Well what an exciting launch we had today with a number of big rockets and fantastic crowd turn out.

It was great to see some guests from both interstate and overseas with some friends coming from as far as the UK. The highlight of the day was seeing the 6” Talon fly again, this time on a L3200.

There were many other great flights too and a lot of new faces both flying and learning about this great sport. In total 24 rockets were launched including: 6xC, 9xD, 1xF, 3xG, 1xH, 3xJ, 1xL.

Unfortunately we had an incident with a grass fire. Some wind picked up when it started and pushed the fire rapidly past our cleared launch area. We were quite amazed how even the cleared area was affected. Thanks to everyone who helped manage the situation. The QRS Committee is working on an incident report as per our safety management system and will be reviewing the existing fire mitigation processes.

We can’t forget the sausage sizzle, which was a great success as always. We were also able to raise some funds for the Leukaemia Foundation. Special thanks to all of the volunteers who worked on the gate, bbq, setup/packup and other roles throughout the day.

Well, another great launch day. Temperature was a balmy 28 degrees but no rain and little wind. We had constant cloud cover making tracking a little more challenging.

At one stage proceedings were delayed when a pesky Cessna buzzed over the launch site several times. It eventually moved on.

There were 29 launches for the day including clusters and staged rockets. Ivan attended for the first time as a new member and launched six rockets (off to a big start for his 25 launch badge). Three new members signed up on the day. It was good to see a lot more LPR launches this month. Everyone has returned from the school holidays.

The Jeff and Mark had a Callisto drag race on G motors (Mark's CTI G80 took off rapidly leaving the Jeff's Aerotech G64 limping along behind). Mark may be posting the on-board video to Youtube.

The biggest launch was Dean's 6 inch Dark Star launched on a L1395. It flew perfectly but tangled up with a power line and had to be rescued by the Power company.

Jeff's 4 inch Dark Star tested the CASA limit by flying to 4,900 ft. Oliver launched the micro Tardis for some interesting results.

It was exciting to see Andrew, long time QRS member and supporter, launch a number of rockets for the first time in many launches.

Good to see old committee members, Leigh and Ryan turning up to renew old acquaintances.

Our first launch for the year was relatively subdued.  Whilst the weather was excellent (around 30°C and clear skies) it was the school holidays.  The usual company was at the beach.  Even the usual fly population was subdued.  However, we managed twenty launches (including one cluster) on mainly mid to high power motors.

Our much travelled rocketeer, Nic, attended and launched two rockets.  One of them drifted towards the river (Nic and the river seem to have an affinity) but was recovered intact.

Bruce and Shirley had a nice stroll to retrieve his Fantom EXL (launched on a J381SK).   This motor was the largest of the day.

It was good to see the high percentage of successful flights with no ‘events’.  There were many launches trying out new tracking systems and on-board videos.  It appears that Santa had had a busy time with the rocketry community this year.

Rob launched his rocket named Smokey von Kracklestein Boxcar III.  I guess you need a good sense of humour with this hobby.

The corn field had been ploughed but Ari received some good news.  His beloved Ariel, which had been gobbled up at the December launch, had been recovered intact by the farmer.    The farmer’s grandson appeared at the launch and presented the rocket to Ari.  He was delighted.

On a lighter note, it was interesting that all of the QRS level 3 certified rocketeers were in attendance at the launch i.e. Ari, Blake, Nic, Simon and George.  Due to individual work commitments, this hasn’t happened for some time.  It was great to see them all there and offering assistance and advice to the others.