What a fantastic day of rocketry we had today with non-stop flying from the 8 AM start until almost 1 PM! Our launch count was well above par for a non-advertised event with 52 flights in total. We had a fantastic array of beautifully designed and finished low powered rockets that outnumbered high powered flights by three to one. Motor ranges for the day were: 3 x A, 12 x B, 18 x C, 4 x D, 2 x F, 4 x G, 6 x H, 2 x I and 1 x H2O.

Two of the 19 high powered flights for the day belonged to Robbie Newton and Brad Thompson both of whom successfully certified in L1 HPR. Robbie Flew his “X-Calibur” on a H125 to 3500’ and Brad flew his “Callisto” on a H90 to 2100’. Congratulations Robbie and Brad!

Very lucky birthday girl Havana was surprised to have everyone present sing her happy birthday before a scratch built rocket shaped like a giant candle was launched. To add to the surprise the rocket deployed a six-meter long rainbow streamer for recovery.

The title of the most prolific flyer for the day was seized from Mark O’Donoghue (with 6 flights) by almost double with a mammoth effort of 13 flights from Aidan Clarke. Mackenzie Bradford followed closely behind Mark with 5 launches.

Rob Newton launched his “Small Endeavour” on an I800 Vmax which could have almost been mistaken for a small explosion rather than a rocket launch with motor burnout after just 0.52 of a second! The rocket once again became visible after an event at apogee and was recovered safely.

Glen Magarry joined the rebel alliance and launched his X-Wing on a C6-3 to 1000’ (You’ve started something Mat!)

Another fantastic rocket was Warren's amazing "Skyburst" that carried a special payload of six ping pong balls to apogee where they were deployed and individually recovered on multicolored streamers. A very interesting idea Warren and well done.

Cran Middlecoat joined us again with a fantastic water rocket constructed from PET drink bottles and 3D printed components designed to loft an egg within the nose cone. Cran’s son Andy also brought along his RC plane and treated us to some fantastic flight and stunts as we packed up for the day.

Thanks to all who came along to fly and thanks to members that helped with setup and pack up.

See you all next month!

A light breeze that rather rapidly became a respectable wind didn’t deter our handful of members that came to fly and we even got over our average launch count with 53 flights, 10 of which were water rockets! Thank you to Cran and Sarah from “It’s Rocket Science Adventures” for bringing out and setting up your water rockets for the kids to launch and learn (it didn’t take long for the big kids to start playing with them either leading to a water rocket drag race!)

We also had some Aerospace Studies students come along from Mueller College with their teacher to launch the rockets they had built. They were all keen to learn and asked many of our members questions. Thanks Mueller College for coming along and we hope to see you again next time.

Alex Helbig wasn’t about to let a ‘little breeze’ stop him from tickling some air space, flying his “Rainbow Warrior” to 2,400’ on a H120 Red Lightning for a successful Level 1 certification flight. Well done Alex and congratulations!

Aidan flew one of the more unique rockets of the day named “Break Away”, being a beautifully detailed 890mm long rocket that breaks into 6 tethered sections at apogee and tumbles its way back to the ground like a Chinese dragon. Each section is painted a different colour to form a rainbow coloured rocket on the pad.

Lachlan flew another of the unique rockets for the day that is a non-conventional design with one large conical ‘fin’ and a cluster of four motors mounted two thirds of the way up the airframe on a canter rather than at the base.

Today’s launch also marked two special occasions: the first being QRS signing on its 200th member and the second belonged to Warren McKay who had his 100th flight with QRS. To celebrate the occasion Warren replicated his Level 1 certification flight launching the same rocket “Tethys” with the same motor (an H125 classic) for a picture perfect ‘re-certification’. Congratulations Warren and QRS!

See you all at the next launch!

What a magnificent day it was today at our "Flames, Smoke & Noise" Spectacular launch! We could not have asked for more perfect conditions with next to no clouds, cool dense air and absolutely no wind until almost lunch time. Conditions were so perfect for flying in fact when we arrived on site to setup there were EIGHT hot air balloons aloft! We’ve not seen that many up before.

