15 out of the 21 firing! Charlie Fox to the Max! we figured that only the black match had absorbed water and the Visco would be alright, so to ofset the extremely Horrid 21 gun salute, we pushed the button on a nice light colorful cake array, and watched in horrer as the visco fuse lit, burned stagnantly ~3 seconds and DIED. I was incharge of the Hotel echo ammonal charges, and using directly wired caps I tried to offset the sheer horror with a little ground pounding, I flipped my switch and listened in horror as the .1 grams of D-salts, and the 1 gram of ETN detonated fiercely, sending 200 grams of ammonal all over..... it was soo muggy, the ammonium nitrate sucked water right through the plastic and became entirely inert,, just like the Potassium nitrate in the Fuse, and so None of the ammonal went off, all of the cakes and shells fired at less that half the speed, and only 60% of the cakes and mortar racks worked.

 

Ending on a positive note, my buddies built a few lampare shells, and theses were the first time they had been used in one of our shows, the shell consisted of ~1 liter of diesel/petrol and a 75 grams flash charge, they worked marvelously, and lity up the entire sky for seconds on end.

 

relatively speaking however our show was probably only TARFU, not total FUBAR because while being very slow, more than 50% actually fired.

[Richtee]

Mine was pretty good. Did 30 lbs chicken, 60 hamburgers, 60 brats, and 4 slabs for the select few. And after all was cleaned up and the fireworks show... I sent a 3" cannister with 120 grams of payload about 350 foot over the bay. :{)

[Frozentech]

Shot the show for my town, first time as lead pyro for the event. It went off great. Speaking of cakes, had a few new 18Kg cakes I hadn't seen, they were 36 shot 3" arrays. This was all 8" and below stuff, but the audience was close enough to not mind at all. We also had a newspaper photographer there at the shoot site, and the mayor had raffled off some deal to have a person "start the show" so some gal got to fire it up, I used an old Atlas blasting box ( think Wile E. Coyote with his T-handled box ). Beautiful weather for the setup, about 73 degrees, not too humid, then literally as that gal lit off the first effect ( another 18Kg cake ) it started a light sprinkle, which I guess continued for the next 30 minutes - dunno, I found I was too focused on shooting, then on supervising other shooters, it was a mostly hand-fired show. Anyhow, from the yells and cheers of the crowd, and the people coming up afterwards complimenting us I rate this year as a total success. I hope everyone had a wonderful, safe, smoky 4th of July !

[Richtee]

had a few new 18Kg cakes

Holy CRAP! Glad all went well. The finale for our local was about 4 BIG shells, I'd think 10's anyhow...with crossettes and a lower salute barrage. Damn I love those crossettes! Covered the visible sky!

 

Get any vids? Love to see 'em!

[jacob]

My 4th show show went great, aside from a few blind blown Purple stars and some (I think) TT that hit the ground everything went off without a hitch, this was the first year I've made Ruby Red and it really stole the show , my D1 gitter worked wonderfuly as well, and I couldn't have asked for better whether.

 

I hope murphy stayed home for everyone.

[hst45]

It was a pretty good show for me too, with some technical issues, but the audience was pleased. I'm breaking shells harder than I used to and blew a few stars blind, but overall it was a good time. I had a "slight" problem with a 4 oz. rocket... well, maybe rather more than slight. O.K., massive CATO. (Video to follow when I get a chance, in the Bloopers reel). The cannon was a crowd pleaser, although I now have to mill up a bunch of BP to replace what was used. It seems everyone likes to light a fuse and I just couldn't say no. Great fun.

[TheSidewinder]

My "show" was all Class C at a friend's house, but it was a definite success. He and his wife threw a party, before which he and a friend made a sojourn to Wisconsin to stock up on goodies. I brought my Class C "leftovers" from the last two years, and added them to the mix. My friend lives on a lake, so we had a perfect backdrop. We weren't the only ones on the lake shooting, but we definitely put on the best show. From 9:15 to almost midnight, we had shells, mines, rockets, candles, fountains, and more. All the party-goers and others on nearby properties were cheering and applauding. All in all a rousing success.

[asilentbob]

Worked on a small cities show. $15,000 in 1.3g stuff. 20-30 cakes. 700+ 2.5" and 3" shells. The shells came in sets of five that were all set up with timings, so you would flip a switch and it would set off 5 shells over a few seconds, that was nice and time saving. The finale chains were similar, except like 20 shells per thing instead of five and using buckets pretty much, but it was all set up, so easy to put together. There were 4 guys and I ended up showing up a bit late, but we ended up finishing set up and loading with like 5 hours to blow off.

 

Got a free burger from the free masons (masonic lodge) that were at the faire area of the event. Great show. Only a few things that didn't go off, mainly ones that weren't plugged in somehow or the strain reliefs in place weren't good enough and something got pulled loose.