There were large numbers of public in attendance with vehicles lining both sides of our access track all the way out to the gate as well as down the side of the road, and with 108 launches for the day, the many members that attended did not fail to entertain!

The Fly it Take it program was once again a big hit with all 50 rockets selling out quick and there was a good spread of motor sizes for the day with 50xA, 5xB, 24xC, 8xD, 1xE, 3xF, 10xG, 2xH, 4xI, 2xJ, 2xK and 1xM. The largest motor for the day was Ari Piirainen’s “Oz Thunder” on an M1500 Mojave Green to 4500 feet and the smallest motor for the day (excluding the 50 FITI) was actually a draw between five members with B6-4’s.

Jim Lawes launched his “Katana 3” on a J357 Blue Streak for a picture-perfect Level 2 certification flight. Well done Jim!
Thanks to Australian Rocketry for kindly donating a “MFR Model Rocket Set” that was raffled off and won by lucky spectators Gia and Hugo, their dad will soon become a rocket scientist helping them assemble it.

Phil and Julie were surprised when they were called up to LCO table and presented a plaque each in appreciation of their continued support to the Queensland Rocketry Society. Congratulations Phil and Julie and thank you!

Thank you to all members for ‘showing up and showing off’ and making todays launch a fantastic success! Also a big thank you to those members that tirelessly worked behind the scenes at the gate, on the barbeque, manning the FITI stand, running the raffle and those that arrived early to help setup and remained behind to help pack up.

See you all next launch!

Despite very wet conditions with intermittent rain all morning, we had over a dozen members in attendance along with a small handful of spectators and it turned out to be a good day for rocketry with 31 launches for the morning.

Due to the low cloud cover and healthy winds it was predominately a LPR day with motors being — 9xA, 4xB, 7xC, 4xD, 1xE, 3xG, 2xH and 1xI.

Mark O’Donoghue launched a small fleet of spectacular shaped odd rockets including a conventional flying saucer shape, various cubes, a pyramid, a pentagon, a shuttle cock and even a toilet paper roll.

Mark Johannessen's “Big Daddy” suffered a spectacular motor CATO on an Estes E9-6 before even clearing the rod, luckily the rocket appears undamaged and will fly again!

Smallest motor for the day was Mark O’Donoghue’s “Cubit” on a 1/2 A3-4 and the largest for the day Jim Lawes’ “Katana 3” on an I303 Blue Streak.

Thanks to members who attended and helped setup / pack up despite the weather.

What an incredible day it was today at the launch. There was "pea soup" type of fog all night and also in the morning but as I left my home on the south side of Brisbane the fog was lifting fast.

By the time I got to half way to the launch site there was fog again and same at the launch site. We could only launch LPR till about 10am due to it and finally it cleared .

Amazingly also for so called club launch, we had around 100 people present. Two Scout groups came with parents and many other visitors. The quiet launch turned out to be real busy. There were many new members join on the day. 😀

Awesome day of rocketry indeed and LPR launch count must be fairly high.

A small but enthusiastic rocketry crowd was greeted with perfect weather for launching rockets at QRS today with clear skies and little wind. Although numbers were small, launching started late and was consistent throughout the entire morning. A number of specatators also enjoyed the launch and we had some new members join the club.

There was a total of 25 flights for the morning:

11 Low Power
6 Medium Power
8 High Power

Mark was again the most prolific launcher with eight flights ranging from 1/2A motors all the way up to an I280 Dark Matter in his Midnight Lightning rocket. Closely behind Mark was the tag team duo of Rob and Robbie with four flights: 3 HP and one D12 two stage rocket.

Congratulations to Rob for successfully achieving his L1 certification with his Small Endeavour flying on an H123 motor to 2400 ft.

Congratulations also to Patrick flying his Xiao Feng's Fury on an H135 to 1900 ft for his successful L1. Patrick was up from Sydney University and is planning on competing in the University Rocketry Challenge in the US later this year.

Other notable flights included Sarah's fantastically finished Dark Star on a G83 motor to 1100 ft and Saige's Crayon-sational Estes crayon rocket to 1000 ft on C power. The 'scalded cat' award for the day went to Matt and his Darkstar Mini on a 'blink and you'll miss it' F240 Vmax motor.

Largest motor of the day was Blake flying his Snot Rocket to 2600 ft on a J465 Green Tornado motor.

With fairly warm weather and little cloud cover the March advertised open day launch attracted a slightly smaller crowd than normal. Despite this there were still 62 launches for the morning including 29 launches with the increasingly popular Fly it, Take it program. Almost no wind until right before pack up provided ideal flying conditions.

Impulse ranges for the day were — 8 x A (+29 FITI), 2 x B, 4 x C, 5 x D, 2 x F, 4 x G, 6 x H, 2 x K. It was also good to see two clusters and three staged rockets.

Aldo Tummarello achieved his L1 certification with his rocket “Phobos”, flying on CTI H410 V Max. Well done Aldo.

Mark O'Donoghue was once again the most prolific launcher with 6 flights, also having both the smallest (A3-4) and largest motors (K675 SK) of the day.
Mike Ritter launched his unique single finned rocket “One Zee” on an Aerotech G-64 for a successful second flight.
Caelum Niejalke successfully launched his unique “X-Wing” in a new cluster setup with four B6-4 motors complimenting a central C6-5.

It was good to see students and teachers from two of our educational memberships, with five launches from Loganlea State High School and five launches from Lutheran Ormeau Rivers District School.

A big thanks to all of the volunteers who attended to help setup, pack up and operate the BBQ.

With the prospect of a very hot day, it was decided to start earlier and finish up around 11am. There was a great turn out and a few new member signups. There were 29 launches in total, consisting of mainly LPR/MPR motors.

James and Jack had a drag race with their AMRAAM2's on H410 V-Max motors which left the pad so fast it was declared a draw. Additionally, after a slight modification (aka removal of the canards), Jack's flight was also a successful L1 Certification. Well done Jack!

Warren tested out his new rocket 'Sky Burst' which loaded the sky with fluorescent pink and green streamers.

Caelum flew his X Wing on a D24 with a perfect boost flying dead straight to Apogee.

Adam's Callisto flew perfectly, but became 'hung up' requiring the assistance of Energex to recover.

Mark pulled out some old faithfuls, flying his Patriot and Big Daddy.

After a few years away, Aldo returned (last month) and was quickly back into it. This month he brought along a newly made Phobos flying on a G126 and an AMRAAM2 on a G250.

Father and daughter team Rod and Sarah, saw launches of Sarah's Flyin' Lion and Mystic on a G83. After a spectacular G80-13T motor CATO last launch, Rod had his Bull Puppy repaired and ready to fly again. Unfortunately it sustained some damage to the canards which made for a spectacular flight.

Blake managed three flights on a Fever, MFR and 'Green with Envy' on a H73 which has recently returned from the MARS launch in Victoria.

The QRS supplied water bottles were well received and as the temperature ventured into the high 30's a few of us managed a trip to the pub for some well earned drinks and lunch.

Wild conditions for the launch today with very high humidity at the launch site. There were clouds throughout the day with patches of blue sky. A small but hardy crowd turned up and enjoyed a continuous stream of launches throughout the morning.

The ceiling was never threatened with only four High Power launches, all H motors from: Rowland (Mini BBX), Riley ('You'll cean that up when you're finished': PML Intruder), Adam (Callisto) and Mark (Spitfire).

The remainder of the launches were: 9 Low Power (including two 2-stage launches) and 7 Mid Power (all G motors).

Highlights included: Sarah's Mystic flying to 1300 ft on a G80 skidmark, Aldo flying with the club again after 3 years away with a perfectly straight flight from his Cruise Missle on a G88 to 1500 ft, Matt's beautifully crafted X-Wing on a D21-7, Andrew's classic Alpha III on a B6-4 and Harry Potter's (aka Warren) Golden Snitch for multiple flights on B and C motors.