 

This would make it the 4th show I have helped out with. They have all been 3" and under. ...

 

Frozentech. That sounds like a really nice show for your first lead operator gig! I'm a bit jealous. I bet mine sometime next year (when I'm 21) will be 3" and under.

[Frozentech]

This would make it the 4th show I have helped out with. They have all been 3" and under. ...

 

Frozentech. That sounds like a really nice show for your first lead operator gig! I'm a bit jealous. I bet mine sometime next year (when I'm 21) will be 3" and under.

Yeah, I was sooo glad that everything went well. I wasn't really enthused about having a newspaper photographer there at first, but he was cool, and really enjoyed his proximity ( had him wearing firefighter gear and he was shooting his pics from on eend of the mortar lines. ) I had 4 shooters besides myself and 3 of them were newbies, that was another concern. Cool part about that, one of the new shooters was my wife. She had a blast, said she likes firing them a lot better than watching with the audience, in fact she is now saying she wants to learn to make them too I think she can transfer her cooking and arts&crafts skills to shell making, with a little help.

 

I am going to try and get copies of some of the pics the newspaper guy took. If I do, I'll post links. He had gotten a tour of the magazines a couple days earlier. The paper is starting to work up story lines for the upcoming celebration of the 50th anniversary of Alaska statehood, which is next Jan 3rd, and will be shows bigger than the millenium. The guy I shoot for has a number of contracts for shows for that one, and has a 24" shell he has been saving for it, and a couple more shipping containers of product enroute. I don't want to be a lead shooter for that, I want to work the show where he fires that 24 ! We can't shoot it in my town anyway, no venue with enough space.

[hst45]

Frozen, very cool that the wife's involved! Mine often does the firing for me in my little backyard displays while I do the videos. She loves the displays, but hates the mess I make tracking my charcoal-laden ass back into the house from the shop after making stuff. At these times she refers to the hobby as "black crap"; as in the sentence, "You've been out in the shop for hours, and now you're tracking black crap all over the carpet." Great to have the other-half involved though. It really can be a wonderful family hobby.

[Frozentech]

Frozen, very cool that the wife's involved!  Mine often does  the firing for me in my little backyard displays while I do the videos.  She loves the displays, but hates the mess I make tracking my charcoal-laden ass back into the house from the shop after making stuff.    At these times she refers to the hobby as "black crap"; as in the sentence, "You've been out in the shop for hours, and now you're tracking black crap all over the carpet."    Great to have the other-half involved though.  It really can be a wonderful family hobby.

Yup yup. I can't agree more. My daughter has been my best audience since she was 5 years old ( how many 5 year olds have their own set of safety glasses ? ). I just got a copy of an flv slideshow that a local newspaper photographer took of the show, here is a shot of my wife firing a shell:

 

Pyro wife fires one up

 

I am in the red helmet with the #27 just behind her.

[marks265]

I set up a small show with mainly 1.4 but still had a couple 6"ers in there along with a couple dozen 3"ers. 1 double barrel 6" gun rack, 3 ea. 10 shot 3" racks and 12 ea. 10 shot 2" racks, 1 ea. 25 foot water fall, and about 12 500 gram cakes. Had it all fused and wired to 29 cues. Turned out great but it could have been better. Had some dark sky with bad timing on some devices. I had some stuff time fused in advance and it took my wife, a brother in law, and myself 3 hours to set it up. A lot of people were happy and it sounds like I have a spot secured for next year!

[oskarchem]

It's my turn now:

 

So I had made 6 toilet paper shells (Could'nt make bigger due to lack ow time)

 

2 TT Shells

2 Buell white shells

2 Skylighter Firefly shells.

3 Fountaines (Which were QM together but I had to light them one at a time)

1 wheel.

 

Overall the show was good: Out of the 6 shells, 5 got fired (leaving one for tomorrow) 1 failed (it dropped into a feild never bursting) 2 worked great, and 2 just got out of the mortar and exploded on the ground, I know why this happened; it was because of the fac that I had put a base onto my mortars, each time a shell went up the base came off a bit, and by the 3 shell there was a considerable gap, which i didn't notice.

 

I have a video of all of the shells and fountaines.

 

EDIT: Due to the great pyrotechnical filming skills of my mom, All she filmed was: the fountaines... This is incredible, but tough, She'll do better next time.

 

The wheel, however, failed to light, this was due to the fact that the vidco just flew out of the nozzle so I'm going to refuse it and fire it towmorrow. I got my mom to film all of this, and hope to put up the video tomorrow.

 

Thank you and good night

[mormanman]

My show still have yet to happen Its about to though. As soon as I finish everything and go shooting. Me and Swede are going to blow people's minds with our mad pyro skills and awesome other things.